OJ Simpson, who shot to fame on the football field, made fortunes as a Black all-American in movies, advertising and television, and was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in a 1995 trial in Los Angeles who captivated the nation, died Wednesday. He is 76 years old.
The cause is cancer, his family announced on social media. The announcement did not say where he died.
The infamous case, which held a broken glass in Black and white America, cleared Mr. Simpson but destroyed his world. In 1997, a civil suit by the victims’ families found him liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. He paid off the debt a little, moved to Florida and struggled to rebuild his life, raise his children and stay out of trouble.
In 2006, he sold a book, “If I Did It,” and a prospective TV interview, giving a “hypothetical” account of the murders he consistently denied committing. A public outcry ended both projects, but Mr. Goldman’s family acquired the rights to the book, adding material incriminating Mr. Simpson and published it.
In 2007, he was arrested after he and other men raided a Las Vegas hotel room of several sports memorabilia dealers and took a trove of collectibles. He said the items were stolen from him, but a jury in 2008 found him guilty of 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping, after a trial that drew only a handful of reporters and spectators. He was sentenced to 9 to 33 years in a Nevada state prison. He served the minimum term and was released in 2017.
Over the years, the story of OJ Simpson has generated many books, films, studies and debates about questions of justice, race relations and celebrity in a country that admires its heroes, especially in people who come from rags-to-riches stereotypes. , but was never comfortable with its deeper contradictions.
A complete obituary will appear soon.