San Carlos Killer Now Making Clothes in Prison : Stockton Tragedy Mirrors Spencer Case

The unthinkable happened Tuesday morning at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton when a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire on terrified schoolchildren.

A horrifying event, but not unique.

The sniper’s rampage was eerily similar in some ways to an attack at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego almost precisely 10 years ago.

No Reason Was Obvious

On Jan. 29, 1979, a petite, red-haired, 16-year-old girl picked up a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle and peered through its telescopic sight at schoolchildren arriving at the school, across the street from her Lake Atlin Avenue home in a quiet San Carlos neighborhood. Seemingly without reason, Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire.

When it was over, two men lay dead, and eight children and a police officer had been wounded. But, unlike Tuesday’s sniper in Stockton--who turned his gun on himself after the shootings--Spencer entered into a six-hour standoff with police, and at one point she told negotiators that she had reloaded her gun and would “hold out” as long as the police could.

Spencer was finally persuaded to lay down her rifle, a Christmas gift from her father, and surrender. But not before she told a newspaper reporter over the telephone that she had committed the crime “because I don’t like Mondays.”

Her infamous statement became the title of a hit song by the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, written by lead singer Bob Geldof, who later became famous for his African famine-relief efforts.

Life Sentence Wanted

The song was released in October, 1979, the same week Spencer was scheduled for trial in Santa Ana, where the case was moved because of extensive local publicity. The former Patrick Henry High School student was tried as an adult, and prosecutors sought a life term without parole.

Spencer, described by neighbors as a quiet tomboy obsessed with guns, violence and fantasies of killing police, had entered a plea of innocent by reason of insanity. But, at the last minute, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Spencer, now 26, lives in the California Institution for Women in Frontera, near Chino, and authorities say she is “a model prisoner.”

“She has a clean disciplinary record and has adjusted well to the institution,” said Chief Deputy Hal Tanner, adding that he did not know whether Spencer was aware of Tuesday’s events in Stockton.

Could Be Paroled in 2001

Spencer will be eligible for parole in June, 2001, at the age of 39. Until then, she will continue to work in the prison’s garment factory, making clothing for fellow inmates, Tanner said.

San Diego’s Cleveland Elementary School, a victim of sagging enrollment, no longer exists. It was one of eight schools closed in 1983, said Norma Trost of the San Diego Unified School District.

The building is now being leased by the private San Diego Hebrew Day School, but a plaque memorializing slain Principal Burton Wragg and custodian Michael Suchar remains implanted in the concrete by the flagpole. An abstract aluminum sculpture created by a junior high school art teacher still graces the school district headquarters on Normal Street in Hillcrest, in memory of the two men who were gunned down trying to shield the schoolchildren.