O.J. Simpson dies of cancer at age 76, family says

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson, the adorned soccer celebrity and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of prices he killed his former spouse and her buddy however later discovered liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76.

The household introduced on Simpson’s official X account that Simpson died Wednesday after battling prostate most cancers. He died in Las Vegas, officers there stated Thursday.

“On April tenth, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with most cancers. He was surrounded by his kids and grandchildren. Throughout this time of transition, his household asks that you simply please respect their needs for privateness and charm,” the household posted on Simpson’s X account.

Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation by soccer and present enterprise, however his legacy was ceaselessly modified by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her buddy Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.

On June 12, the our bodies of Brown Simpson and Goldman had been discovered outdoors her apartment within the Brentwood space of Los Angeles. Simpson was an individual of curiosity within the murders, however moderately than flip himself in 5 days later, he led police on a low-speed chase all through Los Angeles as a passenger in a white Ford Bronco pushed by former NFL participant Al Cowlings. An estimated tv viewers of 95 million watched the drama unfold, with dwell protection interrupting common programming, together with the NBA Finals.

Simpson gained widespread recognition throughout society because the Heisman Trophy-winning tailback for the College of Southern California within the late Nineteen Sixties, as a rental automobile advert pitchman dashing by airports within the late Nineteen Seventies, and as a commentator for “Monday Evening Soccer” and an actor in motion pictures akin to “The Bare Gun” collection within the Nineteen Eighties.

The general public was mesmerized by his “trial of the century” on dwell TV. It featured lead prosecutor Marcia Clark in opposition to a “authorized dream crew” for Simpson led by Johnnie Cochran, who famously pleaded to the jury throughout closing arguments, “If it does not match, you have to acquit,” a reference to a glove matching one discovered on the scene of the murders. His case sparked debates on race, gender, home abuse, celeb justice and police misconduct.

A prison court docket jury discovered Simpson not responsible of homicide in 1995, however a separate civil trial jury discovered him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relations of Brown and Goldman.

A decade later, nonetheless shadowed by the California wrongful demise judgment, Simpson led 5 males he barely knew right into a confrontation with two sports activities memorabilia sellers in a cramped Las Vegas lodge room. Two males with Simpson had weapons. A jury convicted Simpson of armed theft and different felonies.

Imprisoned at age 61, he served 9 years in a distant northern Nevada jail, together with a stint as a gymnasium janitor. He was not contrite when he was launched on parole in October 2017. The parole board heard him insist but once more that he was solely making an attempt to retrieve sports activities memorabilia and household heirlooms stolen from him after his prison trial in Los Angeles.

“I’ve principally spent a conflict-free life, ,” stated Simpson, whose parole resulted in late 2021.

Public fascination with Simpson by no means pale. Many debated whether or not he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was the topic of an FX miniseries and a five-part ESPN documentary.

“I do not suppose most of America believes I did it,” Simpson instructed The New York Instances in 1995, every week after a jury decided he didn’t kill Brown and Goldman. “I’ve gotten 1000’s of letters and telegrams from individuals supporting me.”

Twelve years later, after an outpouring of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch canceled a deliberate e book by Information Corp-owned HarperCollins during which Simpson supplied his hypothetical account of the killings. It was to be titled, “If I Did It.”

Goldman’s household, nonetheless doggedly pursuing the multimillion-dollar wrongful demise judgment, gained management of the manuscript. They retitled the e book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”

“It is all blood cash, and sadly I needed to be part of the jackals,” Simpson instructed The Related Press on the time. He collected $880,000 prematurely cash for the e book, paid by a 3rd get together.

“It helped me get out of debt and safe my homestead,” he stated.

Lower than two months after shedding the rights to the e book, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas.

David Cook dinner, an lawyer who has been searching for since 2008 to gather the civil judgment within the Ron Goldman case, stated he spoke with Fred Goldman, father of Ron, on Thursday about Simpson’s demise. Cook dinner declined to say what Fred Goldman stated or the place he was.

“He died with out penance,” Cook dinner stated of Simpson. “We do not know what he has, the place it’s or who’s in management. We are going to choose up the place we’re and hold going with it.”

Simpson performed 11 NFL seasons, 9 of them with the Buffalo Payments, who made Simpson the No. 1 choose within the NFL draft in 1969. With Buffalo he grew to become often known as The Juice on an offensive line often known as the Electrical Firm. He gained 4 NFL dashing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his profession, scored 76 touchdowns, made 5 first-team All-Professional squads and performed in six Professional Bowls. His finest season was 1973, when he ran for two,003 yards — the primary operating again to interrupt the two,000-yard dashing mark (doing it in 14 video games) whereas averaging 141.3 yards per sport, nonetheless an NFL file.

“I used to be a part of the historical past of the sport,” he stated years later, recalling that season. “If I did nothing else in my life, I might made my mark.”

In fact, Simpson went on to different fame.

One of many artifacts of his homicide trial, the rigorously tailor-made tan go well with he wore when he was acquitted, was later donated and positioned on show on the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Simpson had been instructed the go well with can be within the lodge room in Las Vegas, nevertheless it turned out it wasn’t there.

Orenthal James Simpson was born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, the place he grew up in government-subsidized housing initiatives.

After graduating from highschool, he enrolled at Metropolis School of San Francisco for a yr and a half earlier than transferring to the College of Southern California for the spring 1967 semester.

He married his first spouse, Marguerite Whitley, on June 24, 1967, shifting her to Los Angeles the following day so he might start getting ready for his first season with USC — which, largely due to Simpson, gained that yr’s nationwide championship.

Simpson gained the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He accepted the statue on the identical day that his first baby, Arnelle, was born.

He additionally had two different kids, Jason and Aaren, along with his first spouse. Their daughter Aaren drowned as a toddler in a swimming pool accident in 1979, the identical yr Simpson and Whitley divorced.

Simpson and Brown had been married in 1985. They’d two kids, Sydney and Justin, and divorced in 1992. Two years later, Nicole Brown Simpson was discovered murdered.

“We do not want to return and relive the worst day of our lives,” he instructed the AP 25 years after the double slayings. “The topic of the second is the topic I’ll by no means revisit once more. My household and I’ve moved on to what we name the ‘no destructive zone.’ We deal with the positives.”

The Related Press contributed to this report.