Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco, California. His mother was Eunice an orderly at a psychiatric ward, and Jimmy Lee Simpson, a custodian for a Federal Reserve Bank and a private club and a cook. His father deserted the family when O.J. was 4 years old. His father was also a well-known drag queen in the Bay Area. Later in life, Jimmy Simpson announced that he was gay. He died of AIDS in 1986. O.J. Simpson never talked about him publicly. Simpson had three siblings. Simpson grew up in San Francisco and lived with his family in the housing projects of the low-income Potrero Hill neighborhood. As a child, Simpson developed rickets and wore braces on his legs until the age of five, giving him his bowlegged stance. He was easily recognized by his specific gait. He earned money by scalping tickets and collecting seat cushions at Kezar Stadium.
In his early teenage years, Simpson joined a street gang called the Persian Warriors and was briefly incarcerated at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center. He was arrested three times. After his third arrest, Simpson happened to meet baseball star Willie Mays, who encouraged the youth to avoid trouble. He said it helped persuade him to reform.
On June 24, 1967, Simpson married Marguerite L. Whitley. Together, they had three children. They had been dated since high school and she described him as “really an awful person then.”
He became an overwhelming celebrity, an icon. The Football Star, Movie star, TV sports analyst commercial pitchman. Simpson is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time. He was so big star that he united polarized nation. It didn’t matter whether you are white or black, you loved O.J. Simpson.
O. J. Simpson in his own words:
- How did you get your name and what was the selection process?
- Orenthal James. My mother has four sisters, and they had a rule that when each sister would have a child, one of the sisters would name it. And my mother’s youngest sister, named me. It was her turn. She named me Orenthal. She named my cousin… Garcelle. When it came time for her to name her own children, she said the deal is off. And she named her kids Stanley, Stewart, and Pamela.
- You know, they made it Orange Juice once I got to the pro, you know, in pro ball.
- But that had nothing to do with orange juice right?
- There’s something to there with energy or something like that. Yeah. I was always kidding around. And you know, hyping things up and sort of juiced up, so to speak.
So, O.J. Simpson was dubbed “the Juice”.
- Let me let me ask you about your childhood. What kind of kid were you?
- I was a good kid, I guess. I got in trouble a lot. I was aggressive like most kids, because I grew up in San Francisco at the absolute best time you could be growing up anywhere, as far as I was concerned. It was the middle of the 60s. All of a sudden, the Beatniks were my age. They were hippies and all the girls were running away, come to San Francisco looking for places to live. Me and my boys would find them places to stay in the park.
- You’d show them to the park, would you?
- When I got out of high school, I didn’t get any scholarship offers. It wasn’t because of my grades. I had pretty decent grades, but I was a home economics major. When I left high school, I couldn’t read or write, but I could cook my butt off. I went to City College of San Francisco, and it was a good time because a lot of guys are, you know, coming back from the Army, getting out of jail. So we had a lot of great players there. And we want to we won a lot of games. And then all the schools were after me. Yeah, yeah. And I think every athlete thinks he can play longer, but I don’t think emotionally I’ve, you know, realized yet that I retired and I’m not going to play again.
His mediocre high-school grades prevented him from attracting the interest of many college recruiters. After a childhood friend’s injury in the Vietnam War influenced Simpson to stay out of the military, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco in 1965. As Simpson rose in popularity, he avoided controversy, such as not participating in a boycott of the 1968 Olympics, which was supported by people like Martin Luther King Jr. as a protest against racial injustice in the U.S. He allegedly attacked two women during his College years, and they reported, but he was too good player that it was covered up.
Starting in the mid-1970s, Simpson was friends with brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who later became famous for the 1989 arrests, trial, and convictions for the murders of their parents. He visited their house several times. The three met up again in prison after Simpson was arrested for double murder in the 1990s. They talked and Lyle discovered they had known each other.
Simpson met Nicole Brown in 1977 while she was working as a waitress at a Beverly Hills nightclub called The Daisy. She was beautiful American/German woman. She was so in love with him. She once stated: “Even in a crowd, we felt alone together.” Although still married to his first wife, Simpson began dating Brown. Simpson and Marguerite divorced in March 1979. Brown and Simpson were married on February 2, 1985, five years after his retirement from professional football.
The couple had two children, Sydney Brooke Simpson (b. 1985) and Justin Ryan Simpson (b. 1988). He became a family, according to her father’s words in disbelief. The marriage lasted seven years. She gave him chances, believing he was going to change, but they finally divorced. After the separation. Nicole Simpson first lived on Gretna Green Way. They kept in contact because of children. She lived then on his estate, few blocks away, so he could see children.
He was controlling and domestic violence began early in their marriage. Nicole said:” O.J. is the only person, that I know, whose wife is not supposed to gain any weight when you are pregnant.” She even bought him books to realize that woman must gain weight during pregnancy, but nothing could help her. He was jealous for trivial things. He was accusing her of embarrassing him. Today it is called “coercive control” and “battered woman syndrome”. They were good friends with Kris Jenner and Robert Kardashian. Their daughter is Kim Kardashian, very famous public figure nowadays. Two couples went on vacations together. Robert Kardashian was an American attorney and businessman.
Shortly after midnight on June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown and her friend, Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death in the courtyard outside Brown’s condo, in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Nicole was almost decapitated. That was O.J.’ estate where Nicole lived after their divorce. Police determined the murders had taken place on the night of the 12th. Goldman had been there to return to Brown a pair of glasses that her mother had lost earlier that day. The knife used was never found. Children were still in the home.
Simpson was an immediate person of interest in their murders, and there was never any other suspect found. Simpson’s attorney, Shapiro stated: I wanted to relate that at the time that this murder took place, O.J. was at home waiting to get into a limousine to take him to the airport on a trip that had been planned well in advance for a promotional event in Chicago.” Media speculated that it was financialy motivated. Although, he earned a lot of money, he spent a lot and paid Nicole alimony. Some of his contracts was going to expire. Nobody suspected that he was an abuser. After police gathered all the evidence, charges were filed and a warrant was signed for Simpson’s arrest. Simpson was initially handcuffed, but after his attorney talked to police officers, the handcuffs were taken off. Simpson, in agreement with his attorneys, was scheduled to turn himself in at approximately 11:00 a.m. to the Parker Center police headquarters on the morning of June 17. Simpson failed to turn himself in and the case take another unbelievable turn.
“This is the 10:00 News. Good evening, I’m David Burnett, and I’m Maurice Jones. Where is O.J. Simpson?”
Larry King: “Unbelievably! The most watched, most wondered about man in America has gone missing tonight. He apparently disappeared from under the noses of his lawyers and doctors this afternoon, dodged an arranged surrender and vanished into the Los Angeles haze.” As you can imagine, the police were absolutely fuming. They had arranged a more quiet arrest for O.J. as a privilege and a favor, and ended up being thrown back in their face. He became a fugitive from justice.
His lawyer Robert Shapiro: “O.J. wherever you are, for the sake of your family, for the sake of your children, please, surrender immediately.” Meanwhile, his lawyers and close friend Robert Kardashian had found a suicide note: “I think of my life and feel I’ve done most of the right things. So why do I end up like this? I can’t go on. No matter what the outcome, people will look and point. I can’t take that. I can’t subject my children to that. This way they can move on and go on with their lives. Please, if I’ve done anything worthwhile in my life, let my kids live in peace from you, the press.”
Reporter: “It is an amazing sight. Along the right hand shoulder, people have pulled over. Many of them carrying signs such as signs like: “Save the Juice”, “Go, O.J.”. People are literally cheering him on as he travels northbound on the 405, and we can only assume that he planned to get off at sunset and go towards perhaps his home.”
The search for O.J. took an enormous twist and a very public one, as 90 plus million people watched live on television as O.J. Simpson sat in the back of his Bronco in a slow speed chase unfolded on the highway. This was such big news that the NBA final was put in a small box on live television, as the main story of O.J. unfolded. This was the perfect evidence of just how big of a star O.J. Simpson was, and how big of a downfall this was. They may fear that there are arms in that car. They may fear that Simpson may harm himself. They negotiated and he threatened that he would commit suicide. He was arrested.
Simpson’s integrated defense counsel team, named the “Dream Team”, included Kardashian, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, and Alan Dershowitz. The prosecution for the State of California was led by Marcia Clark and Christopher A. Darden. The judge was Lance Ito. The trial ran from January to October 1995, making it the longest trial in California history. The jury sequestered for 266 days, (Mostly juries are not sequestered, but go home after a trial day. They just don’t go to work and it is not allowed to speak or listen about a case), also the longest in California history. It ended up including 10 Black people in a 12-person jury.
Prosecution at his trial said: “We’ve seen him play football for USC. We watched him thrash UCLA and play in the Rose Bowl. We watched him win the Heisman Trophy. He may be the best running back in the history of the NFL. We watched him leave turnstiles and chairs and run the airplanes and the Hertz commercials, and we watched him with the 50 inch Afro and Naked Gun 33 and a half. And we’ve seen him time and time again, and we came to think that we know. What we’ve been seeing, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the public face, the public persona, the face of the athlete, the face of the actor. It is not the actor who is on trial here today, ladies and gentlemen. It is not that public face. Being wealthy, being famous cannot change one simple truth. He’s a person and people have good sides and bad sides. Behind that face you will see a wife beater, abuser, controller.”
New year’s Eve, police found Nicole Simpson hiding outside, saying her husband threatened to kill her.
- Can you get someone over now to 325 Gretna green. He’s back!
- Well, okay. What does he look like? He’s O.J. Simpson. I think you know his record.”
911 operator testified at trial:
- And while the line was open, at any point in time, could you hear anything?
- Yes, I did.
- What did you hear?
- At first, I heard a female screaming.
Police officer testified:
- It was a 911 radio call. At 316 North Rockingham woman being beaten. The operator could overhear it in. According to the comments, the operator could overhear the woman being beaten on the phone. I got out of the car and, pressed the button and waited for someone to speak to me, and a female came over the speaker. She said she was the housekeeper. I told her I was not leaving until I saw the person. Then, a woman came, running out of the bushes to my left. She was wearing a bra only, as upper garment. And she had on lightweight sweat pants or night pajama bottoms. And she ran across and started yelling, ‘he’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me’. Then, she pressed the button, which allowed the gate open. She was shivering. She was cold. She was beat up. I said, well, who is going to kill you? She said, O.J.. She said, you guys never do anything. You never do anything about him. You come out, you, you’ve been out here eight times. You never do anything about him. And I saw Mr. Simpson, walking towards me from the house, wearing a bathrobe, said, I didn’t beat her. He just pushed her out of the bed. nothing more. He said ‘you’ve been out here eight times before, and now you’re going to arrest me for this?’ As I was explaining to the supervisor what had transpired and what we needed to do, I saw a blue Bentley, start up the lights, start up, turned on. It went out a driveway, that I was not aware it was there. It went out a driveway onto Rockingham, out another gate, similar to the one I had been standing in front of. And the vehicle went, southbound on Rockingham. We both reentered our vehicles and pursued the defendant’s Bentley.
- He got away?
- Yes, he did.
O.J. Simpson was so famous that officers who came because Nicole reported violence actually were taking his autograph.
Prosecutors provided DNA evidence, including both victims’ blood being found in Simpson’s car, Brown’s blood being found on Simpson’s socks, and hair and clothing fibers consistent with Simpson, Brown, and Goldman, as well as fibers from a 1993–94 Ford Bronco and Brown’s dog, being found on a black leather glove recovered from Simpson’s home. The other glove in the pair was found at Brown’s condo. Samples of reddish brown stains on the driveway at O.J. Simpson’s home, a pair of white tennis shoes believed to belong to O.J. The defense claimed that the glove found at Brown’s condo did not fit Simpson’s hand. Cochran said to Simpson to put on the glove and raised his hands to the jury. He was sure that gloves don’t fit. In response, prosecutors theorized that Simpson had not been taking anti-inflammatory medications for his arthritis, which would make his hand swell if he tried to put on the glove during the trial. A Los Angeles County Jail doctor said this was not the case, and that Simpson had been taking his medications every day, on time.
Cochran claimed during the defense’s closing argument, “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” The phrase became famous in popular culture.
Prosecutors raised concerns that because the glove had been soaked in blood, and was repeatedly frozen and thawed before the trial, that it would have shrunk. Cochran denied this claim. When Simpson tried the glove on in court, he struggled to put it on. People magazine wrote that the moment was crucial to his acquittal.
But then the main detective who was a crucial witness for prosecution took the stand. That was the only time that something like that happened. The defense, allegedly hired a private detective and found audiotape recordings of Mark Fuhrman, an officer who was at the scene and collected evidence, repeatedly using the racial slur nigger in an interview with an aspiring screenwriter. Fuhrman was later charged with perjury for lying about not saying the slur, and pleaded no contest. When he took the stand, he was with his lawyer and took the 5th amendment. The defense argued that he framed evidence. Today he works for Fox News as an expert.
O.J. Simpson defense “assassinated the character” of Nicole Brown. Nowadays, it’s not possible to use that as a defense strategy.
The trial created a public discourse on race relations, motivated by Bailey and Cochran’s cross-examination of Fuhrman over the tapes. It “divided the nation” along racial lines; white people were more likely to believe in Simpsons’ guilt, while Black people were more likely to believe in his innocence.
O.J. Simpson was found not guilty.
Many advocates for victims of domestic violence consider Brown’s death as instrumental in Congress prioritizing the passage of the Violence Against Women Act. The act, passed in September 1994, created the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Following Simpson’s acquittal of criminal charges, the family of Ron Goldman filed a civil lawsuit against Simpson. The Brown family had not filed a wrongful death claim. The trial excluded discussion of racial issues, which were considered “inflammatory and speculative.” On February 5, 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, California, unanimously found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman, and battery against Brown. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in damages: $8.5 million in compensatory damages to the Goldman family, and $12.5 million in punitive damages to each family. His net worth at the time was $11 million.
Simpson couldn’t move on with his life. He wasn’t invited at elite events, influential people ignored him. He had fans, many people liked him. He had an active social life.
She later claimed that he wanted to transform her into Nicole and that he was violent.
On the night of September 13, 2007, a group of men led by Simpson entered a room at the Palace Station hotel-casino and took sports memorabilia at gunpoint, which resulted in Simpson being questioned by police. Simpson admitted to taking the items, which he said had been stolen from him, but denied breaking into the hotel room; he also denied that he or anyone else carried a gun. Simpson faced a possible life sentence with parole on the kidnapping charge, and mandatory prison time for armed robbery. On December 5, 2008, Simpson was sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison. In December 2021, Simpson was granted an early discharge from parole by the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation, for good behavior.
In 2016, Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephelopathy (CTE), said he would “bet [his] medical license” that Simpson had the disease. CTE is common in football players, and Omalu said Simpson had suffered thousands of cases of blunt force trauma in his brain during his career, which would have caused it. Simpson’s lawyer, as a part of a legal strategy following Simpson’s convictions for robbery in 2008, claimed that he had suffered concussions. This was a part of the lawyer’s attempt to prove that Simpson’s convictions were unjust, saying that brain damage was responsible for Simpson’s actions. In 2018, Simpson said he suspected he had CTE, claiming he often had trouble speaking and remembering names.
He was very active on Twitter (X). Simpson shared a home with his oldest daughter Arnelle while his youngest son Justin lived up the street from him. He continued playing golf. In May 2023, Simpson reported that he had been diagnosed with cancer and expressed confidence that he would beat it. O.J. Simpson died on April 10, 2024 (aged 76), Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
After his death his lawyer according to Simpson’s wish said that they won’t pay money to Goldman family and refused to give his brain to be examined and determined whether he had CTE.
