Mug shot of former football star and actor O. J. Simpson after being arrested in 1994 in connection with the gruesome murders of his ex-wife and her friend. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

O. J. Simpson—football star, media personality, and murder suspect—has been both revered and reviled by the public. In the 1960s and 1970s, Simpson won fame as a record-breaking college and professional football player. After his retirement from sports, he enjoyed a career as a movie and television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) actor, sportscaster, and star of TV commercials. Then, in the mid-1990s, he became the focal point of one of the twentieth-century's most notorious, controversial, and media-hyped murder cases.

Orenthal James Simpson grew up in San Francisco, California, and had a troublesome childhood. At age two, he suffered from rickets...