O.J. Simpson
Simpson, O(renthal) J(ames) (1947— ). Black US foot-ball player; his sensational trial for murder in 1995 was widely hailed as the ‘trial of the century’. Simpson was born in San Francisco and attended the University of Southern California, where he excelled in football and track events. From 1969 he became a running back with the Buffalo Bills. After his retirement as a player in 1979 he made a second career as a television personality and film actor. In June 1994 Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman, both white Americans, were found stabbed to death. Simpson was charged with murder and arrested after a televised car chase. His subsequent trial, which lasted nearly a year, was televised in full and transfixed the US public. The case bitterly divided the country, mainly on racial lines. Despite strong circumstantial evidence against Simpson, the prosecution case was fatally weakened when their leading witness, a Los Angeles policeman, was revealed as a racist and a perjurer. Simpson was acquitted.
