He Told Us About an O.J. Accomplice. Then He Said He’d Lied. What Next?

It was the kind of text message that every reporter dreads receiving: An important source did not want to talk further unless I paid him for the privilege.

“if you’re willing to pay me send me an offer and I’ll think about it,” Sam Ippolito messaged me in June.

A few months prior, Mr. Ippolito had confided to me, on the record, that his deceased brother Joey had been with O.J. Simpson on the night of the 1994 murders for which Mr. Simpson had been charged and acquitted. Sam Ippolito knew this, he said, because the brothers had been staying together in the same West Hollywood, Calif., apartment at the time.

We were discussing a plan to publish his account, along with other details, when I went back to Sam to vet his story a bit more. His request for compensation, however, complicated things. I explained that the ethics rules at The New York Times prohibit reporters from paying for interviews.

“In part, the fear is that paying someone for an interview gives the world a strong reason not to trust what the person had to say,” I told him. He had not asked for compensation during our initial interview and, in fact, said at the time that he was not looking for money.

But now, Sam said he had been offered money to tell his story elsewhere, which is legal and permitted by other news organizations. When I declined to bid, he attempted to retract what he had previously told me.

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