O.J. Simpson, the former football great who was accused of and ultimately acquitted of the brutal 1994 slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, has died, according to his family. He was 76.
O. J. Simpson appears with his attorney Robert Shapiro in Los Angeles County Superior Court for his preliminary hearing in Los Angeles, June 30, 1994.All that changed on June 12, 1994, when Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were brutally stabbed to death outside of the former's home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. Within days, police announced their intention to arrest the former football star for the murders.
O.J. Simpson #32 of the University of Southern California Trojans looks on from the sidelines during an NCAA college football game circa 1968.Playing for USC as a running back, Simpson soon became college football's leading rusher. By the time he left the school, he had set 13 college football records and had won the 1968 Heisman Trophy.
Simpson had acted during his pro football years, notably appearing in the TV miniseries "Roots," as well as the films "The Towering Inferno," "Capricorn One" and others. Around the same time he retired from the NFL, he created his own production company and dove into the entertainment business full time. He continued acting, including as a regular in the "Naked Gun" film comedy series, and also served as a TV football commentator.
O.J. Simpson tries on a leather glove allegedly used in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman during testimony in Simpson's murder trial June 15, 1995 in Los Angeles.An unprecedented 150 million people watched on Oct. 3, 1995, as the verdict was read and Simpson was acquitted of the murders. Following his acquittal, Simpson publicly vowed to spend the rest of his life searching for what he called the "real" killer or killers.