Nicole Brown Simpson’s former boyfriend says he was warned about O.J. Simpson’s abusive treatment of her long before she was killed, claiming people across Hollywood already knew what was happening.
Joseph Perrulli, who dated Nicole briefly in 1992 after being introduced to her by Kris Jenner, says he learned quickly that her relationship with O.J. Simpson had been troubled long before the murder case made headlines around the world.
In a recent interview, Perrulli said others in entertainment were already speaking to him about Simpson’s alleged behavior.
“I had people in the [movie] industry telling me about, you know, informing me about his abuse, so I knew,” Perrulli told Page Six in a recent interview.
Perrulli said Simpson’s celebrity status, along with his profile as a television personality and spokesman, made people hesitant to intervene.
“We were all powerless,” he explained. “He was still a spokesperson for a very big company [Hertz], a rental car company, and he was still a sportscaster. So, you know, everybody was powerless, and it seemed like he could do what he wanted. And he did.”
Now 65, Perrulli said Nicole had personally told him how frightening the abuse had become, including moments when she believed she might not survive it.
He has since written about their relationship in a book called “The Forgotten Briefcase,” saying that although he loved Nicole deeply, O.J.’s conduct eventually pushed him to end the relationship.
Perrulli said a near-death health scare in 2024 prompted him to revisit the memories he had kept for decades.
While they were together, Perrulli said he learned that O.J. had been watching him and Nicole at her Brentwood house and had even tracked them during jogging outings.
He said the relationship truly ended after he had a troubling dream in which he and Nicole died in a car crash after going over a cliff. The following morning, he collected memories from their time together, locked them away in a briefcase, and cut off contact with her.
Their last encounter, he said, happened at a Jenner family Christmas party in late 1993, where O.J. was also present.
“She wanted to be friends,” Perrulli said. “It was very difficult to be friends with her when I was in love with her, trying to maintain a platonic relationship like that.”
Perrulli said he believed they would eventually reconnect, but instead he was met with tragic news half a year later.
“I got the phone call six months later that she’d been murdered,” he said.
Nicole Brown Simpson was 35 when she was killed alongside her friend Ron Goldman outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994. She married the “Naked Gun” actor in 1985, and they had two children, Sydney and Justin. The couple divorced in 1992, though they later reconciled briefly.
Reports from their marriage documented multiple domestic violence incidents. In 1989, police were called after a New Year’s Day dispute, and Simpson later entered a no contest plea to spousal battery.
After the 1994 killings, prosecutors and reporters revisited those earlier records, which included Nicole’s statements that she feared Simpson and believed he could kill her.
Simpson was acquitted of murder in 1995, but a later civil case found him liable for both deaths. He died in April 2024 at age 76, more than 30 years after Nicole and Goldman were killed.
Perrulli said he had never planned to publicly tell the story of their relationship, but changed his mind after finding the briefcase again in 2024. He described revisiting its contents as an emotional experience.
“I spent close to four hours on the stairs rediscovering this woman… realizing who she was,” he said.
“All these little mementos. I’d say they humanized her. She was a victim.”