OJ Simpson likes to tell his friends “I’m not black, I’m OJ”

OJ Simpson, football star and Hollywood actor, who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in a trial that captivated the public and exposed racial and police divisions in America , passed away at the age of 76.

The family announced on Simpson’s official X account that he passed away on April 10 from prostate cancer. Simpson’s lawyer confirmed to TMZ on April 11 that he died in Las Vegas.

Simpson was famous, wealthy and admired for his career in football and entertainment, but his legacy was changed forever after the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Her grandmother, Ronald Goldman, was murdered with a knife in June 1994 in Los Angeles. Later, he was determined to be responsible for these two deaths in a separate civil case, and then had to spend 9 years in prison for unrelated crimes.

Live television coverage of his arrest after a famous slow-speed chase marked his stunning loss of reputation.

He seemed to overcome racial barriers when he was a standout running back for the powerful University of Southern California Trojans in college football in the late 1960s, as well as as a throwing car rental ads through airports in the late 1970s, and being the husband of a blonde, blue-eyed high school beauty queen in the 1980s.

“I’m not black, I’m OJ,” he liked to tell friends.

His “trial of the century” attracted America’s attention on live television. The case has sparked debates about race, gender, domestic violence, celebrity justice and police misconduct.

Evidence found at the scene appeared to be overwhelmingly against Simpson. Drops of blood, bloody footprints and a glove were all there. Another glove covered in blood was found at his home.

Mr. Simpson did not testify in court, but the prosecution asked him to try on gloves in court. He struggled to carry them in his arms and said only three words in court: “They’re too small.”

Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” he told jurors.

A decade later, still tainted by the shady murder verdict in California, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers. in a cramped hotel room in Las Vegas. Two men with Simpson had guns. The jury convicted Simpson of armed robbery and other felonies.

Jailed at age 61, he served nine years in a remote prison in northern Nevada, including a stint as a gym cleaner.

Mr. Simpson was released in October 2017 but was placed on probation. His probation ends at the end of 2021.

Public interest in Mr. Simpson never faded. Many debated whether he should be punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was the subject of both a miniseries on FX and a five-part ESPN documentary.

“I don’t think most Americans believe I did it,” Simpson told The New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury determined that he did not kill Brown and Goldman. “I have received thousands of letters and telegrams from my supporters.”

Twelve years later, after a wave of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch canceled a book that HarperCollins owned by News Corp. planned for publication, in which Simpson stated his hypothesis about the double murder. The book is tentatively titled “If I Did It.” (If I did it)

The Goldman family, still doggedly pursuing a verdict in the shady murder case that carries a multimillion-dollar settlement, won control of the manuscript. They changed the name of the book “If I Did It: Confessions of a Murderer.”

“It was all bloody money and unfortunately I had to stand with the scum,” Simpson told the Associated Press at the time. He collected an $880,000 advance for the book, paid through a third party.

“It helped me get out of debt and keep my house,” he said.

Less than two months after losing the rights to the book, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas.

David Cook, a lawyer who has sought to obtain the content of the civil judgment in the Goldman case since 2008, said he spoke to Ronald’s father, Fred, on April 11 about Simpson’s death. Mr. Cook declined to say what Fred Goldman said or where he was.

“He died unrepentant,” Mr. Cook said of Simpson. “We don’t know what he has, where he is and who is in control. We will take over from where we are and move on.”

Mr. Simpson played 11 NFL seasons, nine of which were with the Buffalo Bills. He won four NFL rushing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his career, scored 76 times and played in five Pro Bowls.

“I am part of the history of the tournament,” he said many years later. “If I had done nothing else in my life, I would have made my mark.”

Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, where he grew up in government-subsidized housing projects.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco for a year and a half before transferring to the University of Southern California (USC) in the spring semester of 1967.

He married his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, on June 24, 1967, bringing her to Los Angeles the next day so he could begin preparing for his first season with USC – largely Thanks to Simpson, the school’s team won the national championship that year.

Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He received the trophy on the day his first child, Arnelle, was born.

He had two sons, Jason and Aaren, by his first wife; one of them, Aaren, drowned as a toddler in a swimming pool accident in 1979, the same year he and Whitley divorced.

Simpson and Brown married in 1985. They had two children, Justin and Sydney, and divorced in 1992. Two years later, Nicole Brown Simpson was found murdered.

“We don’t have to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he told the AP 25 years after the killings. “The subject of this moment is one I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on, moving into a state of what we call ‘zero negativity’. We focus on the positives,” he still said.