Simpson O. J - American tragedy: the uncensored story of the Simpson defense

THE UNCENSORED STORY OF THE

O.J. SIMPSON DEFENSE

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 1996 by Lawrence Schiller and PolarisCommunications, Inc.

All rights reserved under International andPan-American Copyright Conventions.

Published in the United States by Random House, Inc.,New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of CanadaLimited, Toronto.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, pleasepurchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre readingthis book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for youruse only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase yourown copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of thisauthor.

Quotations from interviews by LawrenceSchiller are copyright 1995 and 1996 by Polaris Communications,Inc.

Historical and crime scene photographsprovided to media by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Additional O.J. Simpson and third partyphotographs provided by Polaris Communications, Inc., RobertKardashian, and courtesy I Want To Tell You, all Copyright1995, All rights reserved.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to thefollowing for permission to reprint previously published materialand television broadcasts:

4BC: Brief excerpt from the June 19, 1994,episode of This Week with David Brinkley and brief excerptfrom the June 19, 1994, episode of Nightline. Used bypermission of ABC News.

Associated Press: Excerpts fromvarious articles from 1994 and 1995 pertaining to the O.J. Simpsontrial. Copyright 1994, 1995 by the Associated Press. Reprinted bypermission of the Associated Press.

Cable News Network, Inc.: Briefexcerpt from the June 30, 1994, CNN Live with Jim Moret andbrief excerpt from the September 26, 1994, CNN Live withReid Collins. Copyright 1994 by Cable News Network, Inc. Allrights reserved. Used by permission of Cable News Network, Inc.

Los Angeles Times: Excerpts fromvarious articles from 1994 and 1995 pertaining to the O.J. Simpsontrial. Copyright 1994, 1995 by the Los Angeles Times.Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times.

Newsday: Brief excerpt from an articleby Shirley Perlman from August 12, 1994. Copyright by Newsday,Inc. Reprinted by permission of Newsday.

New York Daily News: Excerpt from twoarticles pertaining to the O.J. Simpson trial from 1995. Copyright 1995 by New York Daily News, L.P. Reprinted by permission of theNew York Daily News.

The New York Times: Excerpt from anAugust 18, 1995, editorial. Copyright 1995 by The New York TimesCompany. Reprinted by permission.

Joyce Carol Oates: Excerpt fromLethal, from Where Is Here? by Joyce Carol Oates (EccoPress, 1992). Copyright 1992 by The Ontario Review, Inc.Reprinted by permission of the author.

The Washington Post: Excerpt from anarticle from 1994 pertaining to the O.J. Simpson trial. Copyright 1994 by The Washington Post. Reprinted with permission.

Print ISBN 0-679-45682-1

Random House website address: http://www.randomhouse.com/

To Suzanne, Marc, Howard, Anthony, andCameron, my wonderful children,

and to Nina Wiener, my caring and lovingwife.

L.S. - 2014

"I couldn't stop reading American Tragedy. Myold friend and colleague Larry Schiller has come up with a bookthat is impossible to put down. I haven't turned pages this quicklyin years, and the surprise of it for me is that I hated the O.J.Simpson case while it was going on."

- Norman Mailer

". the matter of O. J. Simpson remains a definingmoment in late 20th-century American history, a kind of moralityplay like the Dreyfus affair in France roughly 100 years ago,incarnating the most intense passions of the time. That is onereason that ''American Tragedy,'' by Lawrence Schiller and JamesWillwerth, is not only justified in its sheer copiousness, but alsoa valuable, gripping and illuminating work.

In the already vast Simpson literature, this bookreaches the furthest into the pith of the event, telling on analmost day-to-day basis the way the defense team labored, plottedand squabbled its way toward rescuing Mr. Simpson from what mightvery likely have been a conviction on charges of murder. And inthis sense, ''American Tragedy'' will help us cope with the deeperquestions concerning racial morality and justice raised by theSimpson affair.

The authors, in one of their more astonishingpassages, show Mr. Simpson's lawyers redecorating his house inpreparation for a visit there by the jury. They took away thepicture that Mr. Simpson kept near the fireplace in his bedroomshowing his white girlfriend of the time in a nude pose; they put aphotograph of him and his mother on his bedside table. Then, togive Mr. Simpson's home ''something depicting African-Americanhistory,'' aimed at arousing the sympathy of the mostly black jury,they brought in a Norman Rockwell 1963 painting, ''The Problem WeAll Live With,'' showing a black grade school girl walking to classsurrounded by Federal marshals.

If you are going to read only one book on the caseof O. J. Simpson, this is a strong candidate to be it."

-- By RICHARD BERNSTEIN, New York Times

Nothing written about the Simpson case can possiblyprepare the reader for the revelations in this book: the untoldstory, from murder to acquittal, written from deep within theSimpson defense by a master reporter. Each turning point in themonths-long investigation and trial is recounted in authentic,often startling detail in the words of Simpson's confidants, wovenbrilliantly into a narrative that will rivet you from beginning toend.

This account will finally explain for thefirst time, in the uncensored words of Simpson's closest confidantsand attorneys, such mysteries as the missing Louis Vuitton bag andthe Bronco chasewhere was Simpson going and why? What is the realreason Simpson submitted to a lie detector test and what preciselyhappened when he got the results? Which members of Simpsons teambelieved his story, which ones had doubts? Why did the defense knowfrom the beginning that they had at least a hung jury, and why wasSimpson told he was going home even before the verdict came down?Why was Simpson's reputation more important to him than whether hewas convicted? How did Simpson's team stage an elaborate deceptionduring the jury's visit to his Rockingham mansion? What did aleading forensic psychiatrist discover about O.J. during hisface-to-face examination? Why was Johnnie Cochran afraid to returnto Simpson's holding cell during final arguments? You've heard thespeculations and rumors; now read what really happened.

But American Tragedy goes far beyondsuch revelations, for in the pages the reader will discover whoSimpson really is and why he is able to insist upon his innocenceeven to this day. Though this book presents the unvarnished truth,the narrative builds with the force of a great drama. LawrenceSchiller, who collaborated with Norman Mailer on his PulitzerPrize-winning Executioner's Song, is more than a greatreporter. He is also a great storyteller whose narrative skills andpowers of empathy draw the reader deep within the minds and soulsof the Simpson defense more strongly, more realistically, than eventhe best novelist would be able to do. At the heart of Schiller'sstory sits Simpson himselfin his jail cell, at the defense table,and in the recesses of his minddirecting his defense with what canonly be called genius.