O.J.: Made in America (2016) s01e02 Episode Script

1 For the last couple of years I've gotten very busy on the off season.
Mainly, because early in my career I had those rough years in Buffalo.
I sort of told myself then I would, uh, put my energies in something that was gonna sustain me and last.
I knew then that I would have trouble adjusting to not being a football player.
So, I said, "Hey, I better start preparing myself for for for, you know now.
I wanna tell you that over the years I've heard your applause, and I appreciated your cheers.
And I want you to know that I already know it's what I'm gonna miss most.
Thank you all, very much.
Growing up in Brentwood was really a wonderful experience.
It's very quiet.
It's very affluent.
Very safe.
Very white.
Burglaries were very rare.
Violent crime almost nonexistent.
You could leave your door unlocked.
Never have to worry about anything.
I graduated the academy in 1975.
And then transferred to West L.
A.
1978-79.
West L.
A.
, the whole division, Bel Air, Brentwood, all it's loaded with stars.
And I'd sit back and go, "Man, am I really getting paid for doing this?" When I first got there, O.
J.
had just moved from around Mulholland over to Rockingham.
O.
J.
Simpson living in Brentwood was really an anomaly.
He'd be one of maybe three black people in the entire community.
Los Angeles is unlike other places.
If you're a celebrity, you have no color.
People enjoy having you in their neighborhood.
Especially if you're a celebrity like O.
J.
where everyone's husband worshipped him as a sports hero and couldn't wait to shake hands.
Once I found out he was living on Rockingham, I decided I'd go by there, you know, and let him know "Hey, you know? O.
J.
, I'm here.
" This is where I work.
O.
J.
was great.
He'd always referred to the LAPD as "the boys.
" You know? "How's crime today?" "Hey, Shipp, what's going on in my area, man?" "Is you keeping the peace?" You know, stuff like that? And I'd be like, "Hey, man, everything's good.
" 70-80 percent of the people in the city of Los Angeles, were thinking LAPD does a great job, we don't have crime here.
They thought out in the Valley or West Los Angeles, "Hey, man, they're great.
" They smile.
They wave.
They're always around when you need them.
Well, that wasn't how other parts of the city were being treated.
On January 3rd, 1979, two members of the Los Angeles Police Department shot and killed Eulia Love at her home, in a dispute over $22.
09 utility bill.
She died on her front lawn before the eyes of her own children.
There is no single event that had a more profound impact in LAPD history up to that point and time than the shooting of Eulia May Love.
This is where Mrs.
Eulia Love stood the day the shooting took place.
There was an officer here, an officer there.
She held a knife in her hand, there was a scuffle, the knife was knocked out of her hand, she reached for it, and as she threw it, the officers opened fire.
This was a big deal.
This is a woman who's had a tough time.
And she was desperate.
So, there was a lot of empathy going out to her from the community.
Once again, we have a member of the black community dead under circumstances that are highly questionable at best.
It has been determined that the evidence does not warrant the filing of criminal charges.
This was a justifiable homicide, uh, committed by the officers in their own self-defense.
As far as LAPD was concerned, it was just an event.
And everybody was supposed to accept it.
This was on the lips and minds of everybody in the community.
The people gonna get justice, and it's gonna be in the street.
It didn't help that you had a police chief, who behaved poorly, and, in many ways, irresponsibly.
And I've commented on the media squeezing out the last, uh tear of emotion in this situation, where they talk about a $22 gas bill.
It doesn't make any difference, but it was, uh a $69 gas bill.
Gates was Gates.
He's going to be fully supportive of his officers.
I guess they don't think I have any sympathy for anyone, other than police officers, and that's simply not true.
I have great empathy and sympathy for Eulia Love and her family.
Deeply sorry that it happened, but it did happen.
I was a big fan of Daryl Francis Gates.
Gates introduced the SWA model of law enforcement, introduced the D.
A.
R.
E.
program to all of law enforcement.
So he was an innovator.
But he was also a controversial guy.
We have officers out there doing the job.
Attempting to make good judgment based on the information they have, protecting themselves and protecting the people of the city of Los Angeles, that we will go to hell for.
He loved LAPD.
He loved his officers.
And there were times that I believe that his love for his officers and the law enforcement mission conflicted.
O.
J.
Simpson and Elizabeth Montgomery are two police detectives who have a problem.
They're falling in love, and it's breaking all the rules.
But you are a married man, and your conduct is supposed to be exemplary.
Would it make any difference if I was a white cop? It's a bittersweet story of two people caught between their emotions and their actions in "A Killing Affair".
Sunday at 3:00 on channel 9.
Life for a black person in a way, unfortunately, is different than for white people.
And especially for black people who attain great success.
Is there pressure from your community for you to really walk the straight and narrow? I know that you are currently dating a white woman.
I wouldn't be asking this question if we were living in different times, but we are, and there seems to be this sort of dichotomy here.
How do you answer it? Well, I rebel against images because then, um you know, people tend to expect things from you.
I I think I created an image by being me.
When I get into these arguments with people of the bla people of my community, the black community, I say, "Hey, I I've accepted Jesus Christ" and, uh, I try to do unto others as, uh you know, I would have them do unto me.
And after that, hey, my life is mine.
And I I do what is morally right and acceptable to me.
I am not prejudiced in any form.
Obviously, I got a white girlfriend.
I admired his celebrity status.
We thought he had accomplished quite a bit.
To move from an athlete to a position of celebrity, and loved by all the people, not just black folk.
I invited O.
J.
here, early on in the '80s.
He didn't come as often as I thought he should.
But he did come to church.
I think he was very in tune with who his mother wanted him to be.
She wanted him to be honest, to be religious.
Just to rise above a lot of the things that he saw growing up.
His mother was a staunch Christian.
And she had embedded within him the tenants of Jesus Christ.
I would talk to him about having achieved money and fame.
But all that came from God.
And there are times when you should respond to how good God has been to you.
Now, some days, depending on his mood, he would agree.
But he was not out there publically fighting for African-Americans.
I think each person who is in the limelight has an obligation to make things better for the last, the lost, the least, the left out, and the looked over.
And I thought he should have done more.
If we, as Black people, do not take on the responsibility to do something for ourselves, we really should be scorned in the eyes of the world.
In my circles, there were not a lot of people who were preoccupying themselves with getting to O.
J.
or believing that O.
J.
could be turned around, or someday was gonna come to his senses and embrace all of the things that have the values that we had, in terms of really, really doing something demonstrative for the Black community.
O.
J.
was just one of those things that you just kind of dismissed, "Oh, that brother's a lost cause.
" His voice was mute on any issues that related to Black people and our salvation, police brutality, all of those things.
He was just a non-entity.
I don't know that he felt that he was sacrificing what other people thought he was.
But you're sacrificing who you are who you are raised to be.
How does one sustain that over that period of time? How does one bend one's soul to that degree of denial? It's easy to tell while laid out on the ground, while he's bleeding to death.
Is that what makes you happy? Did you hear? Did you see what was going on? Did he see everything happening in South Central? Yeah.
Did he want to take that home with him? Did he want that to be who he was? Who he identified with? No.
He stayed in Brentwood.
When you live in South L.
A.
, I mean you live here, this is where you breath, this is where you occupy your space, I'm not sure if, you know, a lot of people even know where Brentwood is.
That's just the reality of Black America and White America.
Two totally separate worlds.
He's somebody who learned how to live with, be totally accepted by a white world.
Underneath that, he learned all of the indignities of the Black world.
Although it's impossible to believe that he's that brilliant an actor.
I think he was always kind of on when he was in a White world, and he weren't when he was in a Black world.
Which makes him the right soul for Coalhouse Walker.
He very much wanted to be cast in E.
L.
Doctorow's "Ragtime".
And he worked hard on trying to get that part.
He saw the part as being something that he could go into a new dimension as an actor.
Let's go to your acting career for a moment.
Why did you want the role of Coalhouse Walker Jr.
? Well, first of all, it, um it was the only part thus far that I've ever actively went after and didn't get.
So, I'd consider it my only failure in film.
Thus far.
Good afternoon.
I wonder if you might be able to help me.
Uh Uh what do you want? Well, I'm looking for a young woman of color called Sarah.
Uh who are you? Oh, I'm sorry.
My name is Coalhouse Walker Jr.
When I read the book, I could identify with this guy so much He was a Black man in at a time when you were supposed to know you were Black.
You were supposed to know you had a place.
Would you please wait around the back? I was raised in the sports world where you're only, uh, judged by your abilities and, uh, you know, what you have to give.
Who is Coalhouse? Well, he's a guy who created himself.
And destroyed himself ultimately.
He was a guy among other things who was very prideful and suffered.
Suffered for his pride.
Mr.
Walker, let me give you some advice.
You spend the money on your wedding.
Build yourself a home and a family where you can find some comfort.
And just forget that some damn white man caused you offence.
I can understand exactly what he felt.
When he walked in a room, he gave no credence to the fact he was Black and he wasn't supposed to say things or be treated any differently.
And, uh Uh.
.
that's the way I've tried to look at my life.
So, I felt I was the right person for that role.
I felt that I was today's Coalhouse Walker.
"Just forget it"? Is that it? I've spent my whole life forgetting.
You're a young man.
You better start learning now.
Learning what? How to be a nigger? You know, there was some tragedy in your life in the last 10 years.
You lost a child.
I wanna talk about how it changed you.
The baby drowned in a swimming pool.
On Rockingham, there.
He was away.
You know, he was always gone.
Four, set! I don't know how much it changed me.
I've always tried to live my life to the fullest.
And, uh I used to be so busy.
And I was on the road so much, that in a sense it partially cost me a marriage.
When I lost my daughter I was gone.
When my first daughter was born, I was gone.
When you lose a child, it's very hard.
Three weeks before Aaren drowned, my son drowned in a pool, that Boys Club in San Leandro, California.
So, the tragedy affected us both.
It still affects me.
So, I know how it affects him.
He didn't bring it up, and we didn't talk much about it.
Hey, O.
J.
! I think it's the single most horrible thing in the world.
I think what you learn in the streets, is how to bury things.
And he blamed Marguerite.
He got rid of that memory when he got rid of that wife.
He just compartmentalized it.
And got 'em out.
If anything, I made up my mind that I would be around.
And, uh it's nice to be loved by everybody.
But there's some people that love you a little more.
So, I guess if anything, I I just want to be a little more loving and be there a little more to the people that have, uh, have chosen to share their lives with me.
And now by the authority committed unto me as a minister in the church of Jesus Christ and according to the laws in the State of California, it gives me great delight, O.
J.
and Nicole, to pronounce you husband and wife.
We love "Juice" like my brother.
I'm thrilled he's my partner, and we're just totally knocked out that he finally took the step They had a great wedding.
Of course, they had amazing music.
And it was all, you know, Christal champagne, all you could drink.
Where are the drugs? No, I'm just kidding.
It was a great party.
And they made a really strong, gorgeous couple.
I just felt that they were the ideal couple.
Because it seems like to me, from what I saw, it seemed like they just had so much fun all the time.
I'm married! I don't believe it! I'm married! I really don't believe it.
Nicole was funny, and she was fun to be around.
She was a very good friend.
When Nicole came into my life at what for any athlete is very difficult time, it was at the end of my career, I was also going through a divorce at the time and, uh All my life, I wanted to be a father.
I never really thought about being a husband.
And I thought I had given up the opportunity to watch my kids grow until you came into my life and made this house a home, brought my kids in.
You brought love into my house.
He was really proud of her.
And she had definitely taken over.
I mean, she was running the show at Rockingham.
Rockingham, it was his Graceland.
It was all of their Graceland.
We never said, "I'll meet you at O.
J.
's house.
" It was always, "I'll see you at Rockingham.
" It was what brought all of us together.
It was a special place.
I mean, you never knew who was gonna be there.
He gravitated toward celebrities.
In any field.
And that's the glue that bonded him to Los Angeles, and also made Rockingham that castle.
You'd have the greatest athletes in the world show up.
The most interesting politicians, you know? The entertainment world.
And everybody always had a wonderful time because it was "The Juice".
I've always had a large what I call "family" A large circle of friends, and you need 'em more, I guess, in your life.
At my house, I mean, I have to be successful to pay for the soft drinks and the beer that the guys drink at the house on the weekends.
He flew a flag at Rockingham every day.
He loved America.
He loved the red, white, and blue.
He loved that feeling that you get, you know, on the Fourth of July, and see jets fly over.
During the Olympics, when he carried the torch.
That was a big thing to him.
That was one of the things we talked about for years after.
How perfect the world was then.
I want to say to, uh the Hall of Fame members here, I mean, as a kid, I watched these guys and, well, I must have done something good or something right to be here, and I just want you to know that I'll never let you guys down, man.
I'll live up to the honor of being in this Hall and being on your team.
Thank you very much.
The most unique aspect of O.
J.
Simpson is that you're one of the few people who've not only been successful in athletics, but that success has really carried over to life after football.
Well, it's real exciting for me to be back here.
You know, on the field where I had so many thrills, and to experience these Buffalo Bills fans, and, believe me, Howard, they're in rare form tonight.
Well, he certainly tried to be a commentator.
Peyton following Matt Suhey.
It's a testament to walk Walter's conditioning.
This guy works out harder than anybody in He very much was involved in corporate America and being on boards.
I think he was trying, very intelligently, to parley his fame into wealth.
By the '80s, O.
J.
really was a businessman.
His new friends were all super wealthy, powerful white men.
And I think really the reason he surrounded himself with all these big, successful entrepreneurs is because he saw himself as one, too.
I've always been, sort of, an inquisitive person.
And I have friends who do a lot of different things.
And I've made it a point to find out what the people around me were doing.
He called me a lot.
"Now, Frank, I have this opportunity for HoneyBaked Hams.
" Or "Frank, this friend of mine is doing some storage things in California.
" I didn't always know those answers.
But I guess I enjoyed the fact that he trusted me enough to do that.
I introduced him to the business world.
I took him places where I think very few Black men had ever been.
The Pine Valley Golf Club.
The number one club in America.
I got him into Arcola.
He was the first black member of the club.
Oh, yeah, by a long shot.
This one time, he brought Sidney Poitier.
And, of course, the whole club was circling around the two of them.
Even the bigots thought that was terrific.
They loved him.
Because he just fit in.
He could schmooze around and get ingratiated, 'cause he was "The Juice".
Street-smart, this man was an Einstein.
He could cunningly and calculatingly figure out exactly what these white people were thinking about, but he was also that way with Black people.
It was almost magnetic, they were just drawn to it.
And I don't care who was there, when he got to the room, it was, "The Juice is here.
" Here's the man whose smile is more dazzling than all his golden awards.
Sportsman, actor, all around wonderful Mr.
O.
J.
Simpson! I always told him he had delusions of grandeur.
He thought he could do certain things in business that he wasn't capable of.
Three! One day he was gonna run Paramount or 20th Century, Warner Brothers Now, I mean, he believed things like that.
Ladies and gentlemen, another winning performance from Mr.
O.
J.
Simpson! There's something deep-seated that I think a lot of people like myself have to face up to about what created this complex character.
It wasn't just him, it was part society.
We were looking for a celebrity and I I don't think we wanted an all-white cast anymore, as we did for the Police Squad TV show.
This was something that, you know, kinda looked better for us.
He was still in the public eye, but yet he was economical, because I don't think he was in demand for movies.
Police! Throw down your guns! O.
J.
was fine for Naked Gun.
There was nobody better.
Ahh! Oh, no! Naked Gun surprised me How funny he was.
He's a funny man.
I mean, he was always a very funny man.
And he was always a selflessly funny man.
- Nordberg! - Hiya, buddy! Hey! The doc says I should be on my feet and as good as new in a week! - And back on the force.
- Nordberg, that's wonderful! Whoa! Oh, Frank! Everyone should have a friend like you! I used to take a lot of cops over to O.
J.
's house, and I would never tell them who we were going to meet.
And I just loved looking at the expression on my partner's face when they looked and saw O.
J.
opening the door, and it was just like looking at You know, 'cause some of these guys, you know, macho cops.
"Hey," you know, "I'm LAPD".
And you could see them melt like little kids around this guy.
Everybody loved O.
J.
Simpson, all the cops.
If you asked him for an autograph, you asked him for whatever, I mean, he was just really, like, your best friend.
Now, let's take a look at today's black culture in the city of Los Angeles.
The most important point that should be considered in a law-enforcement setting involving blacks is the matter of respect.
Everyone should be treated in a respectful manner.
Okay, 4-23, you see that, uh, male black.
He's walking on the north side of the street there on your right side.
Slow down.
That's one of the suspects there.
People who have been abused by the police have no regard for them.
They don't believe that the police comes to protect them, comes to serve them.
That would be an unfortunate error in judgment for you to conclude that all persons of a particular group are similar to the few you have contact while you are working.
We're sorry if, you know, it's our job too.
that that we've had to do this.
We just can't let you go.
Look how I look.
I'm light, bright, but damn sure not white.
Okay? But the reality is, when I'm stopped by the police, you know, they treat me like a nigger.
Okay, let's roll, and let's be careful out there.
In 1978, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates apologized after saying some Hispanic officers don't advance in the ranks because they are, quote, "lazy", and now an NAACP official is calling a comment by Chief Gates, quote, "so horrendous that it's laughable.
" It all started when he first defended controversial choke holds.
A number of African-American suspects had died after being subjected to a choke hold, and Gates was asked about it, and he said the problem was that they didn't respond the same as normal people.
The chief needs some time off to remove his foot from his mouth and LAPD's choke hold from the necks of black people.
When I started covering the police department, you could feel the residue of that comment.
In fact, police officers used to refer to the cars, which normally people would call black-and-whites, they called them "black-and-normals".
And they would call them that in front of a reporter, by the way.
So it's safe to say that it was a sort of easy, call it racial insensitivity, call it racism, within the department.
I moved to LA in 1988.
I had a really good friend who lived there, and she said, "I have to give you the black man's guide to survival in LA.
Whatever you do, don't fuck with LAPD.
" In Los Angeles it was a day filled with tension in many communities, because of the current wave of gang warfare.
I feel like a prisoner on the streets.
This city has vowed to stop gang violence, but as police hunt the people responsible, they must follow a trail of bodies.
We're gonna do whatever's necessary, and I told my people we're gonna wage a war.
Operation Hammer, that was the belief that we overwhelm the community with warrants where we believe that we had violent criminals, we could rid the problem.
Ladies, down on the ground! Put your hands down, kneel over there! Over the past week or so, Chief Gates, how many arrests have you made? Well, in the last month we've made, uh, about 3,000 arrests.
Uh, just in the last weekend we made, uh, 1,400.
You just have a culture of officers who felt that, uh, the only way the world will survive is if we neutralize these individuals as soon as possible.
Hands down, man.
And in the process of doing that, they debased and demeaned the community.
You understand me? There was no conversation with the community about "How should we deal with this?" It was just hammer, hammer, hammer.
We have a war.
We are going to be successful.
Whatever it takes, we will do it.
I'd just put the kids into bed, and the next thing I know, they just came in with guns and they were saying, "Get down", and they grabbed me by the back of my head, and he threw me on the floor, then they kicked me, and they hit me on my back, and they said, "Get down, bitch.
" And then the kids were just hollerin' and screamin'.
And the next thing I know they were just tearing the place up.
1988, 39th and Dalton.
Not the best police practices.
Not the best way to manage a, uh a warrant service.
Everything was destroyed as police batted and rammed their way from room to room searching for drugs.
Much of what they found were screaming mothers and children.
This is my bedroom over here, but they even broke all the mirrors and stuff out of the bed.
They went in and literally destroyed the apartment where supposedly a lot of drug activity was going on.
All this resulted in three quarters of an ounce of rock cocaine seized along with six ounces of pot.
You wouldn't go to Beverly Hills and do that, even if you thought there was a a mafia hangout.
Even if you thought it was legitimate.
I called my insurance, and I told them what happened.
He said he had never heard of the police doing this.
When you don't live in the community, you don't think of 'em as human.
In my wildest dreams, would have never thought the police of the city of Los Angeles would treat someone that way.
They started kicking me.
What they tell ya? They didn't tell me nothin', they started kicking me and hitting me on my ribs and stuff.
Chief Gates, we're proud of you, We're proud to wear the 'PD blue.
You'd go to the power of LAPD back then.
They pretty much could do what they wanted to do.
Yeah.
Hi, I'm O.
J.
Simpson, and this season on HBO, I'm gonna be high-stepping right into your living room.
All right, we'll do it again.
When O.
J.
was at SC, in my generation you didn't have the jerseys you could go buy, so I would take my T-shirts and write "Simpson", and I'd put, you know, like, you know, his number, 32, and, "Okay, I'm O.
J.
" Hi, I'm O.
J.
Simpson, and this season on HBO, I'm gonna be high-stepping right into your living room.
I just thought, "One day, I wanna meet this guy.
" Okay, what's the next one? And it was through Marcus Allen.
Follow me through Training Camp, and I guarantee that I'll Hey, Juice, I did hear my name.
Hey, man, this is my spot, Marcus.
Well, I've got the ball now.
I'd been marketing Marcus for a few years.
And I told him, uh, "O.
J.
ever needs a manager, let me know.
" Training Camp is a time to show what you can do.
It's a time to show off your skills.
You can prove yourself as a man.
Blah, blah, blah.
I did public appearances, endorsements, TV commercials autograph signings, basically everything encompassing his image.
This week in Training Camp This week in Training Camp This week in Training Camp No.
The big thing that has always been in everybody's head is image.
Image is everything.
Never do anything that is going to harm his image.
Thank you guys.
I remember he had a a little hundred-yard dash with Marcus Allen one day.
And he had bad knees, O.
J.
, from all the running.
And he beat fuckin' Marcus.
I couldn't believe it.
It's something inside of him.
He wanted to win, no matter what it took.
Chopping through that swing.
And look out.
When he first started playing golf, he violated every rule.
Okay.
He's gotta work on his balance a little bit.
I played with O.
J.
and this other friend, Little Joe Kolkowitz.
O.
J.
had the worst form of anybody on this planet when he swung a golf club.
One day, on the first tee, he hits this big drive, and it hooks into the trees, heavy stuff.
So we go down the fairway, we're waiting and waiting 'til Joe goes after him.
All of a sudden, he finds his ball after a place where we probably went over.
He sees the ball sitting on a tee, and he says to O.
J.
, "You can't do this shit, man.
" I go, "Jeez, come on.
" "Do you know what the odds of the ball landing on a tee in this area ?" He totally was not going to confess to the whole thing.
He definitely cheated.
Yes.
Yes.
What he'd do, he had a ball in his pants, and he'd drop it out and then, "Hey, you guys, come on over here.
" You know, "Here's my ball.
" And he did that to the point where finally a bunch of guys got together, and they hired a caddy.
We called it The Juice Patrol.
And so he'd follow O.
J.
around in another cart, so he wouldn't cheat.
It was funny.
It was, you know, it was like you couldn't get mad.
It was very hard to get mad at him.
One of the things you pride yourself in in being a golfer is you don't cheat, but people made a joke out of it, because they so badly wanted him to understand the rules and regulations of this part of society that didn't tolerate that type of behavior.
And yet he had that amazing charm that you'd somehow let him get away with certain things.
Juice! Juice! Juice! Juice! Touchdown! Whenever you went somewhere with him, like, doors would just open, and, you know, people would pick up checks.
I'd say to him, "Hey, Juice, how are we going to get in somewhere? We don't have any tickets.
" He would go like this He That's his ticket.
I think he became entitled.
I certainly felt bedazzled by O.
J.
and Nicole and their lifestyle, and I was very charmed by him, but I always did sense that part of it was not sincere.
The other side is my better side, I think.
Turn the other side for me.
And I did feel that he took advantage of that.
And if you allowed him to, I think he would, uh, use you.
All right, we're set here.
My kissable lips, ooh.
While he was married, his integrity was I mean, uh not as I would have it.
I will put it that way.
He was an incorrigible womanizer.
He just never stopped.
He cornered me a couple times and tried to make, uh, sexual, you know, advance and, you know, I kind of pushed him off.
I think O.
J.
felt entitled to anything O.
J.
wanted, and I think that he really needed that adulation from other women.
She knew he had affairs, and it drove her crazy.
Most of their big fights were about his affairs with other women.
He went out of his way to almost rub it in her face.
He'd be in Las Vegas at a show and be holding hands with another woman.
She would be watching TV, and, I mean, I don't know how she put up with it.
He was pretty darn brazen.
I think he even blamed his affair with Tawny Kitaen on the fact that Nicole got fat when she got pregnant.
And he didn't wanna have sex with her.
Something as superficial and cold as that.
 on the hammock, take a little swing.
 Look! See the trees? I told him, "Man, you're breaking the laws of God, and nobody does it with immunity.
You're gonna pay for it, man.
One day everybody's gonna know everything that you've done, man.
" When you hear a call come out, and the 911 operator puts out on the call that she can hear the woman being beaten in the background, that that's serious.
When I got there, I saw an electronic buzzer system, so I pushed the button.
Almost simultaneously, a tall, female blonde came running out of the bushes.
She's wearing nothin' but a bra and sweatpants, covered in mud.
And she kept yelling, "He's gonna kill me! He's gonna kill me!" When that gate opened, she ran up and just put her arms around me and clasped on me.
She was so wet and cold that you could feel her shivering to her bone.
And I said, "Well, who's gonna kill you?" She said, "O.
J.
" She says, "You guys have been up here eight times before.
All you do is talk to him, you never do anything.
He's gonna kill me.
" Her face had already swollen.
She actually had an imprint on one side of her face and her forehead.
So I said, "Do you want him arrested for beating you?" She said, "Yes.
" About that time, O.
J.
Simpson came right up to the fence, and he started yelling, "I don't want her in my bed anymore.
I got two other women.
I don't want her in my bed anymore.
" He's got a receding hairline, so you can see his forehead, and this vein was popping out, pulsating, and it was right up his forehead.
I told him, "I'm placing you under arrest for beating your wife.
You're gonna have to go get dressed so I can take you to jail.
" He turned around and went back in the house to get dressed.
Suddenly I saw a Bentley pull out of the other driveway.
So I said, "Back up.
He's trying to get away in a car.
" And we backed out of the driveway, and I never caught him with that car.
I never found him.
Downtown Los Angeles, little ocean haze.
There is no smog today, everybody's takin' it easy.
Here at the 75th Rose Bowl game, score 7-3.
1989, Trojans were in the Rose Bowl.
I was privileged enough to to have sideline passes and that was actually the first time I'd ever been to a Rose Bowl game on the sidelines, 'cause when I was a walk-on at USC, I never got to play.
I was just having the time of my life.
All of a sudden, one of O.
J.
's really, really good friends came up and tapped me on the shoulder.
He said, "Hey, man, uh, O.
J.
had a problem last night, you know, and, uh, he really needs to talk to you.
" It's over.
When I called, he said, "Hey, man, I had a little riff.
Boys had to come out.
Right now I feel like I'm a fugitive.
" And he explained to me that they had an argument, and she got real physical with him, and he had to defend himself and grab her and hold her The way he he told me the story, I'm thinkin', "Hey, man, no big deal.
You know? Um, you didn't hit her.
You know, you said she was aggressive, and you were trying to stop her from from beating you up.
Um, no big deal.
" And And when I got to work the next morning, it was a big deal.
I got a call from downstairs, "Someone wants to talk to you," and there's Nicole in the lobby.
"Hey, Nicole, what's up?" You know, she she goes, "Did you hear about what happened?" I said, "Yeah, I did hear what happened.
" And she told me it wasn't the first time.
Showed me the pictures from the past beatings, and I looked at those pictures and my heart just just, like, dropped.
I was like, "Man, this guy is a typical batterer.
" The '89 thing, the way I saw him act in Hawaii that Christmas convinced me that, um, boy, there was something really, really wrong.
He freaked out about Nicole sitting their little son next to a homosexual in a restaurant they were at.
I mean, he just freaked.
And they fought all the way back.
The next day I got a call that, uh, he freaked out on New Year's Eve, and he beat the hell out of her.
Nicole knew that I used to teach domestic violence for the Los Angeles Police Department.
And she asked me, "O.
J.
's dad is gay.
Do you think this is why he beats me?" And I was like, "I I, you know, I don't know, but a lot of that stuff has to do with their self-esteem.
" O.
J.
Simpson that night definitely got preferential treatment.
Had that have been anybody else, you or me, we'd have gone to jail.
I did place him under arrest.
I tried my best, but couldn't get to him.
But when you tell someone they're under arrest, they are under arrest.
If he flees, then, he's a fleeing felony.
But the unique thing about O.
J.
is it was O.
J.
Where can he go? Where can he hide? Where can he run to on the face of this earth? Where can he go? Now the story that might never have surfaced if someone hadn't picked up his home video camera.
I can remember that moment like it was yesterday.
I was laying in my bed, and I called out to my wife.
I said, "You gotta come see, you can't believe this.
" How will the police justify this one? How will they get out of this one? Police say the man, 25-year-old Rodney King, was involved in a high-speed chase, wanted as a parole violator.
The police department says there will be no comment until its investigation is complete.
As yet, no charges have been filed.
This is what happens when you take away a tool that would have ended this in 10 seconds.
Choke hold.
Look how this thing looks.
You can't justify that.
I was the captain at Watts at the time.
Atten-hut.
The next day, we had a training day.
I remember standing in front of all of the troops, and I told them, "The LAPD will never be the same again.
" Oh, it was devastating, because there's gonna be a belief that if these guys do it, everybody else does it.
Those guys driving down the street in the black-and-white do that.
And that's just not the case.
But that visual image, folks remember that, and they will take it to their grave.
That home video showing a black motorist being beaten by a white Los Angeles policeman has triggered investigations now by the FBI, the district attorney there, and the police department itself.
The media didn't give LAPD a break on this one.
They showed that tape over and over and over.
I mean, it wasn't just in Los Angeles.
It was all over the world.
I was embarrassed for Los Angeles.
The real significance wasn't what you saw on the tape.
That tape became exhibit one for every mishandled abuse and excessive force incident that anyone had ever experienced.
This is an aberration.
This is something that should never have happened.
We had in place all of the procedures that would keep it from happening.
Those procedures fell down because of human error.
And we will deal with that human error.
I believe things like that do happen from time to time, but they are anomalies.
That's not what happens all day, every day in the thousands of contacts that occur.
I don't believe it.
I'll never believe it.
Daryl Gates started out saying it was an aberration.
And we say, "Darryl, don't you remember Eulia Love?" I think the thing that's most shocking about the King incident isn't even what happens to King.
It's the fact that all those officers go back to their police divisions that night, none of them knowing that a video tape exists.
They all file their reports and not one of 'em says, in any document, that they saw anything go wrong.
That suggests to me a culture in which this wasn't perceived as something wrong.
In Los Angeles today, four men were arrested, photographed, and fingerprinted.
They were policemen, charged with assault with a deadly weapon in the beating of a black motorist.
Named in the indictment: Officers Laurence Powell, Ted Briseno and Timothy Wind and their supervising sergeant, Stacey Koon.
The FBI will investigate whether the federal civil rights of the victim, Rodney King, have been violated.
A story is not a story unless there's conflict.
Do you really wanna say this is a felon speeding on the freeway under the influence of a hallucinogenic and/or alcohol, or do you wanna say he's a "motorist", and he was stopped by these racist cops? How do you know these cops are racist? They are not racist.
The furor is only growing with the revelations of police communications over their in-car computer terminals.
An earlier message from the Powell-Wind unit referred to a previous call as "'right out of Gorillas in the Mist.
" Has there been times that we've been brutal, uh, used excessive force? Absolutely.
The racist part is really tough to choke down for me.
During my 38 years there, I didn't see it.
Civil rights organizations say the Los Angeles police department has a history of brutality and misconduct that goes back a quarter of a century, including one incident that sparked the Watts riots.
We want effective law-enforcement in the city of Los Angeles.
You take an oath to protect and serve, but when you come to the black community, all you do is abuse! Hey, hey! Ho, ho! You can only take so many shots publicly before your reputation is so soiled that it can be manipulated over and over again.
That will always be included in the argument to demonstrate how brutal and insensitive and racist the LAPD is.
It's like you can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
We're outraged, we're disgusted, and let's close this one with, No more! No more! No more! No more! No more! No more! It comes to Latasha Harlins, coming to the counter with what she was going to buy in one hand, money in the other.
Altercation, walks away, is shot in the back of the head.
Latasha Harlins really hit home, because my daughter was the same age as Latasha Harlins.
Rodney King didn't touch me as much as Latasha Harlins, because this girl was killed.
She was a little teenage girl buying some orange juice.
Mm-mm.
That that could've been my child.
Up until Saturday morning, Soon Ja Du was a Korean grocer in Los Angeles.
Now she's an alleged criminal, facing a first-degree murder charge.
Well, at this time, she's looking at a maximum of 30 years to life.
According to witnesses and a security camera video tape, Harlins never tried to steal the juice.
Instead, investigators say Du angrily confronted the girl and then shot her with a .
38 caliber handgun.
I hope and I know that justice will serve itself, and she will get what she deserved.
Soon Ja Du had no respect for that young The way they beat Rodney King, okay? Her shooting Latasha Harlins It's the same people, okay, that are being victimized.
The recommendation of the people was maximum state prison.
I think that the death of Latasha deserved that.
The court decided otherwise.
Mrs.
Du is placed on formal probation for five years on the following terms and conditions.
Mrs.
Du is to perform 400 hours of community service.
Get the cameras off! No cameras! Get the camera out of my face! The judge called for peace.
She said How can you have peace when? What? This woman killed a child.
She killed a child and not getting any jail time? I I I haven't gotten over that, really.
Wake up, Los Angeles! Wake up! Let not her blood be in vain! Latasha was killed, our family was killed.
- Yeah! - That's right! Racism is not the Korean killing her, racism is the courts system - That's right! - that allows her to kill her.
Karlin must go! Karlin must go! Chanting "Karlin must go", angry protestors stormed through security checkpoints at the courthouse in Compton.
They are still outraged over Judge Joyce Karlin's decision not to send Latasha Harlins' killer to jail.
They are willing to go to jail to get their point across.
In the community, you go to jail for selling crack for 20 years, 20 and 30 years.
How you gonna kill somebody and get probation? What kind of sense does that make? What kind of justice is that? 39th and Dalton, then Rodney King, then Latasha Harlins.
Three defining issues in different ways, but the tension in the environment and the disrespect shown to Black life was the theme.
ESPN presents Sports Look with the personalities and cover stories making news in the world of sport.
Now, here's your host, Roy Firestone.
When you live your life so publicly and, uh, really almost with such ease, uh, it's hard to believe that there could ever be any rocky time.
The reason I'm bringing that to light now is not to dredge it up again, but more or less talk about how things can get distorted to such a point that you are portrayed as the bad guy.
Um, New Year's Eve, you had a little bit too much to drink.
- There was some - Uh, you know, that's You know, actually, you know, my wife and I have been together for 12 years and it really when I look at it, it wasn't really that big of a fight, it's just that because of, uh, it being New Year's Eve Right.
because it's three o'clock in the mornin', just finished a big party, uh, it got a little verb it it got a little loud.
Here's here's my point, the point I'm making, Juice Yeah.
is that it got to such a point that you were portrayed in the press for a while there like a wife beater.
Yeah, well, and that bothered me.
Obviously, it bothered my whole family.
I mean, uh, you know, the day after this was over, you know, we looked at, say you know, we had a fight, we were both guilty.
No one was hurt, was no big deal, and we got on with our life.
I had always suspected that they had violent fights.
The day of my wedding I found out that Nicole and O.
J.
were not going to be attending and he said it was because Nicole was having very bad cramps from her period.
I thought it was a lie.
It was always Nicole's fault.
I mean, even the '89 thing.
When I cornered him sitting on a golf cart, I listened for nine holes, everything that she did wrong to create what had happened.
"You think that she's bruised up, you should have seen my face," you know, the the whole pity thing that he always went through.
I think anybody that knew them it was over.
Then it was a matter of when would Nicole have the fortitude to just completely walk away.
She said, "Ron, if it wasn't for the kids, I'd be out of here.
" And then I get a call from O.
J.
He says, "You gotta help me here.
You you gotta help save this marriage.
You gotta talk to Nicole, tell her I'll never do it again.
" I saw her start to soften, because by this time, O.
J.
is just doing everything with the kids.
And they're just having a great time, he's taking them here, he's taking them there.
She's looking at me goin', "Hey, Ron, he's really changing.
He's really changing.
" When it turned toward the domestic violence, that was one that nobody wanted to hear.
The police didn't wanna hear it, most certainly Hertz didn't wanna hear it, NBC didn't wanna hear it.
Nobody wanted to deal with that.
Back to you, Bob.
When we heard that, I thought that was it.
That's it's over.
You know who called me to tell me that it was a false arrest? Nicole.
Nicole called me and said, "Frank, it didn't happen that way.
" They'd had a terrible argument, but he wasn't abusive.
They just overreacted.
I certainly understand how she got involved with him, and I could understand how hard it would be to leave that.
There was a lot to leave.
Especially if it was to go back to your parents' house in Laguna Beach and start over.
O.
J.
was the income producer for the family.
For not only just Nicole and O.
J.
but for Nicole's father, and mother, sisters He was the the money man.
Nicole told me that she felt her family would side with O.
J.
And that and that disturbed her a great deal.
Nicole was like the trophy to him.
You know, something that that he possessed, that he wanted control of, you know? And "You better do what I say," but, you know, "You better go along with this program.
" I I totally believe he was concerned about his image.
What kind of public reaction did you get, and what kind of corporate reaction did you get, Juice? Surprisingly, so supportive it was unbelievable, you know? So supportive, you know? Uh, most of the people that I work with know us real well, so they can see first-hand that there was, uh, you know, that, hey, our relationship was as strong as not only as it's ever been, but as strong as anybody's I know.
So nobody dropped you from any contracts? - No.
No.
No.
- See, the one thing that another thing people don't realize about O.
J.
is he is extremely, uh, well-involved in the business community.
And he doesn't wanna do this, 'cause it's embarrassing to him, but he is one of the owners of HoneyBaked Hams, uh, Ramada Inns, a couple of Ramada Inns, three Ramada Inns, very involved, of course, with Hertz.
And when something like this happens, it takes a toll, it takes a bite out of it, but, you know, it boun you bounce back from something like this.
Once they really, really got back together, you know, I mean, we were still friends, you know, I still know the guy and everything, but, you know, he kinda had that, uh, attitude, "I'm back.
I knew I'd be back.
" You know, "Hey Don't worry about it.
" You know, "Everything's fine.
" This is where O.
J.
Simpson performed community service as part of his sentence for beating his wife, Nicole.
For part of his punishment, Simpson went golfing.
He spent his 120 hours of community service organizing a celebrity tournament.
Prosecutors in the case say they wanted him to go to jail.
Can you imagine if every time he did something violent like that that a report would've been made? When I got to the station, I checked the computer, there would have been eight previous domestic incident reports on file.
Then I would have put that in my report and sent it on to the prosecutor, that most likely that would have been filed as a felony.
Because it would have shown that a slap on the hand is not going to cure this from happening again.
And that's why I hung onto the report.
I don't have a garage full of reports, I have one report, one, that was O.
J.
Simpson's report because I thought that the case might be mishandled, and I needed proof that it actually happened, and I thought he was gonna kill her.
A controversial case involving four Los Angeles police officers goes to court today.
The officers face charges stemming from the videotaped beating of a motorist.
The case has already raised accusations of officially-sanctioned racism and brutality.
At issue is the use of force.
The question is whether their force was justified by King's behavior before the camera rolled.
I don't think that that should have been prosecuted.
Those officers had about two seconds to make up their mind to do something, and they did what they thought was right at the time.
When is too much? When is not enough? Should they go to trial? Definitely not.
On film, what you see was illegal.
There had to be a prosecution, and if there isn't a legitimate reason for this, there's jail time involved with this one.
I was fairly new to LA, so I'm thinkin', "Hey, we got 'em we got 'em cold.
This time we'll get justice.
" And there were people who had lived in those communities a long time, and they were saying, "Well, you know, maybe.
I hope so.
But it's not a done deal.
" In a brand-new courthouse in a distant LA suburb called Simi Valley, the city's drama is putting a little town on the map.
The defense had the trial moved from Los Angeles county to this bedroom suburb.
This area is notably more white and conservative than LA.
It was a horrible decision.
It was the worst possible decision.
And a lot of LAPD officers live in Simi Valley.
The idea is that you get a representative cross-section of the community, that's what the sixth amendment talks about, and that people come in with different life experiences, because you really do need the people to come from different walks of life so that you get a complete understanding of the testimony.
Completely in fear for my life, scared to death that if this guy got back up, he was gonna take my gun away from me.
Cases involving charges against police officers are rarely slam dunks.
Even when they're on videotape.
Do you believe that the actions of your officers up to this point were having any effect on Mr.
King? None at all.
This was a managed and controlled use of force.
It followed the policies and procedures of Los Angeles Police Department and the training.
Now, as the defense presents its case, civil rights lawyers like Johnny Cochran worry that convictions are far from certain, because the prosecutors seem to lack experience dealing with cops.
Somebody with some experience has to stand up and say, "Look, you can't get away with this.
This isn't right, and we're not gonna let it happen.
" The prosecution's strategy seems to be to let the violence of the videotape speak for itself.
But nobody is certain anymore what that tape is saying to the jury.
I had been telling my people at Time Magazine, "There's something going on.
We need to pay attention.
There's a story here beyond this trial.
" I just sensed there was this unrest.
The day started like any other day, but it really wasn't.
We were waiting for the verdict to be handed down in the trial of the four white police officers that were charged with beating Rodney King.
Sergeant Koon, how are you feeling? No comment.
I got up that morning and I said, "I gotta go out there and see what's going on.
" So I got on the freeway and started looking for Simi Valley.
It's a all-white town.
I only saw white people out there that day, and they wasn't that kind to me when I was asking for direction.
I wanted to be there to witness it, and I guess I thought that my being there was gonna change something.
Title of accordant cause: We the jury, in the above-entitled action, find the defendant, Laurence M.
Powell not guilty of Man, you got to be kiddin'.
We the jury, in the above-entitled action, find the defendant Theodore J.
Briseno not guilty of the crime of assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury with a deadly weapon.
This 29th day of April, 1992, signed by the court.
Title of accordant cause: We the jury, in the above-entitled action, find the defendant, Timothy E.
Wind, not guilty of the crime of assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury with a deadly weapon.
I was sitting in the bureau the day of the verdict, with all of my white colleagues and friends.
We the jury And every time they said, "Not guilty" the defendant, Stacey C.
Koon, not guilty what I heard was, "Fuck niggers.
Not guilty.
Fuck niggers.
" No justice! No peace! No justice! No peace! I was at Parker Center when the acquittals were announced.
And I recall some high-fives and some fist-pumping in the air, and, I mean, there were clearly some people who felt that the public misunderstood them, that the media misunderstood them, and that the jury got it right.
Well, first, all your reaction to what has happened.
Very happy.
I'm glad the LAPD are out there protecting me I wanted to believe that the system would work for black people in general, even though I knew often it doesn't, but this time, it should work.
And it didn't.
And all I felt like, I just wanted to smack somebody white.
You're guilty! Your skin color determines what degree of justice you have these days.
I don't think the community's gonna take this lying down.
I don't think this is gonna be good.
No justice in America, not for the blacks! The justice is for the other man, not for the brother man! Pastor, your reaction after that first verdict was read? Our reaction was almost universal, utter pain.
Justice! Justice! Rodney King did not have a choirboy's record, but Rodney King had the flesh and blood of decency and humanity in his heart.
What they were beating is every Black person in America.
Don't lay down for this shit! We had an understanding that the night of the verdict we would assemble at First AME Church.
We'd been meeting with the mayor to get ready.
I said Beverly Hills, 'cause this is some fucked-up shit that happened, man.
- This is history - We're going to Westwood Brentwood, Whitewood.
All that.
We were gonna send out groups of young men to walk the streets and keep everything in order.
I had spent weeks talking to Black clergy, gang members, and they were very upfront about what they believed would happen.
"Yeah, there's gonna be violence.
" So we had everything prepared.
We had the copter fully fueled.
It seems like the only people that didn't know that there would be a riot was the news media and the LAPD.
You're looking at a live picture here at Normandie and Florence.
There has been a mini-riot at this location.
There's now been a tactical alert.
Officers have been ordered to stay out of this general area.
We're gonna try to get you more information on that.
Even before the verdict, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates was criticized for preparing for unrest in the event four of his officers were acquitted.
But when the rioting began, where were the police and firefighters? My most striking memory is of members of the police commission desperately trying to find Gates.
Which is just shocking, if you think about it in retrospect, that the verdicts in the Rodney King case were coming down and the chief was not at Parker Center.
Gates had driven to this house in ritzy Brentwood to campaign against a police reform initiative.
Fighting police reform, that's what he was doing.
He abandoned his post and left his troops in a shameful state.
The LAPD response was tepid.
All of the media gets on the police department, the people are screaming, "We have an occupying force.
" Well, gee, we don't wanna look like an occupying force, so maybe we'll just sit here until it blows over.
That type of crap goes on.
And we were furious.
- Fuck the police! - Fuck 'em! Fuck 'em! Chaos at this particular location.
To see the very start of the violence was very troubling.
What made it really troubling was there was no police presence.
There's a van coming under attack.
They're pulling the driver out of the van, and they're kicking the driver and beating the driver.
We captured what essentially became the bookend to the Rodney King beating.
There's another driver, badly beaten.
In the case of Reginald Denny, we had black gang members beating a white man.
Oh, look at that.
Terrible.
And there's no police presence down here.
They will not enter the area.
That was the most disgusting thing I've seen in my entire career.
Two blocks away we had a platoon of metro division.
We could have cleared that intersection in a minute.
But the commander there didn't wanna release 'em to do it, because of imagery.
We're on live television.
We're seeing a dark day here in Los Angeles.
The LAPD is nowhere to be found.
So we're sitting there in our uniforms watching this poor truck driver get his head beat in.
Nobody's doing a damn thing about it.
We're screamin'.
Nobody would even move on it.
How are you this evening? - Angry.
- Angry? The jury is trying to tell us we didn't see what we saw.
We've been the victims of police brutality in this town for too long! We didn't come here tonight to mourn.
We came here tonight to say who we are.
And we ain't gonna take this business lying down.
And we ain't gonna tear up our community to be proving their point.
Mark Brown, Channel Seven waved at the monitor and said, "The city's on fire.
It's on fire.
" And I looked at him and said, "My God.
" I had no idea it was right across the street.
Literally.
The gas station was on fire.
What I didn't anticipate personally and professionally was the response of the community.
I went on the streets, and Western Avenue was in flames.
And this crowd is gathering, and the police have now come, and there's one guy, and he's screaming his head off, "Burn, baby, burn! How you like me now, Mr.
Policeman?" And I felt his pain.
I just didn't get it.
I just didn't understand burning down your own community.
I didn't get what it proved.
Here are people who feel like they have no stake, nobody's paying any attention to them.
This is the only way we can get any attention.
As it got darker, a crowd began to gather out in front of the police department.
It got increasingly unruly.
Someone grabbed me and tore my shirt and said something about, you know, "You fucking newsmen.
Why do you tell lies?" It is the most physically-frightening situation that I've ever been part of.
Guy pulls up, and he goes, "Mike, whatever you do, don't go to the command post.
Go to the police station down the street.
Because it's very violent out there.
" I looked at him, and I thought, "What a coward he is," get in the car, make the first turn, and the car gets lit up by gunfire.
So I go, "Okay.
Now I know what he's talking about.
" So I took my .
45 out, I put it on my lap, I took a big gulp of Copenhagen, stuck it down my mouth, turned off the lights and drove as fast as I could to the command post.
Hindsight, the overall management could've been done much better, but once it got away from us, we were cooked.
911 Emergency.
Yeah, can you send someone to my house? What's the problem there? Well, my ex-husband, or my husband, just broke into my house, and he's ranting and raving.
Now he's just walked out on the front yard.
Has he been drinking or anything? No, but he's crazy.
Is he black, white, or Hispanic? Black.
What's he wearing right now? Black pants and a golf shirt.
You said he hasn't been drinking? - No.
- Did he hit you? No.
Do you have a restraining order against him? No.
What's your name? Nicole Simpson.
Your address? 325 Gretna Green Way.
Okay, we'll send police out.
- Thank you.
- Uh-huh.
When Nicole first decided to leave O.
J.
, she came to me.
She said, "I wanna move out" and at that time, I was doing real estate.
And then we had to sell O.
J.
on the idea.
He was obsessed with controlling Nicole.
I said, "Look, O.
J.
, we'll get her a lease.
" He goes, "Three months.
" I said, "We'll get her a year lease.
You know? It'll be right nearby.
You can go to therapy and see if you can work things out.
But she needs her space.
" He really didn't wanna do it.
I think for the first time she felt free.
It was like she just came into that sense of self, that she was really ready to do life for her and her kids.
She responded great to being divorced.
She was really enjoying her life, going out and not being Mrs.
Simpson, being Nicole Brown.
She wanted to pursue her photography career, and she wanted to have a normal life again.
It was a beautiful day, and we skied down to the bottom of the mountain.
And everybody's gathering on the deck, having a great time.
I looked across the deck, and I said, "Wow.
" I said that, "That is absolutely the most stunning woman I've ever seen in my life.
I have to find a way to introduce myself to her.
" So I did.
When I got back to LA several months later, we spent more time together.
Her and friends came by Mezzaluna one night, and we're having a good time, and, all of a sudden, I see the Bentley come screeching up to the front of the door.
He comes in, walks straight over to our table, slams his hands down, looks me straight in the eye and says, "I'm O.
J.
Simpson, and she's still my wife.
" I was sort of love-blind, so I didn't get up, I didn't run, I didn't back down, I just stood my ground from day one.
And that's when she started to open up to me.
She told me about years of abuse at his hands.
He would beat her and lock her in closets at hotels because she asked where he was at when he was out cheating on her.
She was told how to look, told how to wear her hair, told how to dress, told where to be, what time to be, how to be, everything for O.
J.
Simpson.
Kind of a reverse slavery thing.
Uh, very, very odd.
You know, "That's, uh, that's my property," and he always said, "That's my booty.
" The two sides of O.
J.
, the O.
J.
that everybody sees on TV And when the Cowboys brought in their big back, that they didn't make good tackles on them, so the coach was on their cases to make better tackles, as my family throws snowballs at me.
Incidentally, uh That's not the O.
J.
that there was behind closed doors, certainly not with her, and she told me that.
"Don't ever be left alone with him, 'cause you don't know what he's capable of.
" He had her followed, and he would plant people in our group that would call him and tell him where we're going every night.
He would either show up or have a spy planted there at the club so they could watch her every move.
He never relinquished control.
He never would really let go.
He would tell me that Nicole tried to get him back, that she was actually taking golf lessons at Riviera.
And he had a girlfriend, you know, Paula.
And he seemed enthralled with her.
O.
J.
's personality had totally changed, and I didn't think it was just the divorce.
Because his womanizing didn't change.
He was truly the most jealous person I ever met in my life.
He was as jealous as he was a good football player.
I saw the anger, I saw the rage in his face on several occasions.
At me, in particular, and at her.
There was an incident where we went over to Roxbury, a hot club at the time in LA, and we get in, and she's dancing.
Maybe 20, 30 minutes go by, and I see her coming back towards me.
She goes, "O.
J.
's here.
" And I go, "Ha.
Great.
Again.
" You know, she goes, "Let's just get out of here.
" And I say, "I couldn't agree more.
" So we drive back to her house on Gretna Green.
We go inside, and, uh, we became romantic.
We were off in a private area in one of the living rooms, and the next day he came over and pushed in the back door, confronted both of us, and he wanted to talk to her alone.
She was trembling, standing next to me, holding my hand, shaking.
And she said, "Keith, I think you need to leave me alone with him for a couple minutes.
" I could hear him screaming at her, I could hear him using disparaging terms about her and me.
They walked out, and he was O.
J.
again.
Shook my hand.
"Sorry, dude.
No hard feelings.
" You know, "I'm a very proud man.
" And he walked out the house.
And she turned to me, and she was white as a ghost, and she said, "Oh, my God, Keith.
He watched us.
" And everything changed from that point on.
We realized we weren't safe anymore.
We realized that nothing was off limits.
I think she knew O.
J.
was always a presence.
She hated it.
She couldn't even explore being single again and and free and having fun, because everybody was still being manipulated by O.
J.
When he found out that she had been with Marcus, that's that was a real issue.
It's a time you look the competition right in the face and say, - "Look, I'm better than you.
" - No, I'm better than you.
You may be younger, but you ain't better.
Yo, who started? And don't be taking my number either.
Besides, I'm better lookin'.
I'm tired of you trying to be like me.
I remember going with O.
J.
to watch Marcus play at USC.
He was kinda like a mentor to Marcus.
They were extremely close.
Extremely.
You know, Marcus got married at O.
J.
's house.
I think she always festered a crush for Marcus.
And he was the only person in her life that was as famous and as strong as O.
J.
And so I think she felt in a way that she was safe with him.
O.
J.
said, "Marcus, we're 'SC guys.
We don't do that to each other.
What the hell's wrong with you?" He was a younger version of O.
J.
He was almost like the newer, bigger, better version.
I had no no idea whatsoever, uh, that they were carrying on some kind of affair.
I was a bit stunned.
Did you ever have a romantic relationship with Nicole? No, I did not.
No kind of sexual or romantic involvement did you ever have with her? None whatsoever.
I really do not wanna talk about that at all.
Sometimes I'll try to sing, but I'm not gonna do it.
Tonight I got this tequila in me.
The girl I came here with said to me, "Is this a blues place?" I said, "Oh, no, no, no.
This is rhythm and blues.
" Speaking of that lady I was talking about There she is.
With another shot of this tequila.
Now, watch her Yeah, that's right.
Now, watch her sing.
I don't know if Oh, my God.
That's right.
We're live right now all across America, and she is my woman.
I'm taking her tequila.
That's why I'm not singing tonight.
When they initially got back together, I was the first person she told about it.
He had told her, "I'm changed.
I'm a new man.
Let me prove this to ya.
" She said, "We're gonna date first, and I'm not giving up my house, and we're gonna see how it goes.
" That was how they tried to reconcile.
She said all she really ever wanted was her family.
It's almost like she risked everything to have that unit back together.
911 Emergency.
What is the ? Can you get someone over here now, to 325 Gretna Green? He's back.
Please.
Okay.
What does he look like? He's O.
J.
Simpson.
I think you know his record.
Could you just send somebody over here? Okay.
What is he doing there? He's just All this again.
Could you just send somebody over? Wait a minute.
What kind of car is he ? We were filming another Naked Gun movie, and it was the first time I can remember him being just in one of the foulest moods ever.
And he said, "It's just Nicole bullshit.
" First of all, he broke the back door down to get in before Okay.
Wait a minute.
What's your name? Nicole Simpson.
Okay.
Is he the sportscaster or whatever? - Yeah.
- Okay.
Thank you.
My ex-girlfriend approached him on the movie set and said some very disparaging things about Nicole and myself, so I knew that O.
J.
was gonna take it out on Nicole.
Wait a minute, we're sending police.
What is he doing? Is he threatening you? I He's fucking going nuts.
You're gonna hear him in a minute.
He's about to come in again.
Okay, just stay on the line I don't wanna stay on the line.
He's gonna beat the shit out of me.
Wait a minute, would you? Just stay on the line, so we can know what's going on 'til the police get there, okay? It wasn't until years later that I actually sat down, and I had even listened to the 911 call.
I knew different voices for Nicole, and she wasn't mad, she definitely wasn't drunk.
She's terrified.
And that was heartbreaking.
That was heartbreaking.
- Okay, Nicole.
- Uh-huh? Just a moment.
Does he have any weapons? I don't know.
Okay.
He went home, and now he's back.
The kids are up there sleeping, and I don't want anything to happen.
Okay, just a moment.
When you hear O.
J.
's voice, what do you hear? Rage.
Is he inside right now? - Yes.
Yes.
- Okay, just a moment.
All units, a domestic at 325 Gretna Green Way O.
J.
, the kids are sleeping.
Is he upset with something that you did? Oh, a long time ago.
It always comes back.
Has this happened before or no? Many times.
Okay.
The police should be on the way.
It just seems like a long time because it's kind of busy in that division right now.
When she left him for good, she called me, and she's like, "Yep, this is it, Robin.
" She said, "This is it.
I'm done.
I'm done.
" She goes, "I don't even I have no feeling for him whatsoever anymore.
It's just over.
" She was free, and she was happy without him, and I think he knew it was really over.
The day she changed, it was like a light switch.
He spiraled, from that day on.
Everything was different.
Who he was, that persona, everything was gone.
She wasn't chasing him anymore and it it spun him out.
We all believed that right toward the very end when, uh, they had split up, after Mother's Day, that Nicole was not seeing Marcus again.
I absolutely believed that she was.
And O.
J.
told Nicole, "You ever see Marcus again, I will kill you.
" This was obviously "I'm I'm gonna get back at you, O.
J.
I don't care what it takes, I'm gonna humiliate you.
" If she did it, it was more for her own personal rebellion, it was more for her saying to herself, "I'm gonna date who I want, I'm gonna go where I want, I'm gonna be friends with who I want.
I'm free.
You have lost me, O.
J.
Watch me run.
" I think there was something about her that was almost unattainable to him.
Something that he couldn't quite control.
And I think that that was part of the attraction.
And I think, in the final analysis, that's what got her killed.