No, OJ Simpson did not admit on X to the 1994 killings of his ex-wife and her friend
FILE - In this Oct. 3, 1995, file photo, O.J. Simpson reacts as he is found not guilty in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles, as defense attorneys F. Lee Bailey, left, and Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., stand with him. Social media users are falsely claiming that Simpson admitted on X to the killings before he died on Wednesday. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File)
CLAIM: O.J. Simpson, the former football star and Hollywood actor, admitted on X before he died on Wednesday that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. The post was deleted by the family.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. An image of the alleged post was fabricated. The account that first posted it indicated in subsequent posts that it was a joke. A Feb. 11 post, in which Simpson says his “health is good” and that he is supporting the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, was his last. Simpson’s family made the final post on his account on Thursday to announce his death.
THE FACTS: Following his family’s announcement, social media users falsely claimed that Simpson had made a deathbed confession on X that he killed Brown and Goldman — crimes he was acquitted of in 1995.
“I just want ya’ll to know, I did that s–t. -OJ,” says an X post made to look as though it had come from Simpson’s account, which was shared in several posts stating: “BREAKING. OJ Simpson’s final tweet before dying. His family has since deleted it.”
But the image of the X post was fabricated.
The account that originally posted it indicated in two subsequent posts that it was made in jest, when replying to users asking for additional proof. In one, he used an image of a stick figure labeled “you” with the word “joke” floating over its head. The words “the joke” similarly float over an image of Superman in the other.
Simpson shared a video in his last X post on Feb. 11. In it, he says his “health is good” and predicts that the 49ers would win the 2024 Super Bowl, expressing support for the team. The final post on Simpson’s account is an announcement about his death made by his family on Thursday.
Simpson died Wednesday of prostate cancer in Las Vegas, The Associated Press reported. He earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of Brown and Goldman. Following his arrest at the end of a famous slow-speed chase on live TV, Simpson’s subsequent “trial of the century” mesmerized the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in the U.S.
The jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown and Goldman. Simpson served nine years in prison on unrelated charges before being released on parole in 2017. His parole ended in late 2021.
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
