The families of OJ Simpson’s alleged victims have vowed to go after his estate for unpaid compensation following the former American football star’s death.
Simpson, who died in Las Vegas on Wednesday of prostate cancer, aged 76, was acquitted in 1995 of the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in a trial that transfixed America and the world.
In 1997 he was found liable for the pair’s deaths in a civil proceeding.
• OJ Simpson obituary: the NFL and Hollywood star acquitted of murder
Simpson was ordered to pay $33.5 million in a judgment. However, the legal victory was largely a pyrrhic one, as Simpson managed to avoid paying any significant damages. The Goldman estate received only about $123,000.
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Simpson continued to deny any involvement in the deaths of Goldman and Brown Simpson, eventually writing a “hypothetical” memoir called If I Did It, laying out the way in which he would have killed the pair, had he been so inclined.
David Cook, a San Francisco attorney for Goldman’s father, Fred, who has been seeking to collect the civil judgment, said he would continue to fight for justice for the families. The outstanding debt they are owed could, with interest, have increased to more than $100 million.
“He died without penance. We don’t know what he has, where it is or who is in control. We will pick up where we are and keep going with it,” he said.
Simpson is thought to have largely been able to avoid paying his debt by keeping much of his money in pensions and other protected annuities.
Fred Goldman filed court documents in Nevada after he believed that Simpson was making money from autograph signings and had not been honest when revealing his income to the courts.
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The exact state of Simpson’s finances are murky, known perhaps only by financial advisers and family. Recent estimates for the former Buffalo Bills running back’s net worth range from $250,000 to $3 million, the biggest sources of which are likely his NFL and Screen Actors Guild pensions.
Amid rumours Simpson had transferred money to his children to avoid paying off the debt, Cook said this would have been a “fraudulent conveyance”. Sydney and Justin Simpson deny this.
“The first stop is to unearth the records and testimony of the family members to ensure that the source of the equity to acquire the real property is free of any taint,” Cook said. “Simpson had assets coming in, we know that. There could well be money coming in from the [NFL] football people, maybe there’s significant amounts in pension.”
It has been a long battle for Cook and the Goldmans. “Fred tried 25 years ago to look into it [what money he had tied up in pensions], I myself tried 15 years ago. Pensions are very difficult to unwind.
“Is there money to be had? Hopefully. Do I know exactly what it is? No, but we’ll figure that out soon. Ron Goldman is gone, murdered. We have to fight on for him.”
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Simpson’s condition is said to have taken a turn for the worse in recent months, leading to him being admitted to a hospice
Nicknamed “The Juice”, Orenthal James Simpson broke records as a college and professional football player, with 11 seasons at the Buffalo Bills, and extended his celebrity and fortune as a sportscaster and actor in movies and television series.
He met Nicole Brown, then an 18-year-old waitress, in a disco on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The couple went on to have two children and divorced within seven years after a tempestuous marriage that included allegations of domestic violence.
On June 13, 1994, Simpson’s ex-wife and Goldman were found murdered outside her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. She had been stabbed in the throat so savagely she was almost decapitated.
In 2008 Simpson was convicted of armed robbery for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room with four accomplices, holding two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint and stealing items related to his NFL career. He was released from prison on parole nine years later.
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Jeffrey Toobin, who covered the murder trial and wrote a book about it afterwards, said that Simpson’s legacy was “that he got away with murder, period.” He added: “The legacy of the trial was more complicated … The trial illustrated deep and profound and uncomfortable truths about the United States and that’s why the trial will be remembered.”
Alan Dershowitz, who served on Simpson’s legal team, said he would not be drawn on if he was guilty, even after his death. “I never commented on whether he was guilty or innocent,” he said. “Even if he was guilty, he was also framed.”
Dershowitz added that tests on a sock with an alleged blood stain showed the presence of an anticoagulant, suggesting it had come from a test tube and could have been planted by the police. He added: “I was in the courtroom, a couple of feet away, when he tried on the glove. You could see the effect it had on the jury.
“He went up to the jury box. He said: ‘It’s too small.’ That was the most dramatic moment. It was the best illustration of how bad the prosecution was.”
Fred Goldman told NBC News that Simpson’s death was “no great loss”, adding: “The only thing I have to say is it’s just a further reminder of Ron being gone all these years.”
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Gloria Allred, who represented Nicole Brown Simpson’s family during the trial, said Simpson’s death was a reminder, “even 30 years later”, that the legal system was failing abused women.
The house where Simpson and Goldman were murdered remains one of the most notorious spots in Los Angeles, but that stretch of Bundy Drive remained quiet in the hours after Simpson’s death.
The hum of lawnmowers from nearby gardeners could be heard, while the only visitors to the home were members of the media, with television news vans parked outside.
