How The Inquirer and Daily News covered the O.J. Simpson case

Former football star and actor O.J. Simpson died Wednesday in Las Vegas following a battle with cancer. He was 76.

“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” Simpson’s family wrote on his account on X, formerly Twitter. “During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”

Simpson rose to prominence as an offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills, where he played nine of his 11 seasons in the NFL and earned his nickname, “The Juice.” He would later go on to become a Hollywood star, appearing in films such as the comedy series The Naked Gun.

Simpson’s legacy, however, turned notorious following the June 1994 killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and friend Ronald Goldman. The pair were found slashed and stabbed to death outside Brown Simpson’s home in Los Angeles, leading to what would come to be known as the “trial of the century.”

Simpson was quickly named a suspect, leading to what The Inquirer described as a “bizarre chase along the freeways of Los Angeles” when the former football pro led police on a low-speed chase before his arrest. The chase, according to the Daily News, was a “60-mile freeway odyssey” that ended with police taking Simpson into custody in his driveway.

The chase marked the beginning of a legal saga that gripped the country for more than a year, prompting nationwide discussions on topics ranging from race to celebrity. Simpson’s highly televised trial began in January 1995, and lasted about eight months, with jurors hearing from more than 100 witnesses, the Daily News reported.

Public interest was so high that ahead of the jury’s verdict being announced in October 1995, the Daily News ran a piece offering a “self-help plan for Simpsoholics.” In it, the tabloid suggested 12 steps for “overcoming the O.J. addiction,” including asking for orange juice when ordering at a restaurant instead of referring to the drink as “O.J.”

A Daily News poll of readers, meanwhile, found that 42% of those surveyed thought Simpson’s trial would end in a guilty verdict.

But on Oct. 3, 1995, the jury returned a verdict acquitting Simpson of the murders. In its coverage of the verdict, The Inquirer wrote that the decision was the “culmination of one of the most riveting events ever played out in America’s living room.”

“The case’s place in history will be left to the historians,” then-Inquirer reporter Mark Davis wrote. “If it was insignificant, it had all the elements of a racially charged Hollywood melodrama.”

While Simpson was found not guilty of the Brown Simpson and Goldman murders, a different civil jury later found him liable for their deaths. In 1997, Simpson was ordered to pay $33.5 million to their family members.

Simpson would go on to have significant legal trouble in the years after the trial, including a 2007 incident in Las Vegas in which he was convicted of armed robbery and related charges. As a result of that case, Simpson served nearly a decade in prison in Nevada, and was released on parole in 2017.

He is survived by his four children, two of whom are from his marriage to Brown Simpson.