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Home , Dream Team (law), Robert Kardashian

‘If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit’ THE PEOPLE VERSUS OJ SIMPSON REVISITED

It was the trial of the century in the United States. Wa tched on TV by 150 million, the ‘not guilty’ verdict revealed a deep divide between black and white Americans. As a high-profile drama of the

Opposite: June 15, 1995, and the moment OJ Simpson OJ Simpson story begins, Christopher Goodwin investigates a case put on the gloves that the prosecution claimed were worn to kill his ex-wife. Right, from left: that still has the power to shock, more than 20 years later , , Simpson and in court, January 1995. Above, from left: Shapiro, Kardashian and Simpson as portrayed by , and Cuba Gooding Jr in a new TV series Turn to page 44

TIM30T1GM_032_ojsimpson.indd 32-33 1/25/2016 6:21:09 PM the trial of OJ simpson continued from page 33 name Kardashian, now a staple of gossip San Francisco but went on to have a sparkling As OJ Simpson, now a fugitive, and a the shrewd move of bringing on to his legal columns and fashion pages. career as an American football star. He friend, , drove up and down the AmericA wAs trAnsfixed team combative black lawyer Johnnie Cochran. ith John Travolta puffed up in Robert Kardashian, a businessman and became even better known to many Americans LA freeways in a white, four-wheel-drive by the OJ simpsOn Cochran had made his formidable thousand-dollar suits as the lawyer, was the father of Kourtney, Kim and after he retired, as a gridiron analyst on TV, in Ford Bronco, America was transfixed by the reputation, and his considerable fortune, by lawyer Robert Shapiro, playing , who all make appearances commercials for Hertz, and as a movie star, in astonishing spectacle, which was watched on chAse, A spectAcle prosecuting the LAPD for brutality and other the media like a harpsichord ... in the series as young but knowing children. As films such as The Naked Gun. live television by some 95 million people. misdeeds against his mainly black clients, and With Cuba Gooding Jr as one of Simpson’s closest friends, Kardashian So the whole nation was stunned when With Cowlings driving, helicopters overhead wAtched On live tv by had won settlements of more than $40 million. the fugitive murder suspect stood by his side throughout the trial, despite it quickly became known that Simpson was and dozens of police cars giving chase, Simpson Displacing Shapiro, Cochran soon became the OJ Simpson, careening about having clear doubts about his innocence. the prime, indeed the only, suspect. According sat in the back seat clutching a loaded revolver, 95 milliOn peOple lead attorney in what became known as the the freeways of was Robert Kardashian’s ex-wife, to leaks to the media, bloodstains had been threatening to shoot himself. By his side was “”, the most expensive defence W with a gun to his head, crying then married to someone who also makes an found in Simpson’s car and in the driveway his passport, a fake beard and $8,700 in cash. assembled, estimated to have cost Simpson out for his momma ... appearance on the fringes of the series: Bruce of his house that matched those at the crime “On a day that mixed grand opera with more than $5 million by the end of the trial. With David Schwimmer (from Friends) as Jenner, the famous Olympian. Bruce Jenner is scene two miles away. The motive was said street theatre, culminating in a surreal car Speaking from the courtroom steps on the late Robert Kardashian, Simpson’s close stepfather to the three older Kardashian sisters to be jealousy, as Simpson was alleged to chase across southern California, the nation many days of the trial, Cochran used the media confidant and the forgotten father of the now and the father – with Kris – of the two youngest, have suspected – wrongly – that Nicole and drew together to watch an epic American to bolster the defence case. He suspected his ubiquitous Kardashian clan ... Kendall and Kylie, and is now , Goldman were lovers. tragedy unfold,” the Los Angeles Times wrote. comments would somehow seep through to With its huge cast of Los Angelinos, a new following a male-to-female transition last year. Simpson quickly hired Robert Shapiro. He “Some were moved to join the show, striking from far left: simpson the fugitive simpson the jury, even though the jury was sequestered TV series takes us back two decades to one of was the best-known legal face in Los Angeles, a bizarre note as they cheered on a fugitive and his wife nicole, on June 17; protesters in a hotel and had no access to television, the most extraordinary and surreal events in Whoever the victims were, the butchering on first name terms with the city’s bigwigs, who, only hours before, had been charged march 1994; the outside court during radio or newspaper coverage of the trial. American history. The People v OJ Simpson: of and Ronald and was smoothness itself in front of the TV with murdering his ex-wife and her friend.” discovery of nicole’s the trial; simpson, with The circus atmosphere of the televised explores the horrifyingly Goldman in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles cameras. He had a history of securing plea Around 8pm the Bronco pulled into the body at her house in robert Kardashian, trial, conducted by the seemingly star-struck brutal double murder – of his ex-wife, Nicole, on the night of June 12, 1994, would have bargains and short sentences for his celebrity driveway of Simpson’s estate in west LA with brentwood, June 13, 1994; is found not guilty, Judge , was captured by the waspish and her friend, Ronald Goldman – for which been sensational. clients, including Christian Brando, the son of Simpson. It took about 50 minutes before he the police pursuit of October 3, 1995 in a series of articles for OJ Simpson, the famous black American football player, was sensationally tried and eventually acquitted in 1995. It also stars Sarah Paulson as , the lead prosecutor, and as Kris Jenner – the mother of the Kardashian sisters – who had been a close friend of Nicole’s. The People v OJ Simpson recreates the intense and divisive drama of 18 astonishing months that riveted America and left the world appalled by the perceived failings of the American “justice” system, which was shown to be bedevilled by the evils of race and money and the distorting lens of the media. The series explores the shocking racial divide – in the city of Los Angeles and in Their bodies were discovered at 12.10am on the actor Marlon Brando, who served just five could be coaxed out, with the promise of being won’t get a fair shake,” said Laura Washington, Vanity Fair magazine. Holed up in the Chateau America – that was exposed by Simpson’s June 13 by a passer-by alerted by the plaintive years for the 1990 murder by shooting of the able to make a phone call to his mother, and a well-known black leader, at the time. Marmont, the well-connected Dunne had a acquittal. Tellingly, it opens not with the barking of Nicole’s dog. The bodies lay in boyfriend of his half-sister, Cheyenne. he was arrested for double murder. The series alleges that to ensure potential particular loathing for Simpson because his murders or with OJ Simpson himself, but pools of blood in front of Nicole’s luxury At Nicole’s funeral on June 16, Simpson, black jurors would hear evidence that might own daughter had been murdered in Los three years earlier, with documentary footage Mediterranean-style condominium in the wearing a black suit and sunglasses, horrified Although the Simpson court case, which became not be allowed in court, in July 1994 Simpson’s Angeles in 1982. of the videotaped beating of the black motorist Brentwood area of west LA. her family and other mourners by bending known as the “Trial of the Century”, didn’t begin lawyer, Robert Shapiro, leaked the key plank of “The Simpson case is like a great trash nn

/c Rodney King by cops from the Los Angeles A beautiful, 35-year-old blonde, she had over the open casket and kissing her lifeless until January 24, 1995, much of what led to his the defence case to journalist Jeffrey Toobin of novel come to life,” wrote Dunne, who Police Department (LAPD), and the 1992 riots been all but decapitated, her throat so savagely body: the body of the woman most people in acquittal occurred in the six months between The New Yorker. The new TV series is based compared Simpson and Nicole with Othello – the worst in American history, which left slashed that her larynx was visible, with four the church believed he had brutally murdered June and the proceedings getting under way. on Toobin’s book, The Run of His Life: the and Desdemona, “a mammoth fireworks 53 people dead – that convulsed the city after other deep stab wounds to her neck and three just four days before. The funeral of Ronald Most significant was the decision by People v OJ Simpson. display of interracial marriage, love, lust, lies, their acquittal by a majority white jury. on her head. Ronald Goldman, a good-looking Goldman took place in Westlake Village, prosecutors to move the trial from Santa According to Toobin, Shapiro, quoted hate, fame, wealth, beauty, obsession, spousal It recalls how most white Americans were 25-year-old, had been stabbed numerous some ten miles away. Monica in the west of Los Angeles to the without being named, claimed , abuse, stalking, broken-hearted children, the immediately convinced of OJ Simpson’s guilt. times about the head and neck, his jugular The same day the LAPD released Criminal Courts Building in downtown LA. the most important detective on the case, who bloodiest of bloody knife-slashing homicides But it also explains why black Americans vein severed, with two other deep stab wounds documents detailing a vicious beating Simpson That was partly for convenience, because the had found one of the “bloody gloves” that the and all the justice that money can buy.” were appalled that whites seemed so eager through his ribs, one into a lung, the other had given Nicole in 1989, when she had been district attorneys prosecuting the case had prosecution contended Simpson had worn As the trial wore on, all sorts of bizarre to convict a black “brother”, one who had puncturing his abdominal aorta. found “cowering in the bushes, bruised and their offices close to the court. when carrying out the killings, had framed tales were whispered about the protagonists had the fatal temerity to marry a beautiful But these were no ordinary murder victims. bloodied and afraid for her life”. But the decision ensured that Simpson Simpson for the murders. and their friends, about their promiscuous white woman. As detectives from the LAPD quickly realised, On the night after the funeral, a distraught would not be tried by a majority white jury as “The defence will assert that Mark sexual proclivities and their rampant drug use. The series shows how the OJ Simpson trial, while Goldman, who worked as a waiter in Simpson had to be dissuaded by his friend he would have been in affluent Santa Monica. Fuhrman’s motivation for framing OJ Simpson Much of it made it into the tabloids, including which was broadcast live on television, was the a nearby restaurant, was an aspiring actor, Robert Kardashian from committing suicide in Downtown, the jury pool was predominantly is racism,” Toobin wrote in The New Yorker. topless photos of Nicole Simpson which one beginning of the “” age that Nicole was the ex-wife of OJ Simpson, one the bedroom of , then just 14. black and poor, with most coming from the “‘This is a bad cop,’ one defence lawyer told of her own sisters was alleged to have sold to we now seem to inhabit and which has since of the most famous men in America. The next morning, according to an ghettos of South Central LA, where the riots me. ‘This is a racist cop.’ That would be an National Enquirer. spawned shows such as Keeping Up with the Orenthal James Simpson, then 46, agreement negotiated by Robert Shapiro, had so recently happened and where distrust explosive allegation in any community, but it Everybody had a price, it seemed, including Kardashians, Celebrity Big Brother and TOWIE. colloquially known as “OJ” or “the Juice”, was Simpson was due to turn himself in at LAPD of the police was endemic. has a special resonance in Los Angeles [where one of the prosecution’s key witnesses. She And it slyly reminds us that the trial was the an impossibly handsome and charismatic man. headquarters. But he had somehow slipped “There is a long-held assumption, dating back the riots had just happened].” had seen what she described as a crazed OJ first time most people had ever heard the He had grown up on a bleak housing estate in out of Robert Kardashian’s house. to the days of lynching, that blacks on trial Before the trial began, Simpson, also made Simpson driving away from the crime scene, previous spread: reuters, bbc. this spread: getty images, rex, corbis, ap

44 The Times Magazine The Times Magazine 45

TIM30T1GM_032_ojsimpson.indd 44-45 1/25/2016 6:21:29 PM but she could not testify after she had sold her cuba gooding jr as new Tv series, The people story to a tabloid TV programme for $5,000. oj simpson, undergoing v oj simpson: american The most widely believed rumour about a polygraph test in the crime story the murders was that a furiously jealous Simpson was high on the drug crystal meth – which a drug dealer claimed in the tabloids Simpson, having deliberated for just four to have sold him earlier that night – when he hours after a nine-month trial. carried out the murders, hence their savagery. They acknowledged the skill of the Simpson denied ever having taken drugs. Dream Team, lead by Johnnie Cochran, to There were other apparently outlandish make the most of the mainly black jury – by theories, some put about by the defence and playing the so-called “race card” – and were believed by many, that the murders had been astonished by the unravelling of the prosecution carried out by a Colombian drug gang whose case. Vincent Bugliosi, the former Los Angeles real target was , a friend of district attorney who prosecuted Charles Nicole’s who was staying with her at the time, Manson, called it “the most incompetent over an alleged drug debt. It was claimed that The rumour was ThaT criminal prosecution I have ever seen”. the slashing of Nicole’s vocal chord was the Black Americans could not understand why calling card of a Colombian drug hit. The judge a jealous simpson was whites were so ready to overlook the racism and dismissed the scenario as “highly speculative”. perjury of the lead detective and a catalogue of People tried to fathom out , a high on crysTal meTh. he errors by the police team in charge of collecting tousled-haired wannabe actor who was living and analysing the scientific evidence. in Simpson’s guesthouse. Kaelin famously denied ever Taking drugs Most white Americans were infuriated that claimed to have heard three loud “thumps a majority black jury had so quickly acquitted in the night” against his bedroom wall at Simpson when the evidence against him the time when Simpson was alleged to have towards the end of the trial. Because they appeared to them to be so conclusive. rushed back to his house after the murders. were deemed so potentially prejudicial, the What shocked white Americans even more Night after night, over dinner tables at jury had been played excerpts from just 2 of than the acquittal was the joy with which it was Spago, enthralled producers and obsessed more than 60 audiotapes in which Fuhrman greeted by many black Americans. Although movie stars plotted out the timeline, arguing had admitted to a screenwriter some years Spike Lee said he “wasn’t happy” with the over whether Simpson would really have earlier that he was a racist and, so the defence verdict, he acknowledged that a lot of blacks had time to commit the murders at 10.15pm, claimed, he would readily plant evidence if it were, because they felt, “This is the first drive two miles to his house, change, hide his would result in a conviction. brother in the history of the world who got bloody clothes and the murder weapon, which “You’ve got 200 niggers who are trying to away with the murder of white folks, and a was never found, then shower, before being take you prisoner,” Fuhrman said on one tape. blonde, blue-eyed woman at that.” picked up by a limo driver at 11pm to be taken “You just chase this guy and you beat the shit “For many blacks, every black man was to LA airport for a trip to Chicago. out of him.” On another tape he said that one on trial,” as leading black politician Eleanor People were transfixed by the intense division station of the LAPD was awash with Holmes Norton explained. Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor, pondering the “smell of niggers that have been beaten Of course, OJ didn’t get clean away. At the deeper meaning of her hairstyles, which and killed”. a civil trial in 1997 Simpson was found liable went from flowing curls at the beginning of In a stunning gotcha moment, Fuhrman for the deaths and ordered to pay more than the trial to a severe straight bob by the end. took the 5th Amendment repeatedly on the $30 million to the victims’ families – money, The tabloids revealed that Clark had once stand, refusing to answer questions in case he of course, which has never been paid. been a dancer and that her first husband, a incriminated himself. Prosecutors were forced Today, Orenthal James Simpson languishes backgammon gambler, had been accidentally to admit that Fuhrman – one of the lead in a jail in Nevada, fat and forgotten. In 2008 shot in the head and left severely handicapped detectives on the case – had perjured himself he was sentenced to 33 years for his part in a by his best friend, who, astonishingly, had been in front of the jury when he denied under bizarre armed robbery, as he tried to reclaim represented by Robert Shapiro at his trial. oath that he had used the word “nigger” sports memorabilia from dealers who were Although the OJ Simpson trial, which lasted during the past ten years. Fuhrman was the trying to sell it in a Las Vegas hotel room. He from January 24 to October, had longueurs, it death knell for the case against Simpson. may be eligible for parole late next year, by also had many enthralling moments. After the trial, Amanda Cooley, the jury which time he will be 70. One was when Simpson, at the prompting forewoman, 50 and from South Central Los As the TV series reminds us, it’s hard to of the prosecution, tried on the so-called Angeles, said that when first she saw Fuhrman think of anything good that came from the trial “bloody gloves” that the prosecution claimed on the stand, she knew, “He was a snake … He and acquittal of OJ Simpson. Most disturbingly, he had worn when committing the murders. sort of looked like a Ku Klux Klan or a skinhead it showed that white and black Americans Grimacing and groaning, Simpson made with hair… When I heard those things about lived in entirely separate worlds of experience the most of the theatrical moment, apparently the n-word, it was like a hot flash hit me.” and, presented with the same evidence, could unable to squeeze his hands into the gloves. The moment of the verdict held the nation come to radically different conclusions. “Too tight,” he muttered. in thrall, watched by more than 150 million Two decades later, as we watch a row That became a key element of the defence, people in America, including, in the White about the Oscars and racial diversity, one with Johnnie Cochran famously telling the House, President Bill Clinton. It was the wonders how much, if at all, that has changed jury in his summing up, “If it doesn’t fit, you biggest audience in US television history. in America. n must acquit.” Although the result stunned the country, The other was when detective Mark seasoned observers were not surprised when The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story Fuhrman took the stand for the second time the jury quickly and unanimously acquitted begins on BBC Two next month

The Times Magazine 47

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