Sam Ippolito has come forward with claims that his brother returned home with blood on his hands the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered.
Ippolito, speaking to the outlet, said his brother Joseph “Joey” Ippolito arrived at a Los Angeles apartment around midnight on June 12, 1994, carrying a bag with a heavy object inside. Joey allegedly stuffed his clothes into the bag and told Sam to dispose of it while he showered.
Sam Ippolito claimed his brother appeared to have blood on his hands after leaving hours earlier to help a friend. He told the newspaper he threw the bag into a dumpster near a construction site along Doheny Drive in Los Angeles.
The brother also claimed he overheard Joey telling Al Cowlings over the phone that he had been “helping” Simpson that night. Joey Ippolito was a mob-connected associate of Simpson and his longtime friend Cowlings.
The Times investigation uncovered previously sealed federal court records showing Joey Ippolito became a federal informant after his arrest in August 1995, while Simpson’s nationally televised murder trial was nearing its conclusion. Ippolito had escaped from a Florida prison in May 1994, just weeks before the murders.
A December 1996 federal prosecution memorandum, unsealed at the newspaper’s request, described Ippolito as a valuable source who possessed information about Simpson’s alleged efforts to dispose of the murder weapon, which was never recovered.
Then-federal prosecutor David Kelley described Ippolito in the letter as a “remarkable source of information” whose cooperation had proven valuable to investigators. When the newspaper spoke to Kelley recently, he said that he did not believe Joey Ippolito was involved in the killings.
The records show that information from Joey Ippolito was shared with Los Angeles prosecutors during Simpson’s murder trial, although he was never called to testify.
Former prosecutor Marcia Clark told the Times she had no knowledge of Joey Ippolito and maintained that she would have been informed if he had provided credible or relevant evidence.
Sam Ippolito’s account has faced significant scrutiny. After maintaining his allegations for months, he reportedly sought compensation from the Times and later attempted to retract his statements, claiming he could no longer distinguish what was real from what was not.
Friends and relatives of Joey Ippolito, who died in 2006, have also disputed suggestions that he participated in the murders. Cowlings did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment by the time of its article’s publication.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to the Times that the decades-old double-murder case remains an open investigation. Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995 but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil trial. He died in April 2024 at age 76.
The newly uncovered information raises fresh questions about whether Simpson had help on the night Brown Simpson and Goldman were stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home. Joey Ippolito’s alleged role, if any, remains disputed among those connected to the case.
The LAPD’s confirmation that the investigation remains open leaves the possibility that additional information could still emerge about the events of June 12, 1994.