Times investigation suggests mobster may have held key to Simpson case

Thirty years after a jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of murder, a New York Times investigation has surfaced a figure whose existence raises uncomfortable questions about what prosecutors never got to fully examine: a mobster-turned-informant who may have held pieces of the puzzle that could have changed everything.

Joseph Ippolito, known as Joey, was a drug trafficker with deep roots in New Jersey's DeCavalcante crime family. His father had been a player in that organization; Joey himself spent years moving narcotics across the country before landing in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, where he managed an Italian restaurant and worked his way into the city's elite circles. He befriended Al Cowlings, a former football star and close friend of Simpson's. But the restaurant was a cover. Ippolito kept dealing drugs. In 1992, he was arrested in a sting operation, convicted, and sentenced. Eight months later, in May 1994, he escaped from a Florida prison with his brother's help and made his way back to Los Angeles, where he went underground.

That same year, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her home. Simpson fled when police came for him. Cowlings, his friend, drove him through Los Angeles in a chase watched by millions on live television. When authorities arrested Simpson, they found something in Cowlings' wallet: information belonging to Ippolito. They tracked down the fugitive and arrested him. But instead of facing additional charges, Ippolito made a deal. He became an informant for the federal government.

What Ippolito told authorities about the Simpson case remains murky, filtered through three competing versions that the Times uncovered. In one account, he claimed to have learned details from Cowlings about the murders, including information about where the murder weapon might be. In another, Ippolito's own brother told the Times he had seen his brother with blood on his hands—that Ippolito may have actually been present at the crime scene. In a third version, Ippolito was prepared to help Simpson escape during the police chase. The Times notes that these accounts "point in different directions but veer significantly from the official account that has been proffered by the police and prosecutors."

The timing, however, was catastrophic for prosecutors. Simpson's trial had already concluded. The jury acquitted him in 1995 after a lengthy proceeding in which his defense team highlighted the Los Angeles Police Department's documented history of racism and its mishandling of evidence. By the time Ippolito came forward with whatever he knew, it was too late to introduce his testimony or investigate his claims. Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a civil case, but no criminal conviction was ever secured for either murder.

The credibility of Ippolito's account is itself uncertain. His brother, who made the claim about seeing blood on Ippolito's hands, later recanted the statement to the Times. He said he had been offered substantial money to tell his story to another outlet, likely a television program, and asked the Times for payment as well. Federal authorities interviewed by the Times expressed skepticism about how deeply involved Ippolito actually was and how reliable his information proved to be.

With many of the key figures now dead, the full scope of what Ippolito knew—and whether it would have mattered—may never be established. The case that captivated the nation remains defined by what was never fully investigated, by a witness who arrived too late, and by competing versions of events that no court will ever adjudicate. The murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, committed in 1994, have never resulted in a criminal conviction.