O. J. Simpson

Orenthal James Simpson won the 1968 Heisman Trophy at USC and became the first overall pick in the 1969 draft. With the Buffalo Bills he earned five straight Pro Bowls and led the league in rushing four times, setting a record in 1973 that still stands for yards-per-game average in a season. After retiring in 1979 he moved into film - the Naked Gun series - and became a sportscaster and Hertz spokesman. On June 12, 1994, his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman were stabbed to death at her Los Angeles home. Five days later Simpson and a friend fled in a white Ford Bronco; the slow-speed chase across L.A. County, broadcast live as Simpson held a gun and threatened suicide, drew ninety-five million viewers. His murder trial in 1995 became a flashpoint for American racial division - Simpson's defense argued the LAPD had framed him - and his acquittal was watched by as many as a hundred and fifty million people. A civil jury found him liable in 1997 and awarded the families $33.5 million, which he never paid. In 2007 he was arrested in Las Vegas for armed robbery and kidnapping, convicted in 2008, and served nine years in a Nevada prison before his release on par