Key Takeaways
- Fat Joe’s story about an alleged O.J. Simpson accomplice helped bolster suspicions surrounding Joseph “Joey” Ippolito, a mob associate and friend of Simpson, who reportedly served as a secret informant.
- Newly accessed records show the “extremely reliable” informant gave prosecutors information about the 1994 murder weapon and efforts to dispose of it.
- Fat Joe said the man he called “Joe Bentley” claimed he waited with a private jet during Simpson’s white Ford Bronco chase and later joked “You did it” while handing Simpson a machete at a party.
A seemingly unbelievable story told by Fat Joe over a year ago about a man who admitted to being an accomplice for O.J. Simpson may actually turn out to be true.
An article from Mike Baker and Tim Arango of the New York Times about a secret informant associated with Simpson mentioned an anecdote the rapper told that backs up some aspects of the reporting.
The piece tells the story of a man named Joseph Ippolito. According to the New York Times, Ippolito is the son of a member of the DeCavalcante crime family, who followed in his father’s footsteps and became a mafia associate, serial felon and prison escapee.
Ippolito also became friends with Simpson, through Simpson’s pal Al Cowlings. And he may have been tied up in the 1994 murder of Simpson’s wife Nicole and her boyfriend Ronald Goldman — a murder that Simpson was famously acquitted of, though he was found liable for both deaths in a civil suit.
Sealed for three decades, the New York Times was able to access documents about Ippolito, described as a “remarkable source of information” by prosecutors.
Ippolito shared information to New York prosecutors regarding “his disposal of the murder weapon” used to kill Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. This information was given to the prosecutors in O.J.’s trial, but too late in the process for them to use it.
The informant’s brother initially told the Times that his brother went to help O.J. Simpson on the night Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed, and he returned to their shared apartment with blood on his hands. The brother, Sam, has since tried to walk back those claims.
In an August 2025 episode of the Joe and Jada Podcast, the rapper told the story of a man whom he referred to as Joe Bentley because he “owned so many Bentleys.” “Joe Bentley” was a name Ippolito used.
The rapper said he was told by “Bentley” that when Simpson was trying to flee in the infamous white Ford Bronco, he was waiting at the airport with a private jet.
Joe took his tale a step further, telling a story about attending a birthday party for Ippoltio’s wife. When the time came to cut the cake, the rapper said, the former criminal handed a machete to Simpson and jokingly said, “You did it.” O.J. responded by (lightheartedly) chasing him around the residence with the machete.
