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What Became of the White Bronco from the O.J. Simpson Pursuit?
A famous vehicle comes with a memorable car chase. There may be no more iconic — or infamous — car than O.J. Simpson’s interstate chase, which captivated the nation. Simpson was once one of the sports’ most popular figures.
The University of Southern California running back earned the Heisman Trophy in 1968 and went on to have a Hall of Fame NFL career.
Simpson established records with the Buffalo Bills before joining his hometown San Francisco 49ers and retiring in 1979.
As proven by his enormously popular Hertz commercials, the San Francisco native was gorgeous, charming, and incredibly marketable.
With his playing days behind him, Simpson ventured into the film industry and found success, co-starring in the Naked Gun franchise with Leslie Nielsen.
But then came June 17, 1994, with the white Bronco.
Simpson had a dark side that had never been fully exposed, at least not to the wider public.
His ex-wife, Nicole Brown, had also been abused in the past.
When she and Ron Goldman, 25, were found brutally slain on June 12, 1994, the police sought to speak with Simpson.
O.J. was not prepared to speak, resulting in one of the craziest nights in American history.
The white Bronco in O.J. Simpson’s vehicle chase was seen by 95 million people
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The police had arranged Simpson’s surrender for 11:00 a.m. PST on June 17, 1994.
He’d become a suspect in the murders of his ex-wife and a friend of hers.
But he didn’t show up.
Nobody knew where Simpson was as the hours passed. But, eventually, everyone found it out.
Simpson became a fugitive from justice, and the police issued an arrest warrant for him.
A television helicopter spotted a white Ford Bronco on a LA freeway at 6:45 p.m., and the chase began.
More than 95 million viewers tuned in to follow the low-speed chase through Southern California over the next three hours.
It came to a close at Simpson’s home in Brentwood, California.
The white Bronco, driven by Al Cowlings, a longtime friend and teammate of O.J., became almost as renowned as the two people inside it.
So, what happened to that white Bronco?
Al Cowlings desired to rid himself of the white Bronco
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Many people assumed the white Bronco belonged to Simpson since he had one just like it.
However, it belonged to Al Cowlings. Simpson’s was finally confiscated as evidence and destroyed.
Cowlings had played football with Simpson from high school to two different universities to the NFL.
During the pursuit, he contacted 911 and told authorities that O.J. had a pistol to his head and only wanted to go home before being arrested.
Cowlings was detained that night for assisting a fugitive. They later dismissed the charges.
Cowlings was keen to get rid of the white Bronco after the pursuit and the “Trial of the Century.”
Don Kreiss, a friend of Cowlings who works for a sports agent, told USA Today in 2014 that Cowlings ordered him to locate a buyer for the white Bronco.
Kreiss contacted memorabilia collector Michael Kronick, who agreed to pay $75,000 for it in exchange for 250 autographed photos of Cowlings driving it.
Cowlings agreed to the deal at first. Cowlings, however, failed to appear when the two were meant to meet on November 2, 1994, the day before the jury was to be selected in O.J.
Simpson’s criminal trial.
He initially called Kreiss, who was also present at the meeting, to inform him that he would be late.
But then he called again to tell him the transaction had fallen through.
Cowlings was sued by Kronick.
They agreed to settle the dispute for an unknown sum.
Cowlings apparently objected to Kronick’s plan to utilize the white Bronco to replicate the chase, which would finally terminate at Nicole Brown’s grave, as a tourist attraction.
According to Simpson’s former agent, Mike Gilbert, this is the case.
In 1995, Gilbert, Cowlings’ attorney Stanley Stone, and a man named Michael Pulwer, who made his wealth in the porn industry, eventually got rid of the white bronco.
They both paid the same $75,000 fee.
Also, read Giancarlo Stanton, Matthew Christopher Schnell, John Daly’s Married Life:
What happened to the white Bronco from the O.J. Simpson chase?
As police cars chase O.J. Simpson in his friend’s Ford Bronco, motorists stop and wave.
O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings flee in a white Bronco | Liaison Jean-Marc Giboux
The saga of the white Bronco spans from 1995 to 2012.
It was merely sitting in an underground parking garage of Pulwer’s LA apartment development.
The battery was changed on a regular basis, but it was hardly driven.
In 17 years, the car traveled fewer than 20 miles.
The white Bronco was suddenly on exhibit at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.
A man connected to the hotel had learned of its whereabouts in Los Angeles.
He contacted the proprietors and requested if he could use it for a few months to aid in the establishment of a new sports memorabilia museum.
They both agreed.
However, the situation did not work out because the white Bronco must be disassembled outside in order to fit through the doors and then reconstructed inside.
Gilbert and the others were not pleased.
Gilbert attempted to sell the white Bronco for $1.3 million on the reality show Pawn Stars in 2017, just around the time Simpson was released from jail after spending nine years for armed robbery and kidnapping.
Rick Harrison, the host, elected to abstain. Gilbert has stated that he will never accept anything less than a million dollars for it.
He describes it as the second-most-viewed automobile in American history, after only the car in which JFK was killed.
However, before that program aired, Gilbert struck a contract with the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
The white Bronco is still on exhibit there now, despite the fact that Gilbert and his two partners still own it.
Nobody is in a hurry to sell it until the correct price is offered.
