On Friday, June 17th, 1994, one man made a decision that would later deem him as a fugitive of the law.
An infamous police car chase on the Los Angeles freeway with more than a dozen police cars and television helicopters involved in the pursuit riveted a nation stunned by a star’s downfall. And that star was none other than OJ Simpson.
Late Friday evening, an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy spotted the white Bronco on the 5 freeway in Santa Ana. A few minutes later at 6:25, a motorist saw the Bronco. He stopped at a call box to report it.
“Highway patrol? Yeah. Um, I think I just saw OJ Simpson on the freeway and there was an… he’s heading north and I got the license plate of the white Bronco: 3DY503.”
But why would a man who seemed to have it all—the fame, the stardom, the money—be wanted by the LAPD?
Nicole Brown Simpson, better known as the former wife of famous football player OJ Simpson, alongside her friend Ron Goldman, were found dead, brutally stabbed to death outside her home. A crime that not only shook the nation but divided it completely.
“Was this a matter of the truth or was this a matter of race? The verdict in this court has reminded Americans of the power of race.”
Let’s take a glimpse into the treacherous murders that led to OJ Simpson not only being tried by the state but also the US nation.
The trial of the century. With all eyes pointed at OJ Simpson as the chief suspect in these murders, let’s dissect the overriding evidence against him in one of the most highly publicized trials and infamous crime scenes to date. In the midst of racial tension brewing within the states of America, OJ Simpson, formerly known as Orinthal James Simpson, managed to captivate the hearts and minds of all races, men and women. He was an American icon, the epitome of the American dream. OJ, nicknamed “The Juice,” grew up and became a record-selling NFL running back, Hall of Famer, and had hits on the silver screen. With the looks, the charm, and the wealth, not only did he become a famous football star but also conquered the world of sports and entertainment entirely.
“Oh, you say, ‘Miss it?’ I’m a big sports fan. I’ve never really thought too much about playing again. And I mean, I played 11 years of professional football, of course, four years of college. So I got my fill of it as a, as a participant, but a sports hero as well as a movie star.”
“OJ Simpson as G, matching the clan, bullet for bullet, heat for heat.”
Despite the setbacks in his early life, OJ had a passion and drive for sport and knew he wanted to make a career out of it. He played for his team, the Galileo Lions, at the formerly known as Galileo High School in San Francisco before eventually attending the City College of San Francisco from 1965 to 1966 and playing in both offense and defense. He was inducted as a running back into the junior college all-American team. OJ had begun to make a small name for himself within the world of sport. 50 colleges wanted to recruit him, but he selected the University of Southern California after receiving an athletic scholarship.
In 1967, he ran 1,543 yards with a score of 13 touchdowns. Again in 1968, he ran 1,880 yards including 383 carries. The 1967 football game between USC and UCLA is considered one of the greatest football games of the 20th century. In 1968, he received the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, and the Maxwell Award. The same year, he signed a television contract with ABC. OJ was now a star.
By 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season. The people loved OJ. He was now a household name and sports icon. But that wasn’t enough for the Juice; he wanted to conquer the world of film and television too.
After retiring from professional football in 1979, Simpson moved on to a profitable career as a sports caster and an actor. He had dabbled in acting while still an active athlete, notably playing a man framed for murder by the police in the 1974 film, “The Clansmen.”
“Matching the clan, bullet for bullet, heat for heat. I said, enough for peaceful meat. What good for peaceful meat, it’s for the bourgeois negro.”
Simpson later appeared in “The Naked Gun” in 1988 and its sequels, playing a dim-witted assistant detective. He regularly appeared in TV commercials for the Hertz rental car company, where he was seen leaping over luggage and other obstacles in an effort to catch a flight. Additionally, he worked as a commentator for Monday Night Football and the NFL on the NBC brand. It was now the 1970s, just under a decade after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. America had fallen in love with Simpson because of his ability to run with a football with more grace and elusiveness than anyone else. Simpson aspired to join the elite stratosphere of white celebrity society in Los Angeles and chose to believe he could transcend the racial divide and float above that reality as easily as he seemed to glide over the football fields of the NFL.
Civil rights leaders in Los Angeles and childhood friends like Joe Bell from the San Francisco housing project where Simpson grew up, dismissed him as a lost cause. Bell would recall visiting Simpson in Brentwood and watching his friend playing tennis in a rarified suburban setting straight out of a John Cheever story. They were not only the only two black men in the company, they were close to being the only two black men in the entire area not hired to do menial labor. Belle told Simpson that those people wouldn’t want anything to do with him if he wasn’t OJ.
“But I am OJ,” came the laughing reply.
Whilst attending the primarily white University of Southern California, Simpson learned to adapt, to make his white audiences like his classmates comfortable—a trick he would then use in his adult life. It had been reported that other elite black athletes that had worked with Simpson did not feel welcomed by him or any kind of race-based kinship, even calling his drive for success dangerous. OJ had begun to lose the support of the African-American community, many of them believing that he had left them behind to live in the upper-class white society. And this wasn’t all that was going wrong for OJ. His problems had only begun.
With his career in order, it was no surprise that a man as desirable as OJ would also ensure that his romantic life was intact too. On June 24th, 1967, Simpson married his high school sweetheart, Marguerite L. Whitley. The couple had three children together: Arnelle, Jason, and Aaren. Sadly, his daughter Aaren Leonne Simpson died a month before her second birthday when she drowned in the family swimming pool.
Whilst OJ’s stardom continued to grow, wife Whitley kept herself out of the spotlight, a decision she made in her own right. Whitley found her husband’s fame to be a detriment to their marriage. In an interview with Vogue, OJ stated:
“My wife is a private person, yet we can’t walk down the street without causing a commotion.”
Whitley and OJ divorced that year due partly to the pressures of OJ’s celebrity but also—and possibly primarily—because of the 2-year affair the star had already carried on with a woman who would later become his second wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.
While still married to his first wife, OJ met a young woman who instantly caught his eye and would turn his world upside down: Nicole Brown. The couple met when Nicole was only 18 years old and working as a waitress at the Daisy, an upscale Beverly Hills club. OJ was still married at the time, but that didn’t stop the two from quickly falling for each other and beginning to date. OJ divorced his first wife in 1979, and in 1985, he and Brown were married at his palatial home in the tony Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. That year, the couple welcomed a daughter, Sydney, and 3 years later, they had a son named Justin. But this marriage wasn’t destined to be a touchdown either, as nothing could have prepared Nicole for what was to come. Just 4 years after his marriage to Brown, OJ was charged with spousal abuse in 1989.
“911 emergency.”
“Can you get someone over here now to 325 Gretna Green? He’s back, please.”
“Okay. What does he look like?”
“He’s OJ Simpson. I think you know his record. Could you just take somebody over here, okay?”
“What is he doing there?”
“He just drove up again. He just drove over.”
“Okay, wait a minute. What kind of car is he in?”
“He’s in a white Bronco. But first of all, he broke the back door down to get in.”
“Okay, wait a minute. What’s your name?”
“Nicole Simpson.”
“Okay. Is he the sports caster or whatever?”
“Okay. Thank you. Wait a minute. We’re sending the police. What is he doing? Is he threatening you?”
“I’m going nuts!”
“Okay. Has he threatened you in any way, or is he just harassing you?”
“You’re going to hear him in a minute. He’s about to come in again.”
“Okay. Just stay on the line.”
“I don’t want to stay on the line. I’m going to beat the shit…”
“Wait a minute. Wait, just stay on the line so we can know what’s going on till the police get there.”
“Okay. Okay, Nico. Uh-huh. Just a moment. Does he have any weapons?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay.”
“He went home, and now he’s back, because they’re up sleeping and I don’t want anything to happen.”
“Okay. Has he hit you today or…?”
“No. No.”
“Okay. You don’t need any paramedics or anything?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Okay. You just want him to leave.”
“My door. He broke the whole back door in. And then he left, and he came back. And he came and he practically knocked my dad’s door down, but he pounded it. And then he screamed and hollered, and I tried to get him out of the bedroom ’cause the kids were sleeping in there.”
“Mhm.”
“Okay. And then he wanted somebody, a phone number, and I gave him my phone book and was… or I put my phone book down to write down the phone number that he wanted, and he took my phone book with all my stuff in it.”
“What is he saying?”
“The suspect has now entered into the…”
“They were here for…”
“Just stay on the line.”
“Okay.”
“Is he upset with something that you did?”
“Oh, a long time ago. It always comes back.”
He allegedly busted down the door to her house and hit her. In an attempt to preserve his reputation, OJ said in a statement his rep read shortly after the incident:
“We got into an argument which escalated, and the police were called. Fortunately, neither one of us required any medical treatment.”
In contrast, a police report quickly contradicted his account, stating that officers had arrived to hear her scream, “He’s going to kill me,” and showed that she had been treated at a hospital for a black eye, bruises, and a cut lip. OJ was charged with spousal battery, but the following day, the report said his wife sought to drop the charge. He ultimately pleaded no contest and was fined $700. The NFL player and the mother of his two children stayed together. However, that situation obviously wasn’t the end of their relationship issues, as they eventually divorced in 1992. OJ was the one who initially took action and filed, but time would tell that he was anything but done with her.
In the early hours of June 13th, 1994, at 12:10 a.m., the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman were found outside Nicole’s townhouse, stabbed to death. The bodies were discovered by two neighbors who were led to the crime scene by Nicole’s dog. Multiple neighbors reported that the dog was incessantly barking around the time of the murders.
Earlier that night at 10:25 p.m., a limousine driver named Alan Park arrived at OJ’s home as he was scheduled to leave for a flight at 11:45 p.m. He buzzed OJ’s intercom several times between 10:40 and 10:55 p.m., but there was no answer. Just before 11 p.m., he reported seeing a shadowed figure walk across the driveway. He describes him as being 6 ft tall and 200 lb. He continued buzzing OJ’s intercom and at 11 p.m., he answered. OJ tells the driver that he had overslept and had just gotten out of the shower. At 11:45, OJ boards an American Airlines flight to Chicago. At 12:10 a.m., the bodies were found brutally stabbed to death. Items found at the crime scene include a bloodstained glove, a bloody footprint, and a knitted hat. Detectives later arrive at OJ’s house at 5:00 a.m. and find vital pieces of evidence. Once OJ’s flight lands in Chicago, Detective Ron Phillips calls him to inform him of the news of his ex-wife’s death. OJ’s first response: “Who killed her?” He was then questioned for 3 hours by the LAPD but released with no charges. But his freedom didn’t last long. On the 17th of June 1994, only 4 days later, he was charged with two counts of murder.
The police came to arrest Mr. Simpson, but it wasn’t going to be so easy. And if there was one thing OJ knew how to do, it was run. OJ didn’t surrender and was declared a fugitive, resulting in a police chase on the freeway of Southern California. 25 years ago today, OJ Simpson took off on the car chase that entranced the nation. Facing a murder warrant over the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, Simpson decided not to surrender himself to police. Instead, he took off through the highways of Los Angeles in his now famous white Ford Bronco.
“OJ Simpson was armed and dangerous. He should be considered dangerous.”
And here, in the backseat of the car with a gun to his head, his car was being driven by his friend Al Cowlings, who revealed that he didn’t stop because OJ was in the passenger seat holding a gun to his own head, claiming to be suicidal.
“911.”
“What are you reporting?”
“This is… this is AC. I have OJ in the car.”
“Okay. Where are you?”
“I’m coming up the five freeway.”
“Okay. Right now we…”
“All… okay. But you got to tell the police to back off. He’s still alive, but he got a gun to his head.”
“Is everything else okay?”
“Everything right now is okay, officer. Everything is okay. All he wants me to give it to his mom. He wants me to get it to his daughter.”
“Okay. So that’s all I… that’s all we ask. He got a gun in his hand.”
“Okay. Listen, what… what’s your name?”
“My name is AC. You know who I am, goddamn it!”
The car chase lasted roughly 45 minutes and was broadcast for the nation to see. People all across the states were glued to their screens, eager to find out how it all would end. Police found a suicide note from OJ. In the note, he thanks those who meant a lot to him in his life and professes his innocence.
“I think of my life and feel I’ve done most of the right things. So why do I end up like this? I can’t go on.”
He writes:
“First, everyone understand I have nothing to do with Nicole’s murder. I loved her. Always have and always will.”
“Uh, this is Larry King in Washington at CNN studios, staying atop this scene for you now through Fox 11. We have affirmed that Al Cowlings is apparently negotiating. He was the driver of the car, the longtime Simpson friend and teammate at USC. There are police in the doorway. This is the driveway to the OJ Simpson house in Brentwood. He’s driven through two counties, and we followed them all the way.”
“Well, what’s interesting to us, Eric, and we’re looking at it and you and I both have different perspectives. What’s interesting to us is that he is staying in the vehicle, not getting out. He obviously came back to his home to be at his home, to be in the home, but he’s not in the home. He is going to stay in the vehicle, and probably still has that weapon. Uh, going to stay in the vehicle until something happens. What that something is, we don’t know. We can only speculate. But, um, that I suspect is what’s happening right now. He could be waiting, as we said before, Eric, for Robert Shapiro to show up on the scene.”
OJ surrendered to the police at 8:51 p.m.
The arrest of OJ Simpson led to what could be considered one of the most infamous murder trials in modern history. The trial had taken the media by storm. Everyone and anyone was interested in the murder case of Nicole and who had done it. We heard OJ’s anger and wondered whether he was capable of murder. 5 years later, ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman were discovered in a pool of blood with their throats slit. Simpson was charged with double murder. He was depressed, in seclusion at his lawyer’s home, and under doctor’s care. Attorney Robert Shapiro explained how a planned surrender turned into a shocking disappearance.
“It was at that time when Dr. Ferstein went in the room to alert him that we discovered for the first time that OJ was not present.”
“The media themselves are virtually obsessed with this. And part of the reason, not surprisingly, uh, is that whenever you cover this story, you get big ratings and big circulation. Uh, so we’re talking here about, uh, the merchandising of a story that really is a tragedy. What comes first, the merchandising or or free and fair trial justice? Uh, free and fair trial isn’t even on the media radar screen right now.”
OJ was formally arraigned on July 22nd, 1994, entering a plea of not guilty.
“How do you plead to counts one and two?”
“Absolutely, 100% not guilty.”
The trial officially began on January 24th, 1995, with Lance Ito as the presiding judge.
“Some of the outrageous and unfounded accusations that have been publicized by the defense has only fed the media frenzy. Neither myself nor any lawyer on the defense team has granted any interviews to anyone on or off the record.”
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, led by Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, emphasized the domestic violence that had occurred prior to and after the Simpsons’ 1992 divorce as a motive for the murders. Nicole had also reportedly begun to grow quite close to Ron Goldman.
“The jury deserves to get the truth.”
With all of the evidence built up against OJ, it was hard for people to believe his innocence. Nicole’s sister, Denise Brown, talked to an LA newspaper and said OJ committed the murders.
“I think it’s just damaging to the whole process because we want to get a fair trial. I just think it’s unfair that people do that.”
“And then, you know, at the last minute after she makes a statement, then she says, ‘Uh, well, I want to have a fair trial.'”
The bloodstained glove and footprint found in his driveway were OJ’s size, and the sole pattern matched another pair that OJ owned at the time. OJ had cuts on his finger on the day police interviewed him, and he had also purchased a knife which matched the type the coroner predicted the killer used. Although the knife was never found, the evidence against OJ continued to mount. The knitted hat that was found at the crime scene contained hair that matched OJ’s, and the bloodstained glove found at the crime scene was tested, revealing DNA matched for Nicole, Ron, and OJ. OJ had been a repeated perpetrator for spousal abuse in the past against Nicole, resulting in nine police visits to the Simpsons’ residence and his eventual charge of spousal abuse in 1989. He pleaded no contest to the charges.
However, with the connections and wealth that OJ had attained over the years—including the memorabilia generated during his trial—he made sure to build a solid defense. And that defense would later and famously be known as the “Dream Team.”
“If you’re poor and you’re charged with a crime, a serious crime, especially in this country, the odds of your being able to secure the assistance and the services that give you a shot at vindicating your, your innocence are slim and none. And if you’re wealthy, you can create a whole world.”
The attorneys representing Simpson included F. Lee Bailey, Robert Blasier, Robert Shapiro, and Alan Dershowitz. Johnny Cochran later became the defense team’s lead attorney.
“I don’t think they can stand the truth.”
The Simpson defense was based largely on the grounds that evidence had been mishandled and that many members of the Los Angeles Police Department were racist, particularly Mark Fuhrman, a detective who allegedly found a bloody leather glove at Simpson’s house. He was the first man to step inside OJ’s estate after the murder by jumping over the wall. During this time, he alone found the matching bloodied glove behind OJ’s guest house according to his own testimony. That would later be one of the most notorious pieces of evidence in the case. The Dream Team argued that he planted the glove and perhaps all other evidence. They called to the jury’s attention the technical mistakes made by the forensics team, which created doubt over the evidence. Could the crime scene have been contaminated? And if so, was it intentional?
“Was the testimony that you gave at the preliminary hearing in this case completely truthful?”
“I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.”
But that wasn’t all the detective had done. OJ’s defense team played a recording to the jury of Detective Fuhrman using racial slurs over 40 times in one recorded sitting.
“Do you use the word ‘nigger’ in describing people, presently?”
“No, sir.”
“Have you used that word in the past 10 years?”
“Not that I recall. No.”
During this time, racial tensions were still very prominent amidst the brutal beating of Rodney King, resulting in the 1992 LA riots. Therefore, clear proof of a racist officer wasn’t going to be taken lightly, and the defense capitalized on the opportunity. Christopher Darden, a deputy district attorney assigned to the OJ case, said:
“It will do one thing. It will upset the juror. It will say, ‘Whose side are you on? The man or the brothers?'”
During the trial, OJ was asked to try on the glove. Whilst on the stand, OJ attempted to put the glove on with the entire courthouse and jury to see, but it didn’t fit. It was too small. This leads to his lawyer’s famous line:
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
By now, mass news hysteria had built up around the OJ trial. One of the biggest sports stars in history and a household name had been on trial for a gruelling 11 months, and the public had a front seat to it all, as if they had been watching some sort of reality TV series, and they had finally reached the season finale. The story was practically inescapable. His face was plastered all over magazine and newspaper covers across the state.
“I did not, could not, and would not have committed this crime.”
Whether OJ was guilty or innocent was on the tip of everyone’s tongues.
On October 3rd, 1995, the final verdict was announced. The jury was made up of eight black people, one Hispanic person, one white person, and two people of mixed race, and they reached their verdict after only 4 hours of deliberations.
“All right. Mr… Mr. Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury.”
“Mrs. Robertson, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, in the matter of the People of the State of California versus Orinthal James Simpson, case number BA097211. We, the jury in the above-entitled action, find the defendant Orinthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal code section 187A, a felony, upon Nicole Brown Simpson.”
OJ Simpson was found not guilty. Los Angeles, one day on from the most divisive court verdict America has seen in decades. A largely white crowd in a white suburb. A black man accused of killing a white woman. The verdict in this court has reminded Americans of the power of race, of celebrity, and perhaps, above all, of money. A rich American has bought justice. A black American has escaped charges that would land most blacks here on death row. The verdict of OJ’s trial divided the nation. His face was on the front cover of every magazine and newspaper cover and in the mouths of pop culture analysts and even politicians.
“I have certainly been of the view that he’s… he was ruined by virtue of the… the first trial, because the reality is that many, many, many people believe that he killed his wife and killed Ron Goldman. That would be fine, I suppose, if he was someone who was otherwise anonymous. But this is a person that makes his living being able to sell his image. And I don’t believe that Mr. Simpson’s image is worth a dime.”
“We prosecuted the right suspect. A jury found him not guilty. It’s time to move on to other things, barring some new evidence that might come forward, which we certainly don’t expect to happen.”
His acquittal for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman still divides Americans along racial lines to this day. Simpson was obviously always a black man, but it wasn’t until he was accused of murdering his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman that his race seemed to become a national issue.
“It’s shaken the country. Um, it pointed out that there is polarization in our society, that blacks and whites can look at the same thing and come away with two different perspectives. OJ Simpson, a very, very popular black American hero. And so, blacks really did not want him to be guilty, you know, in a general sense. And… and, uh, there is also some concern about police activity within the United States, and frankly, the Los Angeles Police Department has been subject to criticism in the past. And so when the… when the jury reached its decision, which, you know, they did based on all the evidence they heard and decided there was not a reasonable doubt beyond which they could take their deliberations, and they found him not guilty.”
In a 1995 CBS poll, 76% of whites thought the former NFL star was guilty, while just 22% of blacks thought so. Now, 79% of whites and 41% of blacks believe that OJ gets off because a white racist in the police force was allowed to have contact in this… with in this case in a major way.
“But I don’t think we should see the OJ trial as a metaphor for everything that’s happening in the United States with respect to race relations. And I don’t think we should say to take a look at the OJ trial and think that that means that the black people sitting on the jury will never convict a black person. That’s just wrong. Because one of the tragic facts in American life is that over 50% of the men in prison are black. For the most part, put there by black juries, a majority black juries from… from the inner district. So, uh, blacks serving on juries can do their duty, and I think we should continue to give them that benefit of the doubt. So OJ Simpson trial has given us a window into the problems that we have in… in race relations within the… within America and it ought to sort of sober us up and cause us all to rededicate our… ourselves to the proposition that racism should be eliminated. But I… I don’t quite see it as the metaphor for all of America.”
With the racial crisis in LA at the time of the murder, plus the continuous poverty and housing issues within the state, we’re already at the bottom. You know, what else can we do? One can’t help but believe that the acquittal of Simpson was payback for the Rodney King verdict as well as all other racial injustices. Is it fair to say that Simpson was spared and saved by the very culture and race he had deserted, or was he a man betrayed by the very culture and race who he sought validation and acknowledgement from? Either way, very few seem to believe this was a case about justice.
The doubts and conspiracies in society persisted despite Simpson’s acquittal. In a shocking revelation, Robert Kardashian, one of Simpson’s most entrusted, long-standing friends and member of the Dream Team, disclosed in a 1996 interview with Barbara Walters that he had doubts of his friend’s innocence. Ultimately, Robert and OJ’s friendship severed a year after the trial as Kardashian appeared deeply troubled and conflicted, with his personal relationship strained and death threats against his family.
“Mr. Kardashian, do you now doubt OJ Simpson’s innocence?”
“Barbara, if I were on the jury today on this civil trial, because of the reasonable doubt, I would vote not guilty.”
“That is not what I asked you. I asked you if you yourself doubt OJ Simpson’s innocence.”
“I have doubts.”
“Why?”
“For Robert Kardashian, this was a clear battle between loyalty and morality.”
“Would OJ Simpson have done this for you?”
“No, I don’t believe he would, Barbara.”
In 1996, the victim’s family sued OJ in a civil trial for wrongful death.
“The money is not the issue. It never has been. It’s been making certain that one man, the man that murdered my son and Nicole, is held responsible by a court of law. And it’s happened.”
In a turn of events, the jury found him responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, awarding their families $33.5 million in damages.
“Today’s 2 and 1/2 years… a little over two and a half years, and we finally have justice for Ron and Nicole. Our family is grateful for a verdict of responsibility, which is all we ever wanted. And we have it. Thank God.”
OJ Simpson walked into court a free man, but not for much longer, a rich one. Outside, hundreds strained to hear word of the verdict.
“Yes.”
When it came that they had found unanimously against Simpson on all eight counts, it was clear the crowd had decided this issue on racial grounds.
“The most that could happen to him is that he had to pay some cash money, but he’s still free. He still has his children. The most important thing is that he has been identified as what is murder.”
“8.5 million.”
“Yes.”
Between now and then, thousands of books, crime documentaries, articles have been released, producing their own conspiracy theories on what truly happened on that fateful day. Simpson included. In 2006, he released a book titled, “If I Did It,” a hypothetical account of the murders. The book’s release caused public outrage, resulting in its cancellation. However, it was later published, with the profits going to the Goldman family.
In more recent years, the anthology series adaptation of Jeffrey Toobin’s book, “The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” also revisits the disreputable trial in a compelling manner, further solidifying how the horrific double murder is still well within living memory. More than a decade after the murder acquittal, Simpson was sentenced to 33 years for a 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping in relation to a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room.
The trial of OJ Simpson will always be remembered in history as a time that divided the nation along racial lines, a time capsule representing the social climate at the time, filled with many shades of gray. And despite the theories, the overriding evidence, and the various accounts, only three people can fill in these shades with color. Only three people know the truth, two of which are dead. The uncertainty of the truth will endure in existence. But what is certain for sure is this was an infamous crime scene.
