If you were old enough to be anywhere near a TV screen in 1994, there’s one distinctive image that you can probably remember without even trying: O.J. Simpson‘s white Ford Bronco leading the police down the freeway 405 in Los Angeles in one of the most infamous high speed chases of all time.
After the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, the recently deceased NFL star was the prime suspect, and he certainly wasn’t helping his case by fleeing from the police. As his longtime friend and fellow NFL player Al Cowlings drove the white Bronco, The Juice sat in the backseat with a loaded gun in one of the most riveting moments in American pop culture. The chase ultimately ended with Simpson surrendering to the police, and the Bronco went back into Cowlings’ possession.
Here’s a little known fact though: The Bronco was never Simpson’s. It was Cowlings’, but for obvious reasons, he never wanted to get inside the thing ever again. The former NFL star quickly got to work unloading the vehicle. However, Cowlings eventually “scotched” a deal as he realized the Bronco might be worth a whole lot more as Simpson’s trial kicked off a media frenzy.
According to a 2014 investigation by USA Today, Cowlings ultimately sold the Bronco to Michael Pulwer, “The Porn King” owner of an adult film company. From there, the Bronco traded hands several times and popped up all over the country before landing at its current resting place.
The Bronco now sits at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee along with John Dillinger’s 1933 Essex Terraplane and Ted Bundy’s Volkswagen Beetle.
“It’s one of our most popular attractions,” the museum’s programs manager told The Hollywood Reporter. “People come from all over.”
(Via USA Today)