Nicole Brown Simpson And Ronald Goldman
Left: Archive Photos/Stronger/Getty Images, Right: WireImage/Getty ImagesLeft: O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson on March 16, 1994, at the premiere of Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult in which O.J. starred. Right: Ronald Goldman
The trial following the famous murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman is one of the most highly publicized trials in American history.
Brown was the ex-wife of famous football player O.J. Simpson. The pair married in 1985 and had two children, but their relationship was tumultuous and fraught with domestic violence. In 1992, after seven years of marriage, Brown filed for divorce.
On June 12, 1994, Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman were found brutally murdered outside of Nicole’s Brentwood, California home.
The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesThe Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman murder scene on June 1994.
They were both stabbed to death, with Nicole stabbed five times in the neck. According to court testimony, her throat was savagely slashed down to the spinal cord. Nicole’s ex-husband was the prime suspect.
O.J. agreed to turn himself in, but on June 17, he made a run for it with his friend A.C. Cowlings. With a gun to his head threatening to kill himself, O.J. led police on a chase throughout Los Angeles until he eventually turned himself in.
During the trial, piles of evidence were stacked against O.J. for the crime. O.J.’s blood was found at the crime scene, DNA from Nicole and Goldman were found in his car and his home, a pair of O.J.’s gloves were found on Nicole’s property, and a bloody footprint at the murder scene matched his shoe.
Despite all of the evidence, O.J. was ultimately acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife and Goldman. However, he was later found guilty of the crimes in civil court and was ordered to pay the families $33.5 million.
