It was 20 years ago today that O.J. Simpson made his iconic getaway on the highways of California, riding in the back seat of his friend’s white 1992 Ford Bronco while a trail of police cruisers and a helicopter followed.
Former football great Al Cowlings navigated the vehicle from Orange County onto Highway 405 toward Brentwood, as an estimated 95 million Americans tuned in to the real-time media broadcasts, right around 6:45 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the Daily Beast reported.
Mr. Cowlings kept the Bronco at a speed of around 35 miles per hour, while Simpson sat in the back with his passport, $8,750, a costume goatee and mustache and a gun, the Daily Beast said.
And while Simpson has been in jail since 2007 on armed robbery and kidnapping counts, the Bronco has been largely hidden from view.
Ford discontinued the model — and has not yet brought it back, the Daily Beast reported. But the actual Bronco that Simpson rode in was sold to Michael Pulwer, a friend of the Cowlings family, for about $75,000, the Daily Beast said.
Mr. Pulwer wouldn’t confirm whether he still owns the vehicle. But word is it’s spent most of the past 20 years in storage — except for a handful of key, high-profile outings.
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In 2012, the Bronco was parked in the lobby of Luxor Hotel near a sports memorabilia shop, the Daily Beast reported. A few months later, it was parked on the front lawn of newspaper tycoon Peter Brant’s Greenwich, Conn., home, an apparent sideshow to a Nate Lowman art event, the news outlet reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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