O.J. Simpson turned one of the most infamous moments of his life into a punchline.
Years after the fallen football star and Hollywood actor was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, Simpson was caught on camera joking about a “bloody Bronco” and boasting about the vehicle’s “great escapability” — video that has now resurfaced decades later.
The moments were captured while Simpson filmed his hidden-camera prank show, “Juiced,” in an attempt at a comeback. Simpson’s little-remembered project, which he described as his “own version of ‘Punk’d,'” is the subject of a new Investigation Discovery docuseries, “O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil.”
Simpson faced repeated allegations of domestic violence involving Nicole Brown Simpson. He pleaded no contest to a charge of spousal battery against her in 1989.
“O.J. was a malignant narcissist and megalomaniac who thought he could get away with anything — that’s what doing [this docuseries] showed me,” filmmaker Rebecca Halpern told Fox News Digital.
“O.J. insisted on having a beer in his hand for virtually the entire production, and loose lips sink ships. And there are many scenes in the show where O.J. just starts to blather on about the case. Nobody prompted him to tell a shopper on a used car lot that a white Bronco has ‘great escapability’ and if you do something bad, it can get you out of trouble.”
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In a scene from the docuseries, which premieres Sept. 7, Simpson pretends to sell a white Bronco at a used car lot, where he boasts about making the car famous. The Bronco appears to have a bullet hole in it.
“It was good for me,” Simpson tells a prospective buyer. “Got me out of harm’s way.”
When another customer jokes about whether there is “a dead body inside,” Simpson replies, “Yeah, well, hopefully there’s no bodies in this thing.” He also tells two other shoppers, “It’s a Bronco, a car that I personally made famous.”
“This is the best deal we got on the lot,” he tells another. “It has escapability, that’s the main thing. I mean, if you ever get into some trouble and you gotta get away, it has escapability. … I like that word, escapability. … They weren’t going to let me keep mine.”
When customers realize they are being filmed for the hidden-camera prank, some laugh, shake Simpson’s hand or embrace him. At one point, he autographs the Bronco.
“This is a Bronco signed by O.J. Simpson,” he says. “With an authentic bullet hole in it. It’s signed by me, which gives it some kind of extra value.”
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“I wasn’t trying to escape, despite what anybody might tell you. No, that’s the God’s truth. That’s why they never brought the Bronco ride up in any of my trials,” Simpson said.
“Just take a look around. All you have to do is wash it up.”
Simpson and Brown married in 1985. They had two children, Sydney and Justin, and divorced in 1992. Two years later, Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home.
Investigators quickly focused on Simpson, leading to a slow-speed chase in a white Bronco that aired live on national television. Following the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted of murder.
Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case and served nearly nine years in prison after he was convicted of armed robbery and other charges in an unrelated Las Vegas case.
Halpern said Simpson “demonstrated such a complete and total lack of any decency” while discussing his case during filming.
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“He was so desperate for a comeback, to prove to the world that he was still this beloved figure, that he was willing to make jokes at his dead ex-wife’s expense,” Halpern said. “And then, on top of that, to shock innocent victims, many of whom were female in these pranks. If that doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what does.”
“There is [also] a scene at a fast-food restaurant where O.J. begins to fat shame women who are at the drive-thru,” Halpern said. “We cut from that to Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister on the stand testifying about O.J. Simpson; when Nicole was pregnant with their children, he would fat shame her and call her a ‘fat pig.'”
The Bronco remarks weren’t the only comments that left crew members stunned.
“When he was getting his makeup done for this crazy bingo sketch where he was playing an old White man, he starts talking about rape culture and the Kobe Bryant case while he’s watching Court TV,” Halpern explained. “He goes on to say, ‘No doesn’t always mean no.’ Nobody prompted him to say that.”
Former “Juiced” crew members participated in the docuseries, with some saying they hoped Simpson would let his guard down — and possibly confess to the murders — while the cameras were rolling.
“The whole two-week journey of making ‘Juiced’ was a roller-coaster ride of emotions for the crew, many of whom signed on to find out for themselves if he did it,” Halpern explained.
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“Along the way, they found themselves liking him sometimes, feeling sort of under his spell. And then at other times, they were completely aghast at what they saw. In fact, the VP of ‘Juiced’ said it himself: ‘After I shook his hand when production was over, I thought to myself, “Were these the hands that killed somebody?”‘”
Simpson’s attempted comeback failed to gain traction. After word of “Juiced” leaked, distributors backed away as details emerged of Simpson joking about the murders, according to the docuseries. The project’s original distribution plans quickly collapsed. “Juiced” aired as a pay-per-view special in 2006 and was later released on DVD.
“It imploded,” Halpern said. “There was a backlash on the business side that distributors and others didn’t want to have anything to do with anything O.J. Simpson joking about the murders. They all started to get cold feet. And I think [executive producer] Rick Mahr saw the writing on the wall for his project.”
Simpson died of prostate cancer in 2024 at 76.
“He wanted to prove to the world that he was not the pariah that the media had made him out to be,” Halpern said. “He had lost everything. He had reached rock bottom and was desperate for the love that he once had. That’s why he did ‘Juiced.’ I also think, take it for what it’s worth, whether he did it or not, O.J. Simpson knows a lot about what happened.”
