Hot Document

If I Did It: The Prequel

The public obsession with O.J. Simpson was reawakened by HarperCollins’ planned publication (through its ReganBooks  subsidiary) of what it billed as a book-length murder confession in the subjunctive (title: If I Did It) by the acquitted-but-disgraced football hero. HarperCollins’ parent company, Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp., also planned a Fox special  featuring an already-taped Simpson interview with the book’s editor, Judith Regan. A public hue and cry ensued, and Murdoch canceled both. Now Simpson’s confession (if it really was a confession) will be pulped, leaving us in the dark (at least until a copy leaks to the press) about the particular circumstances under which Simpson would have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman on that awful night  in June 1994.

But readers seeking information about Simpson’s behavior toward Nicole can still avail themselves of a highly detailed police report (see below, and on the following four pages) about Simpson’s spousal assault on New Year’s Day 1989. (The setting was the same house at 360 North Rockingham where Simpson would be arrested five years later on suspicion of murdering Nicole, from whom he was by then separated.) If Simpson were a documented wife-abuser, here’s what the evidence would look like.Got a Hot Document? Send it to documents@slate.com. Please indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous.