O.J. Simpson was cremated Wednesday and will not receive a public memorial service, his estate lawyer told The Associated Press.
Attorney Malcolm LaVergne reportedly said he and some unspecified other people were present for the morning event at Palm Mortuary in Las Vegas. Simpson's ashes will reportedly be given to his children, “to do with as they please, according to the wishes of their father.”
A memorial service would have undoubtedly been awkward for all involved, just as the immediate reaction was for anyone who wanted to positively eulogize the former star.
Simpson died last Wednesday after a lengthy battle with cancer. It was the end of a life that was once known for football stardom, but was tainted forever after the murder trial that captivated America in 1995. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.
The decision to cremate Simpson was part of a deliberate choice to not have his brain examined for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease commonly seen in former football players. Simpson had been speculated by many to have suffered from the condition, of which impulse control problems and aggression are symptoms.
The families of many deceased football players have donated the athletes' brains for research purposes, but Simpson's family reportedly gave a hard no to scientists, as LaVergne told the New York Post:
“With OJ everything’s wild, but I’ve been getting calls from medical centers that are doing CTE testing asking me for OJ’s brain . . . that is not happening,” LaVergne said.
“I may consult with the children on it, but I haven’t heard anything about it, so it’s just not going to happen. OJ wants all of his body cremated for his children to do what they see fit.”
With Simpson's remains now taken care of, the largest issue left is what to do with his estate.
The AP reports Simpson's four children are the only beneficiaries of his estate. LaVergne, Simpson's longtime lawyer and executor of his will, said he is now working to determine the value of Simpson's assets.
Where it gets complicated is the past litigation against Simpson by Brown and Goldman's families, who won $33.5 million in judgements against Simpson for wrongful death and battery after he was found not guilty. Simpson never came close to paying those judgments and the families continued to claim interest was building on that debt.
LaVergne said last weekend he would fight to block any payout of those remaining judgements and would work specifically to ensure the Goldman family gets "nothing." He backtracked that days later, telling the Hollywood Reporter that the claim of Fred Goldman, Ron's father, would be accepted and handled in accordance with Nevada law.
He blamed basic reactionary anger at Goldman saying Simpson's death was "no great loss" for his initial response, via the Reporter:
“Within an hour of knowing that O.J. died, he started talking s***. My advocate instinct is was, ‘Oh, you’re gonna keep s***ting on him even after he’s dead?’” he said. “’Fine, you know? You get nothing.’ And so, those were my remarks then. But I backtracked, and they were pretty harsh remarks. And now I’m going in the other direction.”
The broader context of what LaVergne termed "talking s***" was Goldman expressing pain at the loss of his son after nearly three decades.
Creditors are typically ahead in line of beneficiaries in wills (it's hard to leave your loved ones money that you owe somebody else), but the bigger issue is there just might not be much left. David Cook, the Goldman family's lawyer, reportedly said he believed the civil judgement to now be worth more than $114 million, while LaVergne went even further by saying it was more than $200 million.
Simpson obviously didn't have that, and it might be hard figuring out just what he had. From the AP:
LaVergne said he intends invite representatives of the Goldman and Brown families to “view my homework” with the Simpson estate, ”with the caveat that if they believe something else is out there ... they’re going to have to use their own attorneys, their own resources, to try and chase down that pot of gold.”
