Title: If I Did It – Confessions of the Killer
Author: OJ Simpson/The Goldman Family
Publisher: Gibson Square Books Limited
$35.99
Stupidity? Guilty conscious? Hungry for some more publicity? Why else I asked myself, would fallen football star and sometime actor OJ Simpson write an account of his life with and the murder of his ex wife in “If I Did It; Confessions of the Killer.”
Simpson takes us right back to meeting Nicole, then an 18 year old waitress and their turbulent years together. He continually runs his ex-wife’s reputation down, labelling her a drug addled, violent woman who associated with the wrong crowd. In contrast he portrays himself as the patient, long suffering husband who unwaveringly loved Nicole and tried valiantly to repair their marriage.
But it is the hypothetical scenario OJ paints of how he would have killed his wife and her friend Ron Goldman if he were the murderer that is the most compelling part of this story.
When the idea for this book was first touted to publishers, it was done so as OJ’s confession. OJ has since sought to distance himself from it and blamed any damning material on his ghost writer’s imagination.
But the fact remains that all the evidence in the case shows OJ was present at the murders (even though he was found not guilty in one of the most spectacular court cases in American history) and this is what makes his descriptions of what he hypothetically saw, heard and did in this chapter so chilling.
If you were ever in doubt of his guilt, you won’t be after reading this book.
Simpson takes us right back to meeting Nicole, then an 18 year old waitress and their turbulent years together. He continually runs his ex-wife’s reputation down, labelling her a drug addled, violent woman who associated with the wrong crowd. In contrast he portrays himself as the patient, long suffering husband who unwaveringly loved Nicole and tried valiantly to repair their marriage.
But it is the hypothetical scenario OJ paints of how he would have killed his wife and her friend Ron Goldman if he were the murderer that is the most compelling part of this story.
When the idea for this book was first touted to publishers, it was done so as OJ’s confession. OJ has since sought to distance himself from it and blamed any damning material on his ghost writer’s imagination.
But the fact remains that all the evidence in the case shows OJ was present at the murders (even though he was found not guilty in one of the most spectacular court cases in American history) and this is what makes his descriptions of what he hypothetically saw, heard and did in this chapter so chilling.
If you were ever in doubt of his guilt, you won’t be after reading this book.
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First published in Nexus Magazine, Issue 6, 28 April 2008. Reproduced with kind permission.
1 comment:
What an weird book - and its just too bad that double jepordy comes into play with this, because guilty people deserve to be punished! and its really sad that he won't ever be.
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