Brenda Ann Spencer: The Girl Who Didn't Like Mondays

Killer Psyche

Audible | Treefort Media

Exhibit C, True Crime

4.6 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retired FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong explores the disturbing case of Brenda Ann Spencer, the teenager behind one of the earliest school shootings in modern American history. On the morning of January 29th, 1979, at just 16 years old, Brenda opened fire on children arriving at an elementary school across the street from her home, killing two and wounding nine others. When asked why she did it, her answer was chilling in its simplicity: she didn't like Mondays. But what investigators uncovered was not a story that began that morning – it was one that had been unfolding for years, in plain sight. Candice examines how a childhood marked by neglect, untreated mental illness, and a system that failed her at every turn culminated in an act of violence that would cast a long and devastating shadow over American history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche
0:04.0	ad-free right now.
0:06.7	Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.
0:11.8	A listener note, this episode contains adult content
0:15.9	and is not suitable for everyone.
0:18.4	Please be advised.
0:39.2	Thank you. suitable for everyone. Please be advised. Rock legend Sir Bob Geldof is a man many people know less for his music as the front man of the Irish band,
0:43.2	the Boomtown Rats, and more for something far bigger.
0:48.7	In the 1980s, Geldof learned about a devastating famine in Ethiopia and turned outrage and empathy into action.
0:54.3	He helped mobilize the world through a massive fundraiser called Live Aid and the star-studded charity single,
1:01.8	Do They Know It's Christmas, raising millions and redefining what celebrity activism could look like.
1:09.7	But his band, The Boomtown Rats, most famous track, is far less hopeful.
1:16.1	Perhaps you've heard the song.
1:18.1	It is called, I Don't Like Mondays.
1:21.1	It is bright and bouncy.
1:23.1	It sticks in your head before you even realize what you're singing.
1:27.3	It has a hook so catchy,
1:29.4	you can almost miss the chill underneath it. Because unlike Geldof's activism, this song is not
1:38.2	about hope. It is about a sentence, a chilling, offhand explanation that feels almost impossible to comprehend.
1:49.0	That line, I Don't Like Mondays, came from a 16-year-old girl named Brenda Ann Spencer.
1:58.0	In 1979, from the window of her home across the street from an elementary school, Spencer
2:05.5	opened fire on children and staff arriving for the day.
	...

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