O.J. Simpson dies of cancer at 76, household states
Apr 11, 2024, 10:47 AM ET LAS VEGAS– O.J. Simpson, the embellished football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his previous better half and her buddy but later discovered liable in a separate civil trial, has actually passed away. He was 76.
The family announced on Simpson’s official X account that Simpson passed away Wednesday after fighting prostate cancer. Simpson’s attorney verified to TMZ he passed away in Las Vegas.
“On April 10th, our dad, Orenthal James Simpson, caught his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his kids and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his household asks that you please regard their want privacy and grace,” the family published on Simpson’s X account.Simpson earned popularity, fortune and adulation through football and show company, however his tradition was permanently altered 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 bodies of Brown Simpson and Goldman were found outside her apartment in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Simpson was an individual of interest in the murders, however instead of turn himself in 5 days later, he led cops on a low-speed chase throughout Los Angeles as a passenger in a white Ford Bronco driven by previous NFL player Al Cowlings. An approximated tv audience of 95 million viewed the drama unfold, with live coverage preempting regular programming, consisting of the NBA Finals. The cops pursuit of O.J. Simpson and the well known white Ford Bronco was shown on live television, with NBC even interrupting its NBA Finals telecast between the Rockets and Knicks in New York to reveal what was taking place on the opposite coast. AP Photo/Joseph Villarin
He had appeared to go beyond racial barriers as the star Trojans tailback for college football’s effective University of Southern California in the late 1960s, as a rental automobile advertisement pitchman hurrying through airports in the late 1970s, and as the other half of a blonde and blue-eyed high school homecoming queen in the 1980s.
“I’m not Black, I’m O.J.,” he liked to tell friends.The public was enthralled by his” trial of the century “on live television. It featured lead prosecutor Marcia Clark against a”legal dream team “for Simpson led by Johnnie Cochran, who famously pleaded to the jury during closing arguments, “If it does not fit, you must acquit, “a reference to a glove matching one found at the scene of the murders. His case triggered arguments on race, gender, domestic abuse, star justice and authorities misconduct.A criminal court jury discovered Simpson not guilty of murder in 1995, however a separate civil trial jury discovered him accountable in 1997 for the deaths and purchased him to pay$ 33.5 million to member of the family of Brown and Goldman.A decade later, still watched by the California wrongful death judgment, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with 2 sports souvenirs dealerships in a confined Las Vegas hotel room. Two guys with Simpson had weapons. A jury convicted Simpson of heist and other felonies.Imprisoned at age 61, he served 9 years in a remote northern Nevada prison, including a stint as a health club janitor. He
was not contrite when he was launched on parole in October 2017. The parole board heard him insist yet again that he was only attempting to retrieve sports souvenirs and household heirlooms stolen from him after his criminal trial in Los Angeles. “I have actually essentially spent a conflict-free life, you know,”Simpson, whose parole ended in late 2021, stated. O.J. Simpson earned popularity, fortune and adulation through football and show service, but his tradition was permanently changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her buddy Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. Bobby Bank/Getty Images Public fascination with Simpson never faded. Numerous discussed if he had actually been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was the subject of both an FX miniseries and five-part ESPN documentary.”I don’t think most of America believes I did it,”Simpson informed The New york city Times in 1995, a week after a jury identified he did not kill Brown and Goldman.
“I’ve gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me. “Twelve years later, following a profusion of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch canceled a prepared book by the News Corp-owned HarperCollins in which Simpson provided his theoretical account of the killings. It was to be entitled,”If I Did It.” Goldman’s household, still doggedly pursuing the multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgment, won control of the manuscript. They retitled the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”” It’s all blood cash, and regrettably I needed to join the jackals, “Simpson told The Associated Press at the time. He collected$880,000 in advance money for the book, paid through a 3rd party.”It helped me get out of financial obligation and protect my homestead,” he said.Less than 2 months after losing the rights to the book, Simpson was detained in Las Vegas.David Cook, an attorney who has been seeking since 2008 to gather the civil judgment in the Ron Goldman case, stated he spoke to Fred Goldman, daddy of Ron, on Thursday about Simpson’s death. Cook decreased to state
what Fred Goldman stated or where he was.”He died without penance,” Cook stated of Simpson.”We do not understand what he has, where it is or who is in control. We will pick up where we are and keep choosing it. “Simpson played 11 NFL seasons, nine of them with the Buffalo Expenses,
who made Simpson the No. 1 choice in the NFL draft in 1969. With Buffalo he ended up being called “The Juice “on an offending line referred to as “The Electric Company.”
He won four NFL rushing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his profession, scored 76 goals, made 5 first-team All-Pro squads and played in 5 Pro Bowls. His best season was 1973, when he ran for 2,003 lawns– the first running back to break the 2,000-yard hurrying mark(doing it in 14 games)while balancing 141.3 yards per game, still an NFL record. Prepared by the Bills No. 1 total in 1969, O.J. Simpson’s best season was available in 1973, when he ran for 2,003 lawns– the very first running back to break the 2,000-yard hurrying mark– while balancing 141.3 backyards per game, still an NFL record. Lane Stewart/Getty Images “I belonged to the history of the game, “he said years later on, remembering that season.” If I not did anything else in my life, I ‘d made my mark.”Obviously, Simpson went on to other fame.One of the artifacts of his murder trial, the thoroughly customized tan fit he wore when he was acquitted, was later on donated and put on screen at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Simpson had been told the fit would be in the hotel space in Las Vegas, but it ended up it wasn’t there.Orenthal James Simpson was born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, where he grew up in government-subsidized housing projects.After finishing from high school, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco for a year and a half before moving to the University of Southern California for the spring 1967 semester.He wed his first spouse, Marguerite Whitley, on June 24
, 1967, moving her to Los Angeles the next day so he might start preparing for his first season with USC– which, in large part since of Simpson, won that year’s nationwide championship.Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He accepted the statue on the exact same day that his very first child, Arnelle, was born.He had two kids, Jason and Aaren, with his first spouse; one of those kids, Aaren, drowned
as a young child in a swimming pool mishap in 1979, the same year he and Whitley divorced.Simpson and Brown were married in 1985. They had two children, Justin and Sydney, and divorced in 1992. 2 years later, Nicole Brown Simpson was found murdered.
“We do not need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he told the AP 25 years after the double slayings.
“The subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My household and I have actually proceeded to what we call the’no negative zone.’We focus on the positives.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.