Florida Man to Be Executed Was Eyed in OJ Simpson Case

A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the OJ Simpson double-murder case is scheduled to be executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman in a Tampa motel room. Glen Rogers, 62, is set to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-minute reprieve, per the AP. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he'd met at a bar. The US Supreme Court denied Rogers' final appeals on Wednesday without comment.

Rogers would be the fifth inmate put to death in Florida this year. He also drew a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he'd met at a bar in Van Nuys. That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs' car soon after her death. Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he'd killed about 70 people.

He later recanted that statement but has been the subject of documentaries, including one from 2012 called My Brother the Serial Killer, which raised questions about whether Rogers could've been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after the documentary's release that they didn't think Rogers had any involvement. "We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved," the LAPD said in a statement at the time.

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Rogers has 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. 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 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.

(More execution stories.)