OJ Simpson’s Shoes: Bruno Magli Photos, Denials, and FBI Files

The O.J. Simpson Bruno Magli shoes are the size 12 Italian designer shoes whose bloody prints were found at the June 12, 1994, murder scene of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. FBI analysis identified the prints as coming from a rare Bruno Magli Lorenzo model. Simpson swore under oath he never owned them. Photographs later showed him wearing that exact style at a Buffalo Bills game nine months before the killings, and the shoe evidence became central to the civil jury’s finding that he was liable for the two deaths.

What the Bloody Prints at Bundy Showed

FBI Special Agent William Bodziak, a footwear and tire tread specialist, examined the bloody impressions along the front walkway at 875 South Bundy Drive. He compared the sole pattern against a reference library of thousands of designs, contacted roughly 80 manufacturers, and traced it to the Silga factory in Civitanova Marche, Italy, which made the sole (model U-2887) for Bruno Magli.¹²

The prints came from a U.S. size 12 shoe, European size 46. Bodziak created transparent test impressions of European sizes 42 through 47, laid them over crime scene photos, and testified that only the size 46 matched.¹ The trail of prints ran from near Nicole Brown Simpson’s body up the walkway, turned back, and continued toward the driveway. Heel prints also appeared on her dress and back.³

Bodziak found only one set of bloody shoe prints. He testified there was no evidence of a second pair.³ A faint bloody impression consistent with a Bruno Magli sole was also found on the carpet of Simpson’s white Ford Bronco.⁴ Bodziak also noted a “squeegee effect” that made some prints look larger, since excess blood squeezed out at the edges of the sole under pressure, and detail typically faded after six to ten steps.¹

How Rare the Shoes Were

The Bruno Magli Lorenzo was not a shoe most people had ever seen. Bodziak’s investigation found the shoes were sold in about 40 U.S. stores, with roughly 120,000 Silga soles shipped worldwide across all sizes.² Narrowed to size 12, the pool shrank drastically. Bodziak cited 299 pairs of size 12 Lorenzos sold in the United States;⁵ FBI documents released in 2024 put the figure at 296.⁶ Sam Poser, a former Bloomingdale’s associate buyer, testified that only about 200 pairs of the size 12 Lorenzo boot were imported and that Bloomingdale’s was one of just five retailers to carry them.⁷ They retailed for about $160 a pair.

Bodziak added statistical context. Fewer than 10 percent of all shoes sold are size 12, and men who wear that size typically stand between five feet eleven inches and six feet five inches. Simpson stood six feet one inch. No receipt or sales record was ever found tying Simpson to a purchase, and no salesperson recalled selling the shoes to him.³ Poser did recall showing Simpson a size 12 Lorenzo boot, but could not say whether he bought that pair, and Bloomingdale’s had no bar-code system at the time to confirm.⁷

Simpson’s Denials Under Oath

In a civil case deposition, attorney Daniel Petrocelli asked Simpson directly whether he had ever bought Bruno Magli shoes. Simpson answered: “No.” He went further, saying he would never have worn the style. “I know that Bruno Magli makes shoes that look like the shoes they had in court that’s involved with this case, I would have never worn those ugly ass shoes,” Simpson said, adding that they were “ugly to me. Esthetically, I felt that they were ugly.”⁸ He also said he generally did not pay attention to brand names, which he used to support his claim that he could not recall owning them.⁵

The Photographs That Contradicted Him

The photographic evidence did not surface until after Simpson’s October 1995 criminal acquittal. In the spring of 1996, the National Enquirer published a full-length image taken by freelance photographer Harry Scull Jr. at a Buffalo Bills game at Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, on September 26, 1993. Simpson was working as a sideline reporter, and the angle of his foot captured what appeared to be Bruno Magli shoes. Scull said he had sent the image to Pro Football Weekly one week after the game.⁹

The Scull photo went to the civil jury in November 1996. Simpson’s lead attorney, Robert Baker, argued it had been doctored. Simpson, under oath, said flatly: “It’s a fraud.”¹⁰ The defense called Robert Groden, who said the image was “most likely a fraud” and cited at least ten anomalies in the negative, including off-center positioning on the contact sheet, negative length, reflected light color on the shoes, retouching marks on the pants, and mismatched tinting. Groden had no formal photography training. His prior work included creating optical effects, altering slides for advertising, analyzing photos for a congressional Kennedy assassination committee, and being paid by the National Enquirer and a Korean political party to examine alleged “ghost” photos, both of which he deemed fraudulent. Plaintiffs’ attorney Peter Gelblum called his qualifications “feeble,” but Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki allowed him to testify as an expert.¹¹

The Flammer Photos

Six weeks after Simpson swore the Scull photo was fake, the defense theory collapsed. On January 6, 1997, plaintiffs introduced 30 additional photographs the jury had not seen. Freelance photographer E.J. Flammer had found them in his personal archives over the Christmas break. They were shot at the same September 26, 1993, Bills game and showed Simpson’s shoes clearly from the side and top, matching the Bruno Magli Lorenzo style.¹²

Flammer authenticated the images with a dated invoice for the assignment and his sideline pass for the game. One of the photos had already been published in a Buffalo Bills newsletter in November 1993, months before the murders and long before Bruno Magli had any link to the case.¹³ Simpson’s attorneys called it a “total sandbag” and asked for a two-week delay to investigate. Judge Fujisaki denied the request and let plaintiffs show the images to the jury immediately. Groden stuck with his conclusion about the Scull image but conceded on cross that if the Flammer photos were authenticated, he “probably would” rethink it.¹² Thirty-one images from two independent photographers at the same event effectively ended the forgery defense.

Why the Shoes Mattered More in the Civil Trial

Criminal Trial (1995)

In the criminal trial, Bodziak matched 30 bloody footprints at Bundy and told the jury all distinguishable prints pointed to a single killer. He said he could “include him [Simpson] as a candidate as having possibly worn those shoes,” but conceded he could not put a specific pair on Simpson’s feet.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶

What the criminal jury never saw was a picture of Simpson in the shoes. Prosecutors could tie the crime scene prints to his shoe size but not to any pair he had owned. Poser later said of the images that surfaced before the civil trial: “Had they found that photograph prior to the criminal trial, that could have been a game changer.”⁷

Civil Trial (1996–1997)

The photographs changed the weight of the shoe evidence in the wrongful death case. Petrocelli treated the Bruno Magli images as his most prized new evidence and built much of his closing around them.¹⁷ Bodziak matched 18 specific features on the shoes in the photographs to the Lorenzo, including the angled heel, waffle-pattern sole, and deep stitching groove.¹⁸

Petrocelli used the shoes to attack Simpson’s credibility. “What kind of man when shown 30 photographs of him wearing Bruno Magli shoes says, ‘That’s me, that’s my head, that’s my pants — no, not my shoes’?” he asked the jury.¹⁷ Co-counsel framed the shoe question as the whole case: “The question is — the only question is — did Mr. Simpson have Bruno Magli shoes, size 12? If that photo is real, O.J. Simpson is guilty.”¹⁹ The size 12 impressions in the victims’ blood were also slightly pigeon-toed, and Simpson was known to be pigeon-toed.²⁰ On February 4, 1997, the jury found Simpson liable for the wrongful deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages.²¹

What the 2024 FBI Files Added

In June 2024, two months after Simpson’s death from prostate cancer at age 76, the FBI released 475 pages of documents from its investigation. Agents had been directed to contact all 40 U.S. retailers of the Lorenzo, first for general sales information and later to ask specifically whether any retailer recalled selling the shoes to Simpson, his family, or other celebrities.²² The files confirmed that 296 pairs of size 12 shoes matching the crime scene sole had been distributed in the U.S. and that in 1995 the FBI visited the Bruno Magli factory in Italy to obtain molds and soles for the LAPD. Lab findings in the documents concluded the bloody prints at Bundy were made by Bruno Magli shoes in either the Lorenzo or Lyon style.⁶

1
Famous-Trials.com. Bodziak Testimony in the Simpson Trial
2
Simpson Civil Trial Transcript. November 21, 1996 Proceedings
3
Los Angeles Times. Testimony on Bloody Footprints at Crime Scene
4
Famous-Trials.com. Evidence in the Simpson Trial
5
Los Angeles Times. Simpson Civil Trial Developments
6
CBS News. FBI Releases O.J. Simpson Investigation Documents
7
WWD. O.J. Simpson Murder Trial Bruno Magli Shoes Bloomingdale’s
8
ABC News. O.J. Simpson Deposition Tapes
9
UPI. Jury Sees Photo of OJ in Rare Shoes
10
Roanoke Times. Simpson Civil Trial Report
11
Los Angeles Times. Defense Photo Expert Testifies on Simpson Image
12
Los Angeles Times. Jurors See 30 Photos of Simpson Wearing Bruno Magli Shoes
13
Time. Simpson Civil Trial Coverage
14
Chicago Tribune. Testimony Turns to Bloody Footprints
15
Los Angeles Times. Prosecution Rebuts Defense Imprint Theory
16
CNN. Court Archive: Simpson Trial
17
Roanoke Times. Simpson Civil Trial Closing Arguments
18
Highsnobiety. O.J. Simpson Bruno Magli Guilty
19
Spokesman-Review. Shoe Photos Are Shocker at Trial
20
New York Times. Triumph of Justice (Excerpt)
21
FOX 13 Seattle. O.J. Simpson Estate Accepts Fred Goldman’s $58M Wrongful Death Claim
22
The Athletic (New York Times). O.J. Simpson FBI Document Release