A small piece of history in the double-murder case against O.J. Simpson lies beneath the shadow of jetliners not far from O’Hare International Airport.
That’s because about the time the bodies of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were found outside her Los Angeles home on June, 13, 1994, the former football star and actor was boarding a red-eye flight to Chicago for a golf outing.
Simpson’s brief stay at the former O’Hare Plaza Hotel, now a Holiday Inn, at 5615 N. Cumberland Ave., sparked an exhaustive search by local law enforcement officials, who scoured a wooded area near the hotel and searched his room for evidence that might link him to the murders.
Police combed through Room 915 on June 13 for 4 1/2 hours, dusting for fingerprints to confirm that Simpson had stayed there. The room’s phone records were turned over to Los Angeles police. Chicago police retrieved sheets, towels and a bloody washcloth.
A lawyer for Simpson confirmed that a bloody towel was found in the room, but he said Simpson used it when he broke a glass in the room and cut himself upon learning of his former wife’s death.
Simpson had arrived at the hotel about 6:15 a.m. that day after departing from Los Angeles shortly before midnight. The bodies were found about 12:20 a.m. He landed at O’Hare Airport about 5:40 a.m. to attend a corporate golf outing for Hertz that afternoon.
“His one comment was, ‘I need some sleep,'” Peter Phillips, the hotel’s manager, told the Sun-Times at the time. “He was fine. He was tired. He wanted to go to bed.”
Simpson only stayed at the hotel for a few hours before
