248
O
n the front doorstep of an
apartment in Brentwood,
Los Angeles, a barefoot
woman in a black dress lay face
down in a pool of blood. Beside her
the remains of a 25-year-old man
were tangled in the bushes. At
about 12:10am on 13 June 1994, a
neighbour stumbled onto the
ghastly tableau. He had found the
bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ron Goldman. Both victims
had been dead for some time.
The deep slash wound on
Nicole’s neck left her nearly
decapitated. Goldman’s shirt waspulled over his head, exposing a
torso riddled with stab wounds.
The neighbour flagged down a
passing patrol car and soon the
apartment on South Bundy Drive
was swarming with detectives.
The gruesome crime was not
typical for the affluent Brentwood
neighbourhood. But the murder
investigation took on a frenzied
pace when police learned the dead
woman was Nicole Brown Simpson,
the ex-wife of football star turned
actor O.J. Simpson.Background to tragedy
On the night of her murder, Nicole
had dined at the restaurant
Mezzaluna with her mother and
children. Nicole’s mother phoned
the restaurant at 9:35pm to report
that she had left her spectacles
behind. Nicole then made a call
herself, asking her waiter friend,
Ron Goldman, to bring the glasses
to her home that evening. Goldman
finished his shift about 9:50pm, and
headed to Nicole's. Just over two
hours later, both were found dead.O.J. SIMPSON
Once both of the victims were
identified, detectives went to
Simpson’s Rockingham estate,
where they discovered a white
Ford Bronco marred with
bloodstains. Without a warrant,
but claiming that he feared for
Simpson’s safety, Detective Mark
Fuhrman scaled the estate’s walls
and let his team in. During his
walk around Simpson’s house,
Fuhrman discovered a bloody
glove, which was later determined
to be a match to one discovered
at the murder scene. DNA testing
revealed that the blood on the
glove came from both Nicole
and Goldman.
Later, three drops of Simpson’s
blood were found near the gate of
his home, from an open wound on
Simpson’s hand. The discovery of
the glove, plus the blood evidence
at both scenes, was enough for an
arrest warrant to be issued against
Simpson for double murder.Dramatic surrender
While his lawyers negotiated a
planned surrender on 17 June 1994,
Simpson fled. Longtime friend and
fellow football player Al Cowlings
picked him up in his white Ford
Bronco and drove Simpson up and
down the freeway. Intermittently,
O.J. put the gun against his head
and threatened suicide.IN CONTEXT
LOCATION
Brentwood, Los Angeles,
California, USTHEME
Celebrity defendantsBEFORE
2 December 1954 Boxing
promoter Don King guns down
an alleged robber at his illegal
gambling house in Cleveland.12 October 1978 Punk rocker
Sid Vicious stabs and kills his
girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
He is charged with murder,
but dies of a heroin overdose
before trial.AFTER
22 January 2001 Former
NFL player Rae Carruth is
convicted of conspiracy to
murder his pregnant girlfriend,
Cherica Adams.14 February 2013 Oscar
Pistorius, a paralympic runner,
fatally shoots his girlfriend,
Reeva Steenkamp.Nicole Brown Simpson at the
premiere of her husband’s movie Naked
Gun 331/ 3 : The Final Insult on 16 March- She and O.J. had reconciled
following their divorce in 1992.
I’m absolutely, l00 per cent,
not g u i lt y.
O.J. Simpson246-251_OJ_Simpson.indd 248 02/12/2016 15:04
249
By 2pm, the Los Angeles Police
Department had issued an all-
points bulletin for Simpson’s arrest.
Early that evening, the Bronco was
spotted. One officer approached the
car but, because Simpson had a
gun to his head, decided to back
off. This ignited a low-speed chase,
with up to 20 police cars and nine
helicopters following the car.
Thousands of spectators packed
the overpasses to cheer on the
white Bronco, some holding
homemade signs urging Simpson
to keep running. Television stations
interrupted regularly scheduled
programming, and the chase was
seen by some 95 million viewers.
After 80 km (50 miles) on the
freeway, the chase ended at 8pm
at Simpson’s Brentwood estate. In
exchange for a peaceful surrender,
Simpson was allowed an hour in
the house to speak to his mother.Meanwhile, officers searched the
Bronco and found $8,000 (£7,000)
in cash, clothes, and a disguise –
a fake goatee, moustache, and
make-up kit – as well as family
photos and a loaded handgun.Courtroom personnel
Simpson was arraigned on 20 June,
and pleaded not guilty to both
murders. He was ordered to be heldSee also: Dr Crippen 216 ■ The Manson Family 230–37 ■ The Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls 254–57MURDER CASES
O.J. Simpson Born Orenthal James Simpson,
O.J. Simpson grew up poor in the
housing projects outside San
Francisco, California. Simpson
discovered a passion for football
and won a football scholarship
to the University of Southern
California. In 1968, he won the
prestigious Heisman Trophy.
After college, Simpson was
drafted to the NFL and played 11
seasons with the Buffalo Bills and
San Francisco 49ers. In 1973 he
became the first player to rush
1,800 metres (2,000 yards) in a
season, and was later inducted
into the Football Hall of Fame.After he retired from the NFL,
Simpson began a career as a
football broadcaster and actor,
and appeared in several movies
including The Towering Inferno,
Capricorn One, and The Naked
Gun trilogy.
Simpson met 18-year-old
waitress Nicole Brown in 1977,
and the two were married in- They had two children:
Sydney and Justin. After a
tumultuous marriage rife with
claims of spousal abuse, Nicole
filed for divorce on 25 February - Two years later, Simpson
was accused of her murder.
without bail. In a controversial
decision, the prosecutors chose
to file charges in downtown LA,
which would result in a jury pool
with a majority of people of colour.
Veteran LAPD detective Tom
Lange led the murder investigation.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark, a Deputy
District Attorney, was designated
lead prosecutor; acting as
co-counsel was Deputy District ❯❯The white Ford Bronco is chased
at a slow speed along an LA freeway
in the gathering dusk. The televised
chase was a cultural phenomenon, and
raised interest in the Simpson case.246-251_OJ_Simpson.indd 249 13/01/2017 15:19