O.J. Simpson, the NFL running back whose high-profile 1990s double-murder trial made him infamous, died on April 10 after a battle with cancer, the football player’s family confirmed on social media. He was 76. “Our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,†the statement posted on Simpson’s Twitter account reads. “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.†His cancer diagnosis was first shared in May 2023. He was reportedly undergoing additional treatments in February of this year.
Born in 1947, O.J. Simpson, nicknamed “the Juice,†broke records in college football and the NFL — first at the University of Southern California, where the wunderkind won a Heisman Trophy his senior year, then as a pro for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers. His football retirement in 1979 unfolded into a lucrative career as an actor, sportscaster, and Hertz mascot.
In 1994, his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were found violently stabbed to death outside her home in Brentwood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Five days after the double murder, Simpson and his longtime friend Al Cowlings led police on a televised car chase for 60 miles as Simpson threatened to kill himself in the back seat with a handgun. The spectacle was viewed by millions for around two hours. Simpson was ultimately taken into custody and charged with the murders before being acquitted the following year. Then, in 2007, he led an armed robbery of a Las Vegas hotel and casino to allegedly steal his own memorabilia. Simpson was found guilty and sentenced to up to 33 years in prison. He was released on parole in 2017.
Simpson’s extracurricular projects often touched on the grisly murders of his ex-wife and her friend. In 2006, his memoir, O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, was leaked to the public, reportedly earning the disgraced Hall of Famer $600,000 to claim he had written it. A Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the Goldman family the following year, changing the title to If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer. The cover design for the new version depicts the word If superimposed in minuscule type on the word I, tricking viewers into reading the title as I Did It. In his free time on parole in 2019, Simpson opened a Twitter account on the 25th anniversary of the murders to “set the record straight.†He frequently inserted himself into the cultural conversation, posting unserious, controversial takes on the news of the day and joking about his prison time for hundreds of thousands of followers.
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