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

Murders

The killings began on June 19, 1975, when Glenn, a civilian employee at Fort Carson, Corbett, a soldier, and another soldier grabbed Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook just getting off work from the Four Seasons hotel, to rob him. They drove him to a remote area and made him lie on the ground. He pleaded with them, "Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me," Lou Smit (a detective who worked on the case) said. Corbett 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. Corbett, who had been training with bayonets, 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. 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. She had almost reached the doorbell when she collapsed. Police photographs show a bloody hand print on the wall, inches from the doorbell. Police didn't know her name for a week, until her brother, a young actor named Kelsey Grammer, who would go on to star in the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier, arrived to identify the body.

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. Other than a 1985 contraband conviction, Glenn has had few disciplinary problems while in prison. Neither Sylvia nor a Department of Corrections spokeswoman would provide details about the contraband conviction.

On July 27, 2009, he was denied parole after the prison board heard a written statement from Kelsey Grammer calling 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 Freddie Glenn. Grammer had planned to attend the hearing at a state prison in Limon, about 90 miles southeast of Denver, but a rain delay at Kennedy International Airport in New York caused him to miss a connecting flight. During the hearing, Glenn told the board, "I apologize for my participation in something so terrible. I am sincerely and truly remorseful,"

In his statement, Grammer said his sister had graduated from high school a year early and decided to take a year off after attending a semester of college. Grammer said she 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."

Glenn will be eligible for parole again in 2014.

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