Brett Cantor

Brett Cantor
A grainy black and white photo of a bald or close-cropped man with earrings in both ears looking up slightly towards the camera, wearing a long-sleeved loose dark shirt with a crown on the left breast and a long necklace ending in a cross-like figure
Born
Brett Ross Cantor

(1967-11-05)November 5, 1967
New York City, U.S.
DiedJuly 30, 1993(1993-07-30) (aged 25)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of deathHomicide
Resting placeMount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles
Years active1990–1993
EmployerChrysalis Records
Known forCo-owning the Dragonfly nightclub and possible connection of death to O. J. Simpson murder case

Brett Ross Cantor (November 5, 1967 – July 30, 1993) was an American record label executive, concert promoter and nightclub owner.[1] He was born in New York to Rhonda and Paul Cantor, who managed acts such as B. J. Thomas and Dionne Warwick. In the early 1970s, he and his family moved to the Los Angeles area. In the early 1990s, he served as an A&R executive for the Chrysalis Music Group.

Cantor left Chrysalis to work briefly as an agent and then a promoter, putting together some of the largest concert and dance events in the city at that time.[2] He also entered the nightclub business, taking a 10 percent stake in Dragonfly, a club known at the time for its 1970s and hip hop theme nights. At that time he was involved romantically with actress Rose McGowan.[3]

Cantor was found dead in his Hollywood home on July 30, 1993; he had been stabbed repeatedly in the upper body. No suspect has ever been identified and the investigation remains open. His death was the subject of renewed interest a year later during preliminary motions in the trial of O. J. Simpson for the killings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Nicole's friend Ron Goldman, when Judge Lance Ito ruled that defense lawyers could have access to the investigatory file in the Cantor case. The defense had argued that the similarity of the three killings suggested the same person or persons had committed them.[4] It has also been argued in books on the case that Cantor knew both Goldman and Nicole, and thus they may have been killed over mutual involvement in possibly illegal business activities.[5][6]

  1. ^ "Brett Cantor headstone photo". Find a Grave. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  2. ^ "A&R exec Cantor slain". Variety. August 3, 1993. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  3. ^ Goodman, Lizzy (January 3, 2018). "The Making of Rose McGowan, Decorated General in the War Against the Patriarchy". Elle. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  4. ^ Noble, Kenneth (September 22, 1994). "Simpson's Attempt to Bar Evidence Is Turned Down". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  5. ^ Freed, Donald; Briggs, Raymond P. (1996). Killing Time: The First Full Investigation Into the Unsolved Murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. MacMillan. p. 149. ISBN 9780028613406.
  6. ^ Bosco, Joe (1996). A Problem of Evidence: How the Prosecution Freed O.J. Simpson. William Morrow. pp. 94–96. ISBN 9780688144135.