Did O.J. Simpson really write a book detailing events revolving around his wife’s murder? All you need to know about ex-Bills RB’s account
O.J. Simpson may have played in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers. He may have won an NFL MVP award, NFL Offensive Player of the Year award and been a five-time Pro-Bowler. But all that has been subsumed by his record off the field and the many controversies he has been involved in.
There have been two notable instances where he has run afoul of the law in addition to other infringements. The latest was a robbery case in 2007. He was found guilty of entering a hotel room with guns and robbing them of memorabilia at gunpoint. He was sentenced in 2008 to 33 years in prison with parole available in 2017, which he was granted.
Despite only spending time in jail for this crime, this is not what he is best infamous for. We are, of course, speaking about the O.J. Simpson murder case. Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. To recap the situation without going into the details or the infamous car chase, he was acquitted of murder charges in a criminal trial related to the murder.
However, in a civil trial, he was found guilty of wrongful death and battery against Goldman and battery against Brown. The California court ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages but Simpson relocated to Miami to avoid paying the amount. The Goldman family collected some money from an auction of his belongings, including his Heisman Trophy. But they failed to get any part of his NFL pension.
In a separate ruling many years later, though, what they did manage was to get the rights to a book written by O.J. Simpson. 'If I Did It' was published in 2007 and the Goldman family successfully petitioned the court to have the proceeds from its sales go to paying the damages from the previous order.
O.J. Simpson's own retelling of the murder
The book was written to be a hypothetical situation where O.J. Simpson assumed the murder of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. There are conflicting accounts of how involved Simpson was in this project, but it was an incredibly tasteless endeavor.
Pablo Fenjves, a screenwriter, ghostwrote the book and claims that O.J. Simpson was an active collaborator in its production. Simpson's former manager, Norman Pardo, has said that his client was not involved and only lent his name to the book to collect $600,000, all against his advice. Legally, though, it is Simpson's book and he posits the contents of the book as hypothetical.
After the court judgment gave the rights to the Goldman family to profit off the book, they made some modifications to it. Of course, they had no legal authority to change the title, so they added a subtitle called 'Confessions of the Killer.' They also made the 'If' in the title so small that it is fully covered by the 'I'. So the cover almost reads 'I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.' Also, while they could not alter the existing content of the book, they could add a commentary of their own. The Goldman family did just that with their exclusive commentary titled 'He Did It.'
Fun Fact: the Goldman family was awarded the rights to OJ Simpson’s book ‘If I Did It’. After winning, the family changed the books image and greatly reduced the size of “If” to make it appear as if the title is “I Did It”.
original pressing / updated pressing https://t.co/uemwp42ku3
The book is arguably more famous because it has been inextricably linked to the case. However, since it was ghostwritten in Simpson's name, it might not be the best account of his side. Instead, 'I Want to Tell You: My Response to Your Letters, Your Messages, Your Questions' is a book published in 1995 by O.J. Simpson. This was written while he was awaiting his criminal trial and Simpson claimed innocence in the book.
I didn't pay for my copy of I Want to Tell You. It was a gift from Larry Schiller, who interviewed O.J. and put the book together. O.J.’s autograph is on the previous spread. https://t.co/G6quyy7dcg
Ultimately, there will be no resolution to this case by reading different accounts. No one will change their opinion of Simpson and his controversies based on reading these two books. The fact, as it stands today, is that he was criminally acquitted of murder but found civilly liable for wrongful death, which appears to be something of a legal paradox.