The Bronco is among the most popular and most prominent exhibits at the privately owned museum, which opened in 2016 after a similar crime museum closed in Washington. The vehicle belonged to Al Cowlings, Simpson’s friend and former teammate, who was driving it about 40 miles per hour as Simpson fled the police.
The car was previously featured on a 2017 episode of the reality television show “Pawn Stars,” on which Mike Gilbert, a former agent for Simpson, said he purchased the car in part to keep it from potentially being used by a tour company. He unsuccessfully sought more than $1 million for it on the show.
The museum declined to say who allowed for the display of the car, citing privacy concerns.
“Different generations have different responses to it, because obviously people who watched the chase live and who were around for that respond differently,” Pennington said. She added, “Most people are just shocked to see it because it is the white Bronco from the O.J. chase and it’s such an iconic moment in history.”
Never far from the museum’s mind, Pennington said, are the victims of the crimes featured in the exhibits, or the pain experienced by those who survive them. She said that while Simpson’s death might change aspects of a temporary display recognizing the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, it planned to focus on the victims.
On Thursday, the museum had taped a label acknowledging Simpson’s death on a plexiglass case next to the Bronco that displays a set of his golf clubs. At least two visitors learned of his death from the sign.
“It was pretty wild — you’d have people arguing about it, you know, at Waffle House,” David Hardigree, who was visiting from Northern Kentucky, recalled of the Simpson trial, and the debates over whether he was guilty or not.
But his visit on Thursday, he said, was just “ironic timing.”
