A convicted drug trafficker with alleged mafia connections may have helped O.J. Simpson conceal evidence after the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, according to a New York Times investigation based on newly uncovered federal records and disputed allegations that the man returned from the crime scene with blood on his hands.
Joseph “Joey” Ippolito, a mob-linked associate of Simpson and his longtime friend Al Cowlings, allegedly returned to a Los Angeles apartment around midnight on June 12, 1994, carrying a bag with what appeared to be a heavy object inside. His brother, Sam Ippolito, told the Times that account, though it has since faced serious questions.
The investigation also found previously sealed federal court records indicating that Ippolito gave authorities information about Simpson’s alleged disposal of the murder weapon, which was never recovered.
O. J. Simpson sits in Superior Court in Los Angeles in 1994 during an open court session. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Sam Ippolito said his brother appeared to have blood on his hands after leaving the apartment hours earlier to help a friend. According to Sam, Joey put his clothes into the bag and told him to get rid of it while he took a shower.
Sam Ippolito told the newspaper that he threw the bag into a dumpster near a construction site on Los Angeles’ Doheny Drive.
He also said he overheard Joey tell Cowlings by phone that he had been “helping” Simpson that night.
Ippolito, a convicted drug trafficker who escaped from a Florida prison in May 1994, became a federal informant after his arrest in August 1995, as Simpson’s nationally televised murder trial was approaching its conclusion.
A federal prosecution memorandum from December 1996, recently unsealed at the Times’ request, identified Ippolito as a valuable source with information about Simpson’s alleged efforts to dispose of the murder weapon and flee from authorities.
Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, Barry Scheck, F. Lee Bailey, Shapiro and Alan Dershowitz comprised OJ Simpson’s dream team. (Sam Mircovich/AFP)
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David Kelley, the federal prosecutor at the time, called Ippolito a “remarkable source of information” in the memorandum and said his cooperation had helped investigators. However, Kelley recently told the Times that he did not believe Ippolito took part in the killings.
The Times reported that information supplied by Ippolito was shared with Los Angeles prosecutors during Simpson’s murder trial, although he was never called as a witness.
Former prosecutor Marcia Clark told the Times that she had never heard of Ippolito and said she would have known if he had offered credible, relevant evidence.
Nicole Brown Simpson and O.J. Simpson married on Feb. 2, 1985. (Gary Leonard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Questions have also emerged about the reliability of Sam Ippolito’s account.
After repeating his allegations for months, Sam reportedly asked the Times for compensation and later tried to withdraw his statements, saying he could no longer tell what was real and what was not.
Friends and relatives of Joey Ippolito, who died in 2006, have likewise rejected suggestions that he was involved in the murders.
Cowlings had not responded to the newspaper’s request for comment when the Times published its report.
The newly revealed records and allegations have renewed questions about whether Simpson had assistance after Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home.
Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995 but was later found liable for the 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.