DSOTG #5: OJ Simpson
How "The Juice" went from Hall of Fame Football Star, to Malicious, Acquitted Murderer.
Disclaimer: If you or anyone you know has or is experiencing domestic violence, know there are resources available for you.
TW: This contains mentions of suicide, domestic violence, drug use, and abuse. There are also crime scene photos in this as well.. If these are triggering to you or tough to read about, you can click away.
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Orenthal James Simpson, or “OJ”, was a hall of fame football star and sub-par actor, but when his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson along with friend Ron Goldman were found dead at Nicole’s residence in 1994, Simpson went from being a football commodity, to accused double murderer.
While this edition of DSOTG is about OJ Simpson, I want to make sure that Nicole and Ron are given their deserved light, so with that, this will focus more on the life of Nicole and her story, rather than talk about OJ’s accolades and his accomplishments as an athlete. If you want that, go find another post about him, there are tons. There’ll be brief mentions of his professional career, but for the most part. This’ll go into details about the legal ramifications/processes that plagued the “trial of the century” and how the Browns and Goldmans still deserve justice.
For research purposes, my main sources were court transcripts, several books, and documentaries made about the criminal trial, Nicole and Ron’s lives, and the results of the verdict that left the nation divided.
With Netflix recently dropping a new four-episode docu-series of American Man Hunt, not only was it an interesting watch, but it prompted me to want to further research about this case, the life of Nicole, and the life of Ron Goldman and how the families are handling this 30 years later.
When the murders happened, I wasn’t even a thought of existence, but as I’ve grown up, I saw the infamous Bronco chase played on TV whenever they mentioned the story, and of course, when you’re looking at true crime, chances are, this is one of the more popular cases that people know about.
What does it have to do with sports?
O.J. Simpson was a hall-of-fame football star, accomplishing some feats like winning the Heisman Trophy among other accolades. He played 11 seasons in the NFL, primarily with the Buffalo Bills and was dubbed as one of the best running backs of all-time.
But again, this isn’t about his success in sports, it’s about the heinous crime he was suspected of committing.
Who was Nicole Brown Simpson?
Nicole Brown was born on May 19, 1959 in Frankfurt, Germany to parents Juditha Anne “Judy” Brown and Louis Hezekiah “Lou” Brown Jr.
She is the second of four daughters (Denise, Dominque, and Tanya being the other three daughters). She did have two half siblings from her father’s previous marriage, respectively.
The family moved to the United States where she would graduate from Rancho Alamitos High School in Dana Hills Grove, California in 1977, just one day after her 18th birthday.
It wasn’t long after that where she would meet 29-year-old OJ Simpson, the man who would be the primary suspect in her murder not even 20 years later.
From the words of her friends, they say Nicole fell in love fast with O.J., and their relationship kicked off quick. Brown had never heard of Simpson prior to her coming into her shift as a waitress at Daisy, a Beverly Hills nightclub.
It would only take a couple months for the two to be moved in together and Nicole dropped out of school because Simpson “required that she be with him,” Nicole would state in divorce papers.
“He wanted me to be available to travel with him whenever his career required him to travel to a new location, even if it was for a short period of time.” Nicole states in an affidavit filed during the divorce.
The control and toxicity of the relationship was displayed early on in the timeline, and things wouldn’t get better from there.
It was during the trial where Denise Brown would recall the first time O.J. yelled at Nicole in 1977 when she joined her sister on a trip to Buffalo to watch him play on the Bills. She said that Nicole had seen one of her friends and gave them a kiss on the cheek and O.J. “got real upset and he started screaming at Nicole.”
The two would get married in 1985, and welcomed their first child, Sydney, just a few months following their wedding. The couple would have a son, Justin a few years later.
However, they were divorced in 1992, where Brown actually won a cash settlement of $433,000 and would receive $10,000 a month in child support.
O.J. didn’t like the fact that Nicole had moved with their children; he looked for any way to keep her wrapped around his finger.
In a diary entry, Nicole quoted O.J’s exact threat, “You hang up on me last nite, you’re gonna pay for this bitch, you’re holding money from the IRS, you’re going to jail you fucking cun. You think you can do any fucking thing you want, you’ve got it comming – I’ve already talked to my lawers about this bitch – they’ll get you for tax evasion, bitch, I’ll see to it. You’re not going to have a dime left bitch etc.”
In addition to the verbal abuse that Nicole had endured from O.J., the physical and psychological abuse was just as bad if not worse. The cops had been called several times by Nicole, but they didn’t do anything about it, they allowed the problem to continue.
A year after their divorce in 1993, Nicole would once again call emergency services to report that O.J. had showed up to her home “ranting and raving.” He can be heard in the background of the call yelling and causing a disturbance. You can also hear Nicole attempt to calm him down and mellow the situation, as the kids were upstairs sleeping.
Excerpt from the call:
Nicole: Could you get somebody over here now, to…Gretna Green. He’s back. Please?
Dispatch: What does he look like?
Nicole: He’s O.J. Simpson, I think you know his record. Could you just send somebody over here please?
Dispatch: Wait a minute, we’re sending police. What is he doing? Is he threatening you?
Nicole: He’s (expletive) going nuts.
Dispatch: Has he threatened you in any way or is he just harassing you?
Nicole: You’re going to hear him in a minute. He’s about to come in again.
Dispatch: OK, just stay on the line…
Nicole: I don’t want to stay on the line. He’s going to beat the (expletive) out of me.
The remainder of the call is the dispatcher trying to get more information about what OJ is saying and doing to Nicole. He can be heard yelling in the background, accusing Nicole of cheating on him, but they weren’t even together.
This was just one of many calls Nicole would make to police and would get no real help from them.
Where did the LA Police Department Go Wrong?
There had been several abuse reports from Nicole over the years of her and OJ being together. O.J. beat her so bad once that she required hospitalization, but OJ didn’t understand why he was just now getting arrested for that when it was the ninth time they had been to the Brentwood residence on a domestic disturbance call.
“The police have been out here eight times before, and now you’re going to arrest me for this?” Simpson is quoted in one police report. “This is a family matter. Why do you want to make a big deal out of it when we can handle it?”
One of the first instances where O.J. had physically abused Nicole and police were called was in 1989, when she ran out from some bushes with bruises and scratches.
“He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me,” Brown yelled as she ran towards the officers.
When Officer Edwards asked Nicole what prompted this argument, she said “she had complained because there were two other women staying in their home, and O.J. had had sex with one of them earlier in the day.”
Another instance happened on New Year’s Eve when Simpson had punched and kicked his wife, pulled her hair and shouted, “I’ll kill you!” He had slapped Nicole so hard that a handprint was left on her cheek.
Simpson then pled no contest to spousal battery charges, and served no jail time, even though it was recommended that he serve a month in jail due to the severity of the beating, and recommended that he undergo a treatment program for men who abuse their wives.
After a certain point, Nicole began to preserve evidence for herself in case it was ever needed. She kept a private diary, and had a safe-deposit box, where she kept photographs of her bruised and bludgeoned face. She also had written letters to OJ, begging for things to be different, and even blamed herself for everything that was happening.
“I’m the one who was controlling,” Brown wrote. “Please let us be a family again and let me love you better than I ever have before.”
Letter to Nicole from OJ following the 1989 dispute:
“Nicole:
Well, it seems that the worst part is behind us. I want you to know that whatever you think to the contrary I’ve taken full responsibilty for this. It happen and I’m doing everything possible to assure it doe’nt happen agan. But sooner or later we must starte our future. I love our time last weekend. I know to you it may not have been much but it showed we can get along.
I love you and losing you is the only thing that madder to me. So lets not forget the past. Let’s work together (for the first time) to improve the future we live together. Know manner what I love you.
O.J.”
The several beatings, the hospitalization, everything could’ve easily been prevented had the police department stepped in sooner. Many believe that because Simpson was such a top celebrity, that he had some friends on the inside that were vouching for him at the LAPD, but this also would be something brought up during the trial that we’ll get into later…
The Night it Happened.
On June 12, 1994, Nicole attended her daughter’s dance recital with her ex-husband who showed up with flowers for Sydney, and then had dinner with family and friends at Mezzaluna, a Brentwood restaurant where Ron Goldman was a waiter. Nicole’s mother accidentally left her eyeglasses at the restaurant and after his shift, Goldman was going to drop them off at Nicole’s house.
Brian “Kato” Kaelin, a houseguest of Simpson’s Rockingham residence heard three loud noises from the opposite side of the wall where he was living and decided to go investigate.
When taking a nightly stroll, a pair of dog walkers had come upon an Akita barking, and seemed to be covered in what looked like mud. But upon further examination, the dog had blood all over its paws as the dog led them back to a grisly scene on Bundy Drive.
The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ron Goldman were found just feet away from the front steps of Nicole’s house. Nicole was found with her throat slashed so deep she was nearly decapitated with 12 stab wounds. Goldman was found nearby in a pool of his own blood, his torso and neck riddled with fatal wounds, having been stabbed 25 times.
This photo is from Medium.com; It shows the front walkway of Nicole’s condo on the night of June 13, 1994. The grayed-out area in the picture is where Nicole’s body laid when found while Ron’s body was just to the right of the stairs. Out of respect for the families, the bodies are not going to be shown. Source: AP (LAPD Archives)
“Nicole was lying at the base of four stairs that led up to a landing and the front door. The pool of blood around her was bigger than she was.” Jeffrey Tobin wrote in his book, “The Run of His Life: The People V.S. O.J. Simpson.”
Ronald Lyle Goldman was born July 2, 1968 in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. When he was 18, his family relocated to California where he would work as a waiter and was an aspiring actor.
Goldman had met Nicole just six weeks before they were murdered when he had borrowed her Ferrari. The two were occasionally seen at clubs, meeting for dinner or coffee; but the relationship was strictly platonic.
It truly was a wrong place, wrong time scenario for Goldman as he simply was going to return Nicole’s mother’s eyeglasses and would end up murdered. Ron’s knuckles were bruised, indicating that he likely tried to fight back against the perpetrator that attacked him. It’s believed that Brown was the intended target, but with Goldman at the scene, he had to be killed in order to be silenced.
O.J. was apparently on his way to Chicago for a trip the night of the murders. According to the timeline of events, he had left his home around 11:00PM for the airport. He checked into a hotel at 4:30 AM, but was unaware of anything going on back in California.
Police made their way over to OJ’s house that morning to inform him of Nicole’s death but instead of finding OJ, they found his white Bronco blood-stained and a bloody glove similar to the one found by Ron Goldman’s body.
When they had contacted O.J., one of the first things he said was “Oh my god, Nicole is killed? Oh my God, is she dead?” But Detective Phillips said that Simpson never asked how or when Nicole was “killed”, nor did Phillips ever mention to him that she had been killed in an accident or murder.
O.J. was officially accused of murdering his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman on June 17, 1994. Despite him initially saying he would surrender to authorities, he would lead them on what’s dubbed as the most-watched police chase in history. Interrupting the NBA Finals, this 60-mile chase took place on the LA freeways where Simpson’s friend Al “A.C.” Cowlings would drive his white Ford Bronco while O.J. sat in the backseat with a gun to his head, allegedly.
During this time, Simpson’s legal team, which included top prosecutor Robert Shapiro and friend Robert Kardashian, were holding a press conference. Kardashian read a letter from OJ that many have believed to be a suicide note.
Excerpt from the note:
”I’ve had a good life. I’m proud of how I lived. My mama taught me to do un to other. I treated people the way I wanted to be treated. I’ve always tried to be up and helpful so why is this happening?
“Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O.J. and not this lost person. Thanks for making my life special. I hope I helped yours.
Peace and Love, O.J.”
It was after this chase that O.J. had finally returned home where he was subsequently arrested and charged with the double murders.
After this arrest, police found $8,750 in cash, a fake mustache and beard, a loaded gun, and a passport in Cowlings’ vehicle that were all linked back to OJ. None of this would be used in court as evidence.
Simpson pled not guilty in July of 1994, saying he is “completely, unequivocally, and entirely not guilty” of the murder charges pressed against him.
The Trial of the Century
Source: Britannica, OJ Simpson Trial, Post Not-Guilty Verdict.
It wasn’t until 1995 that the infamous trial would begin and reel the country in and glue them to their televisions.
The only celebrity wasn’t O.J., however. The two legal teams in themselves were considered some big names that would make the case that much more interesting to watch.
Simpson’s legal team was dubbed by some as the “Dream Team.” It was composed of Robert Shapiro, Carl E. Douglas, Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Shawn Holley, Robert Blasier, Gerald Uelmen, Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Robert Kardashian, and Johnnie Cochran.
The prosecution team opted to not seek the death penalty, but rather a life sentence without the possibility of parole if the defendant is found guilty of the crimes.
The main players on the prosecution side were Marcia Clark, William Hodgman, and Christopher Darden.
The biggest thing that was going to be difficult for the prosecution was trying to not make this about race. During this time, riots were in abundance after four officers who were seen on video beating Rodney King were acquitted in a trial on April 30, 1992.
The Jury
The jury was split among 10 women and 2 men; 9 African Americans, 2 Caucasians and 1 Hispanic.
By the numbers, 5/12 thought using force on a family member was appropriate. 5/12 had reported a negative experience with law enforcement, 9/12 thought that Simpson was less likely to be guilty because he was an athlete, and 12/12 were Democrats.
Opening Statements
On the first day of trial, Christopher Darden kicked off opening statements from the prosecution, portraying Simpson as an abusive and jealous husband, and a controlling lover of Nicole Brown Simpson.
Darden told jurors, “he killed Nicole for a single reason. Not because he hated her; he didn’t hate Nicole. He didn’t kill her because he didn’t love her anymore, because in his mind, in his mind, he did.
“He killed her for a reason almost as old as mankind itself. He killed her out of jealousy. He killed her because he couldn’t have her; and if he couldn’t have her, he didn’t want anybody else to have her.”
Darden also reminds the jury that the O.J. you see in the public eye, is not the O.J. they’re prosecuting in this case, they’re looking at the real O.J. Simpson, the killer.
“We’ve seen him [Simpson] time and time again and we came to think that we know him. What we’ve been seeing, ladies and gentlemen, is the public face, the public persona, the face of the athlete, the face of the actor.
“It is not the actor who is on trial here today, ladies and gentlemen. It is not that public face. It is his other face like many men in public, like many public men, they have a public image, a public persona, a public side, a public life and they also have a private side. A private life, a private face; and that is the face we will expose to you in this trial, the other side of O.J. Simpson, the side you never met before.”
The defense was heavily focused on the grounds that the evidence at the crime scene had been tampered with and members of the Los Angeles Police Department were racist, especially one Mark Fuhrman, who was at the scene of the crime and allegedly found a bloody glove at Simpson’s home similar to the one found at the crime.
“Detective Mark Fuhrman will play an integral part in this case for a number of reasons,” Cochran said to the jury. “Now, it is very interesting that the prosecution never once mentioned his name yesterday. It is like they just want to hide him, but they can’t hide him, he is very much part of this case. We can only ask ourselves why didn’t they mention him? I think that answer will become very clear to you as the case progresses.”
They also were going with a classic strategy of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that their client was not guilty. There weren’t any witnesses to the crime itself, no murder weapon found, and no real motive as to why O.J. Simpson, someone who loved the fame and spotlight, would tarnish his name by killing the mother of his two children.
“None of us were out there on June 12, 1994. We can only deal with the witnesses as they were. And it seems to me that this case, the prosecution’s case, based upon what we heard and the evidence will show, this case is about a rush to judgment, an obsession to win at any cost and by any means necessary.” Cochran would say in his opening statement.
Cochran also talked highly of Simpson, saying how he was this outstanding father figure Who didn’t appear to have a temper; he wouldn’t lash out at Nicole like what was alleged. Things that Cochran said about Simpson can be proven wrong either with audio evidence of 911 calls made by Nicole over the years.
Incriminating Evidence
When it comes to determining evidence to link to O.J., the blood evidence alone would convict anyone if they weren’t at the celebrity status that Simpson held.
When O.J. was arraigned, he had fresh cuts on his left hand, but said he had sustained those injuries while in Chicago.
But from the beginning of this investigation, there were so many flaws involving evidence collection and properly containing the evidence in the crime scene. There was a bloody fingerprint found on the gateway at Nicole’ house that was never collected; though Detective Fuhrman did note this fingerprint in his notes. Fuhrman was also one of the first on the scene, but didn’t properly secure evidence he would note in his findings.
Items were collected but photographed without being labeled and logged, making it nearly impossible to link the photos to specific parts of the crime scene. There were some pieces of evidence that were bagged instead of separately, causing contamination. There were wet items that were packaged before they could dry, which would cause critical changes in findings.
The sloppy collection process and poor maneuvering at the crime scene also left bloody shoe prints at the scene that were actually from the LAPD rather than the perpetrator.
Along with the problems of evidence collection, there were problems with evidence security. Apparently, there was 1.5 mL of Simpson’s blood missing from a vial of evidence. To add to that mess, the blood wasn’t immediately turned over, and was carried around for several hours before it was entered into custody, which could cause for some to disappear.
Unfortunately for the prosecution, Detective Fuhrman was seen as an unreliable witness as he was said to be a racist and accused of planting evidence at the scene.
When he was on the stand, the defense accused Fuhrman of using profanity and offensive language towards African Americans While there was audio evidence of him saying the “N” word, the Detective lied on the stand, saying he’s never said that. Fuhrman was also asked on the stand if he had ever falsified police reports or planted evidence in this case, where he invoked his 5th Amendment rights.
Fuhrman also violated Simpson’s fourth amendment right: Protection from illegal search and seizure. The detective had hopped the fence of Simpson’s residence on the night of the murders without having a warrant and that’s where he found the bloody glove and blood trails. While the defense tried to say this evidence found by Fuhrman was inadmissible, Judge Ito allowed it to be entered.
Key Witnesses
Besides Detective Fuhrman, both sides had some ‘key’ testimonies and witnesses to help further boost their case for guilt or innocence.
Denise Brown, Nicole’s sister testified about the history of domestic violence in Simpson’s relationship with Nicole. She said once she found out about Nicole’s death, she yelled, “he did it! He finally killed her!”
She also recalled a time they were all on vacation and they all had one too many to drink and O.J. “grabbed Nicole’s crouch and said, ‘This is where babies come from and this belongs to me.’ and Nicole just wrote it off as if it was nothing,” Brown said on the stand. “Like she was used to that kind of treatment.”
Brian “Kato” Kaelin was another key witness for this trial. Kaelin testified on the stand that he had heard three thumps on the wall of the bungalow he was staying in on O.J.’s property on the night of the murders. He also said that after the murders, Simpson told him, “you saw me go into the house,” after the two made a McDonald’s run.
Ron Shipp, a friend of O.J.’s had said that he had dreams of Simpson killing Nicole. All the witnesses that the defense initially used were made to help paint a picture that Simpson was an abuser and had a history and thus a motive behind murdering Nicole.
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
The famous line from the trial said by Johnnie Cochran is one that will haunt the prosecution for the rest of their lives. Christopher Darden was so certain that the bloody gloves found at the scene of the crime had belonged to Simpson and that his hands would fit in the gloves. Darden would ask Simpson in front of the jury, to try on said gloves worn by the killer.
Simpson seemed to struggle putting on the gloves. But there were rumors circulating that Simpson had forgot to take his medication that morning, which causes his hands to swell up, and since the gloves were blood-soaked, they had shrunk. He couldn’t get them to fit and said, “They don’t fit. See? They don’t fit.” And that would be the nail in the coffin of the prosecution.
The Verdict that Shocked the Nation
On October 3, 1995, after ten long months, the jury had finally come to the verdict in the double murder trial. It took the jury only three hours to deliberate when Judge Ito’s clerk Deidre Robertson read out the verdict: “We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.”
The defense cheered and Simpson let go a huge sigh of relief. In the audience, you could hear the heartbreaking moans of Ron Goldman’s sister Kim, and the cry of his mother Patti Goldman.
Reactions around the country were very mixed. Black residents in some parts of LA were celebrating in the streets after they found out that O.J. Simpson was acquitted of double murder. In a 1994 poll conducted by the Washington Post/ABC News said that 22% of Black respondents thought that Simpson was guilty of the crime.
To some, this felt like a reaction/counteraction to the Rodney King trial when the officers were acquitted. Many felt that the LAPD was racist and didn’t care about the African American community. There was already some hostility heading into the trial, but once the defense got Mark Fuhrman on the stand and saw that he lied, it made more people believe that the police system was corrupt.
“IF” I did it.
In October 1996, the civil trial against O.J. Simpson would begin. Simpson would actually take the stand in November, testifying that he did not kill Goldman or Brown, but couldn’t explain the physical evidence against him.
February 7, 1997, the jury finds Simpson liable for the deaths of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson. Simpson was ordered to pay the families $33.5 million dollars, but to this day, they have yet to see a cent of that money.
How did he get out of paying the families? Well, he moved to Florida! Simpson tried to argue that with his new residence being in Florida when the civil trial was held in California, he wouldn’t have to pay the families what the court had ordered him to. Unfortunately under Florida’s homestead protection, the Goldman and Brown families couldn’t go after Simpson’s estate to get any money.
O,J. Simpson would attempt to publish a book entitled “If I Did It”, that recounts the night of the murders and how, if he did commit the crimes, he would go about the heinous acts. It was almost too specific, and even though Simpson was acquitted for the crimes, the book was basically a post-verdict confession, Simpson just “spoke in hypotheticals.”
Initially, Harper Collins didn’t publish the book in fear of public scrutiny and angry reviews. A California prosecutor ordered the book to be put in a public auction. That however came to a halt when a different company under the name of Lorraine Books Associated would declare bankruptcy.
The Goldmans were eventually granted publishing rights of the book and published it under the same name, but the “If” was super tiny, so upon first glance, all people will see is, “I Did It.”
Life after Acquittal
In 2007, a group of men led by O.J. Simpson barged into a room at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they would steal sports memorabilia and hold the memorabilia dealers at gunpoint. Simpson admitted to taking the items, but denied the allegations that he broke into the room with the group of men.
On October 3, 2008, exactly 13 years after he was acquitted of the double murders, he was found guilty on 12 charges of armed robbery and kidnapping sports memorabilia.
Simpson would be sentenced on December 5, 2008 to 33 years in prison with eligibility for parole in nine years (2017). He was granted parole in July of 2017 and was freed three months later. In May 2023, a then-75-year-old Simpson stated in a video posted to Twitter that he was undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed type of cancer.
“In recent years — really recent years — I unfortunately caught cancer, and so I had to do the whole chemo thing,” Simpson said in his video. “I’m over the COVID stuff. I’m sorry, I mean chemo. I’m over that I had COVID and cancer at the same time, unfortunately, but I’m over the chemo.”
In February 2024, Simpson had denied any reports that he was in hospice care after it was reported that he had been “telling his friends and family that he’s been hearing rumors that he’s in hospice care.”
O.J. Simpson passed away after battling prostate cancer on April 10, 2024. His family posted to Simpson’s twitter account with a statement:
“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchild. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”
While the Brown and Goldman families might never receive the justice they truly deserve, it’s important that we continue to share their stories, continue to spread awareness for domestic violence and make sure that people have the appropriate resources.