I am originally from Hamilton, Ohio (now a resident of St. Louis, Missouri). Born to teenage parents, my early life was rough, but through it all, I was sheltered by my parents as best they knew how; especially given that each of my parents grew up in homes/environments that included lots of criminals and addicts. Thus, the connection I have to "The Casanova Killer" is a tale that I will now lay out for you.
Glen Rogers is presently on death row in the State of Florida. He is a serial killer who claims to have killed more than 70 women and has been dubbed as "The Casanova Killer." A Hamilton, Ohio native, Glen is my mother's cousin. Although I have never met him personally, I do have a memory of meeting his mother, Edna, and of my grandmother often referred to Edna, as they were friends.
Glen was a baby in his family, one of the youngest of seven children. His father, Claude was an abusive alcoholic and his mother, Edna was often the recipient of his abuse. Claude also physically abused all of his children.
In 2012, Glen was the subject of an Investigation Discovery documentary titled "My Brother, The Serial Killer." The documentary was narrated by his brother, Clay, and clips of family videos were included in the documentary, in which a few of my close relatives were shown. I recognized a few of them.
Toward the middle of the documentary, it is alleged that Glen takes responsibility for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. According to Glen, he was working as a painter in LA at the time of these murders. In fact, he alleged that he had provided his painting services to Nicole/OJ and partied in their circles. Glen relayed in detail how he killed Ron and Nicole and stated that he had been hired by OJ to steal a pair of earrings and kill her. Glen told not only Clay of his dealings with Nicole/OJ, but also one of his sisters.
Other than a distant relative to me, Glen wouldn't seem to be that big of a deal to my life, BUT, here is more information that makes his correlation to me compelling. When the documentary originally aired, my family and I (my late husband, my son, and daughter, myself and my mother) sat down to watch. During the segment of the documentary that focused on the Simpson murders, Glen also spoke about a gold angel pin that he allegedly removed from Nicole's body at the time of the murder. This little pin became sort of iconic with Nicole and replications of this pin were sold after her death.
At this point in our little viewing party, my daughter said, "Mom, I have that pin!" Having never bought her that item, I thought she was mistaken and asked her to retrieve it. We paused the program and she ran to her room and brought down a gold angel pin with a little diamond-like stone in it. This pin was an exact replica of the pin in the documentary. I asked her where she got that item. She said that my mom gave it to her. All eyes fell upon my mom to which my mom stated that she had received it from her mother (my grandmother who was friends of Edna, Glen's mother).
The irony in this was not only apparent but a bit shocking! We did ask my grandmother where she got the pin, but at that time, her dementia had begun and she couldn't remember.
In summary, my distant cousin, Glen Rogers (The Casanova Killer) alleged to kill Simpson and Goldman, stole her gold pin; and somehow my daughter (who was 12 at the time) has a replica of said pin that somehow came to her by way of my grandmother, a friend of Glen's mother. Is it Nicole's pin? Very unlikely. It is creepy and unsettling? YES!!
