Officer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen.

- West Side Story

I just finished reading the book "Road Dog" ( Federal Point Publications) about the life of serial killer Glen Rogers.  The book was written by former Richmond Register writer Stephen Combs and Cincinnati Enquirer columnist John Eckberg.

It is a fascinating book and especially interesting to people in this region. Rogers was captured in Madison County in 1995 at the end of a nationwide manhunt. He spent time in Richmond 's jail. Familiar names like Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Smith, Jailer Ron Devere, Judge Bill Jennings, Judge Bill Clouse and Attorney General (now Congressman) Ben Chandler are part of the story.

The authors write about bureaucratic turf battles and mistakes that allowed Rogers to stay free and do his damage. Rogers should have been stopped after his first known murder in Ohio but really, he should have been stopped much sooner.  Rogers was able to go through life believing that laws did not apply to him.

Rogers was a good looking, smooth talking guy.  Although he was constantly in trouble, he was able to avoid serious jail time with his personality and cunning.

Since I have never had charm or good looks, I have always been envious of people who do. Sometimes, I wonder if charm and good looks are actually a curse. Charming people can believe they don't need to work as hard as other people.  Some of them think they can turn on the charm and get out of every problem. 

When I started my career in the financial planning business, I knew that my looks and charm were not going to get me anywhere, so I focused on education and knowledge. I was used to rejection. It never bothered me when people said no as I had heard people say no in other aspects of my life.

I worked with a lot of polished and charming people whose careers failed.  They thought they could get by on charm but people put their money with someone they have confidence in, not someone they like. Investors kept turning down the charmers for better informed advisors.

It was the first time in their lives these charming people had ever faced rejection and they could not deal with it.  They got frustrated and quit.   If they had learned at a young age to overcome rejection with hard work and knowledge, they would have been better off.

Rogers was a woman hater but he also knew his looks and personality would attract women to him.  Many of his murders occurred when he lured a woman back to his hotel room or developed a romantic relationship.  He knew he could use his charm to get what he wanted, be it good or evil.

I had a high school friend who spent years trying to lure women to go anywhere with him. He was not charming and rarely was successful.  The irony is that my friend would have been kind and loving while Rogers brutally murdered the women he attracted.

If Rogers had learned at a young age that he needed more than charm, he might have developed other talents. Since he went through life thinking laws did not apply to him, he broke bigger and bigger ones.  Now people are dead and he is on death row.

A certain amount of self confidence is needed for people to be successful. Most entrepreneurs and successful business people are those who knew when to go against conventional wisdom and had the confidence to do it.   In a way, they are going against the rules that society has dictated.

While successful people make moves after working hard and educating themselves, others are like Rogers whose confidence is not based on real knowledge or hard work. Rogers  never developed any skill beyond being able to talk his way in and out of trouble.  He lived from minute to minute and crossed the line to be a murderer.

If he had learned to rely on some skill other than his charm and looks, there might be more people alive and one less Road Dog.

Don McNay is President of McNay Settlement Group and a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text90660 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and you can read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com