O.J. Takes The Search For The Real Killers To Social Media

Today's edition of "I Am Not Making This Up,"

This happened on Friday night, but most of us woke up this morning to the news that O.J. Simpson, yes that O.J.Simpson, had joined Twitter and had “some getting even to do”:

More than a year after his release from prison, OJ Simpson launched a new Twitter account Friday night with a selfie video in which he says he’s “got a little getting even to do.”

“Hey Twitter world, this is yours truly. Coming soon to Twitter, you’ll get to read all my thoughts and opinions on just about everything,” says Simpson, 71, while surrounded by greenery outdoors.

He also asks people to follow his new official account, @TheRealOJ32.

“It should be a lot of fun. I’ve got a little getting even to do,” the NFL Hall of Famer says with a smile and without offering more details.

The account’s main photo is a badly lit image of Simpson in a suit and open collar. The banner photo is an old image of Simpson’s Buffalo Bills No. 32 jersey and helmet. The account, with its location tagged as Las Vegas, is authentic, confirmed Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne.

“Mr. Simpson is the most positive person I’ve ever met,” LaVergne told CNN. “He’s also very well informed on current events. He will not be negative. Nor will he comment on the LA thing. It will be one of the best accounts on Twitter to follow.”

“The LA thing” refers to the 1994 double murder for which Simpson was tried and acquitted.

Wednesday marked 25 years since the killing of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. And Monday is the 25th anniversary of the slow-speed chase that captured a nation’s attention as TV viewers watched Simpson evade police in a white Ford Bronco before surrendering on two murder charges.

The court case was dubbed The Trial of the Century for its swirling themes of celebrity, race, criminal justice, trust in police and domestic violence. After nearly nine months of proceedings, jurors returned a not guilty verdict in less than four hours.

Simpson was later found liable in a civil wrongful death lawsuit brought by the victims’ families. On the stand, he denied killing Brown Simpson and Goldman.

A decade later, Simpson was found guilty and sentenced to up to 33 years in prison for a 2007 kidnapping and armed robbery in Las Vegas. Simpson and others went to a hotel and took sports memorabilia at gunpoint; Simpson said the items belonged to him and he didn’t know his associates were armed.

After nine years in prison, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners voted to grant Simpson early release, with one member calling him a “low risk to reoffend.” He was freed in 2017, and at the time, he planned to live with friends in a wealthy Las Vegas suburb and then move to Florida, several associates told CNN.

Simpson has been playing a lot of golf since his release, despite his arthritis, LaVergne said.

“There are times when I know not to call him because I presume he’s on the links,” he told CNN. “And yes the arthritis is very real but he deals with it. All of that would eventually be covered through tweets.”

Here’s the tweet, which appears as if it may have been shot on a golf course:

When I first saw the Tweet this morning, Simpson already had roughly 35,000 followers. That number is now up to 229,000 and only likely to increase thanks to the often morbid curiosity that is Twitter at times. The account is still unverified, which means that Twitter has not determined that the account holder is indeed O.J. Simpson. It’s also possible that the video is the latest example of a “Deep Fake” video that have been making the rounds lately. Assuming that isn’t the case, though, this is exceedingly weird, which is why it’s likely to garner the same kind of attention that a bad accident on the highway does. People are going to stop and look just because it’s, well, so strange.

And if it’s genuine? Well, then this twist on the story becomes all the more interesting.:

OJ Simpson officially joined Twitter on Friday night and has already made headlines for some of his messages.

Simpson’s first tweet contained a video message he recorded for his followers. In his video, he said he had some “getting even to do.”

His second tweet is what caught everyone’s attention. He tweeted “I killed her.”

His other tweets that followed included him using the N-word and asking where the b—- at. It looked as if he had been hacked.
Simpson seemingly launching his Twitter account comes the week of the 25th anniversary of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.

Whether the tweeted confession was real or not remains unclear but it was deleted soon after it was posted. As noted above, all of this comes just a few days after the 25th anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Which just adds to how odd all of this is.

FILED UNDER: Popular Culture, , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Kylopod says:

    I clicked on the link to one of the tweets, and it informed me the account has been suspended.

    1
  2. CSK says:

    @Kylopod: The account still exists, but everything other than the initial video has been removed from it. Click on his handle.

  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    If OJ was really interested in “getting even”, he’d commit suicide and make it retroactive to 25 years and one month ago.

    1
  4. CSK says:

    He’s posted another video, in which he reveals that he’ll be happy to talk about sports, fantasy football, and politics. He complains that people have said whatever they like about him “with no accountability,” but he’ll address that. He concludes by wishing his “fellow fathers” a happy Father’s Day, and “God bless.”