O.J. Simpson, Athlete Acquitted of Murder, Dies of Cancer at 76 – The New York Times

O.J. Simpson, who ran to fame on the football field, made fortunes as a Black all-American in movies, advertising and television, and was acquitted of killing his former wife and her friend in a 1995 trial in Los Angeles that mesmerized the nation, died on Wednesday. He was 76.

The cause was cancer, his family announced on social media. The announcement did not say where he died.

A jury in the murder trial, which held up a cracked mirror to Black and white America, cleared Mr. Simpson, but the case ruined his world. In 1997, a civil suit by the victims families found him liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. He paid little of the debt, moved to Florida and struggled to remake his life, raise his children and stay out of trouble.

via www.nytimes.com

I remember I was teaching Contracts when the NG murder verdict came in. Cheering broke out in the class. That’s when I realized, one time anyway, that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, as the saying goes. I miss Kansas.