O.J. Simpson: 1947-2024

O.J. Simpson rushed for 11,236 yards as an NFL running back but will be remembered more for the white Ford Bronco car chase during which he was on the run from the law.

Millions sat transfixed in front of their televisions as a man who had been broadcast into their homes as a star football player, sports broadcaster, and actor was wanted for the murder of his former wife and friend, being pursued by police in a scene that exceeded any of his movie roles.

When Simspon surrendered to the authorities, it wasn’t the end of the show. His monthslong televised trial made celebrities out of Judge Lance Ito, prosecutors Chris Darden and Marcia Clark, the villainous Detective Mark Fuhrman, and a host of witnesses. Simpson’s attorneys, including Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, were already an all-star cast.

Simpson died on April 10 at the age of 76. He initially became famous as a top athlete, the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner after setting the single-season rushing record at the University of Southern California. He continued on this path of success in the NFL after he was drafted first overall by the Buffalo Bills. Simpson rushed for 2,003 yards in 1973, winning the league’s MVP award that season.

But Simpson’s main legacy will be the murders for which he was acquitted but later found liable, a symbol of domestic violence, racial tension, justice denied, and jury nullification. The slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman cast a shadow over him for the rest of his life amid widespread public perceptions that he got away with murder.

Orenthal James Simpson was born on June 9, 1947. His mother was a nurse’s aide, and his father was a custodian and cook. Simpson grew up in a low-income neighborhood of San Francisco, overcoming early health challenges and several run-ins with the law to demonstrate great athletic ability.

Dubbed “The Juice” by fans, Simpson played 11 seasons in the NFL. This included nine seasons with the Bills and two with the San Francisco 49ers. The running back totaled 14,368 all-purpose yards in 135 games and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1985. He parlayed these achievements into a sportscasting career after he retired from the league and landed supporting roles in movies like Naked Gun.

It all came crashing down when Simpson was suspected of the June 13, 1994, murders of Goldman and his second wife. The two were found stabbed to death in a bloody scene by a dog-walking neighbor. Simpson’s second marriage was riddled with allegations of abuse and domestic violence. On New Year’s Day in 1989, police were called to the Simpsons’ home and Nicole told them, “He’s going to kill me.” Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal battery, and the couple split in 1992.

Throughout the murder trial, Simpson’s lawyers tried to cast doubt on the copious physical evidence against their client and to capitalize on black mistrust of the Los Angeles Police Department. This was just three years after the Rodney King beating and two years after the riots sparked by the officers’ acquittal. Furman’s use of racial slurs became a flashpoint in the trial as Simpson’s defense suggested he might have been framed by racist police.

But many were always skeptical of these defenses, viewing Simpson as a wealthy man whose high-priced lawyers were shielding him from the consequences of his crimes and offering him a layer of protection unavailable to black Los Angeles residents without his means.

One of the pieces of evidence against Simpson was a bloody glove at the crime scene that matched another recovered from his property. When Simpson struggled to put on the glove in the courtroom, Cochran pounced. “If the glove don’t fit,” he memorably said, “you must acquit.”

Controversially, the jury did just that in 1995. A Time-CNN poll at the time found that 62% of whites thought Simpson was guilty, while 66% of black respondents said he was innocent and nearly as many believed he was framed. Two years later, the Goldman and Brown families won a $33.5 million civil judgment against Simpson.

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The civil case was followed by bizarre episodes in which Simpson spoke of the murders, culminating in writing a book titled If I Did It. “And I remember I grabbed the knife — I do remember that portion,” he said in a 2006 interview that wasn’t broadcast until 12 years later. These had the cumulative effect of narrowing the racial divide over his guilt, according to later polling. He later served nine years in prison for a 2007 armed robbery, which he claimed was an attempt to retrieve his personal sports memorabilia.

Simpson died of prostate cancer.

W. James Antle III is executive editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.