CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses domestic violence.
On Wednesday, disgraced former NFL player OJ Simpson died at age 76 from cancer. The news created a wave of responses, not only from celebrity counterparts and people in the public eye, but those who remembered the the infamous figure for the 1994 criminal trial over the deaths of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. OJ Simpson was famously acquitted — but public suspicion he was responsible for the murders followed him the rest of his life.
But that was 29 years ago, so here’s an explainer of who TF this man is, and why his death has sparked so much discourse online.
Table of contents
- Who is OJ Simpson and what did he do?
- What happened at OJ Simpson’s criminal trial?
- How did OJ Simpson end up in jail?
- What are OJ Simpson’s connections to the Kardashians?
- Why was Khloé Kardashian trending after OJ Simpson’s death?
- Where to watch the documentaries and TV series about OJ Simpson
Who is OJ Simpson and what did he do?
Orenthal James Simpson — known more commonly as OJ Simpson or “Juice” — was an American football player. He was drafted in 1969 and in his 11-season run, Simpson became known as one of the best running backs of all time and broke countless NFL records; including becoming the first NFL player to ever rush for more than 2,000 yards (1,828.8 metres). He retired in 1979 and in 1985 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Due to his skill on the field, he became a very beloved figure by the American public. But Simpson’s talents didn’t stop there. He was also an actor, who starred in a series of television shows and films while he was still playing in the NFL.
While Simpson was in the NFL, he was married to Marguerite Whitely and had three children; Arnelle, Jason and Aaren. Tragically in 1979, Aaren died after drowning in the family’s swimming pool. That same year, Marguerite and Simpson divorced, but Simpson had already met his future wife — Nicole Brown.
The pair had met in 1977 when she was a waitress at a nightclub. In 1985 they married and had two children together, Sydney and Justin.
Simpson and Nicole were married for seven years before getting a divorce in 1992. During that time, there were multiple documented accounts of domestic abuse. In 1989, police found Nicole hiding in the bushes from Simpson with visible injuries.
“Her lip was split, her eye was black and a handprint was visible on her neck. ‘He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me’,” the police report claimed she said at the time, per the Los Angeles Times.
Tragically, on June 12, 1994, Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her home in Los Angeles. With the history of abuse between Nicole and her ex-husband, it wasn’t long before Simpson became the prime suspect.
However, instead of surrendering to the police, Simpson fled in the back of a white Bronco, taking part in an hour-long “slow” car chase that was broadcast around the world. It would become one of the most memorable images of the 1990s.
It prompted a heap of his fans to line the streets of California in his support. Eventually, though, Simpson was taken into police custody.
On July 22, OJ formally entered a not guilty plea.
What happened at OJ Simpson’s criminal trial?
OJ Simpson’s trial began on January 24, 1995, and it quickly became dubbed “the trial of the century” due to the high-profile nature of the case, and the way it was broadcast on cable television.
The defence had items of evidence against Simpson, including a bloody leather glove found at his home, and his own blood found at the murder scene.
Simpson enlisted the help of a team of powerful attorneys to fight his case including long-time friends Robert Kardashian and Johnnie Cochran. His defence team argued that the evidence had been mishandled — and even planted — due to racial prejudice and as a result, the case became heavily embroiled in race relations between Black and white Americans.
Another pivotal moment was when Simpson made a feeble attempt to try on the bloody glove in court, arguing that his hand was too big to fit the glove.
At the time, Cochran said the phrase, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
During the eight-month trial, over 150 witnesses testified. However, OJ never took the stand.
On October 2, 1995, the jury deliberated on the case and reached a verdict in just under four hours. The next day it was announced publicly that OJ was found not guilty of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Despite being acquitted of the murders, OJ was then sued by the victim’s families for wrongful death. A civil trial kicked off in October 1996. In February 1997, OJ was found responsible for the deaths of Nicole and Ronald, and he had to pay $3.35 million USD ($5.12 million AUD) in damages to their families.
So, then how did he end up in jail?
Although he didn’t spend any time in jail for the murder of Nicole and Ronald, Simpson wound up behind bars for another crime.
In September 2007, Simpson and a group of others broke into a room at the Palace Station Hotel in Las Vegas and stole sports memorabilia from a dealer. Simpson was arrested soon after and although he admitted to taking the items, he alleged that the memorabilia he took from the hotel was previously stolen from him at gunpoint.
In 2008, he went to trial. On October 3 — the very same day he was officially acquitted from his previous trial — he was found guilty on 12 counts which included kidnapping, weapon and robbery charges.
Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison with the possibility of parole after nine years.
He was released from prison in 2017 after nine years served.
What are OJ Simpson’s connections to the Kardashians?
The Kardashians might be the first family of pop culture today, but their first-ever claim to fame is a bit of a doozy. Their family was brought into the spotlight when Kimberly, Kourtney and Khloé‘s father — Robert Kardashian — signed on to be a lawyer in Simpson’s defence. The now-famous sisters were just teenagers at the time.
Robert had been long-term friends with Simpson and made the decision to publicly stand by him during the trial. It was a tricky spot for the family to be in, as Robert, and his wife, Kris Jenner, were also close with Nicole.
In 2019, Kim Kardashian reflected on this moment of her life in an episode of E! True Hollywood Story.
“My family was always super close except for the time when my dad was representing OJ and my mom was Nicole’s best friend,” she said.
“One day my dad took me and Kourtney into the trial, and my mom happened to be sitting with Nicole’s family, and we looked over and my mum’s looking at us like, ‘What are you girls doing here and why are you sitting on that side?’ It was like the first time my family really got divided.”
Kim even noted that their family celebrated when he was acquitted.
“All the kids stayed home from school. We saw the verdict and then afterwards my dad called us and was like, ‘Okay, meet me at Uncle OJ’s house. We’re all going to go there and celebrate’,” she said.
“Now if I tell people, like, ‘Oh yeah, I was at Uncle OJ’s house right after the verdict. I didn’t even think it was a big deal. It’s just crazy to me to even think that that was a normal life.”
In the episode, Kris Jenner said that she believes the trial helped Kim become who she is today.
“Going through the OJ Simpson trial had a very strong effect on her life later on and certainly would have helped develop a really thick skin, she said.
Why was Khloe Kardashian trending after OJ Simpson’s death?
For years, a conspiracy has been floating around the internet that OJ Simpson is secretly Khloé Kardashian‘s biological father. The conspiracy kicked off in 2011 after Kris Jenner released a member entitled Kris Jenner And All Things Kardashian in which she admitted to having an affair with someone while she was still married to Robert Kardashian.
Although the memoir doesn’t reveal who this person was, Robert’s second wife Jan Ashley fanned the conspiracy fire by alleging that Robert wasn’t Khloé’s father in an interview with Star Magazine in 2012 — nine years after Robert’s death in 2003.
“Khloé is not his kid — he told me that after we got married,” she said.
“He just kind of looked at me and said [it] like it was a matter of fact. He said, ‘Well, you know that Khloé’s not really a Kardashian, don’t you? And I said … ‘OK,’ and that was it.”
His third wife Ellen Pierson, whom he was married to for two months before he passed away, also backed up these claims.
“Khloé brought it up all the time,” she told Star Magazine.
“She looked nothing like the rest. She was tall, had a different shape, light hair, curly hair. Didn’t look anything like the other three children.”
Despite these claims, both Simpson and Khloé had denied that they are biologically related.
In 2016, Khloé slammed Ellen on her talk show Cocktails With Khloé.
“She wanted to come out, like, 10 years later after my dad passed away and said that I’m not his daughter and that he confided in her,” Khloé said.
“I was like, ‘Listen, you can talk about me and my sisters all you fucking want.’ Do not talk about my dad. … He’s not here!”
In 2022, Simpson set the record straight on the Full Send podcast.
“The rumour ain’t true. It’s not even anywhere close to being true,” said.
“I’ve never been attracted to her and I never suspected she was ever attracted to me, so that was never the case.”
Despite this, people have been bombarding Khloé with messages about Simpson’s passing — a move that does not pass the vibe check, in my opinion.
Where to watch the documentaries and TV series about OJ Simpson
Over the years, OJ Simpson has been the subject of quite a few documentaries and television series. If you want to know more about the convoluted case and his life, here are the details.
O.J.: Made In America
In 2016, ESPN released a 30 for 30 documentary series entitled O.J.: Made In America. In five parts, it begins as Simpson is trying to make it as a football player, covers the highly-reported murder case before ending with his 2008 robbery case. The series was so highly regarded that it won an Oscar in 2017 for Best Documentary Feature.
You can currently watch O.J.: Made In America on Disney+.
The People V O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
The documentary wasn’t the only OJ-related content to come out of 2016. American Horror Story‘s Ryan Murphy released a dramatised limited series about the murder trial. It was the very first season in Murphy’s American Crime Story series and focused predominantly on the legal teams battling it out in court.
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr. as OJ Simpson, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, John Travolta as Robert Shapiro and Sarah Paulson as Marcia Cross, the casting is pretty damn stellar.
You can watch The People V O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story on Disney+.
