O.J. Simpson useless at 76

Simpson’s lawyer confirmed to TMZ he died Wednesday night time in Las Vegas. A message posted Thursday on Simpson’s official X account — previously Twitter — said he died after battling most cancers.

“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace,” the household posted on Simpson’s Twitter/X account.

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

Dwell TV protection of his arrest after a famous slow-speed chase marked a surprising fall from grace for the sports activities hero. Simpson had been named an individual of curiosity within the murders and fairly than turning himself in to authorities, he tried to flee. As many as 95 million individuals watched the chase unfold, with protection interrupting the NBA Finals.

Simpson was acquitted of murder charges within the so-called “trial of the century”. He famously vowed to search out the “real killer” after a jury discovered him not responsible. The felony case sparked debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, movie star justice and police misconduct.

Simpson was later discovered liable in a separate civil trial and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to members of the family of Brown and Goldman. His authorized troubles continued a decade later, when Simpson led 5 males he barely knew right into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers 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 nine years in a distant northern Nevada jail, together with a stint as a fitness center 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 attempting to retrieve sports activities memorabilia and household heirlooms stolen from him after his felony trial in Los Angeles.

“I’ve basically spent a conflict-free life, you know,” Simpson, whose parole ended in late 2021, mentioned.

Public fascination with Simpson never faded. Many debated if he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was the topic of each an FX miniseries and five-part ESPN documentary.

“I don’t think 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 thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me.”

Twelve years later, following an outpouring of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch cancelled a deliberate guide by the 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 loss of life judgment, received management of the manuscript. They retitled the guide “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”

“It’s all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals,” Simpson instructed The Related Press on the time. He collected $880,000 upfront cash for the guide, paid by way of a 3rd get together.

“It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead,” he mentioned.

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

Simpson performed 11 NFL seasons, 9 of them with the Buffalo Payments, the place he grew to become referred to as “The Juice” on an offensive line referred to as “The Electric Company.” He received 4 NFL dashing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his profession, scored 76 touchdowns and performed in 5 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.

“I was part of the history of the game,” he mentioned years later, recalling that season. “If I did nothing else in my life, I’d made my mark.”

After retiring from the NFL, Simpson discovered success in tv and movie. He labored as a commentator for Monday Night time Soccer and was a principal participant within the Bare Gun trilogy of movies.

He had appeared to transcend racial obstacles. “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.,” he favored to inform buddies.

In 1994, although, the explanations for his fame perpetually shifted with the murders of Brown Simpson and Goldman.

One of many artifacts of his homicide trial, the rigorously tailor-made tan swimsuit 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 swimsuit 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 tasks.

After graduating from highschool, he enrolled at Metropolis Faculty of San Francisco for a 12 months 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 subsequent day so he might start making ready for his first season with USC — which, largely due to Simpson, received that 12 months’s nationwide championship.

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

He had two sons, Jason and Aaren, together with his first spouse; a type of boys, Aaren, drowned as a toddler in a swimming pool accident in 1979, the identical 12 months he and Whitley divorced.

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

“We don’t 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 family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”

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Biographical materials on this story was written by former AP Particular Correspondent Linda Deutsch.