Simpson House Sold to Banker, Sources Say

The Brentwood mansion where O.J. Simpson resided until recently has been sold to an investment banker who plans to live there, real estate sources said Tuesday.

The sumptuous estate was sold for slightly less than the $3.95-million asking price and is expected to close escrow in about three weeks, sources said.

A vice president of Hawthorne Savings, the institution that was selling the house, confirmed that it had been sold but declined to confirm the buyer’s identity or the price.

Asked if a number of people had expressed interest in purchasing the property, Hawthorne official Star Lawrence said, “It’s been pretty active.” But sources familiar with the sale said this was the only offer Hawthorne had received, aside from a previously reported bid of $3.25 million that the firm rejected.

Simpson moved out of the Rockingham Avenue house in September, forced to sell in the wake of a civil court judgment that required him to pay $33.5 million to the families of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman. The jury found that Simpson--previously acquitted of the murders in a criminal trial--was liable for the deaths.

Sources familiar with the buyer declined to identify him by name; one said he lives on the East Coast.

After Simpson moved out, the real estate agency handling the sale, Fred Sands, brought in refurbishers. The house later became the subject of a televised open house, as Sands himself led a variety of reporters and their cameras on a tour. Only pre-qualified buyers--those with $1 million in the bank or the ability to find extensive financing--were allowed a closer look.

But gathering the money may have been the new homeowner’s easiest task. The property comes with a number of psychic hurdles and community relations challenges.

The notorious mansion has been virtually a character itself in the Simpson saga, from the early June morning in 1994 when police officers climbed over its gates in search of Simpson after the bodies of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found, to the day Simpson’s belongings were carted off to help pay the civil judgment.

The house was besieged by reporters, looky-loos--and helicopters capturing such indelible shots as that of Simpson’s Bronco pulling into the driveway after leading police on a slow pursuit days after the slayings.

The house remains one of the twin axes of visual fascination in the Simpson drama. The other is, of course, Nicole Simpson’s Brentwood townhouse--the killing site, an attraction for years after the crimes.

That residence went on and off the market for two years. The first people to proceed with buying it changed their minds before escrow closed, shellshocked by the deluge of publicity around them and the property. The final buyers re-landscaped the front and changed the walkway to disguise where the killings took place.

Simpson’s house is still filled with the memory of the mysterious thud heard by guest house occupant Kato Kaelin, the bloody glove in the grass on the property and the bloody socks on the floor of Simpson’s bedroom.

Even if the buyer can forget all that, can the rest of the world?

“Probably not,” said real estate agent Elaine Young, who sold Simpson the house in 1977 for $650,000. “This will always be O.J.’s house no matter who bought it.”

Realtor Bruce Nelson echoed Young’s thoughts: “Hopefully with a change of owner, the hordes of tourists [driving by] will subside, but the chances of that happening are probably between slim and none.”