OJ Simpson, who rose to fame on the football field, made a fortune as a black American in movies, commercials and television, and was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend during a session Court in 1995 in Los Angeles captivated the nation, died on Wednesday. He was 76 years old.
The cause is cancer, his family announced on social media. The announcement did not say where he died.
The infamous case set a cracked mirror for black and white America, exonerating Mr. Simpson but destroying his world. In 1997, a civil lawsuit by the victims’ families found him responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages . He paid off some debt, moved to Florida and struggled to rebuild his life, raise his children and stay out of trouble.
In 2006, he sold the book “If I Did It” and a potential television interview, giving a “hypothetical” story about the murders he always denied committing. Public outcry ended both projects, but Mr. Goldman’s family secured ownership of the book, added incriminating material to Mr. Simpson and published it.
In 2007, he was arrested after he and other men broke into the Las Vegas hotel room of several sports memorabilia dealers and made off with a trove of collectibles. He claimed the items had been stolen from him, but a jury in 2008 found him guilty of 12 counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping, after a trial that attracted only very few reporters and spectators. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years in Nevada state prison. He served the minimum term and was released in 2017.
Over the years, the story of OJ Simpson has spawned a wave of books, films, studies and debates on questions of justice, race relations and reputation in a nation that worships heroes. especially those with the rags-to-riches stereotype. , but never felt comfortable with its deeper contradictions.
A complete obituary will appear soon.
