O.J. Simpson Died at 76
O.J. Simpson lived a life that made him one of the most famous people in America. He was a Heisman Trophy winner and a star for the Buffalo Bills, and he made fortunes as a Hollywood actor and a commercial pitchman — he was the first Black star of a national television advertising campaign. Then, in 1994, he was charged in the double murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
Simpson, who was 76, died yesterday at his home in Las Vegas. The cause was cancer, according to his family. You can read his full obituary here.
Simpson’s 1995 murder trial held up a cracked mirror to Black and white America and mesmerized the nation, which followed along on daily national television broadcasts. The jury acquitted him, but questions about his guilt or innocence never went away.
He was found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million, although he paid little of the debt and struggled to stay out of trouble. He sold a book manuscript giving a “hypothetical” account of the murders, but after a public outcry, Ronald Goldman’s family secured the book rights.
In 2007 he was arrested after invading a Las Vegas hotel room and taking a trove of sports collectibles. Simpson was found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping; he served nine years in prison and was released in 2017.
Look back: Here was The Times’s front-page story on the day Simpson was acquitted.