The Ford Bronco initially was conceived and designed for rugged outdoorsy types, a two-door means of escape to nature from the bustling cities of mid-century America.
But it had already been tamed and polished for suburbanites, with cruise control and air conditioning, by 1994, when O.J. Simpson cowered in the back of one, a handgun to his temple, as patrol cars followed it for about two hours in the California twilight.
The model was discontinued two years later. But the Bronco — or at least that white Bronco — became one of America's most iconic automobiles after the slow-speed chase that played out on TV screens before an audience of millions, a moment that was seared indelibly into the nation's cultural memory.
“Kids who were born in the 2000s, even they know that’s O.J.,” Marcus Collins, a University of Michigan marketing professor, said of his students. “It’s just as salient as me showing the twin towers on fire. It definitely became etched in the zeitgeist because of all the contextual associations that we applied to it.”
The Bronco ridden in by Simpson, who died Wednesday, now sits in a crime museum in Tennessee, parked near a Volkswagen Beetle that was driven by serial killer Ted Bundy.
White Ford Bronco is also the name of a band that plays 1990s cover songs, by artists from Metallica to Will Smith to the Spice Girls.
Singer and guitarist Diego Valencia, 41, said he was brainstorming band names in 2008 when a co-worker suggested it.
“With something like ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Beverly Hills 90210,’ you might be losing some people,” Valencia said. “But that was the most ’90s thing ever.”
The White Ford Bronco name is not a celebration of Simpson, Valencia said, but a nod to that moment of “where were you in June of 1994?”
The Bronco rolled off the assembly line in 1966 as one of the first sport-utility vehicles, said Todd Zuercher, an auto historian and author of the 2019 book “Ford Bronco: A History of Ford’s Legendary 4x4.”
“The whole thing back then was get out and get away from the hustle and bustle of urban life and get into the backcountry,” Zuercher said.
The vehicle was marketed to hunters and fishermen but also to families for exploring, Zuercher said. The Bronco was an improvement over competing models, such as the Jeep CJ-5 and the International Scout, because it had a hard top, a heater and maybe even a radio.
SUVs progressively became larger and more luxurious over the years, Zuercher said, and by time of the Simpson car chase, the Bronco was on its fifth generation.
Simpson also owned a Bronco, but it was seized as evidence after blood was found inside. The one involved in the police pursuit was a 1993 XLT model belonging to his friend, former teammate and the driver that evening, Al “A.C.” Cowlings.
Simpson was charged with murder after his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death. Simpson failed to surrender to police as promised and was declared a fugitive on June 17, 1994.
He was spotted later in the Bronco with Cowlings, sparking a 60-mile (96-kilometer) police pursuit across Southern California. More than 90 million Americans watched, thunderstruck, as TV helicopters provided live shots of the action. Thousands more lined freeways and city streets, some cheering the former star running back as the bizarre motorcade passed by.
Cowlings said there was only one thing on his mind: keeping Simpson alive.
“He was checking out,” Cowlings told The Associated Press in 1996. “There’s no way O.J. and I were trying to escape. I was trying to save a friend.”
Clutching a family photo, Simpson was ultimately coaxed out of the Bronco and gave himself up in the driveway of his Brentwood home. Police found a gun, Simpson’s passport, a fake beard and thousands of dollars in cash and checks in the vehicle.
The make of the vehicle seemed to heighten the drama.
“If it were a Jeep Wrangler, it almost could have been any of us,” said Collins, the marketing professor. “But because it was a white Ford Bronco, it stood out. It was a distinctive vehicle with this very distinctive person, O.J. It was still on brand.”
There has been speculation that the chase hastened the Bronco's demise, or alternatively that it led to an uptick in sales.
Zuercher, the auto historian, said the Bronco was already on its last legs at the time. As a two-door SUV, it couldn't compete with four-door models that were family-friendly and extremely popular. The Ford Explorer, for example, was a runaway hit when it came out in 1990.
“Most of the soccer moms of the 1990s weren't driving Ford Broncos," Zuercher said. “There were two more model years after the O.J. chase, and then the Bronco was gone for 25 years.”
The car-chase Bronco was later bought by three men, one of whom was Simpson’s former agent, ESPN reported in 2016. It spent years in a Los Angeles parking garage, among other places, before finding a home at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Besides the Simpson Bronco and Bundy's Beetle, the museum also houses a 1933 Essex Terraplane that belonged to gangster John Dillinger and a 1934 Ford prop car used in the bloody death scene at the end of the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Taylor Smart, the museum's marketing director, said there is still an air of mystery surrounding the O.J. pursuit that captivates people, notably the question of, Why did it even happen?
The museum replays the chase on TV screens in the room where the iconic Bronco is parked behind a barrier, allowing visitors to relive the drama as they use cellphones to take snapshots of a slice of American history.
“A lot of people can name the exact bar that they were at” on that day 30 years ago, Smart said. “It was this shared experience with many across America. Everyone kind of has a story to tell of where they were, what they were doing, when that white Bronco chase came on.”
FILE - In this June 17, 1994, file photo, a white Ford Bronco, driven by Al Cowlings carrying O.J. Simpson, is trailed by Los Angeles police cars as it travels on a freeway in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (AP Photo/Joseph Villarin, File)
FILE - Al Cowlings, with O.J. Simpson hiding, drives a white Ford Bronco as they lead police on a two-county chase along the northbound 405 Freeway towards Simpson's home, June 17, 1994, in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (AP Photo/Lois Bernstein, File)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A surprise announcement that revealed Haiti’s new prime minister is threatening to fracture a recently installed transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for the gang-riddled Caribbean country.
Four of seven council members with voting powers said Tuesday that they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, taking many Haitians aback with their declaration and unexpected political alliance.
The council members who oppose Bélizaire, who served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011, are now weighing options including fighting the decision or resigning from the council.
A person with direct knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified because negotiations are ongoing said the council’s political accord had been violated by the unexpected move and that some council members are considering other choices as potential prime minister.
The council on Tuesday was scheduled to hold an election and choose its president. But two hours and a profuse apology later, one council member said that not only a council president had been chosen, but a prime minister as well. Murmurs rippled through the room.
The Montana Accord, a civil society group represented by a council member with voting powers, denounced in a statement late Tuesday what it called a “complot” hatched by four council members against the Haitian people “in the middle of the night.”
“The political and economic mafia forces have decided to take control of the presidential council and the government so that they can continue to control the state,” the Montana Accord said.
Haitian politics have long been characterized by secretive dealings, but many worry the country cannot afford further political instability as gangs lay siege to the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
“People change parties (like) they’re changing their shirts,” said François Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College in New York and former Haitian politician.
He spoke during an online webinar on Tuesday evening.
Like others, he said he believed that Jean-Charles Moïse, a powerful politician who was a former senator and presidential candidate, was behind Bélizaire’s nomination.
“Interestingly, Moïse, of all the politicians there, is the one calling the shots,” Pierre-Louis said.
Moïse, however, does not sit on the council. His party, Pitit Desalin, is represented by Emmanuel Vertilaire, who is among the four council members who support Bélizaire.
The others are Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the council’s new president.
They could not be immediately reached for comment.
A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four council members who chose the new prime minister state they have agreed to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled, “Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Bloc within the Presidential Council.”
The move prompted the Fanmi Lavalas party to issue a statement Wednesday calling it a “masquerade” and “conspiracy” to guarantee that PHTK “thugs and their allies retain power…and continue the tradition of corruption.”
“The Lavalas Family strongly rejects the betrayal scandal that occurred on April 30,” the party said.
Fils represents the January 30 political group, which is made up of parties including PHTK, whose members include former President Michel Martelly and slain President Jovenel Moïse. Meanwhile, Augustin represents the EDE/RED political party, founded by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and Gilles represents the Dec. 21 agreement, which is associated with f ormer Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned.
Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when gangs in Haiti launched coordinated attacks starting Feb. 29.
They have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since early March and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The violence continues unabated in certain part of Port-au-Prince, including the area around the National Palace.
Haitians are demanding that security be a top priority for the council, which is tasked with selecting a new prime minister and Cabinet, as well as prepare for eventual general elections.
But some Haitians are wary of the council and the decisions it’s taking.
Jean Selcé, a 57-year-old electrician, noted that most of the council members are longtime politicians: “Their past is not really positive.”
“I hope their mentality can change, but I don’t believe it will,” he said. “They don’t really love the country. Who’s dying right now? It’s Haitians like me.”
Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, noted that some of the parties represented on the council are responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.
“It’s a contradiction,” he said. “Every time we seem to be in a crisis, we reappoint the same people and hope that they change their ways, but they do not.”
Raising the same criticism is Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”
He noted in a recent essay that the council is “dominated by the same political currents who have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti over a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished young men in the slums to be used as political bludgeons before - bloated on the proceeds from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises - these groups outgrew the necessity of their patrons.”
More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured across Haiti from January to March, according to the U.N.
In addition, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month given the relentless gang violence.
Street vendors move their booth after gunshots broke out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Police patrol near the National Palace amid the sound of gunshots in the distance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
CORRECTS DAY - People run for cover as shots ring out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Edgard Leblanc Fils speaks after the transitional council named him president of the council in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Transitional council member Frisnel Joseph speaks during a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
IDENTIFIES TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS - Transitional Council members, from left to right; Fritz Alphonse Jean, Laurent Saint-Cyr, Frinel Joseph, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Regine Abraham, Emmanuel Vertilaire, Smith Augustin, Leslie Voltaire and Louis Gerald Gilles, pose for a group photo after a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Fils was chosen as the president of the panel. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Edgard Leblanc Fils, left, and Smith Augustin prepare to pose for a group photo with the transitional council after it named Fils as its president in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
