Unsealed federal records say a mob-linked informant told prosecutors about O.J. Simpson and the missing knife.

Thirty-two years later, a sealed sentencing letter is the newest piece of the most watched murder case of the century, and it is a thin one. The records say an informant claimed knowledge of the weapon's disposal. They do not say he was at the scene, and the prosecutor who wrote the letter told the Times he does not believe Ippolito was involved in the killings. The loudest part, the bloody-hands story, comes from a brother who later tried to take it back.

Fox News reported that a New York Times investigation uncovered previously sealed federal court records showing Joseph "Joey" Ippolito had provided authorities with information about O.J. Simpson's alleged efforts to dispose of the murder weapon, which was never recovered. CBS News reported on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, that the records include a letter from an assistant U.S. attorney to a federal judge asking for a lenient sentence for Ippolito on a prison escape charge because he had become a federal informant. The letter described him as a source who "had become privy to many facts relevant to the [O.J. Simpson] case," including Simpson's "disposal of the murder weapon," CBS News reported. Fox News reported the December 1996 memorandum was unsealed at the newspaper's request and that it also referenced Simpson's attempted flight from authorities. Those are an informant's claims, repeated in a prosecutor's letter. They were never tested in court.

Fox News reported that Ippolito, a convicted drug trafficker with ties to the mafia, escaped from a Florida prison in May 1994 and became a federal informant after his arrest in August 1995, as Simpson's televised trial neared its end. CBS News reported he allegedly met Simpson through Al Cowlings, the driver during the infamous Bronco chase. Fox News reported the Times found information from Ippolito was shared with Los Angeles prosecutors during the trial, but he was never called to testify. Former prosecutor Marcia Clark told the Times she had no knowledge of Ippolito and would have been told if he had credible or relevant evidence, according to both outlets. Fox News reported the former federal prosecutor who wrote the letter, David Kelley, told the paper he does not believe Ippolito was involved in the killings. Fox News reported Cowlings did not respond to the Times' request for comment.

The most dramatic account comes from Ippolito's brother, Sam. Fox News reported Sam Ippolito told the Times that Joey left a Los Angeles apartment to help a friend on the night of June 12, 1994, and returned around midnight with what appeared to be blood on his hands and a bag holding a heavy object, then told Sam to get rid of it while he showered. Sam said he tossed the bag in a dumpster near a construction site along Doheny Drive and claimed he overheard Joey tell Cowlings he had been "helping" Simpson. CBS News reported that after the Times turned down Sam Ippolito's request for compensation, he attempted to retract his statements, and Fox News reported he said he could no longer tell what was real. Fox News reported friends and relatives of Joey Ippolito, who died in 2006, dispute that he took part. Legal analyst Rikki Klieman told CBS News there is "no real reason to trust the word of the brother."

Simpson was acquitted of murder in 1995 and was found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in a 1997 civil trial that ordered $33.5 million paid to their families, CBS News reported. He died in April 2024 at 76. CBS News reported the account echoes Simpson's book "If I Did It," which described a "hypothetical" accomplice who helped dispose of the weapon, and that the Goldman family declined to comment. Simpson estate executor Malcolm LaVergne told CBS News that the three people whose firsthand accounts matter most are gone and that "the continued production of theories, allegations, and sensational accounts may do little to bring meaningful resolution." Fox News reported the Los Angeles Police Department told the Times the case remains an open investigation. No one has been charged based on the new records. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.