O.J. Simpson biography

Synopsis

Early Years

Athlete and infamous person. Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, California. His aunt gave him the name Orenthal, which supposedly was the name of a French actor she liked.

At the age of two, Simpson contracted rickets, leaving his legs skinny, bow-legged and pigeon-toed. He had to wear a pair of shoes connected by an iron bar for a few hours almost every day until he was five. His parents separated in 1952. Along with a brother and two sisters, he was raised by his mother (his parents separated in 1952) in the rugged, largely black Potrero Hill district of San Francisco. At age 13, he joined a gang, the Persian Warriors. One fight landed him at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center for about a week during 1962.

Football Career

Simpson played football at Galileo High School. And after breaking junior-college records at the City College of San Francisco, he was heavily recruited. He gained fame as a two-time All-American halfback for the USC Trojans, setting NCAA records and winning the Heisman trophy.

Simpson joined the professional Buffalo Bills in 1969 but did not excel until the offense was tailored to showcase his running. Also known by his nickname, The Juice, Simpson topped 1000 yards rushing five consecutive years (1972–76) and led the National Football League four times. In 1973 he became the first NFL player to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season.

Acting

After completing his career with the San Francisco 49ers and retiring from professional football in 1979, Simpson moved on to a profitable career in television commercials, as a sportscaster and an actor.

Ironically, Simpson played a man framed for murder by the police in the film The Klansman. He also appeared in the Naked Gun film comedies, playing a dim-witted assistant detective. Simpson was also regularly seen in Hertz rental car television commercials, where he is seen leaping over luggage and other obstacles in an effort to catch a flight. Additionally, Simpson also worked as a commentator for Monday Night Football and the NFL on NBC.

Nicole Brown Murder

Simpson married Marguerite L. Whitley on June 24, 1967. They had three children, including Aaren Lashone Simpson, born on September 24, 1977. In 1979, just a month before her second birthday, Aeren drowned in the family's swimming pool. That same year, Simpson and Marguerite were divorced. While still married to his first wife, Simpson met a waitress, Nicole Brown, then 17. Simpson married Nicole Brown in 1985. They had two children.

Brown Simpson often complained to friends and family of beatings at the hand of OJ Simpson, but he denied ever hitting her. Nicole filed for divorce in 1992.

On June 12, 1994 the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found stabbed to death. When evidence led police to suspect Simpson as the murderer, he fled (with a disguise and a passport) in his Bronco in a nationally televised slow-speed chase seen on national television. Simpson finally surrendered voluntarily at his Rockingham mansion. Later, he pleaded "absolutely, positively, 100% not guilty" to murder charges. His criminal trial, often characterized as "the trial of the century," ended on October 3, 1995, when a jury found Simpson not guilty for the two murders.

Trouble with the Law

Despite his aquittal in a criminal court, In 1997 a civil jury found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of his wife and her friend,and ordered him to pay $33 million in damages.

Simpson was planning to publish If I Did It in late 2006, a hypothetical account of how he would have committed the murders. But after a publishing deal fell through, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the book's rights to the Goldman family. They re-titled it If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, added additional comments and published it Sept. 12, 2007.

In October of 2008, Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. The case involved a brief incident over sports memorabilia with two dealers in a Las Vegas hotel in September 2007. Simpson later said he was just reclaiming his possessions.

Simpson and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, were convicted on all 12 counts against them. He was immediately taken into custody. The two men were sentenced in December to a total of 33 years in prison with the possibility of parole in nine years. The verdict came down 13 years to the day after he was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles.Simpson's lawyers plan to appeal.

Simpson is serving his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada.

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