O. J. Simpson, the former football hero who became one of America's most polarizing and often loathing figures, has died at 76 years old. But O. J. Simpson, as a person, you're a quiet guy. You don't cause any trouble. Well, I just do my thing. His family saying O. J. Succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. Hey. O. J. 'S final video was just two months ago, responding to rumors about his health. My health is good.

I mean, Obviously, I'm dealing with some issues, but I think I'm just about over it.

Orenfell James Simpson was at the center of one of the biggest and most controversial legal cases in American history.

Simpson, not guilty of a crime of murder.

Acquitted of the brutal murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

There has never been another trial like the O. J. Simpson case, and I don't think there ever will be. The O. J. Simpson case was a perfect storm.

The murders and crime scene, the slow speed chase watched by millions, and the so-called trial of the century. If it doesn't fit, you must have quit. The Gloves, the Dream Team, it all captivated the nation, changing how Americans watch TV, making it the verdict around the world, becoming a cultural flashpoint during a time of heightened racial tensions in America. Just two years after the city of Los Angeles erupted in riots after the officers accused of beating Rodney King were acquitted, the episode laying bare a racial divide with policing and justice and the wounds left behind.

That conversation really came to a pinpoint because of the O. J. Simpson trial. But in addition to dealing with race and racism in a lot of ways, you also had to deal with wealth and celebrity, too.

O. J. Simpson, one of the biggest stars in the country at the center of it all. An NFL Hall of Famer with the Buffalo Bills. How are you, buddy? A movie star and naked gun. Nobody does it better than Hertz. A TV pitchman for Hertz. He was the epitome of Hollywood. But it all came crashing down on June 13, 1994, when Ronald Goldman was found stabbed more than 20 times. O. J. 'S ex-wife, Nicole, nearly decapitated outside of her Brentwood home. Oj Nicole's volatile relationship took center stage at his criminal trial. I don't want emergency.

Can you get someone over here now to 325 Gretna Green? He's back.

Please. Okay. What does he look like? He's O. J. Simpson. You're going to hear him in a minute. He's about to go in again. Okay, just stay on the line. I don't want to stay on the line.

He's going to beat me.

Wait a minute. O. J. Simpson was well known to have been beating Nicole Simpson. Even after the divorce, for two years, that she had been tormented and stalked by him, and people knew it, and nothing happened because he was O. J. Simpson.

O. J. Simpson, soon emerging as the prime suspect in the double murder. Five days after the grizzly killings, prosecutors are ordering Simpson to surrender. Instead, he led law enforcement on a now infamous slow speed chase in his white Ford Bronco, rolling down LA freeways and watched by some 95 million Americans live as it That was the beginning of the enormous attention that became the O. J.

Simpson case.

Simpson eventually surrendered. He pleaded, as he put it, Absolutely, positively, 100% not guilty.

This trial absolutely was a three-ring circus. There were just so many elements to it. This trial launched a lot of careers in some really wayward ways. There were witnesses who were getting book deals. There were witnesses who were getting offers to and Playboy.

For almost a year, the murder trial seemingly all what everybody watched and talked about. Why are you going to say that you're slapping me in the face with racism? I want to know, is OJ's parents and O'Jay's sisters, are they paying for this trial? My money, my taxes are paying for this fiasco. And Simpson was prepared.

His defense team arriving again this morning has become world famous now.

Dubbed the dream team, including close friend, attorney Robert Kardashian of the namesake clan.

I've never seen a case go to trial with more evidence than they had against O. J. Simpson. You had blood evidence, you had a glove, one of them bloody, matching one at the crime scene, one at his home. You had fiber evidence, you had past domestic violence.

But the defense dug in, arguing that the Los Angeles Police Department planted evidence against their client and that many of the officers were racist, like Detective Mark Furman.

Did you know whether any fibers from the Bronco would be found on that glove that you ultimately found at Rockingham? No. And did you know the cause of death? No.

Can you introduced the testimony of Detective Mark Furman and the Furman takes, in which he has heard describing police brutality, in addition to using the N-word to describe Black people. So it was almost like this racial Molotov cocktail that was thrown in the middle of this terrible tragedy. O. J. Simpson became a symbol of that, whether he wanted to or not.

But the day that will live in trial infamy-That's People '77. And the turning point, Simpson slowly slipping on the gloves found at the crime scene, gloves prosecutors say belonged to O. J, which did not fit. Just like that, the state's case fell apart. If it doesn't fit, you must have quit. The defense seizing on the moment, that slowly Dogen and victory.

We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of a crime of murder in violation of Penal Cult Section 187A, a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, a human being, as charged in count one of the information.

It took the jury less than four hours to reach its verdict, not guilty. In some ways, it was a culmination of years-long frustration, tears, and anger in the Black community, fed up with how cases of police brutality are often unheard and cast aside. Racism. That's what it's all about.

You realized in that moment that there were two Americas. You saw Black people cheering not because they believe that O. J. Simpson was innocent. They were cheering because of a fractured judicial system.

But for two families, the Browns and the Goldman's, their loss amplified. June 13th, 94, was the worst nightmare of my life.

This is the second.

About a year after the trial, a shocking turn. Simpson's best friend and attorney, Robert Kardashian, sitting down with Barbara Walters.

I asked you if you yourself doubt O. J. Simpson's innocence. I have doubts. Why? The blood evidence is the biggest thorn in my side. That causes me the greatest problems. So I struggle with the blood evidence.

Three years later, the Goldman and Brown family sued Simpson in a separate civil trial, OJ found liable in order to pay $33.5 million to their families.

And in the civil case, they actually uncovered additional evidence beyond the enormous evidence they already had against O. J. Simpson. So if you take the two verdicts together, yeah, he didn't serve time, but he was found responsible for the killings. O. J. Simpson is under arrest in Las Vegas.

In connection with an alleged armed robbery. But Simpson found trouble again in 2007, arrested for robbery and kidnapping at a low-end Las Vegas casino. Simpson claimed he'd received a tip that some missing personal memorabilia had surfaced in the hands of a sports memorabilia dealer. His dramatic attempt to retrieve it documented on an audio recording played during his trial. You can still wait for it to get this out. Don't let nobody out here. His defense attorney saying the case reeked of retribution for the 1994 murders. It says Perkins. This is great. Yeah.

John said, he's like, Yeah, California can't get him.

Now we'll be blank, got him. Simpson was convicted in 2008 and served almost nine years in prison.

O. J. Simpson had the book thrown at him in a case that, if it had been someone else, probably would have been a much lower sentence. But I don't know that there's an enormous amount of sympathy out there for O. J. Simpson, considering that so many believe he got away with murder.

Yo, come on out. He was granted parole and released in 2017, and more than 20 years after the murders, a new generation discovering the saga with the Oscar-winning ESPN docuseries 30 for 30. What drew us to the story of the trial of O.

J. Simpson was how strongly everybody felt about it at the time. And FX's The People versus O.

J. Simpson, American Crime Story.

This trial was a very good harbinger of reality TV. People had their favorite characters. It was like watching a show as opposed to watching a trial. Even though O. J. Simpson has gone now, we're probably still going to be talking about O. J. Simpson for a really long time because we just learned so much during that trial and in the aftermath of that trial, and it changed the course of history in a lot of ways.