OJ Simpson's life and death: From NFL running back to Bronco chase and the murder trial that brought him infamy

OJ Simpson, the former football star and Hollywood actor whose murder trial for the killing of his ex-wife became a national sensation, died Thursday at the age of 76 following a short battle with cancer.

Simpson became one of the greatest running backs in the history of college and then professional football.

His career began at the University of Southern California, where he was awarded the Heisman trophy in 1968 after setting the NCAA single-season rushing mark.

He went on to be chosen first in the draft by the Buffalo Bills, for whom he played nine seasons, before wrapping up his career with the San Francisco 49ers.

In 1995, Simpson was cleared by a Los Angeles jury for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend in what was dubbed 'the trial of the century.'

He avoided prison when he was found not guilty in the 1994 stabbing deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. 

He later served nine years in a Nevada prison after being convicted in 2008 on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel.

Nicknamed 'The Juice,' Simpson was one of the best and most popular athletes of the late 1960s and 1970s. He overcame childhood infirmity to become an electrifying running back at the University of Southern California and won the Heisman Trophy as college football's top player. 

After a record-setting career in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

Simpson parlayed his football stardom into a career as a sportscaster, advertising pitchman and Hollywood actor in films including the 'Naked Gun' series.

All that changed after Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman were found fatally slashed in an incredibly bloody scene outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994.

Simpson quickly emerged as a suspect. He was ordered to surrender to police but five days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate - carrying his passport and a disguise. 

A slow-speed chase through the Los Angeles area, during which the former NFL player was famously driving a white Ford Bronco, ended at Simpson's mansion and he was later charged in the murders.

What ensued was one of the most notorious trials in 20th century America and a media circus. 

It had everything: a rich celebrity defendant; a Black man accused of killing his white former wife out of jealousy; a woman slain after divorcing a man who had beaten her; a 'dream team' of pricy and charismatic defense lawyers; and a huge gaffe by prosecutors.

Simpson, who at the outset of the case declared himself 'absolutely 100 percent not guilty,' waved at the jurors and mouthed the words 'thank you' after the predominately Black panel of 10 women and two men acquitted him on Oct. 3, 1995.

Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fiber tests linking Simpson to the murders. 

The defense countered that the celebrity defendant was framed by racist white police.

The trial transfixed America. In the White House, President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office and watched the verdict on his secretary's TV. 

Many black Americans celebrated his acquittal, seeing Simpson as the victim of bigoted police. Many other Americans were appalled by his exoneration in what seemed like what should have been an obvious win for the prosecution.

The Goldman and Brown families subsequently pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court. 

In 1997, a predominately white jury in Santa Monica, California, found Simpson liable for the two deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. 

After the civil case, some of Simpson's belongings, including memorabilia from his football days, were taken and auctioned off to help pay the damages he owed.

On Oct. 3, 2008, exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the murder trial, he was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery.

These stemmed from a 2007 incident at a casino hotel in which Simpson and five men, at least two carrying guns, stole sports memorabilia worth thousands of dollars from two dealers.

Simpson said he was just trying to recover his own property but was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison.

'I didn't want to hurt anybody,' Simpson, donning a blue prison jumpsuit with shackles on his legs and wrists, said at his sentencing. 'I didn't know I was doing anything wrong.'

Simpson was released on parole in 2017 and moved into a gated community in Las Vegas. He was granted early release from parole in 2021 due to good behavior at age 74.