The Man Behind O. J. Simpson's Bust: Thomas Riccio
Thomas Riccio arranged and secretly recorded the Las Vegas hotel room meeting between O. J. Simpson and two other memorabilia dealers, and sold the tape to TMZ.com. Riccio said he netted around $210.000 from the media for the tapes.
Riccio is an ex-con with a rap sheet that includes somewhere around four separate felony convictions which includes prison escape, stolen property charges and arson.
Riccio spent a combined total of eight years in prison. In 1984 he was convicted of a felony in New Jersey on a federal charge of conspiracy to receive stolen goods. October 1984; Riccio ended up at the federal lockup in Danbury, Connecticut. Less than three months later Riccio escaped from Danbury. He was apprehended in California about five months after his escape. He spent approximately four and a half years in federal custody on stolen property and escape charges.
In 1994 Riccio was arrested on arson possession of flammable materials charges. He pleaded to the felony charges in Orange County Superior Court in California and was sentenced two years in state prison.
Riccio had a felony conviction of theft of approximately $500,000 worth of rare silver and gold. Riccio was arrested for having, in his possession, a rare coin stolen from Miami dealer Arthur Smith. A search of Rocco's home turned up about 1100 more coins stolen from Arthur Smith.
A Long Beach jury convicted Riccio of receiving stolen property. He was sentenced three years in prison and ordered to pay Arthur Smith $165,000 in restitution.
He was released in 1997 and was arrested again in 1999 on probation violation. He was released after about four months.
September 2007; Riccio set up a meeting, under false pretense, between O.J. Simpson and two other sports memorabilia dealers. Then he called O. J. Simpson and told him that two memorabilia dealers was going to sell O. J.'s stolen items at an auction in the Las Vegas hotel room.
O. J. Simpson and five other men stormed in the room demanding Mr. Simpson's memorabilia. Two of the men with O. J. Simpson were armed.
On Friday, October 3, 2008; O. J. Simpson was found guilty on 12 Counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping.
Published by Mary E. Coe
I write articles, songs, poetry, short stories and stageplays. Some of my writings are fictitious and some are fact based. In the Spring of 1993, some of my poems were published in the library at Citrus Col... View profile
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Thanks for the info!
Interesting read...thanks for the info!
Hi Lonnette, You brought out some good points in your comment. I am working on four projects. Thanks goodness two of them are almost there. I'm half finish with the third project. I took a break away from it the past two weeks, and only working part time on them. That gave me a chance to write and comment more. I will tackle the projectsm full time again next week. Thanks for your comment on the article. Good points.
Correction in the 6th paragraph. The beginning of the 6th paragraph should read: Riccio had a felony conviction of theft of approximately $500,000 worth of rare silver and gold COIN. I accidentally left out the word coin, which makes a lot of different. sorry for the typo.
Hi Mary: Glad to see you're still writing. Very informative article about the low life Riccio. He definitely had a frame-up in mind, but Simpson has always thought he was above the law, and this time he wasn't. I think the fact that guns were present pushed the whole scenario over into kidnapping and armed robbery. Hopefully, the case was decided on its own merits, and not as payback for Simpson's past crimes. Still, you have to think that there is a justice that cannot be escaped. (If not here, then in the afterlife.) God will ultimately be Simpson's final judge.