A story that is untold when he faces death, the young man with problems with Hillsboro killer

TAMPA — The state is set to run Glenrogers on Thursday evening, almost 30 years after stabbing two 36-year-old mothers in a Tampa Motel bathtub.

Except for his last minute stay, the execution confirms that the Ju judge had previously unanimously determined that it was Rogers’ destiny. However, his lawyers argue that there are many things that ry judges have never heard of.

The court repeatedly refused efforts to reduce Rogers’ sentence. The ruling says that in essence his argument was unworthy and should have been made long ago.

As he faces the imminent prospect of the death penalty, Rogers’ lawyers say his story has not yet been fully told.

Well-documented is a story of blue-eyed charm known as the Casanova Killer or Cross-Country Killer, with at least three other deaths convicted twice for murder and little-known suspicions.

“Glenns are basically state-built creatures,” said Dan Sykes, an attorney handling Rogers’ federal appeal. “And I wonder why people are being accused of doing what he’s accused of doing.”

Creating a murderer

Glenn Edward Rogers was born in 1962. It is the second largest of seven children raised in Hamilton, Ohio, and is a hard industrial city about 20 miles north of Cincinnati.

His father, described as an alcoholic in court records and news accounts, tends to fit his rage, where he breaks things at home and fires a gun outside. When his drinking led him to lose his job on a paper mill, the family moved into an aging home.

Their mother was described in court as an abused woman who severely punishes her child if she awakens her father from a drunken nap. Even when they caught the robber house, they were otherwise rarely disciplined.

New details emerged about five years ago, but what was described as a repressed memory of the horrifying sexual abuse he endured when the expert (former FBI agent) was working to defend Rogers. The witnesses were confirmed.

Court records filed in 2020 include a detailed summary.

When he was ten, Rogers spent “many nights” with a woman from his hometown, raping him until he replaced him with another boy. He was the same age as he began spending his time at a local brothel known as “Cathoth.”

One of his now-deceased brothers used Rogers for “squeaking him” to get drug money, court records say. The record nominated two women who raped the boy, but also provided him to the man who produced child pornography.

When he was 11 years old, court records state that he was a man known as the “notorious child molestation.” He gave Rogers’ gifts and showed up at his home if he missed work, reminding him of his generosity to acquiesce against the abuse.

Rogers was later interviewed as part of a criminal investigation into the man, but denied that he had been abused, court records show. He remembers once when he and the man were alone in the boat, the man said he “can kill him whenever he wants.” The man recorded that he pleaded guilty to a sexual offence in an unrelated case.

“Rogers’ family and community have failed him,” Attorney Ali Shakor wrote five years ago. “It’s no wonder he began a life of crime at such a young age and eventually he was sentenced to a juvenile correctional facility that was further ruined.”

In his early teens, Rogers began using drugs. He eventually went to a training institution in Central Ohio, an abolished juvenile detention facility. Rogers recalled further sexual abuse at the hands of a male guard. He was also regularly locked up in a room where he was kicked and punched and then solitary confinement.

One night, the staff woke up Rogers. He was told to go outside and dig a hole. The boy’s body was later placed inside and buried, court records say.

“Ohio state is unable to protect Mr. Rogers and is partially responsible for him becoming the capital defendant in the end,” Shakoa wrote.

A series of murders

According to news accounts, Rogers worked as a taxi driver in his hometown. He was also said to be a carnival worker.

Before he turned 30, Rogers had been arrested more than 25 times, news accounts say. The crimes ranged from minor thefts to attempted arson.

The 1995 Cincinnati Enquiler described him as “a Charlie of free spending who begged women at Honky Tonks and taverns.” However, the same story uses reports from people who knew Rogers, calling him a man who could become distracted, angry and mean, especially when he drank.

Police questioned him in 1994 after a man named Mark Peters died, after being tied up in a chair in an aged shed in northern Kentucky. Peters, 71, is a nearby handyman who repaired an old watch and restored antique furniture, and has Rogers stayed at his home. Investigators were unable to determine the cause of his death. Soon, Rogers left town.

He surfaced in September 1995 in Vannuis, California, near Los Angeles. The bartender at McRed’s cocktail lounge remembered a dressed, bearded stranger, the 33-year-old mother, 33, who was celebrating her $1,250 lottery victory. He was seen riding her truck. The truck was found the next day and burned. Gallagher’s body was inside. She had been strangled.

In early October of that year, a woman named Linda Price met Rogers in a beer tent at the Mississippi Fair. She had two children. She worked in sales, but like Rogers, she lived from the hotel. A friend quoted in a news article at the time said that she was lonely and quickly fell for him.

They got an apartment together. She was found there in early November and was stabbed to death in the bathtub.

A few days later, Rogers appeared at Showtown, a bar and restaurant in Gibsonton, a carnival town on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay. Another young mother, Tina Marie Cribbs, was with her friends. Rogers bought them a drink and flirted with her. She offered to ride him and said she would come back. She never returned.

She was found two days later in the tub at Room 119 at Tampa 8 Inn Motel, away from Columbus Drive, near the interstate. She was also stabbed. Rogers rented a room. Her Ford Festival was missing. Her wallet appeared in the highway rest area in North Florida. His fingerprints were on it.

As the national manhunt continued, Rogers appeared in Bodie, Louisiana. People saw him shooting it at a bar called it’il do and dancing with a woman named Andy Zells Sutton. Her roommates found her two days later and were naked on the leaking waterbed. She was stabbed.

A few days later, Kentucky State Police found Rogers driving Cribs’ stolen car. He was arrested after a high-speed pursuit.

The ju judges in Florida and California felt he was guilty of Cribs and Gallagher’s murder. Authorities in other states have chosen not to indict him.

The defense attorneys presented some evidence of Rogers’ problematic upbringing, along with the allegations that he was mentally ill. Rogers denied killing anyone. However, he also denied in a 1997 prison interview that he had an abusive childhood after the trial. It is unknown whether his claim is true.

Anyway, overcoming the brutality of Cribs’ murder was not enough.

“This completely destroyed my life,” her mother, Mary Dick, said at the sentencing hearing. “She was everything I had.”

The Florida Supreme Court declined Rogers’ latest appeal last week, including allegations about his childhood.

His remaining legal paths include the constitutionality challenge of a deadly injection pending the U.S. Supreme Court and a new appeal filed Monday.

If none of these appeals are successful, Rogers will be executed at 6pm on Thursday at Florida State Jail near Stark.