Almost 30 years ago, people all over the world were glued to their televisions, watching the 'slow speed chase' on the freeways of Southern California, and O.J. Simpson trying to escape from the police. It was the beginning of a great story that would enchant the people of the USA for at least a year and a half. This famous and infamous man died of cancer on April 10th. Who was that man, and why did he attract so much attention?

O.J.

Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco. His aunt gave him the name Orenthal, which was the name of a French actress she liked. At the age of two, he developed rickets, which left him lame, with his feet turned inwards. His mother could not afford to buy him leg braces. She tied a pair of shoes together with an iron bar, and O.J. had to wear them for a few hours almost every day, until he was five years old. His mother raised him and three other children by herself, where they lived in a rough area (Potrero Hill) in San Francisco. He was a troubled child, and joined a street gang when he was only thirteen years old.

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"I never infringed ón people," he said in an interview with Playboy in 1976. "I only beat up the dudes who deserved it - at least once a week, usually on a Friday or Saturday night. If there wasn’t a fight going ón, it wasn't a weekend."

O.J. played American football in middle school, and when he broke a few records, he caught the attention of talent spotters. From there, O.J. went from strength to strength. He was one of the best running backs ever in the National Football League (NFL) in the United States, and won the Most Valued Player (MVP) in 1973. He played for the 'Buffalo Bills' and the 'San Francisco 49ers'.

O.J. was also a movie star, even when he was playing for the NFL. He had a major role in the trilogy 'The Naked Gun' (1988,1991,1994), as a detective.

Murderer?

Despite being as famous as a footballer and an actor, he is remembered today as the prime suspect in a court case. If you're over a certain age, it's more likely than not that you've seen the police manhunt for O.J. on television, while he was in a car driven by his friend, Al Cowlings. O.J. had a gun, aimed at himself. The police arrested him when they arrived at his home. O.J. was accused of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.

Trial of the Century

O.J. had a team of lawyers. who were so strong that they were called 'The Dream Team'. Robert Kardasian, Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran were the members of that team. Although there was irrefutable forensic evidence that O.J. was present at the crime scene, a prosecutor named Christopher Darden made a catastrophic error in the court case. The murders took place at Nicole Brown's apartment, and the police found bloodstained footprints at that location that were the same size as O.J.'sown footprints. DNA evidence on a few drops of blood from the crime scene also placed O.J. at the scene. And one glove was found at the scene and the other glove of the pair at O.J.'s house, smeared with his blood and the blood of the two victims.

Despite that compelling evidence, the case fell apart when Darden asked O.J. put the gloves on. O.J. had only three words to say. during the trial, and he said them then – "they're too small!" When Johnnie Cochrane was making his closing statement at the end of the trial, he said: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!" O.J. was found innocent ón all counts.

Karma?

But three years later in 1998, in civil court, Simpson was found responsible for the deaths of Brown and Goodman. He was fined $33.5 million. O.J. said that he did not have the money and only paid about $300,000 of the fine in total.

There was another chapter left in O.J.'s story, however, when he was accused of armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas in 2007. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison. But he was released in 2017 on parole, after serving nine years in prison.

O.J. Simpson died as a fallen hero who was no longer loved by the public, and that is a sad ending - may his soul rest in peace.

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