Now 71, Simpson says ‘life is fine’ as killings’ 25th anniversary nears
LOS ANGELES — Twenty-five years after the grisly killings that transformed him from Hall of Fame football hero to murder suspect, 71-yearold O.J. Simpson says he is happy and healthy living in Las Vegas, plays golf nearly every day and stays in touch with his children.
“Life is fine,” Simpson recently said by phone from his home.
He said neither he nor his children want to talk about June 12, 1994, the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death. Simpson was ultimately acquitted of the crime in what came to be known as “The Trial of the Century.”
“We don’t need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he said as Wednesday’s anniversary of the killings approached. “The subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”
Relatives of the two victims are disgusted that Simpson is able to live the way he does while their loved ones had their lives cut short so tragically.
“I don’t suffocate in my grief,” Goldman’s sister Kim said. “But every milestone that my kid hits, every milestone that I hit, you know, those are just reminders of what I’m not able to share with my brother and what he is missing out on.”
Nicole Brown Simpson’s sisters Tanya and Denise did not respond to email or phone messages.
Simpson has continued to declare his innocence. The murder case is officially listed as unsolved.
The victims’ families subsequently filed a lawsuit against him, and in 1997 he was ordered to pay $33.5 million for the wrongful deaths of the two victims. Some of his property was seized and auctioned, but most of the judgment has not been paid.
Simpson later served nine years in prison for robbery and kidnapping over an attempt to steal back some of his sports memorabilia from a Las Vegas hotel room. He insisted that his conviction and sentence were unfair but said, “I believe in the legal system, and I honored it. I served my time.”
His parole officer has given him permission to take short trips, including to Florida, where his two younger children, Justin and Sydney, have built careers in real estate. His older daughter, Arnelle, lives with him much of the time.
Simpson declined to discuss his finances other than to say he lives on pensions.
To coincide with Wednesday’s anniversary, Kim Goldman will launch a 10-week podcast, “Confronting: O.J. Simpson,” in which she will interview her brother’s friends, the detective who investigated the killings, attorneys for the defense and prosecution, and two of the 12 jurors who acquitted Simpson.