More than three decades after the O.J. Simpson murder trial captivated the nation, a newly uncovered investigation is shedding light on a possible new account of what happened the night his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were stabbed to death in 1994.
Following Simpson’s acquittal in 1995, Los Angeles prosecutors reportedly received new information from a friend of the former NFL star about the alleged disposal of the murder weapon, according to newly unsealed court documents obtained by the New York Times.
“You would think that there could not possibly be anything new, and now, for the public, there certainly is,” said legal analyst Rikki Klieman, who covered the high-profile case for Court TV at the time.
According to court records, an assistant U.S. attorney wrote to a federal judge requesting a more lenient sentence for Joey Ippolito on a prison escape charge, citing the convicted drug trafficker’s work as a federal informant.
In the letter, Ippolito was described as a valuable source who “had become privy to many facts relevant to the [O.J. Simpson] case,” including Simpson’s “disposal of the murder weapon,” which was never recovered.
Ippolito allegedly connected with Simpson through Al Cowlings, who famously drove the white Ford Bronco during Simpson’s now-infamous 1994 police chase.
Although Ippolito died in 2006, his brother, Sam, has now come forward with his own account of the night of the killings. He told the Times that Joey left that evening to help a friend, only to return with what appeared to be blood on his hands and a bag containing a heavy object.
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According to Sam, his brother then asked him to dispose of the bag while he showered. Sam claimed he ultimately threw it into a dumpster at a nearby construction site.
But the account has raised questions about its credibility.
“What gets complicated here is that you’re not only dealing with the original informant, Joey Ippolito, but you’re dealing now with the embellishment by his brother, and there’s no real reason to trust the word of the brother,” Klieman said.
Klieman isn’t the only one expressing doubts. Former prosecutor Marcia Clark, who helped lead the prosecution against Simpson, told the Times she had no knowledge of Ippolito and, as a result, believed he must have “had no credible or relevant evidence to provide.”
The Times also reported that Sam Ippolito initially insisted he was 100% certain his brother had been at the crime scene. However, after the newspaper declined his request for compensation in exchange for sharing the story, he attempted to retract his statements.
Adding another layer to the decades-old mystery, the alleged account bears similarities to Simpson’s book, If I Did It, in which he offered a “hypothetical” account involving an accomplice who helps dispose of the weapon.
Despite the questions surrounding the new claims, Klieman believes investigators should continue examining the information.
“The authorities, that is, police and the current district attorney of Los Angeles County, cannot simply discount it. They have got to look at it, or continue to look at it,” Klieman said.
While Simpson was acquitted in the criminal case, a civil jury found him liable for the deaths of Brown and Goldman in 1997 and ordered him to pay their families $33.5 million. Goldman’s family declined to comment on the Timesinvestigation.
Meanwhile, in a statement to CBS News, Malcolm LaVergne, the executor of Simpson’s estate, reflected on the fact that the three people with firsthand knowledge of that night—Brown, Goldman and Simpson—are all now deceased. Simpson died in 2024.
“None of those three people can speak for themselves today,” LaVergne said. “And I certainly cannot speak for them about what happened that night. At some point, I believe we must recognize that the continued production of theories, allegations, and sensational accounts may do little to bring meaningful resolution to those who have already suffered so much.”