Freddie Lee Glenn was born on January 6, 1957, in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was of African descent. His early life was shaped by a military environment—his father served in the armed forces, which meant the family moved frequently, including a stay at Fort Lewis in Washington.

There is little documentation about Glenn’s childhood or education, but by the age of 18, he was working as a civilian employee at Fort Carson, an Army installation near Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was there that Glenn would meet Michael Corbett, a soldier who would become his accomplice in a short but brutal series of crimes that would terrorize the city in the summer of 1975.

In a violent spree that lasted less than two weeks, Freddie Lee Glenn, along with Michael Corbett, was responsible for at least three brutal murders in Colorado Springs during the summer of 1975.

The first victim was Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook leaving his job at the Four Seasons Motor Inn on June 19, 1975. Glenn, Corbett, and a third accomplice abducted Van Lone during a robbery attempt. They drove him to a remote location, forced him to lie on the ground, and Glenn shot him in the head. The group stole only 50 cents from him.

On June 27, 1975, Glenn and Corbett lured 19-year-old Winfred Proffitt, a fellow Fort Carson soldier, to Prospect Lake, pretending to sell him marijuana. There, Corbett used a bayonet to stab Proffitt to death. He later admitted he wanted to see what it was like to kill someone with such a weapon. Proffitt was left to die in the secluded area.

Their final and most high-profile crime took place on July 1, 1975. Glenn, Corbett, and two other men—Larry Dunn and Eric McLeod—attempted to rob a Red Lobster restaurant. They left empty-handed but encountered Karen Grammer, an 18-year-old who was waiting outside for her boyfriend, an employee of the restaurant. Fearing she could identify them, they kidnapped her.

Instead of releasing Karen, the group took her to their shared apartment. There, they repeatedly raped her. Later that night, pretending they would take her home, they blindfolded her and drove to a mobile home park on South Wahsatch Avenue. Glenn, reportedly under the influence of LSD, stabbed her in the throat, back, and hand.

Karen, bleeding and terrified, managed to run toward a nearby home and attempted to ring the doorbell, leaving bloody fingerprints on the property. But the residents were not home. She died on the porch. It took a week before police could identify her—until her roommate called to report her missing.

Glenn was arrested and convicted in May 1976 for the murders of Van Lone, Proffitt, and Karen Grammer. The trial judge described the killings as senseless, stating “there was no rhyme or reason for what happened.” Glenn was sentenced to death by gas chamber for Karen Grammer’s murder. However, his sentence was later converted to three consecutive life terms after Colorado abolished the death penalty in 1978.

Despite the severity of his crimes, the sentencing laws at the time made Glenn eligible for parole after serving 10 years. He became eligible in 2006, and his parole hearings have been met with strong opposition, most notably from Kelsey Grammer, Karen's brother.

Kelsey Grammer has attended or submitted testimony for several parole hearings, calling Glenn a “butcher” and describing the emotional toll Karen's murder took on their family. In a particularly emotional 2009 letter, Grammer wrote: “She was so smart and good and decent… I was supposed to protect her—I could not. It very nearly destroyed me.”

Though in 2014, Grammer expressed that he forgave Glenn, he remained firm in his stance that Glenn should never be released. The parole board agreed, denying Glenn parole in 2009, again twice in 2014, and once more in 2017. As of now, Glenn remains imprisoned, serving out his life sentences without any indication of future release.