A New York Times investigation has surfaced previously sealed federal records and family testimony suggesting that a mob-connected associate of O.J. Simpson may have helped dispose of evidence tied to the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.
The man, Joseph “Joey” Ippolito, was a convicted drug trafficker with reported mafia ties who had escaped from a Florida prison in May 1994 and was an associate of both Simpson and his longtime friend Al Cowlings. According to Ippolito’s brother, Sam Ippolito, Joey returned to a Los Angeles apartment around midnight on June 12, 1994 — the night Brown Simpson and Goldman were killed outside her home — carrying a bag containing a heavy object.
Sam Ippolito told the Times that his brother appeared to have blood on his hands after leaving the apartment earlier that night to help a friend. He said Joey stuffed his clothes into the bag, instructed him to get rid of it, and then showered. Sam said he threw the bag into a dumpster near a construction site on Doheny Drive. He also claimed he overheard Joey telling Cowlings by phone that he had been “helping” Simpson that night.
Joey Ippolito was arrested in August 1995, during Simpson’s nationally televised murder trial, and became a federal informant. A December 1996 federal prosecution memorandum, unsealed at the Times’ request, described him as a valuable source with information about Simpson’s alleged disposal of the murder weapon, which was never found.
Then-federal prosecutor David Kelley called Ippolito a “remarkable source of information” whose cooperation had proven valuable to investigators, though he told the Times he does not believe Ippolito was involved in the killings.
The records show information from Ippolito was passed to Los Angeles prosecutors during the murder trial, but he was never called to testify. Former prosecutor Marcia Clark told the Times she had no knowledge of Ippolito and said she would have been informed had he offered credible or relevant evidence.
Sam Ippolito’s account has drawn scrutiny. After maintaining the allegations for months, he reportedly sought compensation from the Times and later tried to retract his statements, saying he could no longer distinguish what was real from what was not. Friends and relatives of Joey Ippolito, who died in 2006, have disputed any suggestion he took part in the murders. Cowlings did not respond to the Times’ request for comment.
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 case remains an open investigation.
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