A man once under investigation for a potential connection to the O.J. Simpson case, which captivated the country in the 1990s, faced execution Thursday in Florida for committing murder. He was involved in the death of a woman whose body was discovered in a motel room in Tampa.
At the age of 62, Glen Rogers was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, located near Starke, according to officials. He had been found guilty in Florida for the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two, whom he encountered at a bar.
Rogers also received a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 slaying of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three he had met at a bar in Van Nuys, California. This crime occurred a few weeks prior to Cribbs’ murder. His arrest happened in Kentucky following a police chase, as he was attempting to flee in Cribbs’ vehicle shortly after her murder.
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 “My Brother the Serial Killer” 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 Simpson’s 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 documentary’s release that they didn’t think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.
“We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved,” 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 “Casanova Killer” or “Cross Country Killer” 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 a.m. and later received one visitor, said Department of Corrections spokesman Ted Veerman. He said Rogers had a meal of pizza, chocolate and soda.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Rogers’ final appeals on Wednesday without comment.
Rogers’ lawyers have filed several appeals with state and federal courts, none successful. One argument was that newly enacted state legislation authorizing 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.
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 — on June 10 — under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. 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.
