Glen Rogers, the Cross-Country Killer

Apparently, Rogers went straight to Jackson, Mississippi, from California and settled among the residents there.  He had no idea that a federal warrant had been issued for his arrest: He was wanted by the FBI.  He contacted a friend for money but stayed away from places where he was known.

Linda Price

In Jackson, he moved from one cheap motel to another.  Going to a state fair early that October, he met Linda Price, 34, another redhead and a mother of two.  Linedecker describes her as having an "irresistible zest for life." At 5 feet 4 inches and 110 pounds, she was slim and attractive.  They met in a tent sponsored by the local newspaper. Rogers' good looks and smooth tongue must have won her over, because he moved in with her for several weeks and they became drinking buddies. 

Her brother warned her that Rogers was no good, but she ignored him.  Having been through a rough time with men, she liked the way he was treating her.  Besides, she was lonely and it was nice to have some company.  She stayed in touch with her mother, assuring her that she was happy.

On November 3, after her family became concerned that they had not heard from her, they sent the police to check her apartment.  Officers discovered Linda sprawled naked in the bathtub, stabbed to death.  She was lying face-down, and there were four vicious stab wounds to her back and chest.  In addition, her throat had been slashed.  The pathologist estimated that Linda had been dead from two to four days, although it was difficult from the state of her remains to pin down an exact time.  Her red Datsun pick-up was missing, as was her purse and some jewelry.  So was her new boyfriend.  In fact, he'd been pretty thorough about erasing his presence.  He'd showered the body to wash away the blood, and perhaps any trace evidence that could connect him, and had cleaned the apartment of his fingerprints.

Oddly, a message written in lipstick on the mirror seemed to throw the blame on someone else: "Glen, we found you," it said, as if someone had been looking for him and he'd hightailed it out of there before they arrived, so they'd killed Linda instead.  It was a fairly transparent ploy, and no one believed that anyone but Glen Rogers had killed her.  When the police put his name into the computer for the FBI's national crime database, they turned up the arrest warrant from Van Nuys.  Now they knew they had a killer, and perhaps even a serial killer.

Again, Rogers boarded a bus and went to Louisiana, where he met Andy Jiles (or Lou) Sutton, 37, in a bar in the Shreveport suburb, Bossier City. He left with Sutton and managed to persuade her to let him stay with her.  But before he did, in an inexplicable side trip, he took a bus to Tampa, Florida. He'd be back, driving a car that he hadn't had before, but Andy would never know from whom he had stolen it.