FACTBOX: O.J. Simpson's murder trial, acquittal

(Reuters) - Former football star O.J. Simpson was charged with kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery on Tuesday in what authorities say was the theft at gunpoint of his sports memorabilia at a Las Vegas hotel.

Here are a few facts about Simpson and his connection to the 1994 murders of his former spouse and her friend.

* Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, 25, a waiter at the restaurant where she had just dined, were found stabbed and slashed to death in front of her home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood on June 12, 1994.

* Suspicion quickly fell on Simpson, who was arrested after leading police on a freeway pursuit in a white Ford Bronco, broadcast live on U.S. national television.

* Simpson's trial on murder charges was televised live gavel-to-gavel. He was acquitted by a jury in October 1995.

* The victims' families brought a wrongful death suit against Simpson, and in 1997 a civil court jury found him liable for the deaths. Simpson was ordered to pay the families $33.5 million in damages.

* Simpson, who moved to Florida with his two younger children, has done little to satisfy the judgment despite years of collection efforts by the victims' families.

* Goldman's family seized rights to Simpson's ghost-written book, "If I Did It," which includes a hypothetical first-person account of the 1994 murders. Publication came on Friday, the same day police reported questioning Simpson about the hotel break-in.