Last week we all heard that O.J. Simpson died of cancer at the age of 76.
For the younger crowd, that news probably was met with a yawn. For those of us who are a certain age, well, that news almost certainly brought back a flood of memories.
Sadly, those memories are a mix of good and bad.
For those who have never heard of “The Juice,” a brief history: Orenthal James Simpson was a famous football player who broke into the headlines by winning the Heisman Trophy while playing for USC in 1968. He then spent 11 seasons in the NFL as an award-winning running back; his biggest season came in 1973, when he became the first man in league history to surpass 2,000 yards rushing in a single season.
Even before his career ended, Simpson began to enter the acting field, appearing in the “Roots” television miniseries as well as “The Towering Inferno” and a role in “The Naked Gun” trilogy.
He also served as an NFL broadcaster, hosted a episode of “Saturday Night Live,” and was well known for his role as a spokesman for Hertz rental cars, helping to make them “the superstar in rent-a-car.”
All that came tumbling down in June 1994.
One June 13 of that year Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J.’s ex-wife, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death. On June 17 Simpson, the prime suspect in the murders, was expected to turn himself in; instead, he took part in one of the most bizarre police chases in history.
Simpson rode in the back of a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend, Al Cowlings, while being chased by California High Patrol officers. But Simpson apparently had a gun to his head and threatened to shoot himself, causing the chase to be a low-speed pursuit. What’s more, local TV stations filmed the chase via helicopter, a spectacle so strange that crowds lined the highway to watch and cheer O.J. on, while national TV broke into local programming – including the NBA Finals – to televise the pursuit.
Eventually Simpson surrendered to police, which some thought would end the drama. Instead, it led to another spectacle: The “Trial of the Century.”
Simpson’s defense counsel team was named “The Dream Team” and included Robert Kardashian – the father of the now-famous television clan – along with Johnny Cochran and F. Lee Bailey. There was a great deal of DNA evidence, but famously a black leather glove found at Simpson’s home, which included hair and fiber evidence from the scene, did not fit his hand when he tried it on.
That led to Cochran’s famous phrase, “If the glove does not fit, you must acquit.”
Sadly, the trial also shone light on the racial issues that even today divide this country. One officer, Mark Furhman, was caught repeating a racial slur while policing the crime scene. Eventually that and other racial cues led to a situation where blacks were more likely to believe Simpson was innocent, while whites generally believed Simpson was guilty.
Simpson was acquitted in October 1995 following an 11-month trial. While the former NFL standout avoided jail time for this crime, his problems were far from finished.
The families of the two individuals who were slain filed civil lawsuits against Simpson, and a jury found him liable at a cost of $33.5 million in damages. In 2007 he was charged with robbery and kidnapping, found guilty, and eventually served almost nine years in prison.
In May of last year Simpson said he had been diagnosed with cancer, and his cause of death was prostrate cancer.
There are a number of books and documentaries about Simpson’s rise and downfall, including one he wrote whose original title was, “If I Did It,” a book many consider a de-facto confession to the double murder.
This torrent of information regarding Simpson, the murder and the trial, underscore how much those events had captured public attention in the ‘90s. While those days are now roughly 30 years in the rear-view mirror, his recent death reminds us of the trappings of fame, how little we know about our heroes, and how our opinions and our background can affect our views on current events.
And sadly, that last thought is a “memory” that we all seem to be reliving these days.
John Wagner is the managing editor of the County News Review.
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