We'll Never Know Why O.J. Simpson Allegedly Killed Nicole Brown Simpson — but There Are Theories
“I was sitting in a room with a man I knew to be a murderer, and I let him hang himself," said the writer of 'If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer'.
Published April 12 2024, 2:03 p.m. ET
In the 1995 criminal trial The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, O.J. was found not guilty. In a 1997 civil trial, Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Since those trials, O.J. has mused aloud on why he might have killed his ex-wife.
O.J. never admitted to killing his wife and her friend in 1994; however, he did tease about how he would do it, if he ever was going to do it, in the book If I Did It. The book only deals with a hypothetical muder. But O.J. has spoken about the murders in magazine and television interviews.
Theory #1: Love is the reason Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered.
Once again, O.J, never said that he killed anyone. But he did wonder, aloud, to an interviewer in a major publication, why he might have a motive. In a February 1998 story in Esquire, “Whistling in the Dark: You may think O.J. Simpson killed his wife. But does that mean you can't be friends?” writer Celia Farber gets O.J. to say, without prompt, "Let's say I committed this crime. Even if I did do this, it would have to have been because I loved her very much, right?"
Theory #2: Charlie is the reason Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered.
The If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer book saga is worth its own miniseries. The book, a hypothetical of how O.J. might have murdered two people, was ghostwritten by Pablo Fenjves. In a Jan. 15, 2007 interview with Slate, Fenjves said, “I was sitting in a room with a man I knew to be a murderer, and I let him hang himself.”
O.J. was originally scheduled to sit down for a TV special on Fox to coincide with the book release, but when the original book release garnered too much controversy, it was unaired. Filmed in 2007 but not released until March 2018, O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession? featured more O.J., in his voice, explaining how he’d do it.
O.J. begins by introducing a hypothetical person named Charlie, a guy that’s friends with Nicole, talking to O.J. He says, “I don’t know why he had been by Nicole’s house, but he told me, ‘You won’t believe what’s going on over there,' And I remember thinking, ‘Whatever’s going on over there, that has got to stop.’”
Theory #3: O.J.'s son is the reason Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered.
One of the lesser known theories surrounding these murders is that a Simpson did it, just not O.J. In an exclusive piece we published on April 11, we shared that private investigator William Dear has a very unique take on the real killer. Dear believes Jason Simpson, O.J.'s son, did it.
"Well I have Jason's diaries where he says, 'I cut away my problems with a knife,'" Dear told Distractify. "Two of the top experts in the country who deal with knife wounds feel it was the murder weapon."
It's more likely that we'll never know why O.J. Simpson murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, if at all. Ron's sister took to Twitter after news of O.J.'s death, writing, "For three decades we tirelessly pursued justice for Ron and Nicole, and despite a civil judgment and his confession in If I Did It, the hope for true accountability has ended. We will continue to advocate for the rights of all victims and survivors, ensuring our voices are heard both within and beyond the courtroom."