STARKE, Fla. — An alleged serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.

Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.

He also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had 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 was never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries including one from 2012 called “My Brother the Serial Killer” that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.

The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

During a 1995 murder trial that drew intense media attention, the former football standout and celebrity was acquitted of all charges. Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after the documentary’s release that they didn’t think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.

“We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement at the time.

Simpson always had professed innocence but was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and subsequently served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. The 76-year-old Simpson died in April 2024 after battling cancer.

Rogers, originally from Hamilton, Ohio, also had 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.

Hours before his execution, Rogers awoke at 3:45 a.m. and later received one visitor, Department of Corrections spokesman Ted Veerman said. He said Rogers had a meal of pizza, chocolate and soda.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Rogers’ final appeals Wednesday.

Rogers’ lawyers had filed several appeals with state and federal courts, none successful.