Fred Goldman, whose son Ronald was stabbed to death alongside O.J. Simpson’s estranged wife, Nicole, said Thursday that the disgraced football star’s death doesn’t change a thing for him and his family.
Reached by phone by The Daily Beast at his home in Arizona, Goldman said, “The only thing that is important today are the victims, and it’s just a reminder for myself and my family that Ron has been gone all these years—and that we continue to miss him, all these years.”
Goldman, 83, said the news of Simpson having lost his battle with prostate cancer “has nothing to do with closure.”
“There is no such thing,” he said.
Simpson’s diagnosis was first revealed in February. His family announced his death, at the age of 76, on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” they shared in a statement. “He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”
Simpson’s successes on the gridiron will forever be overshadowed by the shocking double murder that resulted in the so-called Trial of the Century after the mutilated bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ron Goldman, a waiter only weeks shy of his 26th birthday, were found June 12, 1994 outside of her Los Angeles home.
Simpson, the prime suspect, at first agreed to turn himself in to police but five days later fled with friend and former teammate Al Cowlings in Cowlings’ soon-to-be-infamous white Ford Bronco. The two led cops on a low-speed pursuit down Interstate 405 for nearly eight hours, an event seen on live TV by nearly 100 million viewers.
The chase finally ended at his Brentwood estate, where Simpson surrendered, just two miles from the crime scene.
His trial turned into a televised spectacle with a so-called dream team of defense lawyers that included Johnnie Cochran, F. Lee Bailey, and Robert Kardashian, father of Kim. Like the pursuit in the white Bronco, Simpson’s court proceedings were broadcast in their entirety, generating massive viewership throughout.
Although Simpson was later acquitted in a stunning not-guilty verdict, the Goldman and Brown families sued him over the killings and were awarded $33.5 million by a judge who found Simpson liable for the double murder.
However, the victory was largely a pyrrhic one, as Simpson managed to avoid paying any significant damages. He continued to deny any involvement with the deaths of Goldman and Brown Simpson, eventually penning a “hypothetical” memoir called If I Did It, laying out the way in which he would have killed the pair, had he been so inclined.
Simpson would later serve nine years in a Nevada prison for a botched kidnapping and armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel room. Upon his release, Simpson put down roots in Vegas, posting regular updates on his life to social media.
When his ailment was revealed three months ago, amid reports that he was in hospice care, Simpson flatly denied the news.
“I know who put that out here,” he said in a video posted on X. “You can’t trust the media.”
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