Unsealed Court Files Point to Possible Accomplice in O.J. Simpson Murders, 30 Years Later

More than three decades after the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, newly unsealed federal court documents suggest O.J. Simpson may have had help disposing of the murder weapon — a knife police never recovered.

The revelations come from a 1996 letter from an assistant U.S. attorney to a federal judge, unsealed at the request of The New York Times. The letter sought a reduced sentence for convicted drug trafficker and prison escapee Joseph "Joey" Ippolito, who had become a federal informant after Simpson's 1995 acquittal. In it, the prosecutor wrote that Ippolito had become "privy to many facts" surrounding the case, including "Mr. Simpson's alleged domestic violence, the Simpsons' narcotics usage, Mr. Simpson's attempted flight from justice, and his disposal of the murder weapon."

"While Ippolito ultimately was not called as a witness he was arrested and began to cooperate as that trial drew to a close my conversations with the Los Angeles authorities indicate that Ippolito's information was, at the very least, very helpful to their case," the letter stated, according to the documents.

The brother's account

Ippolito, who died in 2006, allegedly met Simpson through Al Cowlings — the man behind the wheel during Simpson's infamous Bronco chase. His brother, Sam Ippolito, told the Times that on the night of the 1994 murders, Joey left to help a friend and returned home with what appeared to be blood on his hands, carrying a bag with a heavy object inside. He then asked Sam to throw it into a nearby construction-site dumpster, Sam said.

The account is complicated by credibility questions. Sam later attempted to retract his story after the Times declined to pay him for it. Legal analyst Rikki Klieman, who covered the original trial for Court TV, noted that "there's no real reason to trust the word of the brother," while also saying the unsealed files deserve serious examination rather than dismissal.

Trial questions resurface

Perhaps most striking is the suggestion that prosecutor Marcia Clark may never have been told about the Ippolito claim — raising questions about what the prosecution team knew as it built its case. During the trial, Simpson's shoe prints and drops of his blood were found at the crime scene, and no physical evidence tied anyone else to the killings.

In a statement, Malcolm LaVergne, the executor of Simpson's estate, said the central figures in the case — Nicole Brown Simpson, Ronald Goldman, and O.J. Simpson himself — are all deceased and cannot respond to new theories. Simpson died in April 2024 at age 76.

The Los Angeles Police Department told Fox News the case remains open. Whether the Ippolito claim proves to be a genuine lead or another dead end, it shows how the 1994 double murder continues to generate new lines of inquiry more than 30 years after Simpson's acquittal in October 1995 — and his later civil-trial liability for the wrongful deaths 16 months after that.

Sources

- The New York Times (unsealed 1996 federal court letter)

- Fox News (case remains open; Marcia Clark questions)

- The Daily Mail (1996 letter details)

- Rikki Klieman, legal analyst (Court TV)

- Statement from Malcolm LaVergne, executor of Simpson's estate