All 400,000 copies of O.J. Simpson's book were recalled for destruction after Rupert Murdoch cancelled the project and fired publisher Judith Regan. Newsweek has access to one chapter, however, and they say it could actually serve as evidence of Simpson's guilt.
Newsweek has obtained a copy of the book's key chapter from a source who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing controversy. The narrative is as revolting as one might expect, but it's also surprisingly revealing. What emerges from the chapter is something new in the nearly 13-year Simpson saga: a seeming confession in Simpson's own voice.
Indeed, how else is one to take narrative like the following by Simpson, as told by Newsweek's Mark Miller:
As a correspondent for this magazine, I covered the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman through the criminal trial and acquittal of O. J. Simpson in 1995. What is striking about the chapter I read, "The Night in Question," is how closely it tracks with the evidence in the case—and how clearly Simpson invokes the classic language of a wife abuser. In his crude, expletive-laced account, Simpson suggests Nicole all but drove him to kill her. He describes her as the "enemy." She is taunting him with her sexual dalliances, he says, and carrying on inappropriately in front of their two children.---
At Simpson's criminal trial, to explain how one man could have killed two people, the Los Angeles County coroner theorized that Simpson knocked out Nicole, then quickly slit her throat before turning to Goldman. If the book's account is true, the coroner's hypothesis was correct—almost. Simpson writes that his ex-wife came at him like a "banshee." She loses her balance and falls hard, her head cracking against the ground. Goldman assumes a karate stance, further angering Simpson. He dares the younger man to fight. Then, in the book, Simpson pulls back. He writes, "Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how."
We know the rest, O.J. Read it all.
Not only is it galling that a double murderer walks free, but he apparently craves a public profile of some sort, and insists on insinuating himself into the public eye by calling talk shows and trying to profit from a pseudo-confessional book. It comes off as a pathetic attempt to recreate his celebrity as something other than what it is. Now that he's got this ritual cleansing out of the way, maybe it's better he just crawls back under a rock.
Posted by dan at January 16, 2007 12:39 AM