Slate's Bizbox
chatterbox: Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics.

O.J. Is Still Beating His WifeA review of If I Did It.

By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007, at 7:47 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

I have no idea how much of this is true. Allen denied in the civil suit against O.J. that he'd ever had sex with Nicole and alleged that during the criminal trial, O.J. had asked him to impeach Nicole's character by saying they'd been lovers. On the other hand, Jeffrey Toobin reports in The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson that Allen had "an on-and-off affair with Nicole" and that some of Nicole's friends believed that was partly what drove O.J. to kill her. All one can conclude is that O.J. and Nicole had a turbulent relationship, especially after the breakup of their marriage, and that Nicole isn't here to quarrel about who was the predator and who the prey.

Where a documentary record exists, O.J.'s version of events holds up poorly. For instance, O.J. relates a late-night quarrel with Nicole while the two of them were married that ended with Nicole calling the police. According to O.J., Nicole flew into a jealous rage because she believed he'd bought expensive earrings for another woman. "She took a swing at me and I grabbed her arm and literally dragged her out of bed and pulled her toward the door." Then "I pushed her into the corridor and locked her out" of the bedroom. She came back with a key, and he wrestled it from her hand and pushed her out again. End of story. Next thing O.J. knows, the cops are there. Nicole goes downtown and gets photographed. The police report, O.J. tells us, says there are bruises on her face. "I didn't hit her," O.J. writes, "but it's possible she hurt herself while we were scuffling." Even without consulting other sources, one can tell this is an obvious lie.

Now let's take a look at that police report. One detail O.J. left out of his account, we learn, is that Nicole yelled out to the police, "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me," then repeated it a third time as an LAPD officer comforted her. Simpson doesn't deny this happened; he simply airbrushes it out. In the book, O.J. says he was flabbergasted ("What the hell was she talking about?") when Nicole told the cops they'd been called to the house eight times previously. In the police report, both Nicole and O.J. affirm that the cops have been called to the house eight times previously, Nicole to argue that the police should arrest O.J., and O.J. to argue that it's no big deal, this happens all the time, nobody has ever made a federal case about our little spats before and therefore neither should you. Again, Simpson doesn't dispute this in his book; he just leaves it out. A final detail missing from O.J.'s account is that when the officer tried to arrest him he jumped into his Bentley and sped off. Next time it would be a white Bronco.

Is O.J. deliberately deceiving his readers? Perhaps. More likely, though, he is telling us what he wants to believe, which is that Nicole was a crazy woman who tormented and demonized her ex-husband. This is worth knowing, because it's almost certainly what O.J. believed when he killed Nicole. It's why he killed her, even though much and possibly all of it was a delusion. "Nicole was the enemy," O.J. realizes as he leaves for her house with a knife in the car. "I'm tired of being the understanding ex-husband. I have my kids to think about." By now, we've entered the portion of the narrative O.J. has demarcated "hypothetical." But it's much more persuasive than much of what O.J. has previously characterized as the gospel truth.

He did it because he had to. He did it for the kids.

To read the second half of this review, click here.

[Update, Aug. 31: Sharlene Martin, the Goldman family's agent for the book, informs me by e-mail that the book cover described and reproduced here has since been replaced by another design that hasn't yet been made public.]

VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
E-mail Timothy Noah at .
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Remarks from the Fray:

Please people, enough.

If all of the media coverage and emotional energy that has been focused on this crime was devoted to improving and expanding the options for women who are victims of domestic abuse we could have made a far greater impact than appeasing a useless and lazy tabloid appetite.

Here's a brain exercise for you. If OJ wasn't a celebrity would anyone outside of their families and friends have given a crap about the victims or the crime? Since there was and is such racial aspect to the whole thing, imagine that Nicole Simpson was black and Ron Goldman was Asian or Mexican, would it have been so loud and pervasive a spectacle? Would it have been such a seminal moment in US history? Would white people have been so outraged by OJ's acquittal? Would black people have felt so vindicated by OJ's acquittal? Crying outside of the courtroom? Please. Cheering in church? Please.

I know some other things he "Did". He showed us the disheartening grip celebrity has on the American mind and that the violent actions of a pathetic, psychotic moron can expose a nation's myopic and simplistic racial perspective.

--FOJ

(To reply, click here.)

I have a lot of feelings about society's reaction to this case. I am angered, ashamed, confused, and most of all disappointed.

This stupid case should have been news for a week and then we should have moved on. But it follows the truth that any crime committed black males are in the news twice a long as crime by white men.

A prime example was the Robert Blake case. Both hr and OJ are has-been celebrities who were both found guilty by public opinion. Where is Robert Blake now ... acquitted. Where is his article? Where is his outrage?

[This is] a society where Paris Hilton can spend 23 DAYS in jail and Nicole Ritchie a mere 82 MINUTES for repeat offenses and claim that justice was served. [This is] a society that can allow Jena 6 to occur in 2007. Look me in the face to say "Why are people so upset?" In days when white girls get less prison time than it takes for me to have a complete cycle for drunk driving and a young black high school student gets 22 years for fighting in a school yard something is tragically wrong

--jasknigt

(To reply, click here.)

Speaking for divorced men. Why does every bleeding heart always lean toward women. Is OJ guilty? You bet!!! But is his wife this poor woman who was so mistreated? Maybe! Woman have a way to trip the trigger of men. Men are always the no good ***** hole. She knew what triggered OJ's ego. She knew what she was doing. Women know all they have to do is call the police and say they were grabbed or hit, and the man goes to jail. Period! No Questions asked. I 've seen this happen many times to many men. Then they are labeled a abuser. Women can cheat, lie, and still come out the innocent of any wrong doing. Then they use the children as a dagger to make him pay. Rules were implemented for women in any divorce. I don't condone what he did. He should be in prison. But she is not innocent in all this. Not one bit.

--bubbsdaddy

(To reply, click here.)

It angers me the anger many of the men on this page carry toward women in terms of divorce laws. The law does not "pity" women. As you may know, up until LATE in the 20th century American women didn't even have a standing in court and didn't exist as separate beings. I am sorry to break it to you, but men are still very much in control and women who don't work but raise families are still very much undervalued when it comes to divorce. OJ is playing with these type of men, trying to get your pity and you are playing right into his hands. Don't fall for his crap.

As I see it, OJ is sitting somewhere laughing at us all. We shouldn't care, we shouldn't buy this book, he is laughing at double jeopardy. He is showing us how much better he is than us and its sickening. He did it, He was rich enough to get away with it, it's as simple as that. And before you start calling the Goldman's gold diggers, think about how you would feel if someone killed your son, daughter or husband and got away with it. You would want someone to pay and you would feel that they shouldn't be out golfing everyday.

If OJ wasn't a football hero and if Nicole Simpson wasn't a beautiful blond, would we have more sympathy for her? It shouldn't matter how she acted or what she did....OJ is responsible for how he reacts to things....NOT NICOLE. No one deserves to have their head almost cut off completely with a knife by the person they had children with. She had no means of fighting someone his size, and we should all remember that.

--meggles

(To reply, click here.)

(9/2)