Lack of knife always dogged O.J. Simpson murder investigation

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Nicole Brown Simpson’s body was found outside her home at 875 S. Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Police examine the area where her body was found. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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California Highway Patrol units chase Al Cowlings, who is driving the white Bronco, and O.J. Simpson, hiding in the rear, on the 91 Freeway shortly after Simpson was charged in slayings. (Al Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Simpson holds up his hands before the jury after putting on a new pair of gloves similar to the infamous bloody gloves during his double murder trial in Los Angeles. (Vince Bucci / Associated Press)

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O.J. Simpson reacts in 1995 as he is found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. With him are members of his defense team, F. Lee Bailey, left, and Johnnie Cochran Jr.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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A large crowd gathers outside Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica to hear the verdict in the wrongful death civil trial against Simpson. He was found liable in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

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A candlelight vigil is held for Nicole Simpson Brown and Ron Goldman near the murder scene on Oct. 7, 1995. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

By Richard WintonStaff Writer

March 4, 2016 9:23 AM PT

From the beginning, the lack of a definitive murder weapon was a major issue -- and some say a key flaw -- in the O.J. Simpson case.

Now, the Los Angeles Police Department is testing a knife possibly found years ago on Simpson’s former Brentwood property.

Simpson always denied any role in the 1994 slaying of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. And after an exhaustive search, police and prosecutors could never present the jury in his murder trial with the knife they claim he used to kill them.

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What the prosecution did have was blood-soaked gloves.

During the trial, Simpson tried on one of the gloves. He held up his hands in front of the jury box to let everyone see the leather bunched up around his broad palms; it didn’t fit. That demonstration became a powerful symbol for the defense, summed up by Cochran: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

During the trial, prosecutors tried to prove that the gloves were purchased at Bloomingdale’s by Nicole Brown Simpson and that O.J. Simpson used them in the slayings.

The left-hand glove was found outside the townhouse of Nicole Brown Simpson, a short distance from her body and that of Goldman.

The right-hand glove was found on Simpson’s estate. Both were smeared with blood, but the only DNA results came from the right-hand glove, which contained genetic material consistent with both victims and with O.J. Simpson.

In both civil and criminal trials, defense attorneys argued that former LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman planted the glove at Simpson’s house.

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Police searched far and wide for the knife. Several were presented as possible murder weapons through the years.

A 15-inch knife with a retractable blade that Simpson purchased at Ross Cutlery in downtown Los Angeles briefly tantalized prosecutors in the criminal trial. They thought it might be the murder weapon, and even asked a coroner to compare that type of blade with the slicing and stabbing wounds of the victims in the June 12, 1994, killings. The fact that no one could locate the knife only added to the intrigue.

But the defense produced the knife -- in an envelope that became known as the “mystery envelope” in the preliminary hearing. Forensic tests later revealed that the knife was in pristine condition, with no scratches or bloodstains to suggest that it had been used in a vicious double homicide.

Prosecutors in the criminal trial never introduced it as evidence.

They did have the merchant who sold Simpson the knife testify in a preliminary hearing.

“I guess something attracted him about the knife. It’s a nice-looking knife. And he just, he liked it,” Ross Cutlery employee Jose Camacho said in court.

Simpson was found not guilty in 1995.

Twitter: @lacrimes

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

Timeline: O.J. Simpson murder trial

O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife found stabbed to death

Simpson not guilty: Drama ends 474 days after arrest

O.J. Simpson white Bronco chase: How it happened, minute by minute