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Glen Edward Rogers (born July 15, 1962), also known as the Cross Country Killer or the Casanova Killer, is an American serial killer. He was convicted of two murders and is a suspect in numerous others throughout the United States, including being mentioned, and considered by investigators in Los Angeles County, as a possible alternative suspect to O.J. Simpson in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, although as of 2019 nothing has developed regarding these allegations.
Biography edit
Rogers was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio. He was one of seven children born to Edna (née Sears) and Claude Rogers. Claude was a pump operator at the local Champion paper company. Rogers was expelled from his junior high school before he was 16. Sometime after his expulsion, Rogers' 14-year-old girlfriend Deborah Ann Nix got pregnant by another man. The young couple married and had another child in 1981. In 1983, Nix filed for divorce alleging brutal physical abuse.
Authorities believe that he might be linked to as many as twelve deaths. In California, Rogers is a suspect in four unsolved killings in Ontario and Port Hueneme. Two days before his arrest he told his sister that he was responsible for more than 70 deaths. Later he recanted the number and said he was merely joking. According to authorities Glen was being cooperative during a six-hour interview after his arrest on November 13.
Rogers was featured on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list after a crime spree that began on September 28, 1995 with Rogers' first authoritatively established murder. On November 13, Rogers was arrested in Kentucky driving the car of Tina Marie Cribbs (one of his victims), which he claimed had been lent to him. He also said Cribbs was alive when he left. On July 11, 1997, Rogers was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs.
During the seven-day trial the defense maintained that Rogers wasn't the murderer. Furthermore Hamilton, Ohio Police Sgt. Tom Kilgore testified that Rogers had worked for the department as a paid undercover narcotics informant, making hundreds of cases over the years without ever breaking his cover. In his closing argument, defense attorney Nick Sinardi said the state rushed to judgment. "Glen Rogers is a thief, not a murderer."
Rogers was scheduled to be put to death on Valentine's Day, 1999, in Florida, but he immediately appealed to the Florida Supreme Court claiming that the State had not presented enough evidence to support the charges. Rogers also argued that the trial court should have granted the defense's motions for a mistrial because a witness was allowed to testify about a misdemeanor for which Rogers was convicted in California; he also claimed the prosecution was also allowed to present an improper argument during closing arguments.
His appeal was delayed until March, 2001, and was ultimately denied. In April 2005, Rogers filed another appeal, which is still pending. Should his death sentence ever be overturned based on a charge of prosecutorial misconduct, he will no longer be eligible for execution in the State of California.
Victims edit
- Sandra Gallagher, 33
- Linda Price, 30
- Tina Marie Cribbs, unknown
- Andy Jiles Sutton, unknown
- Mark Peters, 71 (suspected, not confirmed)
Rogers is also suspected in the stabbing or strangling of an elderly man from Ohio in 1993 and four women in California, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana. He originally claimed the number of murders was closer to 70, but then recanted his statement, claiming he was joking and had not committed any murders.