text: By Laura Woods/GoBankingRates 
   
   On Oct. 3, 1995, a jury acquitted Orenthal James "O.J." Simpson of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The murders -- and resulting O.J. Simpson trial and verdict -- drastically changed many peoples' opinions of the former football sensation. 
   
   More than two decades later, Simpson sits behind bars after being convicted for entirely different crimes. But that could change soon. On Thursday, Simpson will appear before a Nevada judge to make his case for parole. If parole is granted, "The Juice" could be on the loose as soon as Oct. 1. 
   
   In anticipation of the hearing, let's take a look at O.J. Simpson's net worth, as well as revisit his infamous murder trial. 
   
   Estimated net worth: $250,000 
   
   His bank account was once flush, but O.J. Simpson now has little money left from his days has a high-earning football star. Celebrity Net Worth reports O.J. Simpson's net worth was $10.8 million when he and Nicole Brown Simpson divorced in 1992. That sum is equal to more than $19 million as of May 2017. 
   
   The divorce settlement revealed Simpson was earning $55,000 per month in 1992 — more than $97,000 in May 2017 dollars. Much of this was from car rental company Hertz, where he served as spokesperson for nearly 20 years. Simpson was earning $550,000 per year from the company at the time of his divorce, according to The Washington Post. 
   
   Money has seemingly been tight for Simpson since the Nicole Brown murder trial. Despite being acquitted in the famous criminal case, he was found guilty in a subsequent civil suit and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the Brown and Goldman families in February 1997. In a 2014 interview with CNBC, Goldman's sister Kim said the family has collected less than 1 percent of the judgment. 
   
   Also in 1997, Simpson defaulted on the mortgage of his estate in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the property went into foreclosure. Simpson purchased the 6,200-square-foot mansion for $650,000 in 1977. The new owner paid $4 million for the house before demolishing it. 
   
   Football career and acting highlights 
   
   O.J. Simpson's football career is nothing short of legendary. The Heisman Trophy winner made a name for himself as a member of the University of Southern California football team, when he pulled off a jaw-dropping 64-yard run against UCLA. He was chosen by the Buffalo Bills as the first pick in the 1969 NFL draft. Simpson played for the team for nine seasons. 
   
   In 1973, the running back made history as the first NFL player to rush more than 2,000 yards in a season. Simpson retired from the NFL in 1979, after spending his final two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. 
   
   Also an actor, Simpson appeared in nearly three dozen films and television shows from 1968 to 2008. Some of his most high-profile works included playing Nordberg in "The Naked Gun" movie franchise and T.D. Parker in the television series "1st and Ten: The Championship." 
   
   Nicole Brown murder trial 
   
   In June 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found stabbed to death outside her Brentwood condominium. Days later, O.J. Simpson was charged with the murders. After promising to turn himself in, Simpson famously led police on a 60-mile low-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco. He eventually surrendered at his Brentwood home. 
   
   Regarded as the trial of the century, the O.J. Simpson trial ran from Jan. 24, 1995 to Oct. 2, 1995. Judge Lance A. Ito allowed cameras in the courtroom, granting the public a front row seat. Some 150 million viewers tuned in to watch the reading of the not-guilty verdict, making it one of the most watched events in history. The country is still divided regarding the O.J. Simpson trial and verdict today. 
   
   Prison sentence 
   
   O.J. Simpson now sits in a Nevada jail for crimes entirely unrelated to the Nicole Brown murder. This punishment stems from a September 2007 robbery, where Simpson and five other men forced their way into sports memorabilia collector Bruce Fromong's Las Vegas hotel room and robbed him at gunpoint. Simpson said he was trying to reclaim personal items stolen from his home years ago. 
   
   The guilty verdict in this O.J. Simpson court case came on the 13th anniversary of his double murder acquittal. The former athlete and his co-defendant were found guilty on 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon. 
   
   After this O.J. Simpson trial, "The Juice" was sentenced to anywhere from nine to 33 years in prison. The Nevada parole board won't decide his fate until July 20, but the outlook appears to be in Simpson's favor. He already went before the board on five of his charges in July 2013 and was granted parole on those offenses. 
   
   If he's released, Simpson will be able to live on his NFL pension, which is an estimated $25,000 per month. By law, the Brown and Goldman families are unable to touch these funds to settle the judgment against Simpson. 
   
   More from GoBankingRates: ||||| CLOSE If the hearing goes as expected, Simpson would be eligible to leave prison on Oct. 1. USA TODAY Sports 
   
   O.J. Simpson could be released from prison as soon as Oct. 1 if he is granted parole on Thursday. (Photo: Ethan Miller, AP) 
   
   When O.J. Simpson leaves prison for the first time in almost a decade, possibly as early as Oct. 1, he will no doubt have a list of things he wants to do. 
   
   See his children. Reconnect with old friends. Play golf. Figure out why people are making themselves look like dogs, mice and pieces of bread in photos on smart phones that will disappear in 24 hours. Figure out why anyone would take a photo only to have it disappear in 24 hours, for that matter. 
   
   Actually, that last bit might be instructive. 
   
   RELATED: 
   
   Simpson’s release from prison – his parole hearing in Nevada on Thursday is considered something of a formality – will produce a spectacle unlike anything we’ve seen since he went behind bars. He’s been a national obsession for the better part of a quarter-century now, these past nine years the closest there’s been to a respite, and his release from prison will only renew the rabid curiosity. 
   
   Has his time behind bars changed him? Does Simpson, who turned 70 on July 9, look different? Is he repentant? Humbled? What does he have to say now about the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman? 
   
   It might be tempting, both financially and psychologically, to indulge the hype. A few months back, there was even speculation he could land a reality TV show. 
   
   It also would be the worst possible thing he could do. 
   
   Instead of courting the spotlight, Simpson needs to disappear. Walk out of prison, head straight for an SUV with tinted windows – definitely not a white Ford Bronco – and vanish from the public eye, leaving the gawkers in his wake without so much as a wave or a glance backward. 
   
   Otherwise, he risks falling into the same toxic mentality that landed him in prison in the first place. 
   
   “He just says, 'We’ll be together again, my life will go back to normal,’ ” longtime friend Tom Scotto told USA TODAY Sports over the weekend. 
   
   Normal? There’s never been such a thing for O.J. Simpson. 
   
   A Hall of Fame running back who became a beloved broadcaster, actor and pitchman, Simpson wasn’t just a household name. He was a welcome guest in every American household. 
   
   Until the murders. 
   
   The Bronco chase, the so-called “trial of the century,” the bloody glove, those “ugly-ass shoes,” even a Kardashian thrown in for good measure – we didn’t realize it then, but the O.J. circus was the advent of reality TV. Everything about Simpson, before and after the trial, became a source of fascination. 
   
   Simpson was acquitted of murder charges Oct. 3, 1995, but was found responsible for Brown and Goldman’s deaths two years later in civil court. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to their families. 
   
   That’s not why he’s in prison, though. A confrontation with memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas led to armed robbery and kidnapping charges, and he was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in 2008. 
   
   Simpson’s time behind bars hasn’t diminished interest in him. A documentary on him won an Oscar this year while a television series dominated the Emmys last year. It’s no surprise, really. We have become a culture that revels in celebrity, drama and other people’s misfortunes, and Simpson checks every one of those boxes. 
   
   Which makes a vanishing act all the more imperative. 
   
   Simpson knows what happens when ego and hubris get the best of him. “I just wish I’d have never gone to that room,” he said, referring to the Las Vegas robbery, during a 2013 hearing that led to him being paroled on five of the lesser charges against him. 
   
   There’s even less benefit now to being a public curiosity. 
   
   Sure, there will be some who wish Simpson well. But many more will be rooting just as hard for him to fail. Opinions were set hard and fast long ago, and nothing Simpson does after his release is likely to change them. 
   
   Besides, any money he makes wouldn’t be his for long, anyway, with the Brown and Goldman families expected to renew their pursuit of the millions they’re owed. Though Simpson can shield many of his assets – his NFL pension, for example, is protected by law – Goldman’s father was awarded the rights to Simpson’s supposed confessional, If I Did It. 
   
   Though Simpson’s friend Scotto says the former football player is “in the best shape I’ve ever seen him,” we all have expiration dates and Simpson is closer to his now than when he went to prison. 
   
   He’s wasted the past nine years of his life. Unless he stays out of the spotlight, he’s likely to burn the rest, too. 
   
   Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. ||||| O.J. Simpson Parole Hearing Could Lead To His Release From Prison 
   
   Enlarge this image toggle caption Ethan Miller/AP Ethan Miller/AP 
   
   O.J. Simpson will find out on Thursday if he soon will be released from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. He has been held there for nearly nine years for convictions on armed robbery and other charges. 
   
   The former NFL hero, TV pitchman and movie star, now 70, stands a good chance of being granted parole when he appears before the Nevada Parole Board via video link. No one has registered to testify against him. He will likely try to persuade the board of his good behavior behind bars. 
   
   If paroled, Simpson would be released from prison no sooner than Oct. 1. 
   
   Enlarge this image toggle caption AP/Nevada Department of Corrections AP/Nevada Department of Corrections 
   
   As with all things O.J., there has been a tremendous media interest in the parole hearing. Thirty media organizations will be on-site in Carson City and at Lovelock Correctional Center, and many outlets will be streaming it live. 
   
   Ordinarily, the parole board's decision would be announced a few weeks after the hearing. But the board announced that it will rule in Simpson's case the same day as the hearing, saying that it has been a "disruption" and the board wants to "return to normal as soon as possible after the hearing." 
   
   It's not the way many Americans imagined he'd do time. The fame and adulation he once enjoyed are hard to overestimate. But it's also hard to overestimate how shocked his fans were when he was arrested in 1994 in the brutal slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. 
   
   He was acquitted of the murder charges in what became known as "the trial of the century." But years later, he couldn't beat the more mundane criminal charges stemming from a burglary gone wrong. 
   
   In 1995, when Simpson was acquitted in the brutal stabbing deaths of his ex-wife and her friend, opinions on the verdict broke down largely along racial lines. Many African-Americans believed that the verdict was fair, but most whites thought he'd gotten away with murder. 
   
   Two award-winning 2016 television productions provided reminders of how shocking the murder charges, trial and verdict were at the time: ESPN's documentary O.J.: Made in America and FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson. 
   
   Simpson had been a Heisman Trophy winner while playing football in college. He made the NFL Hall of Fame. After retiring from sports, he became a commentator and actor. He starred in commercials for Hertz Rental Cars that showed him hurdling obstacles in an airport the way he once hurdled defensive linemen. He proved himself a decent comic foil in the popular Naked Gun movies. He was glamorous and rich. 
   
   But after all his glory and his infamy, he was convicted of a botched 2007 burglary in a cheap Las Vegas hotel. Along with a handful of accomplices, the former star broke into the room of a couple of sports memorabilia dealers. They had some items that Simpson believed belonged to him and that he wanted back. A couple of guys with Simpson brought guns. 
   
   Simpson was later convicted on 12 criminal counts including armed robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years. 
   
   In his 2013 parole hearing, Simpson told the Nevada Parole Board that he wished he'd never gone into the hotel room. 
   
   "I wish I'd said, 'Keep it and not worry about it,' " Simpson said. 
   
   He also argued to the parole board that he'd been a model prisoner. When he'd arrived at Lovelock, "I gave [prison officials] my word that I would try to be, or would be, the best prisoner they ever had here. And I think for the most part, I've kept my word on that." 
   
   He spoke via video conference from prison, while the parole board met in Carson City more than 100 miles away. That same procedure will be followed Thursday. 
   
   In making parole decisions, the state of Nevada uses a scoring system to evaluate the risk a prisoner might pose to the community. The categories include an inmate's behavior in prison, as well as age. 
   
   "He deserves parole. It's as simple as that," says Yale Galanter, one of Simpson's defense attorneys in the armed robbery case. 
   
   Galanter believes that the Las Vegas jury was dishing out some payback, not so much for Simpson's murder acquittal 13 years earlier, but for a 2007 book that Simpson co-authored called, If I Did It. 
   
   Galanter says he could hear the jury's anger over the book when he questioned them. And he didn't blame them. 
   
   "How do you write a book that your children are going to see called 'If I killed your mother?' and 'If I killed your mother's friend?' I thought that was a totally, socially disgusting act." 
   
   In 1997, two years after his acquittal, Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Brown and Goldman in a civil suit brought by their families. He was ordered to give control of the book to the Goldman family as partial payment of the civil judgment, and they changed the name to If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. ||||| Former football star and actor O.J. Simpson could be one step closer to freedom after more than eight years in a Nevada prison. 
   
   What you need to know about OJ Simpson's parole hearing in Nevada (Elaine Wilson/Las Vegas Review-Journal) 
   
   O.J. Simpson returns to the witness stand to testify after a break during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas on May 15, 2013. (Julie Jacobson/AP, Pool, file) 
   
   O.J. Simpson looks over at his lawyer Tom Pitaro during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/AP, Pool) 
   
   Defense attorney Patricia Palm, left, and O.J. Simpson appear at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/AP, Pool) 
   
   O.J. Simpson listens to audio recording played during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court, Thursday, May 16, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Julie Jacobson/AP, Pool) 
   
   O.J. Simpson testifies during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine to 33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus, to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (Pool Photo/ Julie Jacobson) 
   
   FILE - In this May 13, 2013, file photo, O.J. Simpson appears at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court, in Las Vegas. Los Angeles police are investigating a knife purportedly found some time ago at the former home of Simpson, who was acquitted of murder charges in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, Pool, File) 
   
   CARSON CITY — Former football star and actor O.J. Simpson could be one step closer to freedom after more than eight years in a Nevada prison. 
   
   Simpson, 70, could be released from Lovelock Correctional Center by Oct. 1 if the state Parole Board rules favorably on his release request following a Thursday hearing. Simpson will take part from Lovelock, a medium security facility where he is serving his sentence. The hearing will be teleconferenced to the board in Carson City. 
   
   Four members of the Parole Board will deliberate in private following the 10 a.m. testimony and then take a public vote. If the vote is unanimous in favor of parole, Simpson will be released this fall. Two other commissioners could participate if the vote is not unanimous. 
   
   Media interest in the hearing is overwhelming, unlike his first hearing in 2013 when Simpson was paroled from his first set of sentences for convictions related to the 2007 robbery of two memorabilia collectors at the Palace Station hotel-casino in Las Vegas. 
   
   Simpson is serving a nine- to 33-year sentence for the 12 convictions — including kidnapping and armed robbery — related to the incident. 
   
   Simpson said he was trying to recover memorabilia stolen from him. In his 2013 parole hearing, Simpson expressed remorse for the armed heist of memorabilia collectors Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. 
   
   Simpson was found not guilty by a Los Angeles jury in 1995 of the 1994 deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, in one of the most celebrated trials in American history. A jury in a civil trial in 1997 ordered Simpson to pay $25 million in punitive damages to the families of Simpson and Goldman after finding him liable for the murders. 
   
   Before those deaths, Simpson — known also by his nickname, “The Juice” — was one of the best known and liked former athletes in America, regularly appearing in films and TV commercials. 
   
   Second parole hearing 
   
   Simpson has been incarcerated at Lovelock, about 130 miles northeast of Carson City, since December 2008. He was paroled in July 2013 on two kidnapping and three other charges stemming from his 2007 robbery. He is now up for parole on a second set of sentences. 
   
   The sentences that are aggregated for purposes of the hearing include four concurrent sentences for use of a deadly weapon and two consecutive sentences for assault with a deadly weapon. 
   
   While the hearings are public, testimony is limited to the inmate, a representative of the inmate, if any, victims of the crime and one family member or supporter of the inmate. The board will consider confidential information, including a pre-sentence investigation, a parole hearing report, a risk assessment and letters of support or opposition, if any. 
   
   Well behaved 
   
   Simpson said at his 2013 parole hearing that he had been a model inmate during his five years in Lovelock. Simpson said he would “be the best prisoner they’ve ever had here” when he arrived and “for the most part I’ve kept my word on that.” 
   
   “I’ve not had any incidents despite all the stories in the tabloids and everything,” he told the parole board. 
   
   The board on Thursday will get an update on Simpson’s behavior over the past four years. 
   
   Simpson said in his 2013 statement that he had spoken to the victims and apologized for the incident, which he said got out of hand. 
   
   “We have, for the most part, put it behind us,” he said. 
   
   Simpson said the difference between he and other inmates is that they tried to steal other people’s property or money while he was trying to recover property that belonged to him. 
   
   “Make no mistake, I would give it all back to these guys,” he said. “They can have it all to give me back five years.” 
   
   Simpson said he has missed seeing his two younger children go through high school and missed his sister’s funeral. 
   
   Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.
target: – OJ Simpson's parole hearing in Nevada will be broadcast live at 1pm EDT Thursday and there's a strong chance that his path to freedom will be clear by the end of the afternoon. Nobody has registered to testify against the 70-year-old Simpson, who has been in prison for nine years on 12 convictions related to a Las Vegas robbery and will appear before the Nevada Parole Board via videolink, NPR reports. Thursday's hearing will cover four concurrent sentences for use of a deadly weapon and two consecutive sentences for assault with a deadly weapon, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Four board members will vote after the hearing and Simpson could be free by Oct. 1 if they are all in favor of parole. If Simpson is indeed released this fall—which appears almost certainly to be the decision—it will "renew the rabid curiosity" in the case and "produce a spectacle unlike anything we’ve seen since he went behind bars," Nancy Armour at USA Today predicts. There has even been talk that Simpson might end up with a reality TV show, but Armour wants Simpson to avoid the spotlight unless he wants to return to the "toxic mentality that landed him in prison in the first place." If the former NFL star does end up with a TV show, the money is likely to go to the families of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, CBS News reports. He will still receive an NFL pension estimated at $25,000 per month.