Mark Rogowski
| Mark Rogowski | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 10, 1966 Brooklyn, New York |
| Other names | Gator |
| Occupation | Convict, skateboarder |
| Criminal charge | Assault, Rape and Murder of Jessica Bergsten on March 6, 1992 |
| Criminal penalty | 31-year prison sentence 6 years for forcible rape and twenty-five years to life for the first-degree murder charges to be served consecutively. |
| Criminal status | Denied parole in 2011, incarcerated in a California Prison. |
Mark Anthony "Gator" Rogowski (born August 10, 1966) was a prominent professional skateboarder in the 1980s and very early 1990s. His career ended when he was convicted of assaulting, raping and murdering Jessica Bergsten on March 6, 1992. His life was chronicled in a critically acclaimed 2003 documentary titled Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator by American filmmaker Helen Stickler.
Rogowski was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he moved to Escondido, California at the age of three after his parents divorced. Rogowski was a gifted athlete, playing little league baseball in his youth. Rogowski started to skateboard at age seven and, while most of his friends were into surfing, he eventually started to hang out at skate parks several years later. After two years of skating local parks, Rogowski was picked up at 12 years of age by a local skate team in 1978.
Rogowski started his professional skateboarding career in 1980 at age 14. In 1982, he won his first major contest, the Canadian Amateur Skateboarding Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 1984, he won a national championship. Rogowski received endorsement deals from Gullwing Trucks a Early in his career, Rogowski was being paid "between $4,000 and $8,000 a month" for clothing and skateboarding equipment endorsements. By 1987, Rogowski was earning two dollars per skate deck from Vision, which was selling 7000 decks on a monthly basis, resulting in royalties totaling US$14,000 for Rogowski (US$ 30,000 in 2017). Additionally, Vision was also selling T-shirts, berets, hip packs, and stickers using the "Gator" name.
Rogowski was one of a group of elite skaters who enjoyed significant fame in the 1980s, alongside Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero. He was a charismatic, flamboyant personality who received fame and fortune during skateboarding's return to popularity following the success of "vert" ramp skating.
At a 1987 skate show in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S., Rogowski was introduced to Brandi McClain and her good friend Jessica Bergsten, an aspiring model. Soon afterward, he began a tumultuous long-term relationship with McClain—they appeared together in numerous advertisements and promotional videos for Vision, which had become one of the top-selling skateboarding brands of the 1980s.
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