If I Exploited It
Trying a turn a buck on O. J. murdering a family member
In light of what is going on with O. J. Simpson right now, the publication of the “If I Did It” novel (yes, I wrote an editorial about that too) was actually released on September 13th 2007 by the Goldman family, and defamer.com even said that “If I Did It currently sits at the #2 position on the Amazon best seller list, unseated by Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence” (it was also listed as #1 on best-sellers lists). According to Wikipedia: “In August 2007, a Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the book to the Goldman family to partially satisfy an unpaid civil judgment. The title of the book was expanded to If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer and comments were added to the original manuscript by the Goldman family, the book’s ghostwriter Pablo Fenjves, and journalist Dominick Dunne. . . Rights for the book were transferred to the Goldman family, who will receive 90 per cent of profits, as part of their settlement.” Denise Brown hasa petition out to stop people from purchasing the book, and Nicole’s father, Louis H. Brown, lost when attempting to sue the Goldmans, also trying to stop publication of this .
On September 25th, I heard that the ghostwriter of the book “If I Did It” was interviewed — and the kick in the pants is that the ghostwriter is the man whose dog was in the street barking because the dog heard something wrong during the Brown-Goldwin murders. Pablo Fenjves testified against Simpson 12 years ago, coining one of the most memorable phrases of the trial: “plaintive wail” of a dog. Fenjves, Brown Simpson’s neighbor, testified that he heard a dog crying by the two corpses. Simpson recognized Fenjves from the trial. And when O. J. first met up with Fenjves (and he knew of his dog barking at the time of the murders), Simpson said something to the effect of “Imagine if I had been found guilty based on a barking dog.” And from what I know, PABLO FENJVES seemed sure at that point (if he wasn’t sure before) that O. J. Simpson actually committed those murders — and the funny thing is, O. J. even believes his ghostwriter believes O. J. Simpson murdered Brown and Goldwin.
According to CBS News, Fenjves told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen that “It was incredibly compelling. You know, to be given an opportunity to sit in a room with a man that, you know, I personally believed to be a murderer — was just — it was hard to not do it.” Fenjves also said, “I said, ‘I’m sorry, O.J. You know, I — I — thought you were guilty then, and I still think you’re guilty,’ “ Fenjves said. “And he just exploded. He said, ‘I know you do!’ “It was a — very explosive. ‘I know you do!’ very loud and ferocious. And we were alone in — in the hotel suite. But a moment later, he was like — he was back to himself.” And according to the CBS News article, Simpson went back and forth between being jovial and being distressed while Fenjves interviewed him about the murders.
But when it comes to the interviewing for the novel writing, and from what I understand, O. J. would answer questions about what “would” have happened at any given point in the evening, and he would always answer in the third person (like, well, then they would have done X, or they would have killed her first, then him, something like that). But Fenjves would occasionally ask a question where O. J. would answer in the first person.
Like, when Fenjves was asked if this double murder was something that the murderer could have done alone, or would he have needed help from anyone else to kill them.
O. J. would answer a question like that with something to the effect of, “Oh. I couldn’t do that alone. I had to have help.” He would answer while changing from third person to first person in his answers.
Fenjves also asked O. J. at one point, in this “murder scenario,” as the murderer was leaving the crime scene, if he would have turned left or right to leave the alley.
O. J. would answer a question like that with something to the effect of, “I couldn’t turn right because then I’d drive by the limo and the murder scene. So I had to go left.” Once again, he would answer while changing from third person to first person in his answers.
Also according to Fenjves , “He told me that when the Akita, the dog, came out of the house and saw Ron Goldman, the dog wagged his tail,” Fenjves said. “And I thought, ‘Wow. That’s a very telling detail.’ You know, to me, it suggested that the dog knew Ron Goldman. And he had been there before. And that’s not the kind of detail one makes up.”
Fenjves even said it was also disturbing when Simpson gave a hypothetical motive for murdering Nicole in a TV Extra account: “This narcissist is describing this woman in the most unflattering terms and doesn’t even see it,” he said. “I think the message in that is, ‘If I did it, she had it coming.’”
I came across (after Wikipedia) a TMZ.com article that actually had parts of the manuscript before the publication of the book (because apparently the manuscript was leaked on the Internet before the book was actually released). Just because I assume someone else out there has the same sick facination with this whole book scenario that I do, I am going to show for you here what TMZ describes as “a chilling scene” Simpson describes about the murders:
“I looked over at Goldman, and I was fuming. I guess he thought I was going to hit him, because he got into his little karate stance. “What the fuck is that?” I said. “You think you can take me with your karate shit?” He started circling me, bobbing and weaving, and if I hadn’t been so fucking angry I would have laughed in his face. “O.J., come on!” It was Charlie again, pleading. Nicole moaned, regaining consciousness. She stirred on the ground and opened her eyes and looked at me, but it didn’t seem like anything was registering. Charlie walked over and planted himself in front of me blocking my view. “We are fucking done here, man-let’s go!”
I noticed the knife in Charlie’s hand, and in one deft move I removed my right glove and snatched it up. “We’re not going anywhere,” I said, turning to face Goldman. Goldman was still circling me, bobbing and weaving, but I didn’t feel like laughing anymore. “You think you’re tough, motherfucker?” I said. I could hear Charlie just behind me, saying something, urging me to get the fuck out of there, and at one point he even reached for me and tried to drag me away, but I shook him off, hard, and moved toward Goldman. “Okay, motherfucker!” I said. “Show me how tough you are!”
Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can’t tell you exactly how. I was still standing in Nicole’s courtyard, of course, but for a few moments I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there, when I’d arrived, or even why I was there. Then it came back to me, very slowly: The recital-with little Sydney up on stage, dancing her little heart out; me, chipping balls into my neighbor’s yard; Paula, angry, not answering her phone; Charlie, stopping by the house to tell me some more ugly shit about Nicole’s behavior. Then what? The short, quick drive from Rockingham to the Bundy condo. And now?
Now I was standing in Nicole’s courtyard, in the dark, listening to the loud, rhythmic, accelerated beating of my own heart. I put my left hand to my heart and my shirt felt strangely wet. I looked down at myself. For several moments, I couldn’t get my mind around what I was seeing. The whole front of me was covered in blood, but it didn’t compute. Is this really blood? I wondered. And whose blood is it? Is it mine? Am I hurt?”
Okay, that’s all I’m going to have. I just wanted you to see a different aspect of the Simpson debacle through the eventual release of this book. Because with the more information you get, it becomes more obvious that trying to wrap your mind around the entire O. J. Simpson escapade is probably impossible, if you haven’t lived through the nightmare yourself.
Copyright © 2007 Janet Kuypers.
U.S. Government Copyright © 2004
Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers
on all art and all writings on this site completed
before 6/6/04. All rights reserved. No material
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