O.J. Simpson, who more than two decades ago stood accused of killing ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, has apparently joined Twitter in order to settle old beefs.
“I got a little getting even to do,” the former NFL running back (or a remarkably good “deepfake“) said in a 21-second video posted to the platform. “So God bless, take care.”
The video, which was attached to a tweet reading, “Coming soon!!!” appeared on an account called @TheRealOJ32 shortly before midnight yesterday. It came just two days after the 25th anniversary of the killings, which remain officially unsolved.
The account, which has not been verified by Twitter, has drawn close to 200,000 followers. The man in the video appears to be Simpson.
The athlete-turned-actor, acquitted of double-murder charges in 1995, was found responsible for the two deaths in a civil trial and ordered to pay $33.5 million in restitution to the Brown and Goldman families. He has so far avoided paying most of it by relocating to Florida, then Nevada, where he could take advantage of laws that shielded portions of his assets. Simpson was released in 2017 after serving nine years in prison for his part in an armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Tanya Brown, Nicole Brown’s sister, said this week that the family is certain Simpson committed the murders. “I mean, the only thing that he forgot to leave at the crime scene was a ‘Hi, My Name Is’ name tag,” she told a UK TV interviewer.
Not happy to see Simpson
Simpson’s new account lists his location as Las Vegas, and the landscape behind him in the video appears to confirm his whereabouts. His sole tweet has been retweeted more than 16,000 times and has garnered about 12,000 responses, many of them not overjoyed:
Simpson trial figures on Twitter
Prosecutor Christopher Darden, 569 followers
Now in private practice, several of Darden’s recent tweets indicate he is not particularly fond of the current administration:
Prosecutor Marcia Clark, 22,721 followers
A television producer, Clark was recently interviewed by Ron Goldman’s sister, Kim, for her podcast, which is focused on Simpson and his alleged role in the murders:
Trial witness Kato Kaelin, 22,744 followers
Simpson’s guest-house occupant on the night of the murders, Kaelin—who has worked as an actor and TV host—says in his account bio that he is “now living behind my own house”:
Simpson attorney Alan Dershowitz, 233,276 followers
A member of Simpson’s so-called Dream Team of defense lawyers, Dershowitz has emerged as a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and his policies:
Simpson attorney Barry Scheck, 6,121 followers
Co-director of the Innocence Project, which helps overturn wrongful convictions through DNA evidence, he is a professor at New York’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law:
Who OJ Simpson follows on Twitter
The account purporting to be OJ’s currently follows six other accounts, which include the NFL; his lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne; and one that appears to belong to his son, Justin (1,141 followers), who today sells real estate in South Florida: