Top 5: Murderous athletes

BOSTON — The case has gripped Brazil: a star soccer player accused of arranging the murder of his girlfriend and having her remains fed to dogs.

But while the charges against Bruno Souza, goalkeeper of the most popular soccer club, have captivated the country, links between high-profile athletes and crime are nothing new in Brazil — or around the world (details below).

In fact, murder has rocked the professional sports world all too often, with cases involving athletes from the United States to Japan.

Below are five of the most attention-grabbing cases involving professional athletes accused of murder.

1.  Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson — American football player

(CNN/AFP/Getty Images)

O.J. Simpson plays football for the University of Southern California, where he wins the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He is the first draft pick for the NFL in 1969, and is the 1973 NFL player of the year. He plays in six Pro Bowls throughout his 10-year career. After his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman, are found murdered in 1994, O.J. Simpson stands trial for both homicides. Simpson assembles a “dream team” of lawyers, and is acquitted of criminal charges on Oct. 3, 1995, though he is convicted in civil court. In 2008, Simpson is convicted on a 2007 charge of kidnapping and armed robbery, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

2.  Rubin “Hurricane” Carter — American middleweight boxer

(AFP/Getty Images)

Rubin Carter, a professional middleweight boxer and member of the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, is arrested in 1966 for multiple homicides. He is convicted in 1967 after matching the description of a witness and sentenced to three life terms in prison. In 1985 his conviction is overturned and he is released from prison after a judge rules that he had not received a fair trial. His life inspires the Bob Dylan song “The Hurricane” and a movie starring Denzel Washington.

3.  Hiroshi Ogawa — Japanese baseball player

(Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images)

Hiroshi Ogawa, a retired pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball, is convicted of murder in the first degree. According to the prosecution, Ogawa, 43, was heavily in debt, and demanded money from the housekeeper of the chairman of an industrial waste plant. When she refused, he burglarized the house, stealing 1.75 million yen ($20,000), and drowned the housekeeper, 67-year-old Kazuko Nishiuchi, in a nearby lake, the prosecution charged. On Sept. 29, 2005, he is convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

4. Bruno Souza — Brazilian soccer player

(Domingos Peixoto/AFP/Getty Images)

Brazillian Bruno Souza, star goalkeeper of the celebrated Flamengo soccer club, is accused of arranging the killing of former lover Eliza Samudio, a Brazilian model and mother to his child. “You don't know what I am capable of — I'm from the favela," he is alleged to have told her. According to the police, she was beaten and murdered by a former police officer, before parts of her were fed to dogs. The case has gripped Brazilian TV viewers, and is the latest in a series of troubling links between soccer stars and criminal organizations.

5. Rae Carruth — American football player

(Paul K. Buck/AFP/Getty Images)

From 1997 to 1999, Rae Carruth is an NFL wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. In 1999, his girlfriend Cherica Adams, eight months pregnant with his child at the time, is the victim of a drive-by shooting. She places a 911 call claiming that Carruth had driven in front of her and stopped his car while another vehicle stopped alongside her and the passenger shot her. Adams dies a month later, though their child survives. The Panthers release Carruth from his contract, and after a brief stint as a fugitive, Carruth goes on trial. He is convicted and sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison.

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