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Ex-wife of O.J. found slain

LOS ANGELES, June 13 -- The former wife of football legend, actor and TV personality O.J. Simpson was found dead Monday, apparently stabbed to death along with a young man on a bloody walkway at her condominium.

Simpson, a Hall of Fame running back for Southern Cal and the Buffalo Bills, was taken in for questioning, but police said he was not a suspect and he was released after several hours.

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Simpson's lawyer, Howard Weitzman, said he is satisfied the former football star 'had nothing to do with this.' Weitzman said Simpson flew to Chicago for a business appointment on the 'red eye' late Sunday. He flew back Monday morning after being notified that the body of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, had been found about midnight along with a man identified as Ronald Goldman, 25.

'Simpson is being questioned as a witness,' said police spokesman Lt. John Dunkin. 'My understanding is he is cooperating with the investigation.'

Investigators spent much of the day searching Simpson's nearby Brentwood mansion, but would not comment on the results.

Police said a passerby spotted the bodies on a walkway leading to Nicole Simpson's condominium in the wealthy Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

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Police did not immediately say how the victims died, but there was considerable blood at the scene, and what an official called 'sharp force injuries' on the bodies. Investigators said they found black gloves and a beanie in some nearby bushes.

The Simpson's two children, a boy 5 and a girl 7, apparently slept through the slayings and were found unharmed in the condo.

Simpson pleaded no contest in 1989 to misdemeanor charges of assaulting his wife, and court records show he threatened to kill her as he was hitting her. They were divorced in 1992, but neighbors said they were attempting a reconciliation, and the couple and the children were at a recital over the weekend.

Simpson won the Heisman Trophy as the nation's best player in 1968 at the University of Southern California and went on to an extraordinary 11-year career in the National Football League, where he rushed for more than 11,000 yards for Buffalo and San Francisco. He was the league's Most Valuable Player in 1973 when he ran for 2,003 yards.

Simpson went into broadcasting as a color commentator in 1969, and his acting career included the popular 'Naked Gun' series of movies. He also was a television spokesman for several companies, including the Hertz rental car chain.

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He was born Orenthal James Simpson on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco.

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