Before we knew him as Dr. Frasier Crane, the snooty psychiatrist on Cheers and Frasier, he was Allen Kelsey Grammer, Karen’s brother. But then, his beloved sister was brutally raped and murdered when he was 20, and it became a topic he often avoided talking about. But not talking about it didn’t make the pain disappear.
Fifty years later, he’s finally ready to share with the world the details of his beautiful, carefree sister, including her vicious death. âI wanted to breathe life into her and welcome her into the world,â he told People. âWe were Kelsey and Karen, brother and sister.â
Kelsey Grammer’s Life Changed Forever When His Sister Was Murdered
In his new book, Karen: A Brother Remembers, Grammer details his sister’s death and the effect it had on him for years to come. âFor a long time, the grief was so dominant that I couldnât access happiness,â Grammer said. “The book helped me get to a new place with that.â
“She was an Oreo cookie dipped in an ice-cold Coca-Cola. She was a poem, a light,” he read to Diane Sawyer, his voice choking up from tears. “Fun, innocent, and wise. Brave. A warrior. A sister. The best sister.” He described her as bold and fearless, contrasting his sensitive personality. Whenever he doubted himself, she was there to believe in him and give him courage.
While he moved to New York to become an actor, she ended up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On June 30, 1975, the two were on the phone, discussing meeting up for the Fourth of July. Hours later, she visited Red Lobster, her workplace, to meet a friend. Instead, she encountered Freddie Glenn and two others. They forced her into their car at gunpoint and tied her up.
Kelsey Grammer Explains Why He Shared Graphic Murder Details in New Book
Grammer struggled over how much of a “graphic, impersonal review” he should add from the police report detailing her death and last moments. While he described it as “not pleasant or comforting,” he decided it needed to be included. “There is something beneficial in knowing [the truth]. It is ammunition to keep Freddie Glenn in jail,” he said.
He describes in brutal detail the information from the police report. Glenn and the men raped her, and then drove her to an alley, where Glenn stabbed her 42 times. According to the coroner’s report, she was nearly decapitated.
Glenn was convicted of Karen’s murder, along with several other murders. He’s serving a life sentence, and his next parole hearing will be in 2027. He’s already been denied four times. While Grammer claims to have forgiven him, he believes that he’s exactly where he belongs.
âItâs hard to forgive a person who consciously decided they wanted to murder somebody you love,” he said. “This wasnât just some temperance issue with him. It was deliberate. I can give you forgiveness, but youâre not going to get out of paying for it.â
The post Kelsey Grammer Breaks Silence on Details of His Sister’s Murder in Unflinching Memoir appeared first on EntertainmentNow.