OJ Simpson allegedly hired goons from the Gambino mob family to kill his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, according to a Los Angeles collections agency owner who apparently confessed to a longtime Hollywood private detective last week.
John Dunton — who claims he stayed silent until now for fear of reprisal from the Mafia — insisted Simpson ordered the hit on his spouse and was also on site the day of the murders, according to PI Paul Barresi.
Simpson, who died Thursday at age 76 from cancer, was tried for the vicious murder of Nicole, 35, and her friend Ron Goldman, 25, on June 12, 1994. Nicole was stabbed seven times in the neck and scalp. She was found in a pool of blood, almost decapitated. Simpson was ultimately, and infamously, acquitted.
Barresi played a recording for The Post of a recent conversation between himself and Dunton, now 62.
In their chat, Dunton cagily contended that he’d learned of Simpson’s whereabouts the night of the murders from someone “in his circle.” The person apparently traveled in the same circles as Simpson.
Dunton was vague about who had given him the information, according to the recording.
He declined comment Saturday and referred calls to Barresi.
Barresi told The Post he had first reached out to Dunton 30 years ago about the headline-making murders, but decided to try him again last week and this time, Dunton agreed to talk.
Dunton insisted the killings were a mob hit.
“100 percent,” Dunton can be heard saying on the recording. “The four guys that came, they were members of the Gambino family. They were involved in all kinds of stuff. You know what the mob does. The bottom line is everything was done with OJ’s direction. That’s what happened.”
Simpson also came to watch, Dunton claimed.
“He was there,” Dunton insisted to Barresi. “I don’t know what he did, but he was there. He knew these guys were going over to Nicole’s house to kill her. He wanted to be there. I don’t know why. I’m glad he’s dead to be honest. What he did was a really horrible thing and I went through hell because of that.”
The Post was unable to independently verify Dunton’s claims.
Dunton told Barresi that because he was friendly with the cops, he tipped them off about what he’d learned, on the condition he be kept anonymous.
Instead, he was called in to testify about what he knew to a grand jury investigating O.J.’s friend Al Cowling and when he refused, a judge sent Dunton to jail for contempt.
Dunton’s former attorney, Robert Rentzer, 84, told The Post he finally got Dunton released after 23 days behind bars when he persuaded the judge Dunton was never going to talk.
Rentzer said he never heard anything about a mob hit on Nicole Brown Simpson but pointed out that Dunton was afraid of something.
“There must have been some reason why Dunton didn’t want to testify,” Rentzer said.
Dunton told Barresi he got a visit from a Gambino operative who made him get on his knees, then stuck a gun in his mouth and threatened his family.
“The guy that put the gun in my mouth, he f–king whacked several people and if he whacked me it wouldn’t be any different. He also said they’d whack my family too. When they threw me down on my knees and made me cross my ankles over and put a gun all the way down my mouth, it was scary.”
Dunton says he refuses to reveal the name of the gangster who threatened him, because the mobster is still alive.
Barresi said he did not know how mobsters learned that Dunton allegedly had information implicating them.
In Sept. 1994, Time magazine reported Dunton had secondhand information about three people who may have been at Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo the night she was killed. They also reported Dunton had “twice been convicted of forgery and has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial in another case.”
