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If I Did It Confessions of the Killer

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Once, in being questioned about some commment in his first autobiography. Simpson said that he had never read the book. The same seems to be true here.

First, he gives himself an additional motive for the murder. Not jealousy, but the irrestible urge to silence a whining bipolar woman whom he thought was a bad influence on his kids. Driven-to-the-wall nuts like many a murderer before him.

Second, as Sam Goldwyn would say, it's "chock full of omissions". Simpson presents the murders as spontaneous, and gives a reason for happening to have gloves and a cap in his car. He does not explain why he was wearing black dress socks and thousand-dollar teal shoes with a midnight blue track suit. In reality, of course, he wore dark socks to minimize the show of blood, and wore a pair of shoes he had decided he disliked and had not often been seen in. (But he had worn them at least once, since a picture of him wearing them had been published in a magazine 6 months before the murders.)

He says that he talked with a fan at the airport about his Hall of Fame ring, and there was no cut on his ring finger. THEN he reproduces his first police interview in which he admits he cut his finger in L.A. and the cut opened up again in Chicago. Mr. Simpson, please read the books you "write"!

He invents an accomplice called Charlie, a casual acquaintance who just drops in on a first visit to tell him Nicole was doing immmoral things. He and Charlie rush off to Nicole's house and Simpson does the deed while Charlie stands guard. This Charlie never comes forward and leaves no trace at the scene.

Charlie also takes Simpson's bloody clothes right at the crime scene and ditches them, although when limo driver Alan Park saw Simpson run into his house, Park did not mention that the man was in his underwear.

Simpson unwittingly explains what many people have wondered about: how he could take on two people. His malice, element of surprise, physical strength, probable high on crystal meth, and weapon were enough, but he tells us he knocked out Nicole first, killed Ron, then finished off Nicole. Thank you, Mr. Simpson.

He claims to have been blacked out or amnesiac about the actual murder. Some people have ridiculed this, but according to Connie Fletcher's WHAT COPS KNOW, it's a normal reaction for an amateur murderer, who is generally traumatized be what he has done. In other words, the blackout story makes the notion that he killed them MORE, not less, convincing.

In case you're wondering, he says he never once hit Nicole. Not ever.

He talks about his freeway ride, but fails to mention the many thousands of bucks and the false beard he was carrying.

He forgets about apologizing to Nicole's corpse at the wake.

He insists that he was emotionally wholly through with Nicole and was willing to talk to her ONLY about the kids, yet tells her mother, "I loved her too much [to have killed her]." Her death, more than his fall from grace, drives him to consider suicide. He gives up the notion of suicide abruptly when he hears Dan Rather say that the cops had been out to Simpson's place five or six times on domestic abuse calls. He is so angered by this lie that he peps up and vows to fight.

Read enough? The book is an interesting curiosity, and sales will finally benefit the right people. Go ahead.

Of course, I, as everyone else, was very familiar with the details of the actual murders. But this book spends most of its time with the year or so prior to the murders. Since it is told by O.J., it is difficult to determine how much of it is true. The actual "confession" part is very sketchy: he sort of blames the whole thing on an imaginary accomplice named Charlie, and conveniently goes blank exactly when the murders take place. I read somewhere Barbara Walters said this was one of the most chilling things she's ever read. Maybe I've just been desensitized, but he just didn't say enough to qualify this as a confession. I realize just the idea that he would agree to something like this is enough of an admission of guilt (and stupidity, of course), but this was not the bombshell book I expected. I hope this gives the Goldmans some peace; for me, I was hoping for more of a concrete admission and a better sense of closure than this offers.

Like many people, I bought "If I Did It" because I support the Goldman family's efforts to get some sort of justice. The man who murdered Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown went free. But, by being awarded the "If I Did It" manuscript in a bankruptcy case involving Simpson's corporation, the Goldmans have finally been able to collect, to a small extent, on the judgment they were awarded in Simpson's civil trial. The more money the Goldmans make on this book, the more money they will have "taken" from Simpson.

The book begins with an introduction in which "the Goldman Family" explain how they came to be awarded the rights to "If I Did It" by the bankruptcy court and why they decided to publish it. As they point out, they (like me) would much rather see Simpson in jail, serving the life sentence he should have received. But since that is now impossible, they must settle for the next best thing -- doing whatever is legally permissible to punish Simpson by seizing his assets.

The book's ghostwriter, Pablo Fenjves, also provides an introduction, where he describes his involvement in the book project and his interviews of Simpson. Fenjves's intro actually contained what was, for me, the most chilling part of the book: When Simpson's narrative reached the moment of the actual murders, he looked at Fenjves and said, "I don't know what the hell you want from me . . . I'm not going to tell you that I sliced my ex-wife's neck and watched her eyes roll up into her head." Somehow, that strikes me as more of a confession than anything else in the book.

The "If I Did It" memoir itself takes up 196 pages. The first five chapters -- 115 pages -- deal with Simpson's relationship with Nicole Brown: how they met and dated, how she finally persuaded him to marry her, their good years, their separation, and their failed attempt at a reconciliation. This part of the book is somewhat dull, but it does serve to flesh out a motive for murder. It becomes apparent that Simpson resented Nicole for pestering him, coming between him and their two children, and making it difficult for him to have a serious relationship with Paula Barbieri. As Simpson puts it at one point (p. 120), "[I]t seemed like every day it took a little more energy, and Nicole was sapping a lot of my goddamn energy."

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 (about 80 pages) are what will hold the most interest for most readers. Here, Simpson describes the night of the murders, the first interrogation by police, and the freeway "chase" when he threatened to kill himself. The description of the murders -- which is presented as "hypothetical" (p. 123) -- includes a mysterious companion referred to as "Charlie." Fenjves's theory, explained in his intro, is that Charlie was invented by Simpson to enable him to gain some psychological distance when recounting the crime. The murder description also includes a blackout that some reviewers have complained about. But it's not a big deal: all the blackout covers are the stabbings themselves; it does not keep us from learning how Simpson went to Nicole's home, what he saw and said there, and how he and "Charlie" made their getaway.

The book concludes with a brief afterword by Dominick Dunne, in which he talks mainly about how he came to know the Goldmans during Simpson's criminal trial.

"If I Did It" is probably unique in the history of crime and publishing. It gives us the best view we're probably ever going to get into Simpson's mind and the chain of thoughts and emotions that led to the murders. For the first time, I feel that I really understand the case.

The thing that blows me away about 'If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer" is the utter stupidity and ignorance of O.J. Simpson for agreeing to this publication. This book should be required reading for psychology majors that want to read about murderers, I wouldn't be surprised if universities are creating classes solely based on the double homicides from 1994.

This isn't a book that is written well, but that is not the purpose here. The purpose for the Goldmans to publish this after O.J. lost the rights to it is to show once and for all that O.J. Simpson committed these heinous crimes, the 14,000 words having been added by the Goldman family to the original manuscript certainly accomplishes this goal.

For O.J. Simpson to have agreed to this book, I can see 3 possible reasons:

1. He had to finally gloat to the public that he truly got away with murder. O.J. obviously assumes that by beginning the title of this book with the word 'If' that it would be seen as just ramblings from his mind and not confessions (obviously not).

2. He hoped to profit, even though all financial gains have to be transferred over to the Goldman family.

3. He was tricked and used by the original publisher who got him to take actions any reasonable attorney would have told him to NEVER do.

If you are interested in the O.J. Simpson case (and I think there will be public interest until the day he dies), pick up this book. As you read the pages and learn how stupid it was for Simpson to actually take part in this book you will be introduced into the mind of a killer. While reading, be happy in the fact that your $$$ isn't going into the Juice's pockets, but to the fund of Ron Goldman who (along with Nicole Brown) was brutally murdered that night in June way back in 1994.

O.J. Simpson is a murderer and he should be in jail instead of playing golf (but that's as obvious as the stars in the sky).

*** RECOMMENDED

Once you give this book a read you will see why the Goldmans did what they did. It's not that they are making huge profits from their son's murder and the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson. It's about showing the world that this smug, arrogant man had the gaul to come up with something like this strange book in the first place and once you do read it, you see that there is no way O.J. mourns his dead wife and mother of their two children. There is no way on earth that he's searching for the real killer, either. And in his impudence and pugnacious obtuseness the twisted and vitriolic blame he lays on his dead wife gives him away like nothing else could.

To read it with your own eyes is a very odd experience.

The Goldmans have tried for a decade to get recompense from the GUILTY (Liable) verdict in the Civil suit against Simpson and have not succeeded. Before they were able to seize this as assets, they only received about $10k of the $38 Million that was awarded them. In the meantime, they have racked up huge legal fees. They don't receive OJ's lush Million NFL pension --payed out in about $300k or more per year ad infinitim.

The Goldmans are ordinary working people like you and me. They had to take hold of something as O.J.'s residency --the primary reason why he moved to FLORIDA-- protects him from paying ONE PENNY to these people. A Court of Law found the man Guilty and he owes them millions but got off this one, too. Thanks to O.J.'s sharp and sleazy legal team. (which HE has no trouble paying, due to that generous pension).

Just when O.J. was about to make more $money off this garbage book--in stepped the Goldmans and rightfully so. A court of law awarded them the rightful owners of this book as seizable assets. (ironic what just happened today! Speaking of karma and "seizable" assets!) It's the basic principal of the thing, bottom line. Once you see the facts, you might want to buy this book. Most of it will go to legal fees for the Goldmans. But ultimately, it does more than put 17 cents in the pockets of the loving father and sister of Ron Goldman. It clearly shows the truth in its glaring weirdness--like funhouse mirrors-- that its author, OJ himself, couldn't be more telling about his delusional and ego-centric self. The self-puffery and crude arrogance spun through the man's prose says it all.

O.J. Simpson's 2007 hypothetical murder confession is worth your attention, not as a confession, but as a glimpse inside the man who is O.J. Simpson, the celebrity who flaunted getting away with murder. IF I DID IT: CONFESSIONS OF THE KILLER provides a new perspective on the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. As published, this book is truly the story of the Goldman family. The family wrote the forward, explaining their reasons for publishing the manuscript; the afterword was written by renowned crime journalist and close Goldman family friend Dominick Dunne. The eight-chapter story of the Brown-Simpson marriage and year preceding Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman's murders constitutes the bulk of this text, but that narrative is best read in the context provided by this publication.

Simpson's version of events places blame on Nicole Brown Simpson, who is portrayed herein as an emotionally unstable drug addict. He describes the two famous 911 calls during their seventeen-year marriage as isolated incidents for which both parties were responsible. He adamantly denies being an abuser; in Simpson's portrayal of the marriage, he is the stable, responsible one who reacted to Nicole's mood swings. A classic wife abuser, Simpson blames the victim, an unstable woman who drove him to extremes. The pair separated two years before the murders but had been in reconciliation discussions for the last year. By Simpson's description, Nicole was prone to violent mood swings and changed her mind about reconciliation on a daily basis.

Co-author Pablo Fenjves, a Brentwood neighbor of O.J. Simpson and witness at the murder trial, interviewed Simpson over a matter of weeks to ghostwrite the confession. The sports star was forthcoming about his marital troubles and opinions on Nicole's cocaine-using friends, but froze when it came to the material for "Chapter 6: The Night in Question." Fenjves claims that Simpson wanted to exclude that material from the book, despite the fact that Simpson's handlers had promised publisher Judith Regan that this would be a confession in every manner. When the project came to light, Simpson attempted to distance himself from the actual confession, but Fenjves is adamant that he has included only the words and sentiments of the man himself, and Simpson did sign off on the final manuscript.

O.J. Simpson's hypothetical confession to the Simpson-Goldman murders reveals details that only the killer could know. It is worthwhile to note that the hypothetical confession never contradicts any of the case evidence, and in fact, it explains several discrepancies which existed in the prosecution's theory of the murder. O.J. reveals that after leaving his ex-wife's house, he stripped and wrapped his clothes in a ball, which would explain the lack of blood evidence in the vehicle he was driving. He also discloses that his point of entry was a broken rear gate to the mansion and that he had an encounter with Goldman outside the house before confronting Nicole.

The Simpson camp conceived IF I DID IT as a retirement project, a way to profit off murder despite the civil judgment the Goldman and Brown families received in their wrongful death and battery suit against Simpson. After being found liable for the murders in his 1997 civil trial, Simpson was able to avoid paying damages to the Goldman and Brown families through the use of bankruptcy court and sham corporations set up in his children's names. For IF I DID IT, he received an advance of just under one million dollars, none of which the Goldmans or Browns saw, and he expected to receive lifelong payments in his children's names. When the project came to light, causing public outcry, HarperCollins dissolved its ReganBooks imprint, which had sponsored the project, and Simpson wound up in court over the rights to the manuscript. In bankruptcy court, the manuscript was considered an asset, and as such it needed to be liquidated (published) so that Simpson's creditors could be paid. In the foreward, the Goldman family explains how, after reading the book's contents, they decided to publish the confession themselves and control the income from the project.

With the publication of IF I DID IT, America has received one more chapter on its most infamous celebrity murder trial, and the Goldman family has finally imposed punitive damages on the man they believe is responsible for the murder of their son. The manuscript was improved by the addition of the Goldman preface, comments from writer Pablo F. Fenjves about the confession process, and Dominick Dunne's conclusion about the rights of victim's families. If I Did It is a strange piece of justice for the Goldman family and a fascinating read for the public who was gripped by the televised circus of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

OJ's rambling narrative is his attempt to re-write the history of his physical abuse and infidelities (bad for his public image) prior to Nicole's divorcing him. Through endless repetiton he so sweetly and with enormous concern and affection paints the worst possible picture of Nicole. He contradicts himself throughout, but he always remains, of course, The Loving Father and Family Man of the Year.

He then asks readers to understand that he could NEVER cut the throat of the mother of his children from ear to ear and stand watching as her eyes rolled back in her head. Absolutely chilling that he would include that detail. (Hypothetically, you see, he doesn't remember anything about the actual killings).

And, of course, there's Charlie, his "audience", for the actual murders. OJ's need for constant attention and his obsession with being the center of the universe apparently supply this phantom. He shows more pride and affection for the knife he used than he ever does for Nicole.

"What Jack says about Jill says more about Jack than it does about Jill" certainly applies to this man and this book. His portrayal of Nicole is a crude attempt to justify her murder, the slaughter of Ron Goldman a vicious and pathetic demonstration of how the older, spurned husband bests the handsome younger man.

Jealousy lurks on every page, and he protests far too often about "moving on." This was a tough read, but worth it if you want to understand the arrogance and cruelty that launched OJ at his victims. His smugness at the outcome of his trial is almost unbearable.

I bought this out of curiosity, but now understand and applaud the Goldmans' continuing campaign to seek the only justice they will ever see for Ron's murder, which is to thwart OJ's attempts at generating income for himself.

There are absolutely no surprises within these pages:
"If I Did It" contains OJ's version of that tragic night of June, 1994 when he murdered his estranged his wife Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. There is NO actual confession; the fateful moment of the killings is "glossed over" in a "the next thing I knew" fashion. "If I Did It" thoroughly qualifies as a "he said-she said" story except that it is all from the "he" side with nary a hint of the "she". The Simpson's certainly had their marital tribulations. Readers will be steeped in the roller coaster marriage. That relationship is cast against a very upper class LA LA land backdrop with trips to fancy restaurants, parties and side trips to "Cabo". There are not just hints but outright- and unproven- accusations that Nicole was running with a bad crowd, doing drugs and hanging with other men during the couple's trial separation, which ended at about the same time of Nicole's tragic demise. This reviewer always believed that Nicole's night life was a shibboleth, a smokescreen raised by Simpson's defense team. To give the devil his due, "If I Did It" is fast, easy, and bizarrely entertaining reading. This is fine as long as we remember that OJ really DID it. Any connection between "If I Did It" and the Brown family is unclear but a purchase will at least bring some closure to the Goldman family, however belated.

I would have bought this book even if I hadn't been interested in its contents, because I so like the idea of taking money out of O.J.'s pockets and putting it into the pockets of the family of one of his victims.

But the content of this book is invaluable. It provides as realistic, unvarnished, shameless, and appalling a look into the workings of the sociopathic mind as we are likely to have.

On the surface, the book is smooth, glib, and likable--even convincing. Like your average sociopath's mask of sanity.

But beneath, this book is a cauldron of numerous things:

Hatred, for one. This book simmers with Simpson's hatred of everything and everyone--particularly his ex-wife Nicole--who gets in his way or makes him feel bad.

Bald-faced lies. Simpson insists--over and over again!--that he's not violent. Oh, he took a baseball bat to a car and once--ONCE--struck Nicole. But he's not a wife-beater! And oh, how the assertion that he's a violent person makes him feel violent!

Gaping omissions. Simpson's (largely absent) father was a homosexual who died of AIDS--the macho Simpson asserts that he played an active role in family affairs and died of cancer. When Simpson began his relationship with Nicole and ended his first marriage, his first wife became pregnant. Two years later, the child drowned in the swimming pool at Simpson's Rockingham estate. Yet Simpson never mentions this (presumably) traumatic event. The child was a nuisance, a hindrance, and death took her out of the way--no need even to mention her name. Simpson wrote his nearly illiterate "suicide note" two days before his famous Bronco car chase--here he insists that he wrote a much more literate note on the day of the chase. On and on, contradicting nearly every established fact of his case, as if he can rewrite history--as in his mind, he doubtless thinks he can.

(For a thorough and objective history of the case, Jeffrey Toobin's THE RUN OF HIS LIFE is still unsurpassed.)

And as for his "confession" to the murders of Nicole and Ron Goldman--they're outrageous, sickening--and outrageously transparent. They remind me of serial killer Ted Bundy's third-person "confessions" to authors Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, chronicled in their book THE ONLY LIVING WITNESS. They drive home the true horror and inhumanity of the crimes as nothing else could. And to think that the murders might have been averted if only Ron Goldman hadn't arrived on the scene, returning a pair of glasses!

I have no doubt that Simpson really did attack Goldman verbally before he attacked him physically, as he details here. What a profanation! The man doesn't deserve to speak Goldman's name.

But he does have an obligation to speak the truth. And, under camoflague, that is what Simpson does here. We must all be grateful to him--yes, grateful--for this look at the barrenness, banality, and brutality of pathological narcissism and its terrible consequences.

These "confessions," as appalling as they are, have much to teach us.

I wondered why OJ would decide to write a "How I Did It" book. Of course, money is a great reason. However, after reading this book, I think that he wrote the book as a way of dealing with the demons and nightmares that haunt his sleep. I believe he used this book as a tool to confess to the public "without even confessing at all". A way to ease his mind. The ghost writer did a fabulous job. I especially loved how he included his interviews with OJ in the book. He detailed OJ's threatening yet egotistical personality. OJ's huge ego, and ability to laugh about his own wife's bloody death. It was a chilling read. While OJ's has attempted to weaken his nightmares, I hope he has many sleepless and nightmare filled nights. Enjoy this life, OJ. Because when you meet God, I think He will have other plans for you.