Following up on yesterday's blog post about Alfred Beardsley, 46, we learn today that the sports memorabilia collector and former Burbank or Glendale resident (now tangled up in the O.J. Simpson robbery case) was a friend of the late Irv Rubin, leader of the Jewish Defense League. Interestingly enough, Rubin's widow, Shelley Rubin, says that her late husband and Alfred Beardsley met at O.J. Simpson's murder trial.

"Al, I remember that he said he collected O.J. memorabilia even back then," Shelley Rubin said Thursday in a phone interview. "He was on the periphery during that trial, I guess he would try to ingratiate himself with the O.J. people, which really infuriated my husband and I guess that's how they started talking."

In case anyone's wondering, Irv Rubin was at the O.J. trial because Ron Goldman was Jewish, and the JDL wanted to show solidarity. Eventually, Irv Rubin and Alfred Beardsley got to talking, and Beardsley became a good friend of Rubin, a firebrand Jewish activist who was later arrested and accused of plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and the office of Arab-American congressman Darrell Issa. Before that, Beardsley and Rubin appeared together on "Jerry Springer," where they got into a brawl with some Ku Klux Klan members. When Rubin died in federal lockup from what authorities describe as a suicide, Beardsley spoke to the Daily News about his late friend. "I've always found him fascinating and intriguing," Beardsley said. "This is a guy who spoke right from the heart."

Now, Beardsley is in custody on a parole violation case, just days after he emerged as an alleged victim in O.J. Simpson's new robbery rap. Check out the Daily News article here on the latest developments with the case.

Shelley Rubin says that O.J. Simpson had given personal possessions to Alfred Beardsley because Beardsley was part of Simpson's entourage during the murder trial.

"I think Al Beardsley is quite in awe of celebrities," Shelley Rubin said. "I think that might be part of Al’s problem.’’

But while he was friends with her late husband, Beardsley was reliable, she said. "The way Beardlsey acted toward my husband was like a bodyguard. But he was very annoying and he talks about himself a lot.’’