A suspected serial killer once scrutinised for a possible link to the OJ Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed today in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.
Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6.16pm (local time), authorities said.
He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.
He also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state.
That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder.
Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbsâ car soon after her death.
In a final statement, Rogers thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs.
He also somewhat cryptically said that âin the near future, your questions will be answeredâ without going into detail.
He also said, âPresident Trump, keep making America great. Iâm ready to goâ.
Then the lethal injection began, and he lay quietly through the procedure.
Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries including one from 2012 called âMy Brother the Serial Killerâ that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.
The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpsonâs ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
During a 1995 murder trial that drew intense media attention, the former football star and celebrity Simpson was acquitted of all charges.
Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after the documentaryâs release that they didnât think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.
âWe know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr Rogers was involved,â the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement at the time.
Simpson had always professed innocence but was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and subsequently served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. The 76-year-old Simpson died in April 2024 after battling cancer.
Rogers, originally from Hamilton, Ohio, had also been labeled the âCasanova Killerâ or âCross Country Killerâ in various media reports.
Some of his alleged and proven female victims had similar characteristics: ages in their 30s, a petite frame and red hair.
Hours before his execution, Rogers awoke at 3.45 am and later received one visitor, said Department of Corrections spokesman Ted Veerman.
He said Rogers had a meal of pizza, chocolate and soda.
The US Supreme Court denied Rogersâ final appeals yesterday without comment.
Rogersâ lawyers have filed several appeals with state and federal courts, none successful.
One argument was that newly enacted state legislation authorising the death penalty for trafficking in young children makes clear that the abuse he suffered as a child is now taken seriously and should result in a life prison sentence for Rogers.
That argument was rejected.
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Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Corrections Department.
Rogers became the fifth inmate put to death in Florida this year.
Anthony Wainwright is the next Florida inmate scheduled for execution â on June 10 â under a death warrant signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Wainwright, 54, was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City in 1994 and raping and killing her.
