A mob-linked drug trafficker with ties to OJ Simpson secretly became a jailhouse snitch and claimed to have information about efforts to dispose of evidence, potentially including a murder weapon that was never recovered, according to a new report.
A former member of Simpson’s “Dream Team” defense during one of the most scrutinized murder trials in American history says the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are still an “open case” and that the claims should be further investigated.
“It seems plausible and perhaps credible,” former Simpson defense attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Fox News’ “America Reports” Monday.
He said he believes there are “unresolved” questions that deserve to be looked into.
Those questions were raised in a New York Times report Sunday about Joseph Ippolito, a former cigarette boat racer, drug trafficker and restaurateur who knew Simpson and had become close with Al Cowlings, the former NFL star who drove the white Ford Bronco ahead of Simpson’s arrest in Los Angeles.
Ippolito told federal prosecutors he had information on the murder weapon. One has never been recovered.
Further, Ippolito’s brother Sam told the Times that his brother returned home on the night of the murders with a heavy bag and apparent blood on his hands. He claimed to have ditched the bag in a dumpster on Los Angeles’ Doheny Drive without asking questions. He later asked for payment for his story and recanted, according to the report.
But the claims are worth a look, Dershowitz said.
“I think we ought to start from scratch and look at this evidence anew and see if there is credible evidence of a second person,” he told Fox News. “I’ve often, right from the beginning, thought that this was very difficult for one person to have brought off and not only killed two people, but then disposed of the evidence and done all the things that we know occurred in this case.”
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Charlie Ehrlich, a friend of Ippolito since 1971 and eventually a close pal of Simpson’s, said it’s possible that a second person was involved — while vehemently denying unproven online speculation that it could’ve been him.
“In my mind, there is a secondary guy,” he told Fox News Digital Monday. “Who? I have no clue. But I believe, in my mind, there is.”
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Ehrlich, who was charged in connection with Simpson’s 2007 Las Vegas memorabilia robbery case, has said he did not meet the running back until the former NFL star moved to Florida, following his trial. They became very close, however.
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“Do I think he did it? I don’t know,” he said. “If he did it, or if he did not do it, I never saw him get angry — and I was with him a lot the last 10-12 years here of his life here in Florida. We were together every weekend.”
He has not been charged in connection with the Brown Simpson and Goldman case — nor was Ippolito or any of Simpson’s other associates.
Dershowitz noted that many of the case’s key players are already dead. Simpson died in 2024. Ippolito died in 2006.
“This should be looked at,” Dershowitz said. “This is not a closed case.”
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Dr. Michael Baden, a Fox News contributor and renowned forensic pathologist who had been hired by Simpson’s defense alongside Dr. Henry Lee, had been tasked with evaluating the autopsy findings, including that the same weapon was used on Brown Simpson and Goldman.
While he said he was not involved with looking into whether someone could have assisted with the slayings after the fact, he told Fox News Digital that there was “no scene, autopsy [or] scientific evidence of more than one attacker.”
Cowlings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.