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A convicted drug trafficker with ties to the mafia may have helped O.J. Simpson cover up the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, according to a bombshell New York Times investigation that uncovered secret federal records and allegations that the man returned from the night of the killings with blood on his hands.
Joseph “Joey” Ippolito, a mob-connected associate of Simpson and his longtime friend Al Cowlings, allegedly returned to a Los Angeles apartment around midnight on June 12, 1994, carrying a mysterious bag containing a heavy object, his brother Sam Ippolito told the Times in an account that has raised questions, as well as some doubts.
The investigation also uncovered previously sealed federal court records revealing that Ippolito had provided authorities with information about Simpson’s alleged disposal of the murder weapon, which was never recovered.
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O. J. Simpson sits in Superior Court in Los Angeles in 1994 during an open court session. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Sam Ippolito claimed his brother appeared to have blood on his hands after leaving the apartment hours earlier to help a friend. Joey allegedly stuffed his clothes into the bag and instructed Sam to dispose of it while he showered.
Sam Ippolito told the newspaper he tossed the bag into a dumpster near a construction site along Doheny Drive in Los Angeles.
He also claimed to have overheard Joey telling Cowlings over the phone that he had been “helping” Simpson that night.
Joey Ippolito, a convicted drug trafficker who escaped from a Florida prison in May 1994, became a federal informant after his arrest in August 1995, while Simpson’s nationally televised murder trial was nearing its conclusion.
A December 1996 federal prosecution memorandum, recently unsealed at the newspaper’s request, described Ippolito as a valuable source who possessed information about Simpson’s alleged efforts to dispose of the murder weapon and his attempted flight from authorities.
Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, Barry Scheck, F. Lee Bailey, Shapiro and Alan Dershowitz comprised OJ Simpson’s dream team. (Sam Mircovich/AFP)
Then-federal prosecutor David Kelley described Ippolito in the letter as a “remarkable source of information” whose cooperation had proven valuable to investigators. When the newspaper spoke to Kelley recently, he said that he did not believe Joey Ippolito was involved in the killings.
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The Times reported that the records show that information from Joey Ippolito was shared with Los Angeles prosecutors during Simpson’s murder trial, although he was never called to testify.
Former prosecutor Marcia Clark told the Times she had no knowledge of Joey Ippolito and maintained that she would have been informed if he had provided credible or relevant evidence.
Nicole Brown Simpson and O.J. Simpson married on Feb. 2, 1985. (Gary Leonard/Corbis via Getty Images)
The account from Joey Ippolito’s brother has come under scrutiny.
After maintaining his allegations for months, Sam Ippolito reportedly sought compensation from the Times and later attempted to retract his statements, claiming he could no longer distinguish what was real from what was not.
Friends and relatives of Joey Ippolito, who died in 2006, have also disputed suggestions that he participated in the murders.
Cowlings did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment by the time of its article’s publication.
The newly uncovered information raises fresh questions about whether Simpson had help on the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home.
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Simpson was acquitted of their murders in 1995 but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil trial. He died in April 2024 at age 76.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to the Times that the decades-old double-murder case remains an open investigation.