O.J. Simpson acquitted of 1994 murders of ex-wife and waiter

On the night of June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found dead outside her condominium on Bundy Drive in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. A neighbor walking a dog discovered the bodies around midnight and called police. The victims had been dead for several hours.

Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of football star and actor Orenthal James Simpson, had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck. Ronald Goldman, a 25-year-old restaurant waiter, had returned a pair of sunglasses left at a restaurant earlier that evening; he was also stabbed repeatedly. At the scene, investigators found a bloodied glove, a knit cap, and other items.

Police soon went to Simpson’s nearby Rockingham estate, where they found a bloodied glove matching the one at the crime scene, along with other evidence. Simpson had flown to Chicago that night. He returned and was questioned.

Simpson was arrested on June 17, 1994, after a slow-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings, broadcast live on television. The chase ended at his home.

Simpson was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty. The trial began in January 1995 and lasted about nine months, with televised proceedings drawing massive audiences.