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The Rise And Fall Of Gator Rogowski
The famous skateboarder was convicted of the brutal rape and murder of a woman.
Everything was going perfectly fine for Mark Rogowski, a.k.a Gator the skater. He became a professional skateboarder at a young age, he was very famous around the world and very wealthy as well. He loved to party, and he had an amazing girlfriend who loved him very much.
He was having the best time of his life, until certain events changed him forever. In 1991, Gator was convicted of rape and murder of a twenty-two-year-old named Jessica Bergsten.
Gator was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved with his mother and older brother to San Diego, California at the age of three after his parents’ divorce. The family ended up in Escondido a sun-baked, middle-class suburb in northern San Diego County. It was there Gator began skateboarding.
As a child, Gator was considered to be a social outcast among his friends, because his family didn’t have a lot of money. Gator started skateboarding at the age of seven and, while most of his friends were hyped on trends concerning surfing, Gator was practicing at a local skate park. At the age of twelve, he was picked up by local skateboarding teams to compete in amateur tournaments.
He began winning local tournaments, attracting bigger sponsors, endorsement deals, fame and wealth, and at the age of fourteen he became known as a professional skateboarder. In 1982, he won the Canadian Amateur Skateboarding Championships in Vancouver, Canada, his first major title. He made $4,000 to $8,000 a month from selling clothing and skateboard equipment. By 1987, Gator had secured a deal with Visions to use his name on their merchandise. The company was selling around 7,000 decks each month including clothing, shirt, videos, and stickers — earning Gator around $14,000.
Gator enjoyed significant fame in the 1980s. Whenever he was on tour, he’d be greeted by a long line of adoring fans waiting to see him. On one of those tours, in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1987, Gator met two seventeen-year-old blondes, Brandi McClain and her good friend Jessica Bergsten. Gator and Brandi partied an entire weekend and fell in love with each other.
