OJ Simpson was questioned today after he allegedly broke into the Palace Station casino last night and stole some sports memorabilia at gunpoint from memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley. OJ admitted to the AP he took the memorabilia (which he once owned and claims was his) but denies he broke in and used a gun.
[Beardsley] he had arranged to meet with someone last night who was interested in buying the suit and other Simpson memorabilia. Beardsley says the man was actually a member of Simpson’s crew. He says the men stormed the room, two of them with guns drawn.
Beardsley says the men claimed to be police officers. OJ and others demanded that Beardsley and two other men surrender their cell phones. Beardsley refused to do so. Beardsley says the group stole every piece of memorabilia in the room, including items signed by Joe Montana. They also took a case of never-released leather editions of Simpson’s book, “I Want to Tell You.”
Here’s a side by side comparison of OJ Simpson’s mugshot from 1994 after being booked on double homicide charges (left), and his mugshot from 2007 after being booked on multiple felony robbery charges (right). Can you believe he’s already 60-years-old? Looking at him I would’ve guessed 58, maybe even 57.
Comment by Celebrity Gossip on 17 September 2007:
“The district attorney said he expected Simpson to ultimately be charged with seven felonies and one gross misdemeanor. If convicted of the booking charges, Simpson would face up to 30 years in state prison on each robbery count alone.”
Comment by Celebrity Gossip on 19 September 2007:
O.J. Simpson is currently sitting in jail waiting for his hearing in the alleged robbery incident of a memorabilia collector. The third suspect that was with O.J. that night turned himself over to the police. 53 year-old Clarence Stewart was one of the men who was carrying a weapon and threatening to use it at the time of the robbery. He handed himself over to police at his lawyer’s office yesterday. His actual charge is two felony counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with a deadly weapon and conspiracy.
Clarence has also surrendered some of the stolen items including autographed footballs.
Comment by National Enquirer on 20 September 2007:
Was OJ Simpson high on cocaine during his ill-fated attempt to retrieve “his stuff?”
The folks at the bar of the Palms hotel recall hearing OJ go off in an “obscenity spewing” rant about how people were trying to rip him off and that he was going to stop it. He was soon joined by two others.
“They introduced themselves as ‘Goldie’ and ‘Spence’,” a source told The ENQUIRER. “One of them said, ‘Hey, Juice, we’ll back you up. We’ll be your bodyguards so nothing happens to you!’”
As simply as that, the stage was set for O.J.’s return behind bars.
“O.J. was already in a rage that night,” said the source. “He was pretty cranked up on booze and cocaine.”
O.J. later burst into a hotel room and terrified both Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, who were selling memorabilia that O.J. insisted was stolen from him, including the suit he wore the day of his murder charge acquittal. O.J. also thought they were selling some of his late mother’s possessions.
But Fromong told The NATIONAL ENQUIRER, “O.J. made a terrible mistake — he and these gun-toting guys came for stuff I’ve never had.
“All the memorabilia we planned to sell, I had previously paid O.J. to autograph.
“His late mother’s stuff was bought by someone else sight unseen at an auction after her storage unit rent went unpaid. And the suit wasn’t included in the memorabilia we were selling, either.
“We were totally set up!
“When these four very big men burst into the hotel room — two of them with guns drawn — O.J. was right behind them, yelling, ‘I want my suit!’
“One of the men straight-armed me and shouted, ‘I’m gonna blow your brains out, you son of a bitch!’