Lawrence Schiller - American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the O.J. Simpson Defense

AMERICAN TRAGEDY

THE UNCENSORED STORY OF THE

O.J. SIMPSON DEFENSE

Lawrence Schiller

James Willwerth

~~~

Copyright 1996 by Lawrence Schiller and Polaris Communications, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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

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

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

Additional O.J. Simpson and third party photographs provided by Polaris Communications, Inc., Robert Kardashian, and courtesy I Want To Tell You , all Copyright 1995, All rights reserved.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material and television broadcasts:

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

Associated Press: Excerpts from various articles from 1994 and 1995 pertaining to the O.J. Simpson trial. Copyright 1994, 1995 by the Associated Press. Reprinted by permission of the Associated Press.

Cable News Network, Inc.: Brief excerpt from the June 30, 1994, CNN Live with Jim Moret and brief excerpt from the September 26, 1994, CNN Live with Reid Collins. Copyright 1994 by Cable News Network, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Cable News Network, Inc.

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

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

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

The New York Times: Excerpt from an August 18, 1995, editorial. Copyright 1995 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.

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

The Washington Post: Excerpt from an article 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, and Cameron, my wonderful children,

and to Nina Wiener, my caring and loving wife.

L.S. - 2014

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

- Norman Mailer

New York Times Review

". the matter of O. J. Simpson remains a defining moment in late 20th-century American history, a kind of morality play like the Dreyfus affair in France roughly 100 years ago, incarnating the most intense passions of the time. That is one reason that ''American Tragedy,'' by Lawrence Schiller and James Willwerth, is not only justified in its sheer copiousness, but also a valuable, gripping and illuminating work.

In the already vast Simpson literature, this book reaches the furthest into the pith of the event, telling on an almost day-to-day basis the way the defense team labored, plotted and squabbled its way toward rescuing Mr. Simpson from what might very likely have been a conviction on charges of murder. And in this sense, ''American Tragedy'' will help us cope with the deeper questions concerning racial morality and justice raised by the Simpson affair.

The authors, in one of their more astonishing passages, show Mr. Simpson's lawyers redecorating his house in preparation for a visit there by the jury. They took away the picture that Mr. Simpson kept near the fireplace in his bedroom showing his white girlfriend of the time in a nude pose; they put a photograph of him and his mother on his bedside table. Then, to give Mr. Simpson's home ''something depicting African-American history,'' aimed at arousing the sympathy of the mostly black jury, they brought in a Norman Rockwell 1963 painting, ''The Problem We All Live With,'' showing a black grade school girl walking to class surrounded by Federal marshals.

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

-- By RICHARD BERNSTEIN, New York Times

NOW INCLUDES OVER 35 PHOTOS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Original Jacket Copy from

Hardcover Edition:

Nothing written about the Simpson case can possibly prepare the reader for the revelations in this book: the untold story, from murder to acquittal, written from deep within the Simpson defense by a master reporter. Each turning point in the months-long investigation and trial is recounted in authentic, often startling detail in the words of Simpson's confidants, woven brilliantly into a narrative that will rivet you from beginning to end.

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

But American Tragedy goes far beyond such revelations, for in the pages the reader will discover who Simpson really is and why he is able to insist upon his innocence even to this day. Though this book presents the unvarnished truth, the narrative builds with the force of a great drama. Lawrence Schiller, who collaborated with Norman Mailer on his Pulitzer Prize-winning Executioner's Song , is more than a great reporter. He is also a great storyteller whose narrative skills and powers of empathy draw the reader deep within the minds and souls of the Simpson defense more strongly, more realistically, than even the best novelist would be able to do. At the heart of Schiller's story sits Simpson himselfin his jail cell, at the defense table, and in the recesses of his minddirecting his defense with what can only be called genius.

In telling this story, Schiller has created a work that will be read now and for years to come as a classic account of a brilliant if turbulent legal defense, the inside story to end all inside stories of the Trial of the Century.

You know, it was like a forest fire out of control

and you just had to watch it burn. There was

nothing you could do. I mean, we all felt helpless

because it just reached out and you can see more

still growing.