WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.020 Welcome back to the Deep Dive, I'm your host 00:00:02.020 --> 00:00:06.400 and today… Wow. Today we are clearing the decks. 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:08.580 We are turning off notifications. We are putting 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:10.339 the phone on silent because we have a massive 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:12.900 topic to cover. A huge one. We are tackling a 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:15.599 subject that, I mean, it defines a generation, 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:18.059 maybe even two generations. It really does. It's 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:20.620 good to be back. It is a story that every single 00:00:20.620 --> 00:00:24.379 person listening has heard pieces of, but I guarantee 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:26.839 you, and I say this with confidence, the full 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:30.679 picture is so much messier, so much more complicated, 00:00:30.739 --> 00:00:33.679 and honestly, so much more tragic than that. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.020 headlines ever captured. Oh, absolutely. You 00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:37.479 know, when we started pulling the source material 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:40.200 for this deep dive, we have a huge stack today. 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:43.060 I was struck by how O .J. Simpson has become 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:47.939 almost a mythic figure. Yeah. He's less of a 00:00:47.939 --> 00:00:50.439 person and more of a Rorschach test for America. 00:00:50.579 --> 00:00:52.820 For some people, especially older sports fans, 00:00:52.979 --> 00:00:54.799 he's the greatest running back who ever lived, 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:57.619 period. The geotick. For others, he's that charming 00:00:57.619 --> 00:00:59.340 guy in the Hertz commercials, you know, running 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:01.420 through the airport. Right. Go, O .J., go. And 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:04.280 then for a huge portion of the world, he is simply 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.819 the face of the trial of the century, a symbol 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:09.840 of the legal system, race relations, and celebrity 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.709 culture. all just colliding at once. Exactly. 00:01:12.849 --> 00:01:15.069 It's like the timeline of American culture splits 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:18.829 right there in 1994. But O .J. Simpson, the man, 00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:22.290 the actual human being who lived from 1947 to 00:01:22.290 --> 00:01:25.890 2024, that's what we are here to explore. We 00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:29.030 are looking at the complete arc of his life based 00:01:29.030 --> 00:01:32.310 on the comprehensive biographical and legal source 00:01:32.310 --> 00:01:34.700 material we've pulled. Because he died in April 00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:38.439 2024 and that event sort of, it closed the book 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:40.819 on a life that spanned the absolute highest heights 00:01:40.819 --> 00:01:43.700 of American celebrity and the darkest, most controversial 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:45.879 corners of the legal system. And that's the mission 00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:47.900 for this deep dive, really. We want to move past 00:01:47.900 --> 00:01:50.140 the caricature. Yes. We need to understand the 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:52.900 specific details of his athletic career, which 00:01:52.900 --> 00:01:55.459 was historic in ways people often forget. And 00:01:55.459 --> 00:01:57.640 then the granular evidence of the trials and 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.319 the weird, almost surreal aftermath that followed 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.790 him right up until his death. Right. We're going 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:05.209 from the housing projects of San Francisco to 00:02:05.209 --> 00:02:08.509 the trial of the century and then to a prison 00:02:08.509 --> 00:02:10.669 cell in Nevada for a completely different crime. 00:02:10.810 --> 00:02:14.669 It is a wild ride. It is. So tone check before 00:02:14.669 --> 00:02:18.789 we dive in. I'm here as the curious learner who 00:02:18.789 --> 00:02:21.289 remembers the big beats. I remember where I was 00:02:21.289 --> 00:02:23.469 when the verdict was read, but I am probably 00:02:23.469 --> 00:02:25.310 fuzzy on the detail. No, I'll be here to connect 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:27.330 those dots because you really can't understand 00:02:27.330 --> 00:02:29.750 the fall, the sheer magnitude of the tragedy, 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:32.830 if you don't understand just how high that pedestal 00:02:32.830 --> 00:02:34.650 was in the first place. Okay, let's untack this. 00:02:34.710 --> 00:02:36.610 Let's start at the very beginning. Section one, 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:39.409 the juice. I think people forget that before 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:42.330 he was a defendant, he was, well, he was a god 00:02:42.330 --> 00:02:45.090 in the sports world. But he didn't start that 00:02:45.090 --> 00:02:47.300 way, did he? Not at all. And this is where the 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:49.819 source material immediately surprises you. Orenthal 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:53.439 James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947, in San 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:55.599 Francisco. He grew up in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. 00:02:55.879 --> 00:02:57.699 Okay. Now, if you go to San Francisco today, 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:00.460 real estate is astronomical everywhere. But back 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:03.379 then, in the late 40s and 50s, this was low -income 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:06.060 housing. These were the projects. So a tough 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:09.419 start immediately. A very tough start. His mother, 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:12.080 Eunice, she worked as an orderly in a psychiatric 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.960 ward. His father, Jimmy Lee Simpson. was a custodian 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:19.120 and a cook. But looking at the notes, there is 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:21.599 a detail about his father that really complicates 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.199 the family dynamic. Something that wasn't widely 00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:26.960 discussed during OJ's prime because, you know, 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:28.759 the cultural conversation just wasn't ready for 00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:31.139 it. I saw this in the research. His father was 00:03:31.139 --> 00:03:34.300 part of the drag scene? Yes. His father, Jimmy 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:36.379 Lee, was a well -known drag queen in the Bay 00:03:36.379 --> 00:03:38.889 Area. Later in life, he announced he was gay. 00:03:39.030 --> 00:03:42.189 He actually passed away from AIDS in 1986. Wow. 00:03:42.409 --> 00:03:45.629 But Simpson's parents separated in 1952, when 00:03:45.629 --> 00:03:48.349 O .J. was just four years old, so he was raised 00:03:48.349 --> 00:03:50.870 primarily by his mother. But you have to imagine 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:52.969 the psychological landscape of that home life 00:03:52.969 --> 00:03:56.020 in the 1950s. That is a very heavy backdrop for 00:03:56.020 --> 00:03:58.180 a kid growing up in that era. And physically, 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:00.840 O .J. wasn't exactly born an athlete, was he? 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:02.860 I mean, we think of him as this physical specimen, 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:04.560 but the early years tell a totally different 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:06.900 story. No, and this is the Forrest Gump moment 00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:09.319 of his life. It's incredible. As a child, he 00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:12.280 suffered from rickets. Rickets. I feel like that's 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:14.020 a Victorian disease, like something you read 00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:16.480 about in a Charles Dickens novel. It is, essentially. 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:19.079 It's a condition that softens the bones, usually 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:21.720 due to a severe vitamin D deficiency or a calcium 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:24.060 deficiency. It's really a disease of poverty. 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:27.339 Okay. And because of the rickets, his legs were 00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:30.819 bowed. He actually had to wear leg braces until 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:33.230 he was five years old. Just to correct his bone 00:04:33.230 --> 00:04:36.449 structure. That is wild irony. The guy who becomes 00:04:36.449 --> 00:04:40.189 famous for running, for having these incredible 00:04:40.189 --> 00:04:43.209 legs that carry him to the Hall of Fame, started 00:04:43.209 --> 00:04:46.069 out in braces, unable to walk properly. It's 00:04:46.069 --> 00:04:48.509 unbelievable. Yeah. And that experience, being 00:04:48.509 --> 00:04:51.569 the kid in braces in a rough neighborhood, it 00:04:51.569 --> 00:04:54.470 shapes you. He was teased. He was vulnerable. 00:04:54.790 --> 00:04:56.670 Of course. And typically when you're a vulnerable 00:04:56.670 --> 00:04:58.589 kid in that environment, you look for protection. 00:04:58.769 --> 00:05:01.290 You look for a tribe. For Simpson, that was a 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:03.269 street gang called the Persian Warriors. The 00:05:03.269 --> 00:05:05.069 Persian Warriors. It sounds like a movie game, 00:05:05.110 --> 00:05:06.949 but this was real life. So he's heading down 00:05:06.949 --> 00:05:10.970 a bad path. A very bad path. He was incarcerated 00:05:10.970 --> 00:05:13.449 briefly at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center. 00:05:13.810 --> 00:05:16.649 By his own admission later in life and the accounts 00:05:16.649 --> 00:05:18.910 of his high school girlfriend, he was heading 00:05:18.910 --> 00:05:22.079 straight for a life of crime. He was fighting. 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:26.220 He was stealing. But then he had this pivotal 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:28.959 meeting, a moment that feels like it belongs 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.699 in a movie script. It's just a one in a million 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:34.279 chance. I love this detail. Who did he meet? 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:37.779 Willie Mace. The baseball legend. The say -hey 00:05:37.779 --> 00:05:40.639 kid. The absolute legend. After Simpson's third 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:43.180 arrest, a counselor at the youth center arranged 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:46.420 for him to meet Willie Mace. Mace was a god in 00:05:46.420 --> 00:05:48.860 San Francisco, and he took the time to talk to 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:51.449 this troubled kid. Wow. He basically told him 00:05:51.449 --> 00:05:53.449 to get his act together, that his athletic talent 00:05:53.449 --> 00:05:55.550 was a gift, and he was wasting it on the streets. 00:05:56.370 --> 00:05:58.170 According to Simpson, that was the moment that 00:05:58.170 --> 00:06:00.310 turned the light bulb on. He realized sports 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:03.269 were his ticket out. It's amazing how one conversation, 00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:06.009 just one person taking an interest, can change 00:06:06.009 --> 00:06:08.670 a whole trajectory. It's everything. So he decides 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:10.949 to focus on football. He plays at Galileo High 00:06:10.949 --> 00:06:13.050 School. Right. But he couldn't go straight to 00:06:13.050 --> 00:06:14.990 a big university because of his grades, right? 00:06:15.189 --> 00:06:17.740 Correct. His grades were terrible. He had the 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:20.360 talent, but not the transcript. So he had to 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:22.560 go to City College of San Francisco first. It's 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.100 a junior college. And he didn't just play well. 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:27.959 He obliterated the competition. Unnominated. 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:30.019 He broke junior college rushing records left 00:06:30.019 --> 00:06:32.319 and right. Suddenly, the grades didn't matter 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:35.240 as much to the recruiters. Every major university 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:37.800 in the country wanted him. And he chose USC, 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:40.560 the University of Southern California. A match 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:43.699 made in heaven. He lands in Los Angeles in 1967. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:47.319 And this is where the legend really begins. In 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:51.540 just two seasons, 1967 and 1968, he led the nation 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.079 in rushing both years. He won the Heisman Trophy 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:56.720 in 1968. The Heisman is the biggest award in 00:06:56.720 --> 00:06:58.199 college sports. It's the top of the mountain. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:00.420 But I want to drill down on how he won it because 00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:02.160 sometimes the voting is close, right? It's a 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:04.170 nail biter. Usually it's a debate. There are 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:07.129 regional biases, different opinions. But in 1968, 00:07:07.389 --> 00:07:09.449 it wasn't a contest. It was a coronation. He 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:11.370 won the Heisman by the largest margin in history 00:07:11.370 --> 00:07:13.550 at that time. But how much? He defeated the runner 00:07:13.550 --> 00:07:19.410 -up, Leroy Keyes, by 1 ,750 points. 1 ,750 points. 00:07:19.750 --> 00:07:22.129 That's not a win. That's a statistical anomaly. 00:07:22.329 --> 00:07:24.750 That's a landslide. Exactly. Everyone knew he 00:07:24.750 --> 00:07:26.730 was the best player in the country. And there's 00:07:26.730 --> 00:07:28.970 one play from his college days that stands out. 00:07:29.449 --> 00:07:33.410 The... Greatest play. This is the 1967 game against 00:07:33.410 --> 00:07:37.009 UCLA, the big rivalry game. You have to understand 00:07:37.009 --> 00:07:39.790 the stakes here. This wasn't just a game. It 00:07:39.790 --> 00:07:42.790 was arguably the biggest game of the 20th century 00:07:42.790 --> 00:07:47.709 in college football. USC versus UCLA. Crosstown 00:07:47.709 --> 00:07:50.509 rivals. Okay. The winner goes to the Rose Bowl 00:07:50.509 --> 00:07:53.110 and probably wins the national title. The stadium 00:07:53.110 --> 00:07:55.250 is packed. The whole country is watching. And 00:07:55.250 --> 00:07:57.370 the score is tight. USC is down in the fourth 00:07:57.370 --> 00:07:59.649 quarter. It's third down and seven. The quarterback 00:07:59.649 --> 00:08:02.730 calls a play 23 blast. He hands the ball to Simpson. 00:08:02.930 --> 00:08:05.509 Simpson finds a little gap, cuts to the sideline, 00:08:05.529 --> 00:08:08.170 just turns on the Jets. And he's gone. 64 yards 00:08:08.170 --> 00:08:10.670 for a touchdown. That run tied the game. The 00:08:10.670 --> 00:08:12.949 extra point won it. That single play made him 00:08:12.949 --> 00:08:15.589 a national icon before he even played down in 00:08:15.589 --> 00:08:19.389 the NFL. So he enters the NFL draft in 1969 with 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:21.610 all this hype. He goes to the Buffalo Bills, 00:08:21.649 --> 00:08:24.180 drafted first overall. And I think... This is 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:26.240 where the younger generation might lose the context. 00:08:26.259 --> 00:08:28.540 They know he was a football player, but I don't 00:08:28.540 --> 00:08:31.079 think they realize how good he was. They see 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:33.820 the mugshot, not the highlight reel. He wasn't 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:36.940 just good. He was transformative. But it took 00:08:36.940 --> 00:08:39.500 a few years. His first few seasons in Buffalo 00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:43.299 were actually a struggle. The coach, John Rauch, 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.779 had OJ Simpson. the greatest runner in college 00:08:46.779 --> 00:08:49.340 history blocking and catching passes rather than 00:08:49.340 --> 00:08:51.919 running. What? It was coaching malpractice. That's 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.179 like buying a Ferrari and using it to tow a trailer. 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:56.820 Why would you do that? It baffled everyone. For 00:08:56.820 --> 00:08:58.279 three years, people were starting to whisper 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:01.240 that maybe he was a bust, a college phenom who 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:03.279 couldn't cut it in the pros. Oh, wow. But then 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.100 the Bills brought in a coach named Lou Saban. 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:08.899 Saban looked at the roster and said, I have O 00:09:08.899 --> 00:09:10.980 .J. Simpson. I am going to give him the ball. 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:13.279 And he did. He built the entire offense around 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:16.740 Simpson. In 1973, he did the unthinkable. This 00:09:16.740 --> 00:09:19.899 is the big stack. He rushed for 2 ,003 yards 00:09:19.899 --> 00:09:22.659 in a single season. He was the first player ever 00:09:22.659 --> 00:09:25.500 to break the 2 ,000 -yard mark. And here's where 00:09:25.500 --> 00:09:28.279 it gets really interesting, right? Because players 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:30.480 have done that since. Eric Dickerson did it. 00:09:30.500 --> 00:09:34.080 Derrick Henry did it recently. But why is OJ's 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:37.200 record different? Why do the football purists 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:41.409 still point to 1973? Because of the math. In 00:09:41.409 --> 00:09:44.690 1973, the NFL season was only 14 games long. 00:09:44.769 --> 00:09:48.610 Today, it's 17 games. O .J. Simpson ran for over 00:09:48.610 --> 00:09:52.289 2 ,000 yards in just 14 games. So his average 00:09:52.289 --> 00:09:54.990 per game must be insane. It is. To this day, 00:09:55.009 --> 00:09:56.950 he holds the record for the highest rushing yards 00:09:56.950 --> 00:10:00.769 per game average in a season. 143 .1 yards per 00:10:00.769 --> 00:10:03.210 game. And 143 yards a game. Think about that. 00:10:03.309 --> 00:10:05.169 That's a great game for a modern running back. 00:10:05.269 --> 00:10:07.070 He was averaging that every single Sunday for 00:10:07.070 --> 00:10:09.289 a whole season. That record still stands. That 00:10:09.289 --> 00:10:11.529 is insane consistency. And he had that nickname, 00:10:11.730 --> 00:10:14.250 The Juice. The Juice. It started as a play on 00:10:14.250 --> 00:10:16.250 O .J. Orange's juice. It became a metaphor for 00:10:16.250 --> 00:10:18.750 energy, for electricity, for power. And his offensive 00:10:18.750 --> 00:10:20.750 line, the guy's blocking form, they leaned into 00:10:20.750 --> 00:10:22.570 it. They called themselves The Electric Company. 00:10:22.750 --> 00:10:24.970 Because they turn on the juice. It is marketing 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:28.529 gold. It's clever. It's fun. It's catchy. And 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:30.549 that marketing genius didn't stop at the sideline. 00:10:31.309 --> 00:10:33.830 This transitions us perfectly to his celebrity 00:10:33.830 --> 00:10:36.970 off the field because O .J. wasn't just a football 00:10:36.970 --> 00:10:40.789 player. He was, as the sources put it, a colorless 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:43.429 celebrity. That's a crucial term here. What does 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:46.029 colorless mean in this context in the 70s? It 00:10:46.029 --> 00:10:47.909 means he was non -threatening to white America. 00:10:48.330 --> 00:10:51.309 You have to remember, this is the 1970s. Racial 00:10:51.309 --> 00:10:53.970 tensions are still very high. Corporate America 00:10:53.970 --> 00:10:56.389 was terrified of alienating white customers by 00:10:56.389 --> 00:10:59.509 using black spokespeople. But O .J. was different. 00:10:59.649 --> 00:11:02.919 He was handsome, articulate. Always smiling. 00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:06.740 He seemed safe. He spoke without slang. He dressed 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:09.320 in suits. He transcended race in a way that very 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:11.240 few public figures had at that point. And Hertz 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:14.480 saw that potential. Hertz rental car. In 1975, 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:16.820 they made him the face of their brand. He was 00:11:16.820 --> 00:11:18.980 the first black man to be hired for a major corporate 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:20.919 national ad campaign. We've all seen the clips, 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:22.620 right? OJ running through the airport in the 00:11:22.620 --> 00:11:24.950 three -piece suit. Jumping over barriers, people 00:11:24.950 --> 00:11:27.409 cheering him on. It was a revolution in advertising. 00:11:27.710 --> 00:11:30.330 It solves what marketing experts call the vampire 00:11:30.330 --> 00:11:33.490 video problem. The vampire video. I love this 00:11:33.490 --> 00:11:36.029 term. Break it down. A vampire video is a commercial 00:11:36.029 --> 00:11:39.210 that is so entertaining or funny that you remember 00:11:39.210 --> 00:11:41.210 the joke or the celebrity. Yeah. But you forget 00:11:41.210 --> 00:11:43.750 the product. The commercial sucks the blood out 00:11:43.750 --> 00:11:46.750 of the brand. Got it. But with OJ, the connection 00:11:46.750 --> 00:11:49.049 was instant. You saw him running. You thought 00:11:49.049 --> 00:11:51.100 speed. You thought efficiency. You thought Hertz. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:54.899 Their brand awareness skyrocketed by 40 percent. 00:11:55.100 --> 00:11:57.899 Profits increased by 50 percent in the first 00:11:57.899 --> 00:12:01.039 year alone. So he's conquered sports. He's conquered 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:03.399 Madison Avenue. And then he conquers Hollywood. 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:05.970 He was everywhere. He was in The Towering Inferno. 00:12:06.090 --> 00:12:08.649 He was in the acclaimed miniseries Roots, which 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:11.090 was a huge cultural moment. Yes, massive. And, 00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:12.789 of course, the Naked Gun movies. As Detective 00:12:12.789 --> 00:12:15.210 Nordberg, the guy who's always getting injured. 00:12:15.450 --> 00:12:17.190 It's slapstick comedy. He's getting hit with 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:19.870 doors, falling off boats, getting his hand trapped 00:12:19.870 --> 00:12:22.669 in a window. It made him even more lovable. He 00:12:22.669 --> 00:12:24.409 wasn't the tough guy. He was the goofy, unlucky 00:12:24.409 --> 00:12:27.509 guy. It just reinforced that image of him as 00:12:27.509 --> 00:12:31.039 a gentle soul. And that image. the unthreatening 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:33.820 nice guy, is what makes this next piece of trivia 00:12:33.820 --> 00:12:36.340 so jarring. The producers of The Terminator. 00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:40.240 Oh, this is the ultimate what if. It's just chilling 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:43.259 to think about. They considered OJ Simpson for 00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:46.159 the title role. The Terminator, the killing machine 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:48.580 from the future. James Cameron and the producers 00:12:48.580 --> 00:12:51.059 discussed it seriously. Arnold Schwarzenegger 00:12:51.059 --> 00:12:53.419 has confirmed this in interviews. They were looking 00:12:53.419 --> 00:12:56.759 for someone physically imposing. But they ultimately 00:12:56.759 --> 00:12:59.580 decided against casting O .J. because they thought 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:02.200 he was too nice. Too nice. They didn't think 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:04.539 audiences would believe O .J. Simpson is a remorseless 00:13:04.539 --> 00:13:08.299 killer. Man, that ages poorly. It certainly does. 00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:10.860 But it shows you just how successfully he had 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:13.519 cultivated that persona. The world saw a teddy 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:16.240 bear. So we have this American hero. Success 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.399 on the field, success in Hollywood, success on 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.539 Madison Avenue. But underneath all that polish, 00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:23.620 there was a much darker current flowing. Section 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:26.879 2. We have to talk about his relationships and 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.419 specifically Nicole Brown. This is where the 00:13:29.419 --> 00:13:32.299 story shifts from a sports biography to a tragedy. 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:37.000 And we need to look at his personal life. Simpson 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.519 was married first to Marguerite Whitley. They 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:42.179 had three children. But there was a tragedy there, 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:44.460 too, which often gets lost in the later noise. 00:13:44.580 --> 00:13:47.320 Right. The drowning. That's horrible. In 1979, 00:13:47.799 --> 00:13:50.600 their daughter, Erin. drowned in the family pool 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:52.799 just before her second birthday. I can't even 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:54.879 imagine that kind of pain. It's a trauma that 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:57.379 stays with you forever. They divorced in 1979, 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:00.720 but by then, Simpson had already met Nicole Brown. 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:02.600 She was very young when they met, right? She 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:05.179 was 18. She was working as a waitress at a nightclub 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:08.139 called The Daisy in Beverly Hills. OJ was 30, 00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:10.860 and he was already a global superstar. So the 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:13.340 power dynamic there is incredibly skewed from 00:14:13.340 --> 00:14:15.980 the very start. Massively. He was at the peak 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:18.100 of his fame, and she was an 18 -year -old kid. 00:14:18.909 --> 00:14:20.809 They started dating and eventually married in 00:14:20.809 --> 00:14:24.049 1985. But the relationship wasn't the fairy tale 00:14:24.049 --> 00:14:26.190 it looked like in the glossy photos. No. Not 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:29.149 at all. The source material describes it as fractious 00:14:29.149 --> 00:14:31.690 and mutually obsessed. It was volatile. And it 00:14:31.690 --> 00:14:33.509 was violent. And this wasn't something that just 00:14:33.509 --> 00:14:35.730 came out at the murder trial. It was documented 00:14:35.730 --> 00:14:38.090 by the police well before that. This was a known 00:14:38.090 --> 00:14:41.370 issue. Yes. The most infamous incident was New 00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:45.330 Year's Eve, 1989. Tell us about that night. Police 00:14:45.330 --> 00:14:48.490 responded to a 911 call at their home on Rockingham 00:14:48.490 --> 00:14:51.529 Avenue. They found Nicole hiding in the bushes 00:14:51.529 --> 00:14:54.210 outside the house. In the bushes? She was wearing 00:14:54.210 --> 00:14:57.769 only a bra and sweatpants. She was bruised, beaten, 00:14:57.970 --> 00:15:00.830 and absolutely terrified. She told the officers 00:15:00.830 --> 00:15:03.190 explicitly, he's going to kill me. He's going 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:06.649 to kill me. In 1989, five years before she actually 00:15:06.649 --> 00:15:09.309 died. Yes. Simpson fled the scene in his car 00:15:09.309 --> 00:15:11.750 before he could be arrested. Later, he pleaded 00:15:11.750 --> 00:15:14.940 no contest to spousal abuse. Now, for the listeners 00:15:14.940 --> 00:15:17.700 who aren't lawyers, no contest is basically the 00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:19.639 same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes. 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.580 Exactly. It means I am not admitting guilt, but 00:15:22.580 --> 00:15:24.740 I'm not fighting the charges because the evidence 00:15:24.740 --> 00:15:27.179 is overwhelming. It goes on your record as a 00:15:27.179 --> 00:15:29.320 conviction. So he has a record of spousal abuse. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:32.059 Did he lose his Hertz contract? Did NBC fire 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:35.399 him? Did he become a pariah? No. And that is 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:37.379 the shocking part. He essentially got a slap 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:38.960 on the wrist. He got some community service, 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:41.360 a small fine, and was allowed to do his counseling 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:43.899 over the phone. Over the phone. Over the phone. 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:46.480 He kept his contracts. He kept his status. It 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.179 really highlights the domestic violence just 00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:51.379 wasn't treated with the severity it is today. 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.860 It was seen as a private family matter. And that 00:15:54.860 --> 00:15:57.789 1989 incident was just. The tip of the iceberg. 00:15:58.049 --> 00:16:00.570 It was. Prosecutors later compiled evidence of 00:16:00.570 --> 00:16:03.789 62 separate incidents of abusive behavior. 62. 00:16:04.090 --> 00:16:08.190 62. Stalking, harassment, public humiliation, 00:16:08.389 --> 00:16:10.570 physical violence. It was a pattern of control 00:16:10.570 --> 00:16:13.070 and terror. They finally broke up for good in 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:16.409 May 1994. And the source material quotes Nicole 00:16:16.409 --> 00:16:18.610 telling friends something chilling. She told 00:16:18.610 --> 00:16:20.539 her friends. He's going to kill me and he's going 00:16:20.539 --> 00:16:22.820 to get away with it. She predicted her own death 00:16:22.820 --> 00:16:25.659 and the outcome. That is heartbreaking. It is. 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:28.039 She knew who he was. She knew his temper and 00:16:28.039 --> 00:16:31.279 she knew his influence. And that brings us to 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.740 June 1994. Section three, the murders. June 12th, 00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:38.940 1994, a Sunday night in Brentwood, Los Angeles. 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:41.899 Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:44.700 were found stabbed to death outside her condo. 00:16:45.049 --> 00:16:47.289 We should clarify about Ron Goldman because early 00:16:47.289 --> 00:16:49.269 on there were all these disgusting rumors of 00:16:49.269 --> 00:16:51.549 an affair, but he was just there doing a favor, 00:16:51.649 --> 00:16:53.990 right? He was just the good guy. Correct. He 00:16:53.990 --> 00:16:56.509 was a waiter at Mizzaluna, a restaurant where 00:16:56.509 --> 00:16:58.870 Nicole had eaten dinner that night. Her mother 00:16:58.870 --> 00:17:00.909 had accidentally left her sunglasses behind. 00:17:01.669 --> 00:17:03.889 Ron offered to drop them off at Nicole's house 00:17:03.889 --> 00:17:06.710 after his shift. Wrong place, wrong time. In 00:17:06.710 --> 00:17:09.950 the worst possible way. He walked into a slaughter. 00:17:10.380 --> 00:17:12.759 The brutality of the crime scene was shocking. 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:15.359 Simpson became the immediate person of interest. 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:17.640 He had the motive, he had the history of violence, 00:17:17.779 --> 00:17:20.180 and he had no alibi for the time of the murders. 00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:22.859 But here is a detail that I honestly had forgotten, 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:24.839 or maybe never knew. It's one of those surprising 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:27.339 facts we promised. At the time of the murders, 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:30.480 what was OJ doing professionally? This is bizarre. 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:34.259 He was filming a pilot for NBC, a show called 00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:37.369 Frogmen. Fog men, like Navy SEALs. Exactly. It 00:17:37.369 --> 00:17:38.890 was an action show, kind of like the A -Team. 00:17:39.170 --> 00:17:41.430 O .J. played the leader of a group of former 00:17:41.430 --> 00:17:43.750 SEALs who worked out of a surf shop in Malibu. 00:17:43.809 --> 00:17:46.589 Okay, so he's playing an action hero. But here 00:17:46.589 --> 00:17:50.569 is the eerie detail. For that role, Simpson received 00:17:50.569 --> 00:17:53.589 military -style knife training. You are kidding 00:17:53.589 --> 00:17:56.589 me. I am not. He was trained in how to use a 00:17:56.589 --> 00:17:59.509 knife for stealth kills. And there was a scene 00:17:59.509 --> 00:18:02.200 filmed for the pilot. A scene that actually exists 00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:05.059 where Simpson's character grabs a woman, holds 00:18:05.059 --> 00:18:07.400 a knife to her throat, and threatens her. And 00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:10.160 this was never aired. NBC buried it immediately 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.220 after the murders. The police actually seized 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:15.619 the footage as part of the investigation to see 00:18:15.619 --> 00:18:17.279 if it showed a level of comfort with knives. 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.259 It wasn't introduced at trial, but just imagine 00:18:20.259 --> 00:18:22.559 the existence of that footage while he's on trial 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:25.380 for a double stabbing. That is deeply unsettling. 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.079 It blurs the line between the actor and the reality. 00:18:28.730 --> 00:18:31.049 So the murders happen. The police focus on OJ. 00:18:31.309 --> 00:18:33.869 They arrange for him to surrender on June 17th. 00:18:33.890 --> 00:18:36.490 His lawyers, led by Robert Shapiro, say he will 00:18:36.490 --> 00:18:38.690 turn himself in. The police are waiting. The 00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:41.549 media is waiting. And he doesn't show. He goes 00:18:41.549 --> 00:18:43.990 on the run. And we get the Bronco chase. The 00:18:43.990 --> 00:18:46.609 white Ford Bronco. Driven by his best friend 00:18:46.609 --> 00:18:48.970 and former teammate, Al Cowlings. OJ is in the 00:18:48.970 --> 00:18:51.750 backseat. It's hard to overstate how big this 00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:54.309 moment was. This wasn't just news. This was everything. 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:57.519 It interrupted the NBA Finals. Think about that. 00:18:57.599 --> 00:18:59.779 The Knicks and the Rockets are playing for a 00:18:59.779 --> 00:19:03.019 championship, a huge national event, and NBC 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:06.740 cuts away to show a white SUV driving 35 miles 00:19:06.740 --> 00:19:10.799 an hour down the 405 freeway. 95 million viewers 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.319 tuned in. 95 million. It was a shared cultural 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:16.220 moment. Domino's Pizza reported record sales 00:19:16.220 --> 00:19:18.500 that night because nobody wanted to cook. They 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:20.619 were glued to the TV. People were standing on 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:23.400 overpasses with signs cheering him on, go OJ. 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:25.319 Which is bizarre because inside that car, it 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:27.500 wasn't a victory lap. It was a funeral procession. 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:30.279 Yeah. Exactly. Simpson had a gun to his head. 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:33.000 He was threatening suicide. He was crying. Al 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:35.019 Cowlings was on the phone with 911 screaming, 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:37.279 he's got a gun to his head, back off. And Robert 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:39.500 Kardashian, his friend and lawyer, was reading 00:19:39.500 --> 00:19:42.200 that letter on TV. The suicide note. Don't feel 00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:44.470 sorry for me. I've had a great life. It really 00:19:44.470 --> 00:19:46.569 solidified the feeling for many people watching 00:19:46.569 --> 00:19:48.630 that this was the end. They thought they were 00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:51.069 watching a man drive to his death, but he didn't 00:19:51.069 --> 00:19:53.930 die. He surrendered at his Burtwood estate. The 00:19:53.930 --> 00:19:57.049 police took him in, and that set the stage for 00:19:57.049 --> 00:20:00.250 Section 4, the trial of the century. The criminal 00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:02.859 trial. The people of the state of California 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.980 versus Orenthal James Simpson. This is where 00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:08.619 the American legal system and American media 00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:11.240 culture collided in a way that changed everything. 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:13.579 We had the dream team for the defense. I mean, 00:20:13.579 --> 00:20:16.140 what a lineup. Johnny Cochran, Robert Shapiro, 00:20:16.259 --> 00:20:19.309 F. Lee Bailey. Alan Tershowitz, Robert Kardashian. 00:20:19.890 --> 00:20:21.910 These are the titans of the legal world. They 00:20:21.910 --> 00:20:24.349 were charismatic, they were aggressive, and they 00:20:24.349 --> 00:20:26.849 were very, very expensive. And for the prosecution, 00:20:27.150 --> 00:20:29.529 Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden. The prosecution 00:20:29.529 --> 00:20:31.710 felt they had a slam dunk case. I mean, you look 00:20:31.710 --> 00:20:33.769 at what they had. They had the DNA evidence putting 00:20:33.769 --> 00:20:36.130 Simpson at the scene. They had the victim's blood 00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:38.990 in Simpson's Bronco. They had the victim's blood 00:20:38.990 --> 00:20:41.589 on Simpson's socks found in his bedroom. And 00:20:41.589 --> 00:20:44.190 they had the glove. The glove. One found at the 00:20:44.190 --> 00:20:46.589 murder scene, one found at Simpson's estate by 00:20:46.589 --> 00:20:49.170 Detective Mark Furman. It seems overwhelming. 00:20:49.529 --> 00:20:53.809 It does. But the defense. Yeah. The defense was 00:20:53.809 --> 00:20:57.410 masterful at dismantling the narrative. Their 00:20:57.410 --> 00:21:00.009 strategy wasn't necessarily to prove OJ was innocent. 00:21:00.309 --> 00:21:02.630 It was to prove the investigation was flawed. 00:21:03.049 --> 00:21:05.509 They just needed to create reasonable doubt. 00:21:05.730 --> 00:21:08.349 And the glove became the symbol of that doubt. 00:21:08.490 --> 00:21:11.619 The Christopher Darden decision. To have Simpson 00:21:11.619 --> 00:21:14.680 try on the gloves in court, it is widely considered 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:16.980 one of the biggest blunders in prosecutorial 00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:19.819 history. I remember the footage so clearly. O 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:21.339 .J. is standing there. He's putting on these 00:21:21.339 --> 00:21:23.339 latex gloves first. Then he's tugging at the 00:21:23.339 --> 00:21:26.180 leather ones. He's grimacing. He holds his hands 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:28.460 up to the jury like, look, they don't fit. And 00:21:28.460 --> 00:21:31.420 Johnny Cochran, in his closing argument, delivers 00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:33.880 the line that lived forever. If it doesn't fit, 00:21:33.980 --> 00:21:36.640 you must acquit. It's poetry. It's so simple 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:38.599 and memorable. But let's be real for a second. 00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:41.000 Why didn't they fit? Scientifically, there are 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.500 good reasons. The gloves were leather. They'd 00:21:43.500 --> 00:21:45.579 been soaked in blood. They'd been frozen and 00:21:45.579 --> 00:21:48.339 thawed for testing. Leather shrinks when it gets 00:21:48.339 --> 00:21:50.740 wet and dries. Okay, that makes sense. Plus, 00:21:50.779 --> 00:21:53.339 as you said, Simpson was wearing latex gloves 00:21:53.339 --> 00:21:56.220 underneath them to preserve the evidence. And 00:21:56.220 --> 00:21:58.599 the prosecution argued that Simpson had stopped 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:01.019 taking his arthritis medication, which caused 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:03.700 his hands to swell. So there were logical explanations, 00:22:03.940 --> 00:22:07.880 but in a televised trial... Logic doesn't always 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:12.440 win. Visuals win. The jury saw a man who couldn't 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:14.539 put on the murderer's gloves. It looked like 00:22:14.539 --> 00:22:16.980 a frame -up. But the real turning point wasn't 00:22:16.980 --> 00:22:19.920 the glove, was it? It was the Furman tapes. This 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:22.259 is where the trial pivoted. The defense made 00:22:22.259 --> 00:22:24.880 the argument that the LAPD was corrupt and racist, 00:22:25.059 --> 00:22:27.019 and therefore they might have planted the evidence. 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:29.400 It was a bold strategy. And they centered that 00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:31.980 strategy on Detective Mark Furman, who found 00:22:31.980 --> 00:22:35.220 the glove on OJ's property. Exactly. On the stand, 00:22:35.380 --> 00:22:37.559 Furman testified under oath that he hadn't used 00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:39.859 the N -word in the last 10 years. He presented 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.359 himself as a clean cop, just doing his job. He 00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:45.500 was lying. He was lying. The defense found tapes, 00:22:45.579 --> 00:22:47.519 audio recordings from a screenwriter named Laura 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:49.940 McKinney, who had interviewed Furman for a project 00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:52.779 about the LAPD. And on those tapes? In those 00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:55.819 tapes, Furman uses the N -word dozens of times. 00:22:55.980 --> 00:22:58.720 He boasts about police brutality. He talks about 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:01.440 planting evidence to get convictions. It was 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:04.220 a complete and total bombshell. It destroyed 00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:07.500 his credibility on the stand. Utterly. And suddenly, 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:10.019 the defense could argue, if this guy is a racist 00:23:10.019 --> 00:23:12.559 and a liar, Maybe he did plant the glove. Maybe 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:14.779 he smeared the blood on the Bronco. It introduced 00:23:14.779 --> 00:23:17.220 that sliver of doubt they needed. And you have 00:23:17.220 --> 00:23:19.599 to consider the context of Los Angeles in 1995. 00:23:20.059 --> 00:23:22.559 This isn't happening in a vacuum. Yeah, absolutely. 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:25.660 This is post -Rodney King. The video of Rodney 00:23:25.660 --> 00:23:28.039 King being beaten by police and the subsequent 00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:30.599 acquittal of those officers had sparked the L 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:33.519 .A. riots just a few years earlier in 92. The 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:35.779 trust between the black community and the LAPD 00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:38.440 was non -existent. So for the jury, which had 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:41.099 a majority of black members, the idea of a police 00:23:41.099 --> 00:23:43.700 frame up wasn't a wild conspiracy theory. It 00:23:43.700 --> 00:23:46.579 was a lived reality for many. Exactly. Johnny 00:23:46.579 --> 00:23:48.660 Cochran tapped into that history. He made the 00:23:48.660 --> 00:23:50.759 trial about something bigger than OJ. He made 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:52.859 it about the system. He famously told the jury, 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.339 you are the conscience of this community. So 00:23:55.339 --> 00:23:57.920 when the verdict came down on October 3rd, 1995, 00:23:58.460 --> 00:24:01.369 not guilty. Acquitted on all counts. The jury 00:24:01.369 --> 00:24:03.769 deliberated for less than four hours. Four hours 00:24:03.769 --> 00:24:06.089 for a trial that lasted almost a year. That implies 00:24:06.089 --> 00:24:08.069 they didn't even really debate the evidence they 00:24:08.069 --> 00:24:09.970 had made up their minds. It stunned the nation. 00:24:10.269 --> 00:24:13.009 And the reaction. Talk about a divided country. 00:24:13.089 --> 00:24:16.150 You saw the split screen on the news. Black audiences 00:24:16.150 --> 00:24:19.109 in classrooms and offices largely celebrating, 00:24:19.450 --> 00:24:22.910 cheering. White audiences staring in shock, crying. 00:24:23.150 --> 00:24:25.990 And that reaction wasn't just about OJ, was it? 00:24:26.150 --> 00:24:29.210 No. The sources analyzed this deeply. For many 00:24:29.210 --> 00:24:31.109 black Americans, the celebration wasn't necessarily 00:24:31.109 --> 00:24:33.089 because they thought O .J. was a saint or innocent. 00:24:33.329 --> 00:24:36.170 It was a victory against a corrupt system. It 00:24:36.170 --> 00:24:39.170 was the first time a rich, famous black defendant 00:24:39.170 --> 00:24:41.549 beat the system that usually crushed them. It 00:24:41.549 --> 00:24:44.230 was about power. Whereas white Americans just 00:24:44.230 --> 00:24:46.589 saw a murderer walking free because he could 00:24:46.589 --> 00:24:49.369 afford the best lawyers. It revealed a racial 00:24:49.369 --> 00:24:51.670 fault line in America that we are still dealing 00:24:51.670 --> 00:24:54.369 with. It changed everything. It birthed modern 00:24:54.369 --> 00:24:57.210 reality TV. The Kardashians are literally part 00:24:57.210 --> 00:24:59.250 of this story because of Robert Kardashian. It 00:24:59.250 --> 00:25:01.069 changed how we look at DNA. It changed how we 00:25:01.069 --> 00:25:03.630 talk about domestic violence. It was a cultural 00:25:03.630 --> 00:25:06.349 earthquake. It did. But while O .J. walked free 00:25:06.349 --> 00:25:08.230 from the criminal court, he wasn't done with 00:25:08.230 --> 00:25:10.609 the legal system. And this leads us to Section 00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:14.309 5, the civil trial. Right, because the families 00:25:14.309 --> 00:25:16.210 of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman didn't give up. 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:18.900 The Goldman family in particular was relentless. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.839 They sued him for wrongful death. How is a civil 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:23.740 trial different? Why did they think they could 00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:26.740 win when the prosecutors with all the resources 00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:29.359 of the state failed? Two main reasons. First, 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:32.220 the burden of proof is much lower. In criminal 00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:34.940 court, you need beyond a reasonable doubt. That's 00:25:34.940 --> 00:25:37.299 like 99 percent certainty. Right. In civil court, 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:39.480 you just need a preponderance of the evidence. 00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:42.240 Is it more likely than not that he did it? So 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.079 51 percent, a much lower bar to clear. And the 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:48.089 second reason. OJ had to testify. In the criminal 00:25:48.089 --> 00:25:50.130 trial, he exercised his Fifth Amendment right 00:25:50.130 --> 00:25:52.910 to remain silent. He never took the stand. In 00:25:52.910 --> 00:25:54.670 the civil trial, you don't have that option in 00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:56.829 the same way. He had to take the stand, and he 00:25:56.829 --> 00:25:59.309 did not do well. The plaintiff's lawyers tore 00:25:59.309 --> 00:26:01.869 him apart. I remember seeing clips of that. The 00:26:01.869 --> 00:26:06.250 infamous Bruno Magli shoes? Yes. The bloody shoe 00:26:06.250 --> 00:26:08.369 prints at the scene were from a rare, expensive 00:26:08.369 --> 00:26:11.869 brand of Bruno Magli shoes. O .J. swore under 00:26:11.869 --> 00:26:15.109 oath he'd never own such ugly -ass shoes. Then 00:26:15.109 --> 00:26:17.269 the plaintiffs produced 30 photos of him wearing 00:26:17.269 --> 00:26:19.950 those exact shoes at football games and other 00:26:19.950 --> 00:26:22.890 events. Oof, that's a bad look. So the verdict 00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:25.869 in 1997? The jury found him liable for the deaths. 00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:29.940 They ordered him to pay $33 .5 million in damages. 00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:32.539 That's a massive number. Did he pay it? He paid 00:26:32.539 --> 00:26:34.460 very little of it. He lost his Brentwood home. 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:37.519 His Heisman Trophy was auctioned off. But he 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:39.920 was smart about protecting his assets. He moved 00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:42.319 to Florida. Why Florida? Florida has very strong 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:44.759 homestead laws. They protect your primary residence 00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:47.019 from being seized in bankruptcy or civil judgments. 00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:49.819 And crucially, they couldn't touch his NFL pension, 00:26:50.019 --> 00:26:53.059 which paid him about $25 ,000 a month. So he's 00:26:53.059 --> 00:26:55.640 legally broke and owes millions, but he's living 00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:57.640 in a gated community in Florida playing golf 00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:00.000 every day. Precisely. And you can imagine how 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:01.839 infuriating that was for the Goldman family. 00:27:02.220 --> 00:27:04.500 They spent the next 30 years chasing every dime 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:07.400 he made. That is frustrating, to say the least. 00:27:07.779 --> 00:27:11.440 But then things get really bizarre. In 2006, 00:27:11.859 --> 00:27:14.700 OJ decides to participate in a book project. 00:27:14.839 --> 00:27:17.079 And I did it. I still can't believe this was 00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:19.799 real. He writes a book, or has it ghostwritten 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:22.420 by Pablo Fernandez, describing hypothetically 00:27:22.420 --> 00:27:25.519 how he would have committed the murders. It is 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:28.259 one of the most ill -conceived, narcissistic, 00:27:28.259 --> 00:27:31.509 and just... plain weird PR moves in history. 00:27:31.650 --> 00:27:33.690 He claimed he was doing for his kids that it 00:27:33.690 --> 00:27:36.710 was blood money for them. The public outcry was 00:27:36.710 --> 00:27:40.289 so intense that the publisher, Regan Books, a 00:27:40.289 --> 00:27:42.069 division of HarperCollins, canceled the release. 00:27:42.470 --> 00:27:45.250 Judith Regan, the publisher, actually lost her 00:27:45.250 --> 00:27:48.140 job and her TV show over it. But then in a twist 00:27:48.140 --> 00:27:50.720 of legal irony, the Goldman family stepped in. 00:27:50.819 --> 00:27:53.380 They sued for the rights to the book. They argued 00:27:53.380 --> 00:27:55.460 that the manuscript was an asset. And since O 00:27:55.460 --> 00:27:58.059 .J. owed them millions, they should own the asset. 00:27:58.140 --> 00:27:59.980 It was a brilliant legal move. And the court 00:27:59.980 --> 00:28:02.480 agreed. So the Goldmans own the book about their 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:04.799 son's murder written by the man they believe 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:07.039 killed him. And they decided to publish it. But 00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:09.619 they changed the cover. This is brilliant. The 00:28:09.619 --> 00:28:13.099 title is If I Did It. But on the cover, the word 00:28:13.099 --> 00:28:15.980 if is tiny. It's almost invisible, hidden inside 00:28:15.980 --> 00:28:18.599 the letter I. So when you look at the book on 00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:22.160 a shelf, it just reads, I did I .T. Confessions 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:24.359 of the Killer. That is next level petty, and 00:28:24.359 --> 00:28:28.039 I respect it. And the content of the book, does 00:28:28.039 --> 00:28:30.680 he confess? Not explicitly. He describes a hypothetical 00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:33.480 accomplice he calls Charlie. He describes going 00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:35.599 to the house. He describes a confrontation. But 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:37.900 then, right when the violence starts, he writes 00:28:37.900 --> 00:28:40.680 that he blacked out. Blacked out. Convenient. 00:28:40.759 --> 00:28:43.799 Very. But the details leading up to the blackout, 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:46.180 the descriptions of the dog, the layout of the 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:49.880 condo, the arguments are so specific that many 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:51.720 people view it as a thinly veiled confession. 00:28:52.059 --> 00:28:54.599 So he's publicly shamed, he's financially squeezed, 00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:58.400 but he's free. Until Las Vegas. Section 6. The 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:01.730 Fall. 2007. This is the moment where karma or 00:29:01.730 --> 00:29:03.869 fate or just plain bad judgment finally caught 00:29:03.869 --> 00:29:05.769 up with him. That happened in Vegas. Simpson 00:29:05.769 --> 00:29:07.650 found out that some sports memorabilia dealers 00:29:07.650 --> 00:29:09.549 were selling items that he claimed belonged to 00:29:09.549 --> 00:29:11.589 him. Personal photos, his Hall of Fame certificate, 00:29:11.950 --> 00:29:14.089 things he said were stolen from him years ago. 00:29:14.309 --> 00:29:16.529 So he decided to take them back. But he didn't 00:29:16.529 --> 00:29:19.369 call the police. He didn't call a lawyer. He 00:29:19.369 --> 00:29:22.250 rounded up a posse of guys, some he barely knew, 00:29:22.470 --> 00:29:25.230 and stormed into a hotel room at the Palace Station 00:29:25.230 --> 00:29:28.549 Hotel to confront them. And the kicker? They 00:29:28.549 --> 00:29:31.210 brought guns. Simpson denied bringing the guns 00:29:31.210 --> 00:29:34.190 or knowing about them. But the audio recording, 00:29:34.329 --> 00:29:36.410 because one of the guys in the room was secretly 00:29:36.410 --> 00:29:38.990 recording the whole thing, caught Simpson shouting 00:29:38.990 --> 00:29:42.089 orders, don't let nobody out of this room. And 00:29:42.089 --> 00:29:44.769 two of the men with him had handguns. He was 00:29:44.769 --> 00:29:48.029 charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. Kidnapping 00:29:48.029 --> 00:29:51.269 seems extreme, but under Nevada law, if you can 00:29:51.269 --> 00:29:53.609 find someone against their will, even for a short 00:29:53.609 --> 00:29:55.289 time during the commission of another felony, 00:29:55.430 --> 00:29:58.180 it can be kidnapping. So the trial happens in 00:29:58.180 --> 00:30:02.460 2008. And on October 3rd, 2008, exactly 13 years 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:04.619 to the day after his acquittal in the murder 00:30:04.619 --> 00:30:07.440 trial, he was found guilty on all charges. That 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:09.339 timing is script -worthy. You couldn't make that 00:30:09.339 --> 00:30:11.299 up. It feels like the universe balancing the 00:30:11.299 --> 00:30:14.779 scales. And the sentence was heavy. The judge, 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:17.500 Jackie Glass, sentenced him to 33 years in prison. 00:30:17.740 --> 00:30:20.819 33 years for stealing some memorabilia. Many 00:30:20.819 --> 00:30:23.259 people, including legal experts cited in our 00:30:23.259 --> 00:30:27.079 sources, felt this was payback. for 1995. The 00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:29.440 judge denied it, of course. She said it was about 00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:32.160 the violence and the guns. But a 33 -year sentence 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:34.779 for a robbery where no one was seriously hurt 00:30:34.779 --> 00:30:37.539 and he was retrieving his own property, it felt 00:30:37.539 --> 00:30:39.480 like the justice system was finally getting its 00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:42.400 pound of flesh. So he goes to prison, Lovelock 00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:44.460 Correctional Center in Nevada. What was his life 00:30:44.460 --> 00:30:48.619 like there? He was inmate. Hashtag 1027820. By 00:30:48.619 --> 00:30:50.500 all accounts, he was a model prisoner. He worked 00:30:50.500 --> 00:30:53.279 as a gym janitor wiping down equipment. He coached 00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:55.720 the prison softball teams. He served nine years 00:30:55.720 --> 00:30:58.279 before being granted parole in 2017. So he gets 00:30:58.279 --> 00:31:01.559 out. He's an old man now. Section 7. The final 00:31:01.559 --> 00:31:04.079 years. He moved to a gated community in Las Vegas 00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:06.720 near a golf course. And strangely, he became 00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:08.799 active on Twitter. I remember this. He posted 00:31:08.799 --> 00:31:10.779 that first video. Hello, Twitter world. This 00:31:10.779 --> 00:31:13.980 is yours truly. It was so bizarre. It was surreal. 00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:16.119 He would just post these short videos giving 00:31:16.119 --> 00:31:19.579 his takes on fantasy football or politics. It 00:31:19.579 --> 00:31:21.480 was like he was trying to reclaim that juice 00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:24.240 persona, acting like the lovable, charming uncle 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:26.839 again. But every time he posted, the comments 00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:29.920 were flooded with reminders of the murders. The 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:33.180 shadow never, ever left him. And there was speculation 00:31:33.180 --> 00:31:35.420 about his health, right? Specifically his brain. 00:31:35.579 --> 00:31:39.480 Yes. CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the 00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:41.640 brain disease caused by repeated head trauma, 00:31:41.819 --> 00:31:44.640 common in football players. Dr. Bennett Omalu, 00:31:44.859 --> 00:31:47.460 the doctor who discovered CTE and was the subject 00:31:47.460 --> 00:31:49.720 of the movie Concussion, said he would bet his 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:52.160 medical license that OJ had it. I mean, running 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:55.259 back in the 70s, he took thousands of hits to 00:31:55.259 --> 00:31:57.140 the head. And the helmets back then were nothing 00:31:57.140 --> 00:31:59.799 like they are today. Simpson even suspected it 00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:02.259 himself. He talked about memory loss and erratic 00:32:02.259 --> 00:32:04.740 behavior. We know that CTE can cause aggression, 00:32:04.940 --> 00:32:07.279 poor impulse control, depression. It doesn't 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:09.640 excuse murder, obviously. No, absolutely not. 00:32:09.740 --> 00:32:11.779 But it adds another layer to the tragedy. It 00:32:11.779 --> 00:32:14.380 raises the question, how much of his behavior 00:32:14.380 --> 00:32:16.880 was the man and how much was the damage from 00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:20.000 the game that made him famous? But we will never 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.000 know for sure. After he died, his family refused 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:26.880 to have his brain studied. He died in April 2024, 00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:30.519 prostate cancer. He was 76. He died surrounded 00:32:30.519 --> 00:32:32.420 by his children and grandchildren. And there 00:32:32.420 --> 00:32:34.579 were reports that everyone had to sign NDAs to 00:32:34.579 --> 00:32:36.819 visit him at the end. That was the report. Even 00:32:36.819 --> 00:32:39.480 in death, there was this layer of legal secrecy 00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:41.839 and protection. The control was there until the 00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:44.380 very end. And the reaction to his death? Yeah. 00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:48.240 It was telling. Silence. The NFL released no 00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:50.400 official statement. The Buffalo Bills, the 49ers, 00:32:50.420 --> 00:32:52.980 USC, the institutions that built their history 00:32:52.980 --> 00:32:56.119 on his back. They said nothing. The Heisman Trust 00:32:56.119 --> 00:32:57.740 put out a small statement, but the teams that 00:32:57.740 --> 00:32:59.299 made him, nothing. They just wanted it to go 00:32:59.299 --> 00:33:01.599 away. They did. But the Goldman family released 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:03.099 a statement that I think sums it up perfectly. 00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:05.480 They said, the hope for true accountability has 00:33:05.480 --> 00:33:08.140 ended. Powerful. Because for them, it was never 00:33:08.140 --> 00:33:10.779 really over. They acknowledged that even with 00:33:10.779 --> 00:33:13.180 the civil judgment, justice was never really 00:33:13.180 --> 00:33:15.759 served in their eyes. The money was never fully 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:18.299 paid with interest. The dead had ballooned to 00:33:18.299 --> 00:33:21.140 over $100 million. The confession never came. 00:33:21.559 --> 00:33:24.039 So what does this all mean? We're at the outro 00:33:24.039 --> 00:33:27.299 now. How do we sum up a life like O .J. Simpson? 00:33:27.579 --> 00:33:29.339 It's a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. 00:33:29.799 --> 00:33:32.400 You have the rise from poverty and leg braces 00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:35.859 to the absolute pinnacle of American success, 00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:38.940 the colorless icon who is loved by everyone, 00:33:39.099 --> 00:33:41.839 and then the descent into violence, the racial 00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:44.779 polarization of the trial, and the... bizarre, 00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:48.019 pathetic end in a Vegas prison and a Twitter 00:33:48.019 --> 00:33:50.160 account. He went from being a symbol of limitless 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.480 potential to a symbol of division and domestic 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:54.900 abuse. Exactly. And there's a final thought from 00:33:54.900 --> 00:33:56.539 the source material that really stuck with me. 00:33:56.660 --> 00:33:58.799 In his hometown of San Francisco, there was a 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:01.359 mural in the Potrero Hill projects that featured 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:04.519 him in his 49ers uniform. A hometown hero. But 00:34:04.519 --> 00:34:07.390 over the years after the trial. People kept vandalizing 00:34:07.390 --> 00:34:09.309 it. They painted devil horns on him. They threw 00:34:09.309 --> 00:34:11.610 paint at it. And eventually, the city just painted 00:34:11.610 --> 00:34:13.250 him out of the mural entirely. They replaced 00:34:13.250 --> 00:34:15.349 him with someone else. And that raises the question 00:34:15.349 --> 00:34:18.909 for all of us. When a legacy is this tarnished, 00:34:19.010 --> 00:34:21.309 does the greatness of the athletic achievement 00:34:21.309 --> 00:34:24.969 disappear? Can you separate the 2 ,000 yards 00:34:24.969 --> 00:34:28.599 from the double murder? Or does the crime become 00:34:28.599 --> 00:34:31.239 the ink that blacks out everything else? That 00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:32.960 is a question I think we'll be debating for a 00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:35.300 very long time. Indeed. Before we go, I want 00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:37.840 to encourage you to look up one thing. Google 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:40.420 the book cover for If I Did It, the one published 00:34:40.420 --> 00:34:42.760 by the Goldman family. Look at how they hid the 00:34:42.760 --> 00:34:46.019 word if. It is a masterclass in visual storytelling 00:34:46.019 --> 00:34:48.860 and a final defiant act by a grieving family. 00:34:49.099 --> 00:34:51.300 It really is a powerful piece of design. Thanks 00:34:51.300 --> 00:34:53.039 for diving deep with us. We'll see you next time.