Freddie Glenn

Freddie Lee Glenn (born January 6, 1957) is an American spree killer and rapist. Along with his accomplice Michael Corbett, Glenn was found guilty of murdering three people in 1975; combined, the pair were responsible for a total of five deaths in and around Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of the most notable murders Glenn was found guilty of was that of Karen Grammer, the younger sister of Cheers star Kelsey Grammer.

Murders

The killings began on June 19, 1975, when Glenn, a civilian employee at Fort Carson, Corbett, a soldier, and another soldier kidnapped Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook just getting off work from the Four Seasons hotel, to rob him. They later drove Van Lone to a remote area and made him lie on the ground, and shot him in the head. They got 50 cents from him. Eight days later, the pair met Winfred Proffitt, 19, another Fort Carson soldier, at Prospect Lake, ostensibly to sell him some marijuana. Training with bayonets, Corbett stabbed Proffitt with one to see what it was like.

The murdering duo committed their final and most publicized killing on July 1, 1975. Glenn, Corbett, and two other men decided to rob the Red Lobster restaurant on South Academy Boulevard. They left without any money, but on their way out they grabbed Karen Grammer, an 18-year-old who worked there and was waiting for her boyfriend to get off work, because they feared she could identify them. After robbing a convenience store, the men took Grammer to the apartment they shared, where they raped her repeatedly. They promised to take her home, then sat her in the car, put a cloth over her head and let her out in a mobile home park on South Wahsatch Avenue. Then Glenn, who, according to court testimony, had taken LSD, stabbed her in the throat, back and hand, and left her to die. In a desperate attempt to save herself, she ran toward the back porch of a nearby home where there was a light, but the homeowners were out. She died there, leaving bloody hand prints and fingerprints where she tried to reach the doorbell for help.^[1] She had almost reached the doorbell when she collapsed. Police photographs show a bloody hand print on the wall, inches from the doorbell. Police did not know her name for a week, until her brother Kelsey Grammer arrived to identify the body.^[2]

Trial and conviction

Glenn was convicted in 1976 for the murders of Van Lone, Profitt and Grammer. Judge Hunter Hardeman, noting "there was no rhyme or reason for what happened," sentenced Glenn to the gas chamber for Grammer's murder. Two years later, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the state's death penalty. When Glenn was sentenced, the law allowed parole after a convict served 10 years, so he became eligible. Because two of his sentences were to be served consecutively, Corbett became eligible in 1996.

Parole denial

In 2006, Glenn waived his first parole hearing so he could enroll in several programs at the prison that would help his chances, said his case manager, Matt Sylvia. Glenn has a 1985 contraband conviction on his prison record.

In 2009, Glenn was denied parole after the prison board received a written statement from Kelsey Grammer, who called him a "butcher" and a "monster". The Colorado Parole Board also heard from other relatives of the victims and from detectives before deciding not to release Glenn. Grammer had planned to attend the hearing at the state's Limon Correctional Facility, but a rain delay at New York City's JFK International Airport caused him to miss a connecting flight to Denver. During the hearing, Glenn told the board: "I apologize for my participation in something so terrible. I am sincerely and truly remorseful," ^[3] According to his statement, Grammer has said that his sister had graduated from high school a year earlier and later decided to take a year off after attending a semester of college. Grammer also said his sister may have moved to Colorado Springs because of a boy she liked. "She was so smart and good and decent. She wrote poetry ... We could laugh for hours together", Grammer wrote; "I was supposed to protect her — I could not. It very nearly destroyed me... When we heard this man might be paroled, the suffering began anew".^[4]

Glenn was eligible for parole in 2014, but was denied parole with his request deferred for three more years. Kelsey Grammer offered forgiveness, but said he wants to see Glenn remain behind bars in his testimony given via video conference at the parole board hearing in Limon, CO.^[5]

References