Yahoo News The life of OJ Simpson, the all-American hero whose sensational 'trial of the century' gripped the world
It's difficult to overestimate just how famous, celebrated and revered OJ Simpson - whose death at the age of 76 was announced tonight - was before that warm California night on June 12, 1994.
It was a cultural turning point - an all-American sports hero turned Hollywood star suddenly implicated in horrific violence. Long before the internet we know today, the world watched TV screens, transfixed, as drama upon drama unfolded before our blinking, disbelieving eyes.
Almost 30 years on, at least for people of a certain vintage, it was an unforgettable moment in time. A flashpoint of fame, money, and justice; race relations, sex and male violence. A grisly whodunnit whose drama obscured a very real tragedy - and foreshadowed our era of reality TV and rolling, 24/7 coverage.
OJ Simpson may have been the star of a sport many on this side of the Atlantic didn't understand or watch - American football - but, around the world he became famous for his role in The Naked Gun films, playing the hapless officer Nordberg, opposite Leslie Nielsen's even more hapless Detective Frank Drebin.
That night, his wife Nicole Brown, who had divorced OJ after their marriage turned sour, had been stabbed seven times in her face and scalp and her throat had been slit. The wound on her neck was so violent it had almost decapitated her. Nicole was walking into her home in Los Angeles with her friend, Ron Goldman, when the pair were fatally attacked with horrifying violence.
Five days later, police moved to arrest OJ Simpson. But he famously fled from the law in a white Ford Bronco, a low-speed chase through the streets of southern California. It brought the freeways and, indeed much of America to a standstill, with a TV audience of some 95m watching the drama unfold via cameras on news helicopters.
Simpson, who maintained his innocence throughout his life, was arrested and charged with both murders. It was a spectacular fall from grace for Simpson, a running back for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers who became a media icon.
At the conclusion of a sensational, televised trial, OJ Simpson was acquitted of the killings. Famously, Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian’s father Robert Kardashian was a member of Simpson’s defence team.
To this day, it's a heinous crime that, officially at least, has not been solved. But it will be difficult to find anyone with even the smallest knowledge of the case who doesn't have an opinion about who did or didn't do it. It's one of those stories that seems to transcend facts, such as we know them.
But there are facts: Nicole and Ron's families filed a civil suit against the fallen star, which they won. Simpson was ordered to pay them £26m in compensation. The majority of this was never paid.
In a TV interview in 2006, OJ appeared to confess to the killings, although he insists all his 'memories' were hypothetical. The interview with Judith Regan was shelved for being too controversial but re-emerged in 2018, the Mirror reported.
Simpson said: "This is very hard for me to do this because it's hypothetical. Charlie shows up, a guy I'd recently become friends with and he told me you won't believe what's going on over there [at Nicole's house].
"And I remember thinking whatever going on there has got to stop... We get into the Bronco and go over. Hypothetically we park in the alley... in the hypothetical I put on a cap and gloves."
He then explained he always kept a knife in the car he used in the subsequent police chase.
Simpson added: "[I reached under the seat and pulled out] a knife. I always kept a knife in that car for the crazies 'cos you can't carry a gun. And I remember Charlie saying 'You can't bring that' and I didn't, but I believe he took it..."
He went on to describe, hypothetically, going into his ex-wife's Los Angeles home via the back gate, seeing lit candles and hearing music before seeing Goldman arrive. Simpson said he started arguing with him before Brown came out and they became embroiled in a 'verbal fight'.
He added: "It got a little loud and Nicole had come out and we started having words about who is this guy, what's going on... Charlie followed this guy in and brought the knife. As things got heated Nicole fell and hurt herself and this guy got into a karate thing.
"I said: 'Well you think you can kick my ass?'. I remember I grabbed the knife, I do remember that portion...and to be honest I don't remember anything else except I'm standing there and there's all kind of stuff around... blood."
Simpson then laughs and insists the story is hypothetical, adding: "This might make people think that I'm a murderer."
In 2007, he was convicted after leading five men into an armed robbery in Las Vegas. He was released in 2017 on parole after being originally sentenced to 33 years in prison. Speaking at his parole hearing in 2017, he said: "I'm sorry things turned out the way they did. I had no intent to commit a crime."
He added: "I realised in my nine years here that I was a good guy, but I could have been a better Christian. I have lived a conflict-free life."
He added: "I have never had an alcohol problem. I had drinks on that day but I have never had a substance problem at all."
In his later years, Simpson regularly documented his life on social media with videos both from prison and later after his release. After being released, he started a lavish new life in Las Vegas which was generally lived away from the public eye aside from his social media updates.
Simpson had three children from a previous marriage although one of them drowned in the family's swimming pool when he was just two. He also shared two children with Nicole, Sydney and Justin. Their marriage lasted seven years before their divorce in 1989.
The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story – which aired in 2016 – won a number of Emmys for its portrayal of the murder trial of the former NFL star. It starred Sarah Paulson and Cuba Gooding Jr as Marcia Clark and OJ Simpson respectively in the 10-part dramatisation of the trial.
His children announced the news of his death on X, saying: “On April 10, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer.
“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace. -The Simpson Family.”
