February 13, 2018 ▸ People, True Crime

Episode 271: OJ Simpson: Football, Felonies, and Foul Play

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we take the slow drive down the freeway of OJ Simpson. Some say he was a sports legend, others a murderer. Why not both? Simpson was born Orenthal James Simpson in 1947 to a middle class family in San Francisco. His father left his mother (and became a famous drag queen in San Francisco), and his mom had to raise Simpson and his siblings in a poor, black area of the city. Eventually, Simpson fell in with a bad crowd and joined a local gang at the age of 13, serving some time in juvenile detention as a result.

However, by the time his high school years were in full swing, OJ Simpson discovered that he was a natural athlete. He set records for his school and ended up going to a Community College because his grades were low. This didn’t stop him from eventually winning the Heisman Trophy, signing with the NFL, and becoming the highest paid athlete in America at the time. He also set a lot of football records. He was gifted at sports, gifted at acting, and apparently gifted at killing people. Well, according to the civil suit, anyway…

In 1994, his ex-wife and her boyfriend were found murdered outside of her condo, and Simpson was considered a person of interest. Instead of turning himself in, however, he drove down the 405 freeway in LA at 20 miles per hour with thirty cop cars and nine helicopters in one of the highest viewed live news events ever. He eventually turned himself in, and he went into what was considered the original “Trial of the Century.” Never had such unprecedented access been given to a courtroom before, and never had cable been able to run so much footage. It became the only thing anyone watched for a over a year, and eventually Simpson’s “Dream Team” of lawyers got him acquitted.

So, if he wasn’t guilty, why does he owe the parents of the deceased over $30 Million dollars after the civil trial? What legal trouble has OJ gotten into since the murder trial? Why did he end up serving time in Nevada, and did he actually hold someone up at gun point? Did he really write a book confessing he did the murder? Could his son have been responsible for the murders, and OJ Simpson was trying to cover for his boy? Was it a serial killer? Listen, laugh, learn.