The brother of Joseph “Joey” Ippolito, a friend of O.J. Simpson, reportedly told The New York Times that Ippolito returned to a Los Angeles apartment around midnight on June 12, 1994, with what appeared to be blood on his hands and a bag containing a heavy object.
Sam Ippolito’s account, featured in the Times’ October 18 review of the O.J. Simpson case, has raised questions about whether Joey Ippolito may have helped dispose of evidence following the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. However, the allegations remain unproven. Sam later requested payment from the Times and tried to withdraw his account after the newspaper declined, explaining that he could no longer separate his memories from his confusion.
According to Sam’s original account, Joey left earlier on the evening of June 12, 1994, to help a friend. When he returned, Joey allegedly placed his clothes inside the bag, asked Sam to dispose of it, and went to take a shower. Sam claimed he threw the bag into a dumpster near a construction site on Doheny Drive. The contents of the bag were never verified.
Sam also claimed he overheard Joey discussing how to “help” Simpson that night with Al Cowlings, Simpson’s longtime friend.
Joey was a convicted drug trafficker with alleged mob connections who escaped from a Florida prison in May 1994, just weeks before the murders. He knew Simpson through Cowlings and died in 2006.
Following his arrest in August 1995, as O.J. Simpson’s murder trial approached its conclusion, Joey became a federal informant. Newly unsealed documents, first reported by The New York Times, reveal that he shared information with authorities about Simpson’s alleged disposal of the murder weapon, which was never found.
A prosecution memorandum from December 1996, unsealed at the Times’ request, described Joey as a “remarkable source of information.” Details he provided reached Los Angeles prosecutors during the trial, although he was never called to testify.
The Times also reported that Joey may have been waiting at a private airport for Simpson and Al Cowlings on the day of the infamous Bronco chase, possibly to help Simpson leave the area.
In his 2007 book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, Simpson outlined a hypothetical scenario involving a friend who helped dispose of the weapon and bloodstained clothing.
However, the latest reporting comes with significant caveats. David Kelley, the former federal prosecutor who authored the memorandum, told the Times that he did not believe Joey had participated in the killings. Lead prosecutor Marcia Clark said she had never heard of him and would have been notified had he provided credible evidence. Joey’s friends and relatives also challenged suggestions that he was involved in the murders.
The Los Angeles Police Department told the Times that the double-murder investigation remains open. Simpson was acquitted in the criminal case on Oct. 3, 1995, but a civil jury found him liable for both deaths in 1997. He died in April 2024 at 76.
