Roger and Rodney Berget

 

These two brothers were listed, one after another, in my list of cases and I decided to go ahead and do both of their cases, even though their crimes are not related to each other. The fact that brothers, or relatives at all, can spend time in prison for separate crimes is not all that unusual but what is unusual and said to be unique is that they were both executed in two different states for two different crimes, several miles and years apart. My research stated that there have only been three sets of brothers executed in history but they were the only ones involved in different crimes. That being said I did a little research to see if I could determine if this was true.

I did find three other cases of brothers. One of those cases, that of Jonathon and Reginald Carr from Wichita Kansas I have already blogged about. But, those brothers are still sitting on death row. I should point out that in January of 2022 the state affirmed their death sentences but it is unclear if or when that will that place. Another case of brothers is the case of Karl and Walter LeGrand, whose case is on my list now. They were executed in February and March of 1999 by the state of Arizona when a person was killed during a bank robbery they were involved with. The third case I had never heard of and made it to my list for a future blog (maybe soon). It was the case of Willis, Burton and Fred VanWormer who were convicted and sentenced to death in 1902 for the murder of their uncle the previous year. The three brothers were executed by the state of New York in 1903, all within fifteen minutes of each other. Strangely these were a bit difficult to find without having specific names. As far as I can tell these were the only cases of such and so it does appear that the Berget brothers were in fact unique.

The Berget brothers had a rough bringing. It was said in the cases of both brothers that their father, Benford, was an abusive man. Some reports say that after he failed as a farmer in South Dakota he began to drink heavily and this contributed to things. It was also said that both boys, Roger being two years older than Rodney, were the last of their children and born after the failed farming attempt. When I was researching Roger's case there was even a mention that allegedly around the age of “nine or ten” his father had kicked him out of the home. It was said that he was living in an abandoned home and his mother would bring him food there. It went on to say that when his father found out about this he beat both Roger and his mother and proceeded to burn down the abandoned house. Now, this is one of those things that was stated but I could not determine if it was factual but I thought the allegation was rather significant. The boys' parents divorced in the early 1970's and both boys started getting into trouble with the law. I found something that stated that both boys had done “prison” time for the first time in their teens.

Throughout their lives the two boys were in and out of prison. In 1986 Roger was arrested in Oklahoma when he and another man on robbery charges. It was at this time that Roger confessed that he and another friend, Mikell Smith had kidnapped and killed a man named Rick Patterson in 1985.

On October 20, 1985 thirty-three year old Rick Lee Patterson, a middle school math teacher, was headed to his car in a grocery store parking lot. Roger and Smith forced him into the passenger seat the car and while Roger drove the vehicle, Smith sat in the back. They drove to a deserted area and tied Patterson's hands and taped his mouth and placed him in the trunk of the car. The two drove to an “isolated” area and when they opened the trunk they discovered that Patterson had gotten his hands free. They re-tied his hands behind his back this time and had him stand next to a tree. This is where Patterson was shot and killed with a shotgun. Some reports say that Roger shot the man twice, others say it was Smith who did this. A witnessed testified at one of the trials stating that Smith had told him that he and Roger had each shot Patterson in an attempt to make them both culpable so they could not snitch on each other. Regardless of which of the two men did the shooting, the following day Patterson's body was found by two hunters. Three days later Patterson's car was found in a field near Tulsa.... it had been burned out.

In 1987 Roger pleaded guilty to first degree murder but he changed his previous confession saying that he had not shot Patterson at all but that Smith had done the shooting. The thing I found interesting about this was that Roger apparently pleaded guilty without any sort of deal from the prosecution. Prosecutors wanted the death penalty and barring a deal that takes that off the table or cases where the defendant wants the death penalty, capital cases should be taken to trial regardless of the evidence. I mean, let's be real, there no sentence worse than death and if you take the case to trial the worse that can happen is the death penalty is imposed, which you are already at risk of receiving without a deal from prosecutors. And, Roger's case is a prime example why I believe in this. The judge did ultimately sentence him to death.

I want to point out here that it was said that when Roger confessed to the murder of Patterson, he also allegedly confessed to the murder of a man named James Meadows. This case has also made it to my list of future cases because it appears that Roger was not the only one involved and I am even unsure that it was confirmed he was involved. I found an article in which it stated that Meadows' step-son, Mark Liles, who himself was an inmate on Oklahoma death row was being investigated as being involved along with his mother, and James' wife, LaDonna.

Between his guilty plea and his sentencing Roger testified in Mikell Smith's trial. At his trial Roger's story changed again. He testified for the defense arguing that Smith was not involved or present at the time. Roger's attorney would later say that he believed his client did this out of fear of Smith. Smith was also ultimately convicted and sentenced to death but in 1992 was granted a re-trial. Before that could happen he made a deal in which he pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of life without parole.

Over the next several years Roger's attorney's argued against his sentence and asked for clemency several times. They often pointed out that in the many years Roger spend on death row he had never received any sort of write up or been in any trouble. And yet, his co-conspirator, Smith, not only was not on death row, while in prison he had killed another inmate, stabbed a guard and stabbed another inmate. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Smith is serving four sentences. Of course there is the life without parole in the Patterson murder but he received a 500 year sentence in 1992 for assault, another life without parole sentence in 1994 for murder and in 2014 he received another fifty years for second degree murder.

Roger's attorney's failed in their bid to receive clemency for him and on June 8, 2000, at the age of thirty-nine Roger Berget was executed by the state of Oklahoma.

Just a few months after Roger pleaded guilty to murder in Oklahoma his brother, Rodney, who was serving time in a South Dakota prison on charges of grand theft and escape, made another escape attempt and succeeded. Rodney, along with five other inmates greased their bodies up with lotion, slipped through a hole in air vents and then cut through some window bars and escaped. It was said that Rodney was a fugitive for more than a month. I found no details on how he was captured or any sentence he may have received as a result.

In 2002 Rodney was released from prison. It was said that his sister threw him a 40^th birthday party, his first birthday party. But by the following year he was back in prison. This time he got a life sentence for attempted murder and kidnapping. In 2011 once again Rodney was thinking of escaping. It was said that over the period of several months Rodney and fellow inmate Eric Robert devised a plan. On April 12, 2011 the two men ambushed a guard by the name of Ronald “R.J.” Johnson. It was Johnson's sixty-third birthday and it was said he was nearing retirement after nearly twenty-four years in service. Rodney and Robert beat Johnson with a pipe and then covered his head in plastic eventually smothering him. When they were done Robert put on Johnson's uniform and hat and the two put two boxes on a cart. Rodney was inside one of the boxes. It was said that they made it through one gate but were stopped at the second by another guard. That guard was assaulted but the escape plan failed.

Both Rodney and Robert were given the death penalty. It is unclear whether they pleaded guilty or took their cases to trial. A third inmate, Michael Norman was given a life sentence for providing the pipe to the two men. Eric Robert fairly quickly it seems gave up his fight for an appeal and was executed on October 15, 2012. In 2016 Rodney filed an appeal to fight the death sentence but it was said that on advice of his counsel he decided to not more forward with it and he too abandoned his appeals. It seems that the idea of spending the rest of his life in prison was less appealing to him.

On October 29, 2018 the state of South Dakota executed Rodney Berget. Both Rodney and Roger were buried together in the same cemetery as their mother who passed away in 2005.

We hear the phrase “born evil” a lot and I would gander to say that many people may believe this is possible of many murderers, especially serial killers. What I think this story shows is that while yes, we could argue maybe the boys were “evil” but that sometimes it's nurture, not nature that plays a role. If the story about Roger being kicked out of the home at the age of nine or ten is true then what kind of life did these children have? It was said that their legal troubles began in their teenage years and after their parents divorced. I did not hear about what kind of relationship they may have had with their father after the divorce but it does appear that both of their parents remarried. It seems that they were early pre-teens at the time of the divorce so clearly old enough to have known and witnessed the dynamics in the home. It is likely that their mother had little to no control over them as it appears she had little or no control over herself while married to their father. While we could sit here and argue all day about how they got there, why they got there or even whether they deserved to be executed I am sitting her thinking of Charles Manson.

Now, I am not necessarily trying to compare the Berget brothers to Mason as far as evil or crime wise as that is for another day. Maybe they were just as bad, maybe they were not. But, he comes to mind because he was most comfortable in prison. He had spent most of his life in and out of juvenile homes, county and state prisons. He knew very little of life outside prison walls …. even in 1969 when he was on Spahn Ranch and out of prison for a short period. Maybe they spent so much time in prisons for the same reason. It may very well have been the best and only real home they knew or were comfortable in.