The 4 main alternative theories not presented at O.J. Simpson's murder trial and why they're all problematic
The possibility that O.J. Simpson had a previously unknown accomplice dispose of a knife after he'd committed a double homicide has been raised after a just-published New York Times investigation, based on unsealed court files and recently conducted interviews.
New York Times reports that a late, convicted drug trafficker once gave information about murder weapon
Chris Iorfida · CBC News
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The possibility that O.J. Simpson had a previously unknown accomplice dispose of a knife after he'd committed a double homicide has been raised after a just-published New York Times investigation, based on unsealed court files and recently conducted interviews.
Simpson's murder acquittal in connection with the brutal slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her acquaintance Ron Goldman has been widely debated since 1995.
In the prosecution's view, Simpson — who had physically abused his former wife — lay in wait outside her Los Angeles house in the hours between attending a recital by his youngest daughter and leaving for the airport to fly to Chicago. He was triggered by rejections of different sorts from both Brown Simpson and his girlfriend that day, they alleged.
Simpson's defence team asserted that the pro football Hall of Famer was at his residence all night, and that the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was both error-ridden and nefarious, with allegations that evidence was planted both at his property and the crime scene.
Both sides suggested that Goldman — who was returning glasses to Brown Simpson's residence left at the restaurant where he worked — was an unintended victim. No knives have ever been located and connected to the murders.
A YouGov poll taken after Simpson's April 2024 death found that, of those who had an opinion, 61 per cent thought Simpson did commit the murders, while 11 per cent said he did not.
Here are the most-discussed alternate theories outside of the view that Simpson acted alone in committing the murders and disposing of any weapons or clothing on June 12, 1994.
WATCH | Simpson's legacy (from April 2024):
O.J. remembered as one of the greatest rises and falls in U.S. history
April 11, 2024|
Duration
4:56
NFL hall of famer turned Hollywood star O.J. Simpson is dead at 76. His arrest, trial and acquittal for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend captivated the world, changing him from icon to pariah, and is considered one of the greatest rises and falls in American history.Drug dealers
Simpson — years before participating in a book that included a hypothetical of how he might have committed the crimes — wrote in a 1994 book that "the answer to the deaths of Nicole and Mr. Goldman lies somewhere in the world that Faye Resnick inhabited."
Resnick was a confidante of Brown Simpson who spent considerable time at her residence. Just days before her murder, Brown Simpson organized an intervention for Resnick who was struggling with cocaine use.
Cochran heads into to a New York courtroom, on March 16, 2001. He led Simpson's high-powered criminal defence team, and suggested Colombian drug dealers might have been to blame for the killings. (Stephen Chernin/The Associated Press)
Simpson defence attorney Johnnie Cochran asked a police detective at trial about "Colombian neckties," seemingly equating Brown Simpson's injuries to a supposed method of killing sometimes employed by Colombian drug dealers.
Cochrane was denied by the judge a full airing of a theory that he spoke to reporters about — that Brown Simpson was killed by dealers in a case of mistaken identity related to Resnick's coke debts.
A Colombian anti-drug police chief told The Associated Press in 1995 the "neckties" were not a method he'd seen used in the country's many drug-related killings of that era.
The stepson
The Jason Simpson theory involves a person that the LAPD actually considered, at least according to homicide investigator Tom Lange. Like a few others in his father's orbit, Jason — born to Marguerite Whitley, Simpson's first wife — lawyered up and could not be interviewed.
Longtime private investigator William Dear, since deceased, was the foremost proponent of this theory, in the 2000 book O.J. Is Guilty But Not of Murder. Dear leans heavily on the fact that the the younger Simpson had access to many knives while working in the restaurant industry and had experienced some brushes with the law.
Jason Simpson, left, sits with his cousin Terri Baker, centre, and his sister Arnelle, in a Los Angeles courtroom on Jan. 23, 1995. (Rick Meyer/AFP/Getty Images)
Dear asserts that Jason killed two people by himself less than 30 minutes after finishing a restaurant shift and dropping off his girlfriend. He then supposedly called his father to help out at the crime scene. The motive? Jason was under the impression that his former stepmother had agreed that his restaurant would host the post-recital dinner of family members, but they went to Goldman's place of employment instead.
If the theory is correct, we are to believe that the father left his own blood at the crime scene — having arrived after the homicides occurred — but the perpetrator, his son, did not while killing two people in violent and sustained attacks.
The serial killer
In My Brother the Serial Killer, aired in 2012 by Investigation Discovery, various members of convicted killer Glen Rogers's family claim he bragged about committing the Brown Simpson and Goldman murders. But the stories they relayed were sometimes convoluted and even contradictory — one involved Rogers hired to do work at Brown Simpson's house and another suggested he was hired only to commit a robbery and the deaths weren't part of the plan.
Convicted killer Glen Rogers, right, appears in a Tampa, Fla., court on July 8, 1996. He was executed in Florida last year. (Chris O'Meara/The Associated Press)
The Brown Simpson and Goldman killings doesn't fit the pattern of Rogers's known and suspected murders, which involved women seen at bars with Rogers and left dead just hours later.
A former prosecutor said at the time of the show's airing that Rogers was cynically trying to prevent his own death penalty sentence, while Goldman's sister, Kim, blasted the cable network's decision to air the program as irresponsible. The LAPD said there was no reason to believe Rogers was involved.
Rogers was executed by the state of Florida in May 2025.
The fugitive accomplice
Twice-convicted drug trafficker Joey Ippolito, the Times has recently learned, was a friend to Al Cowlings, the former football player who famously transported Simpson in a white Ford Bronco on a hours-long drive after the warrant for his arrest was announced.
Ippolito, in a 1990s federal drug case in New York, reportedly offered information on where and how the murder weapon was disposed. But, per the newspaper, the court document containing that broad description does not "specify what he said, or to what degree he implicated himself or others."
If the theory is to believed, Ippolito — who died in 2006 — participated as an accomplice to murder just a few months after escaping a Florida prison.
Al Cowlings, a longtime friend of O.J. Simpson, is shown at a news conference in Los Angeles on Feb. 15, 1995. The New York Times has reported that a criminal friend of Cowlings once told investigators in an unrelated case that he had knowledge concerning the murder weapon used in the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (Reuters)
Sam Ippolito recounted in great detail his brother's participation to the Times, but then recanted after being denied payment for his story. According to the Times, many friends and family branded Sam as an unreliable narrator while also rejecting the possibility Joey was involved in any way in the Los Angeles murders.
The Times strangely describes the double homicide as "efficient" even though a glove and a hat were found at the scene, in addition to a voluminous amount of blood and several footprints. Any theory placing a second person at the murder scene would have to contend with how two people left behind those items.
In addition, the blood evidence at the scene and inside Simpson's Bronco was connected only to him and the two victims. Brown Simpson was nearly decapitated, and Goldman suffered about 30 knife wounds while fighting for his life.
As well, the footprints at the scene not belonging to Goldman — Brown Simpson was barefoot — were connected to one pair of shoes, the prosecution contended.
A compressed timeline poses challenges to all alternate theories of an accomplice. While the prosecution and defence sparred over the timeline, it is generally believed that about 90 to 100 minutes passed between when Simpson returned from a McDonald's with his house guest Kato Kaelin and when he entered a limo to take him to the airport. In between, he placed a cellphone call to his girlfriend, who had apparently left him a breakup voicemail.
About 20 minutes of that time would be needed for a drive back and forth between the crime scene and his residence. In addition, Simpson would have had to successfully make contact with an accomplice or accomplices.
The limo driver saw no other vehicles arriving to Simpson's home, though it is true that a few hours lapsed between when Simpson left for the airport and when homicide detectives descended upon his property.
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