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Documentary Claims On Simpson-Goldman Murders Raise Doubts

A documentary claiming a Florida death-row inmate committed the murders O.J. Simpson was accused of in 1994 — and later found liable for in a wrongful death civil trial in 1997 — has drawn the ire of members of the victim’s family who live in the Santa Clarita Valley, as well as doubts from law enforcement officials.

Glen Rogers, who’s sentenced to be executed on Florida’s death row, is alleged to have made the claims during a Discovery Channel documentary due to air Wednesday. Rogers is also on death row in California.  

“We’ll look into it just like we would if it were anyone else,” said Commander Andrew Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Often times, people come forward and say they’re the killer, (one can) imagine all the attention someone would get if they said, ‘I’m the killer,’ in this famous case. It happens in many cases.”

O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in 1995, after a high-profile trial that received international coverage.

Smith referred to “a mountain of evidence” that pointed to the guilt of O.J. Simpson. “We’re certain we’ve got our guy,” he said.

Santa Clarita Valley resident Kim Goldman, the sister of Ron Goldman, said she was irked by the lack of responsibility shown by what she referred to the “‘quote’ documentary.”

“I don’t lend any credibility to him or to the story,” said Goldman, who has spent more than 10 years working with nonprofits in the SCV.


“There are always stories, rumors and conspiracy theories, but this time, I feel like if somebody’s going to come out and say this. .. I feel it’s more responsible for them to go to law enforcement, and not the airwaves.”


Goldman also said she didn’t want to stop the story, she just would have appreciated a courtesy notification.

“I just feel like, if nothing else, someone else could a have called us and warned us. It seems much more exploitive and sensationalistic than it does educational or necessary,” she said.

Calls to the Discovery Channel were not returned Wednesday afternoon.

Criminal profiler Anthony Meoli spent approximately 50 hours speaking with Rogers on death row, and exchanged hundreds of letters.

His conversations with Rogers are the basis for the documentary, according to Meoli.

“There was one instance where he sent me a letter that divulged three pieces of information that he alleges only the killer would have known,” Meoli said.

Meoli also said his conversations with Rogers do not absolve Simpson of guilt, but instead point to the fact that Rogers was put up to the job.


“Rogers was getting paid to make a murder look like a robbery,” Meoli said, claiming Nicole Brown Simpson spurned her ex-husband’s attempts at reconciliation, but kept a pair of $20,000 earrings she was given by Simpson, as the motivation for the crime.


“There were items inside the house that would have compensated Rogers for his work,” Meoli said.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Dixon prosecuted Rogers for the September 1994 murder of a woman in the San Fernando Valley. He said Tuesday there was no mention in that trial of the Brown-Goldman killings, which occurred more than a year earlier.

Dixon said Rogers’ brother, who sat through the trial and testified in the penalty phase, never mentioned the O.J. Simpson case. Clay Rogers later wrote a book and “none of this was in the book,” he said.


He said Glen Rogers’ modus operandi did not match that of the Simpson-Goldman killer other than that he stabbed his victims.

Rogers met his victims in bars, wooed them and moved in with them, Dixon said.

“Then one morning he would wake up and stab them to death,” he said.

Of all his victims, he said, Rogers spent the least amount of time with the California woman, Sandra Gallagher of Van Nuys.

Dixon said he was able to prove five murders attributed to Rogers, who has been sentenced to death in California as well as Florida.

Asked why Rogers would now claim responsibility for the high-profile case, Dixon responded that he might be trying to get sent back to California.


“He could be getting close to execution in Florida,” Dixon remarked. “They move faster there.”

MSNBC reports contributed to this story

Documentary Claims On Simpson-Goldman Murders Raise Doubts

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About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.