“As a kid growing up in the ghetto one of
the things I wanted the most was not money, it was fame. I wanted to be known. I wanted people to say, ‘Hey, there goes
OJ.’” That wish came true for Mr. Orenthal James
Simpson, one of the greatest American athletes that ever lived, and a man who was the accused
in one of the grisliest and most controversial murder cases ever to paint TV screens all
around the world. Was he guilty? Did he get away with murder? Was he an egomaniac harboring a dangerous
personality disorder? Or was he the friendly, jovial giant he came
across as in the public eye, the victim of a conspiracy, not the type of guy who would
almost hack off the head of the one he professed to love? Before we get into that, some of you might
not be familiar with this once American idol, sports icon, and man that divided America,
so let’s introduce you to him. He is better known as OJ Simpson, but to many
back in the day he was known as “The Juice.” Brought up on the wrong side of town to an
adoring mother and a drag queen father, OJ got into trouble as a kid and also suffered
from physical disabilities due to having had rickets. But what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,
and this rather large boy started to focus his efforts on sports. This is a crime story, not a sports bio, so
to cut a long story short we can say that OJ soon became an excellent American football
player. So good in fact, that he became one of the
best college football players in history. His forte was running, dodging, crashing through
and gliding by players as if they were cardboard cut-outs. He was destined for a very successful pro
career. That got off to a rocky start, but then OJ
the Invincible became the first pro player to rush more than 2,000 yards in a season. The year was 1973, and OJ was just 26. He was a sensation, and it can’t be understated
just how much he became a hero not only to the African American community, but to all
athletes and armchair aficionados of sports. Other players would breach 2,000 yards in
the future, but only OJ did it in a 14-game season. The others did it in 16 games. His stardom put his face on TV for more than
just sports, with perhaps his lift-off to celebrity status being a Hertz car rental
commercial featuring him running through an airport. The other cast of characters would smile and
watch him run by, shouting, “Go OJ.” He was the American dream come true, the black
guy from the wrong side of the tracks showing everyone that anyone could make it in America. Critics have since said he was used in a way
to obfuscate the pervasive racism in America at the time and his rags to riches tale was
far from accessible to most poor, black Americans, but others hailed his role model status as
a veritable U.S. success story. OJ soon became embedded in a predominantly
white, upper class, society. In interviews some of his former friends have
said this was problematic, that OJ abandoned his roots, that he was merely a token black
dude for people who cared little about him. OJ said he never thought about color, race,
and just did what he did. He settled down and got married and with this
first wife he had three children. One of those would die young from drowning. At the same time OJ was acting in Hollywood
blockbusters. His dream had come true, people really were
saying, “Hey, there goes OJ.” We must say that at this point his celebrity
didn’t encircle the globe as American football wasn’t very popular outside the U.S., but
give him a few years, and OJ would be a household name from Adelaide to Aberdeen – for all
the wrong reasons. In 1979 he met an 18-year girl called Nicole
Brown who was a waitress in a private Beverly Hills club called Daisy. He told one of his friends that one day he
would marry this incredibly beautiful girl, and the unstoppable OJ did just that after
he had divorced his first wife. The year was 1985 when OJ married Brown, and
the two would have two children of their own shortly after the marriage. This was a rocky relationship, and in interviews
Brown’s friends have come forward a number of times to say he was a man with a violent
temper. In fact, in 1989, OJ pleaded no contest to
spousal abuse. The two later divorced in 1992. You can actually listen to a recording of
Brown calling the police at one point saying she was scared he was going to beat her badly. The domestic violence that OJ perpetrated
has not been denied, not even by most of his fans, but was The Juice capable of brutally
murdering people? Let’s now take you to the crime scene. The night of the crime was on June 12, 1994. We might never know exactly what happened
on that night, but Brown and her friend Ron Goldman were found dead at Brown’s townhouse
in Brentwood, LA. If you have seen the documentaries about this
crime, you might have seen the crime scene photos. Brown had been hit on the head with a blunt
object, slashed multiple times and stabbed. It is likely she was already dead when the
murderer slit her throat so viciously he, or she, almost decapitated her. Goldman it seems had struggled with the murderer
for some time, but having run into a place surrounded by bars he had no way out. He was slashed and stabbed multiple times,
too. It seems one of his major arteries in his
leg was cut and he lost a lot of blood quickly. Bu as one commentator said, the murderer again
went into “overkill.” Goldman was stabbed in the neck at almost
the same place multiple times. No one disagreed, whoever had done this had
done so fueled by a monstrous rage. It’s said that Goldman had been at Brown’s
house as he was delivering some lost glasses. He had put those in an envelope. Both the glasses and the envelope were both
later found at the crime scene. We will later hear in court that a loud bang
was heard at her house in the evening. Simpson has never had a solid alibi, but has
stated that he was at home during the time of the murders, approximately 10.15 pm. But we’ll come back to that later. The first officers on the scene witnessed
the carnage, noticing a bloody glove also just lying around. One detective, Mark Fuhrman, then went around
to OJ’s house fearing he might also be one of the victims and if not, to tell OJ what
had happened at his former wife’s house. OJ’s house and Brown’s place were only
a matter of minutes away by car, and it was well known to police about OJ and Brown’s
marriage and divorce. At OJ’s house another bloody glove was found,
and it matched the glove found at Brown’s house. More blood was seen leading from Simpson’s
parked car. It was later discovered that the victims’
blood was on both gloves, which gave police probable cause to arrest Simpson. The thing was, Simpson has flown to Chicago
on the night of the murders. He had been taken to the airport by a Mr.
Park, in his limousine. It’s thought this happened sometime after
the murders probably happened. Mr. Park would testify that when he went to
pick Simpson up, his white Ford Bronco was not parked in the street. Simpson seemed to be out, and so he drove
around waiting. Mr. Park would testify that it wasn’t until
10.56 pm that he would see a large, strong-looking African American man walk into Simpson’s
house. He went to the door, and OJ finally appeared
saying he was sorry he was late. Off they went to the airport. So, police are looking for Simpson, and they
would get their chance to talk to him. After being told about the murders, Simpson
flies back to LA. Police now have a search warrant for Simpson’s
house and more blood is found. When OJ gets home he is handcuffed and questioned
for over three hours. The line of questioning has since been criticized. Cops go easy on him. A few days later and he goes to the funeral
of his ex-wife, and a day after that he is charged with two counts of murder. He is asked to surrender, but he doesn’t
give himself up. Instead what happens is one of the biggest
media moments of the late 20th century as Simpson is followed by helicopters and a stream
of police cars down the highway. It is what’s called a media circus, and
has America and most of the world glued to their TV screens. It’s reported that he has a gun and might
kill himself. People all over America believe there has
been a set-up; they shout “Go OJ.” The cars following make it look more like
a president’s motorcade than a police chase. This will become one of the most iconic moments
in news history. Massive crowds are waiting on highway bridges,
standing in the streets, holding signs that read, “Free OJ.” They are chanting, “OJ, OJ, OJ, OJ.” It’s as if The Juice is back on the field,
on one of his epic runs, and the world doesn’t want him to stop. His car finally arrives at his house. SWAT teams are out. People are running around. Helicopters are overhead; it is chaos. OJ waits in his car, his gun is said to be
close to his chin. If he steps out with the gun in his hand,
he will most likely be shot. He doesn’t do that, and is talked out of
the car. The negotiator years later will say that while
in OJ’s house he noticed only pictures, paintings, photos, of the star. None of anyone else, not even family. And so, to lure him out of the car he appealed
to OJ’s ego, his greatness. It worked. People interviewed in the streets are saying
it’s a conspiracy, more oppression and human rights abuses by a police force known to be
corrupt, sometimes racist, sometimes unnecessarily violent. The case of Rodney King still stings among
the African American community, who for good reason have doubts about the ethics of the
LAPD. The police are well aware of the tension and
the destruction of the LA riots of ’92. They move as if tenterhooks. Other men may have perhaps been treated with
less trepidation. A court date is made. One prosecutor later said to the media, “I
don’t think I’d ever seen so much evidence in one case.” It did look cut and dried, but to OJ’s fans
something was rotten in the state of California. If anyone could find where that stink was
coming from, it was the civil rights lawyer John Cochrane. He was a hero to many people in the African
American community. Already some people had forgotten about the
two hacked bodies and were concentrating their emotions on a race case. Cochrane had done commendable work over the
years and had fought for the downtrodden, and OJ had the money to hire him as well as
a bevy of other top lawyers. “Boy was I set up!” OJ would soon say, and his words echoed throughout
black communities all over the USA. Surveys showed that only 10 percent of African
Americans in the US thought he was guilty. The final jury, many of the them black Americans,
were also later said to have been somewhat blinded or moved by the race issue. OJ even said to his lawyer, joking, “If
this jury says I did it, maybe I did do it!” It wasn’t cheap, though, the trial, and
it’s said OJ would make around $3 million dollars just by signing items with autographs
as he sat in jail. He was still adored by many, regardless of
what he might have done. It was the trial of the century, and within
a trial was another kind of trial. That’s because the policeman that found
the glove at OJ’s house would be found to have said some very racist things in the past. On top of that, it was also found, with good
evidence, that he had bragged about police brutality. The case became as much about this bad cop
as it did the murders. Yet again, another giant FAIL for the LAPD. The glove must have been planted by him, shouted
OJ fans, it’s just another case of police racism. There was blood of the victims all over the
place, from OJ’s house to his car, it was open and shut in terms of DNA evidence. But those crafty lawyers proved that the crime
scene had been contaminated and that possibly there had been a set up. They weren’t trying to prove that cops had
something against OJ, only that possibly they had planted evidence for an easier arrest. Even though OJ had been cut himself that night,
and his blood was mixed with the victims’, the lawyers managed to convince a jury that
something was wrong. And indeed, the police had mishandled evidence. We might also say that DNA evidence was kind
of new to everyone, not just the jury. Nowadays we can read things such as this,
“It is reported that the DNA evidence showed that the chance that some of the blood found
near the bodies came from anyone but Simpson was 1 in 170 million. The chance that blood found on Simpson’s
sock could be from someone other than Nicole Brown was 1 in 21 billion.” But back then the jurors didn’t trust DNA. They also believed the defense in that there
had been some kind of set up and OJ’s blood had been taken and just thrown everywhere,
from the crime scene to his car to his house to his clothes. The gloves were tried on in court, and famously
OJ donned latex gloves first and then somewhat dramatically proved his hands were too big
for the leather ones. Another bad move from the prosecution. His blood and the victims’ were on these
gloves, but it didn’t matter. As Cochrane told the jury, “If the glove
doesn’t fit, acquit.” Hair from an African American was also found
at the scene and on Ron Goldman’s shirt, while shoes matching Simpson’s size had
made footprints in the blood. After the trial, evidence would be found of
Simpson owning the exact shoes that were worn by the killer, but it was too late then. The sock we just mentioned was also found
at Simpson’s home, and that too had blood of the victims on it. But as we said, some finagling by very clever
lawyers persuaded the jury not that cops had colluded to set OJ up, but that there was
chance that evidence had been mishandled. Photos of Brown’s bruised face were shown
to the jury, from a time Simpson had beat her in the past and he’d been arrested. It didn’t matter. There was a racist cop involved with that
evidence, and that meant something. LAPD criminalists had done a poor job, and
that meant something too. Cochrane orated a summation fitting of a wartime
speech, and even though it was completely over the top by most people’s standards,
it meant something as wel. So, even with so much evidence, the case of
the prosecution was doomed. And as one of the former jurors said in a
documentary interview, she was never going to find him guilty. This was payback for Rodney King. She said 90 percent of the other jurors thought
the same, although in the same documentary another former juror said she had no bones
about King relating to this case, but the prosecution had pretty much failed and let
a guilty man go free. Lots of evidence was not presented by the
defense, such as Brown calling a woman’s shelter days before her death saying she feared
her ex-husband was stalking her. Or the fact that a shop owner had said Simpson
had bought a 15-inch knife from him that might have matched the kind of knife in the murders. The prosecution couldn’t use that because
the man who sold it to Simpson sold his story to the media. Police did search for a knife but couldn’t
find one. The media also reports that a knife was found
during the demolition of Simpson’s house some years later, but it was kept as a memento
by an LAPD officer. Another person said she saw Simpson’s Ford
Bronco driving wildly that night, but she also sold that story to the media and so the
prosecution didn’t use her testimony. Civil rights activists called it a victory
for black America, and no shortage of people jubilantly shouted from the streets that justice
had been served. What most people failed to realize is that
OJ had admitted that he would have lost without doubt had he not have had his expensive team
of lawyers. In terms of human rights, was this justice
not justice bought with money? Did the color of the money hold more sway
than the color of the skin. No one seemed to ask…Black, white or brown,
if you are poor, you are having a harder time in court than if you are rich. Had justice really prevailed? It was hard to call it a victory, and in this
case might have meant two people being slaughtered like cattle by a man who thought he was untouchable. Simpson did lose a civil case to Ron Goldman’s
family and a jury found OJ guilty of causing wrongful death. This meant that Simpson was ordered in total
to pay both families of the deceased $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. But how much they got was nothing close to
that. They hounded Simpson for years, or at least
the Goldman’s did, but OJ had a way of protecting what little money he had left. OJ did end up going to prison after a few
years acting like a gangster and making music videos and some TV shows. He was apparently trying to get some of his
memorabilia back, but a failed hotel heist in Las Vegas got him 9 years. He was released in 2017 and it’s said he
now lives a quiet life as a retiree somewhere in Las Vegas. Apparently he still loves golf, but we might
imagine his juice glass these days is half empty. His former manager is now reportedly making
a new documentary, and has stated that Simpson did the murders but did not act alone. There is also a very strange television interview
come to light in which Simpson gives a “hypothetical” version of events on the night of the murders. What’s strange is that Simpson basically
retraces the steps of himself that night and how he hypothetically commits the murders. He says this in the third person, such as,
“He took the Bronco to her home with his friend, brought a knife and put a hat and
gloves on for dramatic effect.” He even added, “It was horrible. It was absolutely horrible.” Simpson then says Goldman tried some karate
move with him and he asked him if he thought he could kick his backside. He said he then blacked out, but came around
and there was stuff all around him. He was talking about blood. If you watch this, you might just wonder the
heck you have just seen. The video was not published for many years
because it was such a sensitive case and there could be legal issues. The tapes were reportedly only recently found. So, after hearing all this, are you in the
“Go OJ” camp or do you think he was guilty? What do you think about him, the investigation,
his diehard fans? Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
Americas Most Evil Serial Killer - Ted Bundy. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
Them:
Vox and Owen:
OJ is innocent.
How again do bears/VFM think these two have a high IQ?