Former American football star and later actor and broadcaster O.J. Simpson, whose 1995 double-murder trial captivated and divided America, has died of cancer aged 76.
“On April 10th our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He died surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the family of one of the first African-American stars in the USA said on Platform X.
From NFL vendetta to movie star, O.J. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her boyfriend, Ron Goldman, in the “trial of the century,” as the American media called it. A trial with all the spotlight on him and charged due to the racist nature of the case.
See also: USA: The former athlete and actor O. J. died. Simpson – Known for his much acclaimed trial
The trial captivated the country and the acquittal is still controversial nearly 30 years later.
“It is not a great loss to the world. It’s a new reminder of Ron’s death,” was the first reaction of Ron Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, when asked for comment by NBC News.
O.J. Simpson was acquitted in the criminal trial, but in the civil trial in 1997, he was found responsible for the deaths of Brown and Goldman and ordered to pay more than $33 million in restitution to their families – something that never happened.
He stayed out of the public eye until 2007, when he found himself again embroiled in legal trouble after being arrested in Las Vegas for armed robbery: at gunpoint he stole sports memorabilia from two dealers at a hotel-casino in the city. He was found guilty of this case the following year and sentenced to 33 years in prison with the right to parole after nine years. He was released on parole in 2017.
In February he stated on his X account that his health was “good” although “obviously there are some problems”. “I think I will soon put them behind me and hopefully I will be back on the golf course in about 15 days,” he said at the time. In another video posted in early February he denied receiving palliative care for his cancer. “I don’t know who started (this rumor) but I guess it’s like Donald (Trump) says: you can’t trust the media.”
“The Chase of the Century”
On June 12, 1994, after Brown and Goldman were found dead outside the woman’s apartment in Brentwood, Los Angeles, Simpson was declared a “person of interest” to the police. Five days later, after attending his ex-wife’s funeral with their two children, he was charged with two counts of murder. O.J. Simpson disappeared before he was arrested, right under the noses of the police.
The spectacle that followed on June 17, 1994, broadcast live by helicopters following him for 45 minutes, captivated the entire US: a low-speed chase with dozens of patrol cars following Simpson’s white Ford Bronco, driven by his friend and former NFL teammate, Al Cowlings.
Nearly 95 million Americans were glued to their screens to watch the action – more than watched the championship final that year. That Friday afternoon the pizza orders flew in for two hours, until Simpson returned home and surrendered to the police.
“We were all huddled around the TV, breathless… We were just watching, completely captivated,” Kim Goldman, Ron Goldman’s sister, recalled a few years ago in a podcast she uploaded. Many Los Angeles residents cheered for the fugitive, but Kim and her father wanted him “arrested and held accountable for his actions.”
O.J. Simpson, who has never pleaded guilty, denied trying to run away that day, claiming he just wanted to go to his ex-wife’s grave. Inside the car, officers found a bag containing his passport, cash and a 357 Magnum revolver. But those findings were never presented as evidence in the case because the vehicle did not belong to the suspect and no one could prove who put them there.
Why such intense interest? According to Jeffrey Albert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina and an expert on stalking, the fact that O.J. Simpson was famous simply piqued the curiosity of an audience already hungry for risqué situations. “We are waiting for the collision. Nobody wishes anyone dead, but we like to watch a situation that is out of the ordinary,” he told AFP, likening such chases to off-road car racing.
“And the media in the U.S. is more fascinated by these things than anywhere else in the world,” the professor added, saying these chases are reminiscent of the Far West “where someone robs the bank and the sheriff jumps on his horse to chase him down.” hunt”.
The Ford Bronco, owned by Al Cowings, Simpson’s friend who was driving it that day, is now on display at a Tennessee museum specializing in the history of crime in the US. In Los Angeles, a company is considering offering tourists car rides along the same route as O.T. Simpson.
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