Infamous ‘I don’t like Mondays’ killer is inducted into the ‘Golden Girls’ club

It’s been 41 years since the then-16-year-old Brenda Spencer unleashed a spray of bullets on an elementary school in San Diego, on a Monday morning in 1979, leaving two dead, and eight children and a police officer injured.

Now aged 57, Spencer has been inducted into the Golden Girls club at the California Institution For Women — a program at the 1,800-prisoner facility in Riverside County, California, which affords special privileges to those who voluntarily join once they turn 55.

And as this most recent prison photograph taken in 2018 shows, Spencer didn’t miss a beat and signed straight up, proudly brandishing a ‘Golden Girl’ placard with something of a faint smile across her face.

As a member of the program Spencer – who was charged in court as an adult in 1980 and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, receiving a life-with-parole sentence – gets many perks not enjoyed by the general population.  

Spencer was 16 when she opened fire at a San Diego elementary school from a window in her home, leaving two dead and nine more injured in 1979

Spencer famously said that her motive was, ‘I just don’t like Mondays… I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day’

She was inducted into the Golden Girls club at California Institution For Women (pictured) –  a program at the 1,800-prisoner facility in Riverside County, California, which affords special privileges to those who voluntarily join once they turn 55

Some of the perks include a front-of-line pass for meals and medication lines and authorization to eat in a specific dining room that is located closest to her housing unit. 

Spencer was charged in court as an adult in 1980 and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, receiving a life-with-parole sentence (pictured in a 1996 mugshot) 

She is also entitled to be in possession of two state pillows, three blankets and two mattresses and gets first dibs on the coveted bottom bunk if the inmate so chooses. 

A spokesperson for the prison explained to DailyMail.com: ‘The Golden Girls program at California Institution for Women is geared toward addressing the emotional and physical needs of the older population.

‘Any inmate aged 55 or older is eligible to be identified as a GG and participation is voluntary.’

Spencer has been denied release from prison several times, but is scheduled for another parole hearing in 2021.

On the day of the horrific shooting, Spencer famously told a reporter who reached her by phone that her motive was, ‘I just don’t like Mondays… I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day.’

Her callous response inspired the Number 1 hit song in the UK by the Boomtown Rats called I Don’t Like Mondays, released just a few months after the atrocity.

She opened fire for around 20 minutes from her bedroom window, taking aim at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, located just across the street from her home. News reports from 1979 show teachers and police officers assisting school children in evacuating the elementary school as a six-hour standoff ensues

The incident inspired Bob Geldof to write the Number 1 hit song in the UK I Don’t Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats which was released weeks after the shooting 

Spencer, aged just 16 at the time, opened fire for around 20 minutes from her bedroom window, taking aim at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, located just across the street from her home.

She was using a rifle that her father had given her for Christmas and her standoff with a SWAT team went on for six hours.

Head teacher Burton Wragg, 53, was killed while he tried to help students arriving at the school, along with caretaker Mike Suchar, 56.

More would likely have been killed if it wasn’t for a quick-thinking police officer, who parked a garbage truck in front of the school gates to block Spencer’s line of fire.