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Triggered - The True Crime Podcast

I Don't Like Mondays: Brenda Ann Spencer

Season 2, Ep. 139

PRERECORDED

On the morning of January 29, 1979, children gathered outside Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, waiting for the gates to open. Across the street, a 16-year-old girl sat in her bedroom window with a rifle and began firing into the crowd.


Her name was Brenda Ann Spencer. When a reporter reached her by phone during the standoff and asked why she had done it, she gave a chilling answer that would echo around the world: I don't like Mondays.


In this episode of Triggered, we unravel the disturbing story behind one of the earliest modern school shootings in the United States, a case that shocked the world, inspired a famous song, and raised haunting questions about neglect, warning signs, and how a troubled teenager ended up turning a quiet Monday morning into tragedy.


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