After going to the Showtown Bar the other day, I decided to do some research online about the place. It looks like the Restaurant and Bar have gone through several variations over the past few years. So I am about to search for some historical pictures of the macabre carney bar.
The first website I visited told a story about Tina Marie Cribbs. Apparently she was lured from the bar to a nearby hotel, where she was stabbed to death by Glen Rogers. (Rogers was a carney who was familiar with the area.) I did another online search, and I found Glen’s prison information, below.
Sadly, I also stumbled onto Legacy.com. The site has tons of current posts from her friends and family, who still memorialize her on the site.
Please check back to NP Magazine as I find more about this bar.
Glen E. Rogers’ Florida Death Row Profile:
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable Diana M. Allen
Attorney, Trial: Nick Sinardi – Esquire
Attorney, Direct Appeal: A. Anne Owens – Assistant Public Defender
Attorneys, Collateral Appeals: Richard Kiley and James Viggiano – CCRC-M
Date of Offense: 11/05/95
Date of Sentence: 07/11/97
Circumstances of Offense:
Glen Edward Rogers was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs.
On 11/05/95, Tina Marie Cribbs was seen leaving the Showtown Barn in Tampa with Glen Edward Rogers. On 11/07/95, a cleaning person found Cribbs in a Tampa motel room. She had been stabbed in the chest and the buttocks. According to Cribbs’ mother, Tina always wore a sapphire and diamond ring and a gold watch. These pieces of jewelry were not found with Cribb’s body.
A bartender told police that Rogers had bought Cribbs and her friends drinks. Later, Rogers asked Cribbs for a ride. Cribbs told her friends that she would be back shortly to meet her mother. Cribbs’ mother arrived at the bar and paged Cribbs because she had not returned to the bar.
A motel clerk said that Rogers had arrived in a cab at the motel a few days prior to the murder. On 11/05/95, Rogers paid for another night and asked that no one clean his room. The clerk then observed Rogers packing suitcases into a White Ford Festiva. On 11/13/95, Rogers was arrested in Kentucky driving Cribb’s car, which he claimed a girl had loaned him. Rogers also claimed that the girl was alive when he left.
Several days earlier, on 11/06/95, Cribbs wallet was found at a rest area on Interstate-10 in North Florida. Fingerprints lifted from the wallet and the Tampa motel room were matched to Rogers.
Additional Information:
On 07/09/97, the State of California indicted Rogers on counts of First-Degree Murder and Arson. The governors of California and Florida reached an extradition agreement that would extradite Rogers to California to stand trial. Rogers would then be transported to Florida to serve his sentence once the trial in California was completed.
Rogers was extradited to California in October of 1998. He stood trial for strangling Sandra Gallagher and leaving Gallagher’s body in her burning automobile. Rogers was convicted of First-Degree Murder and Arson on 06/22/99 and sentenced to death on 07/16/99. He then was transported back to the control of Florida’s Department of Corrections in August of 1999.
