Former NFL star OJ Simpson, the man famously acquitted of two murders, has died after a battle with prostate cancer.
At the height of his football career, Simpson was hugely popular with fans. He then went on to enjoy Hollywood fame, starring in the Naked Gun series with Leslie Nielsen.
His world came crashing down in 1994, when he was arrested for the murder of his second wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman, who were found stabbed to death outside her home. After he was charged, LA police pursued Simpson down a California freeway and around 95 million people tuned in to watch live footage of the car chase.
His 1995 trial and controversial acquittal was one of the world’s most- watched events of the last century – set against a backdrop of racial turmoil in Los Angeles. Then, three years after the criminal trial, he was found liable in a civil suit brought by the victims’ families. In 2008, he was sentenced to 33 years for a botched robbery in Las Vegas. He served nine years.
According to a statement from his family, Simpson peacefully passed away “surrounded by his children and grandchildren”.
