O.J.: Made in America (2016) s01e05 Episode Script

1 All right, let's see what O.
J.
can do.
He's got it up and he holds it good enough to get a call from the referee.
O.
J.
Simpson stands up and that one is hit hard to left.
High enough, wind helps, it's gone.
Watch this.
Tell me how many right-handers you've ever seen do this, pick off the five ten.
Juice is moving 'em out.
He's gotta good run going.
Ready for the hurdle, this is gonna be a good time for O.
J.
Simpson.
Ladies and gentleman, thank you for your patience.
I have just a few final instructions that I need to give to you before you start your deliberations on this matter.
You are reminded that you must not be influenced by mere sentiment, sympathy, passion, prejudice, public opinion, or public feeling.
Both the prosecution and the defendant have a right to expect that you will conscientiously consider and weigh all the evidence, apply the law as I have instructed you and reach a just verdict regardless of the consequences.
There's a rough rule of thumb for jury deliberations.
One day of deliberation for each week of trial.
So, we all settle in and we think, okay.
We're gonna be here awhile.
All the lawyers on the case were going to do something that first day that the jury was out, because everyone knew we had at least one day.
It was Johnnie's birthday.
He and his wife had taken a one-day excursion up to the wine country, and I called Johnnie from the courtroom.
I said, "Jay, Jay, we got a verdict.
" He said, "What?!" "We got a verdict, man.
" We reached the verdict.
We were happy about that.
After more than eight months of testimony, more than 100 witnesses and more than 45,000 pages of court transcripts, the jurors, who'd been advised not to talk about the case since it began, came to their decision over the course of a morning's work.
We had to go home.
That's all I got to say.
We'd been gone a year.
We had to come home.
Being held up for nine months, I wouldn't want that.
But why don't we talk about a couple of things that may be on our mind? They did not deliberate.
I truly was offended.
267 days.
That's how long the trial lasted.
1,105 pieces of evidence.
45,000 pages of trial transcript from 133 witnesses.
How the hell did you deliberate for three and a half hours? How many days was it again? 267 days.
266 nights.
266 nights I went back to that room, alone.
Wasn't able to talk to other jurors.
Wasn't able to talk to family.
Nobody but me and my thoughts.
I waited til the end to come up with a decision, but each night that I went home after listening to testimony, I stored that.
By the end of that trial, I knew where I was.
And it was clear.
O.
J.
was extremely emotional.
Puts his hand on the glass like you see on TV, and he said, "Look guys, if it is guilty, I never wanna see you guys again.
Don't come see me in prison, because your lives are gonna be changing, and what am I gonna say? My life is the same as what it was yesterday.
Same as it's gonna be tomorrow.
Nothing will ever change.
So, I don't wanna see you guys again, ever.
" We got there around 3:30 in the morning.
By 6 o'clock it was just very crowded.
People everywhere.
Policemen everywhere.
We were underneath the criminal courts building, in case there was trouble.
They brought in police on horseback, as if they were preparing for a riot.
Why don't you get the fuck out of here, you fucking asshole? I had reporters coming to my front door, and I had really had it.
Can I fucking hit him? No.
I think part of me knew which way that verdict was going.
For a trial that seemed to go on forever, the fact that it will end has produced a national surge of adrenaline.
Did you have a rather sleepless night last night, Mr.
Garcetti? Sleepless night? I had my usual four hours' sleep.
I have to fully admit, I thought he was guilty.
I thought it was obvious he was guilty.
So I thought the jury agreed with me.
And the record should reflect that we have now been rejoined by all the members of our jury panel and our alternates.
All right, Mrs.
Robertson, do you have the envelope with the sealed verdict, please? Yes, Your Honor.
All right, would you give those to Deputy Trower? The Judge had admonished us not to say a word, not to make a sound, not to move, not to do anything but sit there and listen to the verdict.
All right, Mr.
Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury? In the matter of The People of the State of California vs Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA097211.
We, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal code section 187a, a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, as charged in account It was almost like an out of body experience.
I had a feeling of numbness.
Did this really happen? They really did it, they acquitted him.
They really did it, they walked him out the door.
Johnnie is in back of O.
J.
and Johnnie's saying, "Juice, you're going home," and he's putting his head against his back.
"You're going home, Juice, you're going home!" It was fabulous.
I actually thought I might pass out from shock.
I was so astonished.
Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder upon Ronald Lyle Goldman.
One of the young guys, either one of the Goldman families or the Brown family, he said, "Murderer, murderer.
" I was focused on Kim Goldman.
Convicted of at least one crime of murder of the first degree and one or more crimes of murder of the first or second degree to be not true.
It hurt me to know that I had to hurt somebody else like that, and I didn't want to.
My mom and dad, just stoic.
I'm the more emotional one.
There was this deputy there, and I was like, "Can I leave?" And she goes, "You can't leave.
" The other piece of this was that kind of moment of triumphant Simpson.
I remember thinking that that gesture, that's a competitor.
He had been through a big ordeal.
He fought hard and he'd won.
One of the jurors, I believe it was juror number six, a male black, stood in the jury box and raised his fist like this.
What? This was a guy who presented as the most mild mannered, and then we find out, yeah, he was a member of the Black Panthers, years ago.
Later, I was talking with the Deputy Sheriff.
He had taken jurors to where they were released.
So glad to be back, I'm free.
He said, "All across this parking lot, there was high fives and cheers and smiles.
" He said, "I heard it over and over.
That was payback for Rodney King.
" We the jury find the defendant not guilty of the crime of assault with a deadly weapon.
Do you think that there were members of the jury that voted to acquit O.
J.
because of Rodney King? Yes.
You do? Yes.
How many of you think felt that way? Oh, probably 90% of them.
90%? Did you feel that way? Yes.
That was payback? Uh-huh.
You think that's right? The majority of the world or the majority of Americans think that we're a group of idiots who didn't get it right.
I think that the jury was made to be the scapegoat for their faults.
It was a mistake to present Fuhrman the way they did.
It was a mistake to let Darden get up there and be a part of that case.
Had they come correct, had they had the right attorneys up there putting on the case that they need to put on, they would've won.
It wasn't payback.
They messed up.
It may have been payback, but it wasn't payback for anything that happened recently.
It was payback for what's happened over the last 400 years.
It was payback for how black people are treated in America.
I believe that that was on the minds of every black person in America.
In the matter of The People of the State of California vs Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA097211.
We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty.
There was joy.
You could hear it in the barbershop or the beauty salon or in the classroom at the school, on the streets.
A release of breath, exhaling.
The Juice is loose! He's loose! He's loose! Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I'm free at last.
It was like that day Jackie Robinson opened the door for black players.
This trial tapped into the racial history of Los Angeles.
I didn't realize how much it tapped into the national pain of race relations.
finds Orenthal James Simpson not guilty It was all so much bigger than we were, so much bigger.
I think the black jubilation was very offensive and very hurtful.
Who laughing now, ya know who did it? My family did it, the races of America.
Those films of African-Americans cheering and whites crying, it put a huge red line across society.
Certainly, the resentment that African-Americans have toward whites was shocking.
It was absolutely shocking.
Now you know how it feels.
We are flush with illustrations where we have been the victims of what you consider to be racial thinking.
And that's why your moment of joy may only be a moment.
That's why you seize your moment of joy, because tomorrow sorrow.
To actually have a black man found not guilty, when every other black man who's ever been blamed for anything like that or anything near something like that, has been killed.
This is indicative of progress, regardless of what you think about him.
It was like wow, things have changed, somewhat.
I just really hoped that, probably in a terribly pollyannish way, I really hoped we had come some distance.
My white neighbors, people I'd grown up with all my life, the person I talked to every single day, just stopped speaking to me because of this trial.
I received hate mail.
They would send the hate mail to the court.
The court would forward it to me.
I got a lot of personal blame, a lot of personal threats.
In essence, you know, "You deserve to die.
" What sort of personal toll did this take on the prosecutors who tried the case? I shake my head because I haven't been able to weigh it entirely, but the toll is immense.
If there was anything that ever motivated me throughout the trial, it was the idea, the notion, that one day I'd have to turn to the Goldmans with the realization that he had been acquitted.
I am honored to have Chris was in bad shape.
He was really devastated.
A verdict of guilty would have been redeeming for him in the black community.
You could feel this sense of brokenness within him, because he gave everything that he had.
My guess is that if Chris were given the opportunity again to say yes or no on this case, he wouldn't have taken it.
He's paid one huge price.
This has been a hard-fought battle, but I want to make it as clear as I can that this trial is over.
No one in our community believes in murder, and our hearts have gone out to these two families from the very beginning.
A statement from our father.
I'm relieved that this part of the incredible nightmare that occured on June 12th, 1994 is over.
I will pursue, as my primary goal in life, the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr.
Goldman.
Whatever it takes, I'll provide.
They are out there somewhere.
The children.
You did tell them? Yes, we told them.
Told them Daddy's free.
Did they say anything to you? They were happy.
They love Daddy.
We have never said anything negative about Daddy.
People were on fire, excited about finally, the criminal justice system worked in favor of an African-American man.
But everything is not about race.
Everything is not about how we were treated historically in this country.
I didn't see it as an example of African-Americans being free or we beating the criminal justice system.
Not for African-Americans.
It was a victory for a rich guy named O.
J.
Simpson, and I was troubled by it.
Now, go back in, go back in.
Did he give you any indication when he would want the children, or what would happen? I think he is reasonable enough to know that the children have a good life here.
That they find strength and love in this house.
They switched over.
I don't think that he knows, really, what he wants, right now.
There they are, right there.
Bryce, go in tight.
I can tell you right now he ain't coming out any time soon.
Okay, we're gonna get up, we're gonna pull up high.
Get out of all this bullshit.
Yes! You're home! What has the atmosphere been like at Mr.
Simpson's house today? Who is with him? What are they all doing? It's, as you can imagine, a very, very touching time.
A very cheerful time for a man who's spent 15 months in prison and was found innocent.
I wanna hear this like a hole in the head.
Don't even listen to it.
How do you turn this up? Yeah, this is the one case, you got the wrong guy like all those other cases you let who did it get away.
He invited the lawyers to come by for a drink, and I was the first one there.
And he was up in the bedroom.
He said, "I wonder where Bob Shapiro is?" I said, "Look up above you.
He's on television.
Barbara Walters.
" Mr.
Shapiro, you said in the beginning that race would not be a determining part of this case, that you would not play the race card.
The race card was surely played.
Barbara, my position was always the same.
That race would not and should not be a part of this case.
I was wrong.
Not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck.
The hypocrisy of his suggestion that the decision to use race was a bad one, when it was the card that he stacked the deck with.
From the very beginning, it was his theory.
Would you work again on a case with Johnnie Cochran? No.
Would you work a case again with F.
Lee Bailey? I will not talk to F.
Lee Bailey again.
Thank you, Mr.
Shapiro.
Everybody say hogwash, c'mon.
Hogwash! Come on, talk to each other a little bit, come on, talk to each other.
Not so fast.
Okay.
Wow, where'd we go that night? Probably home and cried.
Probably home and cried.
And probably said 100 times, how did he get away with it? You don't ever get over it.
You don't ever get over it.
It doesn't go away that he can't live his dreams.
It's always still there, close to the surface.
It's always still there.
We actually believed that if he's found not guilty, we all go back to our lives and just move on.
He thought he'd walk right back into it.
His view point, I'm back and I'm gonna be playing golf everyday and I'm gonna be O.
J.
and everything's fine.
I think he felt he could con the rest of the world into believing that.
Here we have the top 10 ways he's searching for the real killers.
Number nine, elaborate ongoing sting operation at Pebble Beach.
Yeah, excellent piece of detective work.
I think the vast majority of the people in Brentwood thought he was guilty, and it became very uncomfortable for him to be here.
I saw him filling up his car one day, and people, literally, were giving him the finger or screaming insults.
He filled up his car and pretended he didn't hear anything and moved on.
I was walking the dog and that feeling you get where the hair stands up on the back of your neck where you know someone's watching you, and O.
J.
's leaning out of the Rolls Royce, and I remember saying, "Oh, shit.
" I walk over to him, and he gets out, and we hug and we kiss.
He turned to me and said, "Why don't you come see me? Not too many people come to see me.
" I said, "Sure, of course I will.
" There was that hug goodbye, and of course I'm gonna see you, where he knew I was never gonna see him, and I knew I was never gonna see him.
You had a pretty close relationship, is that true? We had the type of relationship that we'd see each other a couple times a year.
I wasn't one of his best friends.
All the black people in my life used to tell me, man, white America will turn on you, and they will zip up your nigger suit on you so fast and they will forget about you like that.
Why don't you sell the Brentwood estate, go away for a little while? Go where? What, do they want me to go to Africa, is that what some of those people would want? Go where, I live in LA.
I see people, I haven't seen 'em.
I hear there are people in Brentwood that don't want me in Brentwood.
Maybe they are, but I would say this.
I think I've probably lived in Brentwood longer than 90% of 'em.
They're squatters.
If they don't want me in Brentwood, they should leave.
Would you say the criticisms about missing your daughter's birthday Hey, O.
J.
! Esquire had chosen me to do a story about O.
J.
Simpson.
I was interested in O.
J.
as a pariah.
Don't play with O.
J.
Go away, O.
J.
, go away.
I wanted to try to find out how or whether he could uphold the O.
J.
persona in the face of public wrath and hatred.
I don't think there's anybody out there that won't say that wherever they met me, all over this country for the last 30 years, I took time, I treated you the way I wanted to be treated.
He's a wife-beater! Go home! I don't think there's anybody out there that ever met me anywhere, in airports, in ballparks, on the street, that I wasn't kind to you, I didn't treat you the way I thought you wanted to be treated.
Anybody who's ever written me, I wrote 'em back.
Charities that ever call me, I always sent them something, at my cost.
I only ask you to give me that courtesy, to treat me the way I treated you.
You ugly murderer! You ugly-ass murderer! I felt sorry for him, I did.
I just couldn't bring myself to feel that he was bad in the pure sense of the word.
I kept feeling like he was a victim.
That's all I wanna do.
Provide for them.
My family, my kids, and give me the opportunity and a fair shake.
Fuck you, O.
J.
! But I swear to you, before my God, I did not commit these crimes.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.
The easy answer is to say that people were indignant that O.
J.
got away with murder, but the level, the scope of the reaction, my sense was that there was a lot of racism in it.
He wanted the love back.
He wanted to be loved again.
O.
J.
! He is our brother.
C'mon, you can clap on that.
We have never believed that he was guilty.
He wanted acceptance from the community.
He knew that he was ostracized by a whole number of people.
Don't take a step back, you just get with God and you get ready for your comeback.
I think he felt a sense of deliverance, and maybe he felt that God delivered him.
I'm not trying to restore the image.
I'm not trying to get back with God what I've lost.
I'm trying to do one thing.
I'm trying to go to Heaven.
But I got criticized.
How can you accept someone who is a murderer? Well, the court didn't say he was a murderer.
Court said he was innocent, and Jesus accepted all people.
This is like a dream come true for me, so meet Mr.
O.
J.
Simpson.
Hug me, darling, I love you.
He said he was trying to thank the people that stuck by him, but that wasn't O.
J.
To me it didn't ring true.
We'd go to Roscoe's too.
Go down and eat chicken and waffles.
I remember telling him, "When in the hell did you ever eat chicken and waffles before?" But that's where black America went.
You would hear people, "Oh, so now you're black.
Now you're black.
" C'mon up here, African.
We appreciate you coming out tonight.
I grew up in the projects, you know.
No one has to tell me, you act black.
I grew up in the projects, I know if I'm being black.
I am black.
But once I started getting over at the end of the 60's, what I done is something that's happening with a lot of black men in America.
You find yourself protecting your place in society.
You tend to think that you're immune to something.
You know what's happening out there is still happening, but you're hoping to change and you're really fooling yourself.
But t this point I'm in the community.
I'm trying to hang around people that I think can better educate me.
I think I have a unique opportunity here.
I'd like to be able to take advantage of it, and I'd like to not possibly once again let you down.
Thank you.
I was at home in New York.
The phone rang.
And a voice said, "Hey, it's O.
J.
I'm not done talking to you.
I don't know why, but I talk to you like you're my shrink or something.
" He said to me, "Let's say I committed this crime.
If I killed her, it had to have been because I loved her very much, right?" Every time he spoke about Nicole it was this mix of affection, irritation, indignation and kind of wanting to prove to the person he's speaking to that she was impossible.
He's not wired like everybody else.
He never wept for Nicole or the kids.
Like, my kids are gonna have to grow up without their mom.
The Browns had Sidney and Justin.
We'd have to transfer the kids, so they could go and spend the weekend with their dad.
It's their dad and I'm respecting that.
Before, we were talking about a conversation you had with Judy in the last month or so down in Laguna.
O.
J.
told the psychologist that Justin had been calling him, for him to come down to watch him play basketball.
The psychologist said, "Well, if that's the case, you should go.
" I did not know until after all this happened that the Browns didn't know that O.
J.
was coming down.
We walked into the gym and we watched Justin warm up.
Judy walks in, she sits behind me, and she says, "I want to talk to you.
" I think she referred to me as a coward or gutless or something like that.
She said something about O.
J.
controlling me, then Lou walked up.
He started in on me about nobody wants you down here.
He said something about a scene.
I said, "There's no scene, here.
" I said, "If anybody's making a scene here it's Judy.
O.
J.
hasn't done anything.
" The kids were taken away from my mom on Christmas Eve.
That was devastating.
Sydney would say, "I wanna go.
" to her grandparents, and he said, "They don't want you.
They want you for the money.
They want you for the child support.
That's why they want you.
" It was strained.
One night, I went to Rockingham, and we're drinking Rolling Rock beer outside, and he was smoking pot.
He was looking around the backyard, reliving all the different events that had happened there.
And I just asked him, what happened June 12th? And he asked me what I thought happened.
I said, "I have always thought you probably did it.
" I said, "I know what you told A.
C.
, that you went there, but you just went to see what was going on, but you didn't take a knife.
" He shook his head and he said, "Yeah.
" And he said that if she wouldn't have opened the door with a knife, she'd still be alive.
I believed that for the longest time.
And then I He went there to kill her.
He went there to kill her because of how she made him feel, being rejected.
That she didn't need him.
And then, of course, the Marcus factor.
I'm better than you.
He was seeing Marcus was him 15 years younger.
And I guess the part that bothers me about it, is he left the kids upstairs to walk out.
They could've walked out and found their mom like that.
I die tomorrow, I would know without a doubt that he did it.
Not even a slight maybe that he didn't.
We had a year to file the civil suit.
We wanted a court of law to say, "You did it.
" O.
J.
Simpson is back in the news this morning.
He wanted his deposition in the wrongful death lawsuits kept secret but a judge in Santa Monica ruled Wednesday that his testimony will not be sealed.
The judge also ruled it will be video taped.
Present is plaintiff Frederick Goldman.
Swear the witness.
Would you raise your right hand please? I wanted to be in the room when the deposition was being taken.
so help you God? I do.
To be able to say, "We're after you.
" Do you recall an incident when you chased her? No.
Grabbed her? No.
Threw her into the walls? No.
Threw all of her clothes out the window into the street? No.
And bruised her? No.
You don't recall any of that? No.
Listening to him was everything from disgust to astonishment.
Excuse me? I said don't answer.
But, he whispered something, Mr.
Baker.
No, I did not.
You mouthed something.
I think I'm allowed to mouth something to myself, aren't I? What did you mouth? He was cocky.
He was never forthcoming with anything.
We are back on the record now.
He'd be smiling, like the whole thing was a joke.
What is that paper there for? I designed a golf hole that he's gonna play.
The course he's gonna play, and I was just telling him about a hole that's on that golf course.
And that's how seriously he was taking it.
Did you ever buy shoes that you knew were Bruno Magli's shoes? No.
How do you know that? 'Cause I know if Bruno Magli makes shoes that look like the shoes that they had in court that's involved in this case, I would have never worn those ugly-ass shoes.
He'd lied about everything.
There's not an honest bone in his body.
You were sort of obsessed with her having that relationship with Keith, right? No.
Didn't bother you at all? Her with Keith, with Marcus, with any of 'em, didn't bother me at all.
Not at all? No.
He's lived a life of fraud and being a fake for God knows how many decades, to a point where I think he just believes his own bull.
I gotta take a leak.
Mr.
Cowlings, I'm going to ask you to look at this picture.
It's been previously marked as exhibit number 45.
Ask if you recognize that picture.
Yes.
And who do you recognize that to be? Nicole.
And does that appear to be the way that Nicole looked when you went over there that early morning time Hey man, you give me a break.
The O.
J.
Simpson civil case gets under way today.
The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are suing him.
This time the judge is keeping cameras out of the courtroom.
I truly, truly, truly wish it had been televised.
It was a totally different dynamic.
No longer the killer and his attorneys in charge of the courtroom.
It was the system at work.
Meanwhile, the jury's going to look very different in this case.
You're coming out of a different area.
You're coming out of the Santa Monica area, instead of downtown Los Angeles.
Obviously, the makeup of your jury pool is gonna be different.
Basically, they just repeated the case that we presented, but they had Simpson.
They could call him to the witness stand and cross-examine him.
One of the things that came up was if he owned the shoes.
Bruno Magli's.
Because of the footprints of those shoes were at the crime scene.
You thought those were ugly-ass shoes.
Yes.
Really? Wrong, liar.
Not only did we see photographs of him wearing the ugly-ass shoes, we were then able to compare it to the footprints at the crime scene.
And we're right back to done.
Rare shoes.
Only 299 pairs sold in this country.
O.
J.
Simpson said that he'd never own the shoes, and yet he was forced to admit that that was him in the picture.
It was like watching a little child getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
All it did was reaffirm what I knew, in my heart, and that was he was a murderer.
Time to turn our attention to the O.
J.
Simpson civil case.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations today.
In a civil trial all you have to prove is that they're guilty by a preponderance of the evidence.
That means more likely than not.
51% is enough.
It's a very low standard of proof.
Completely different than the criminal trial.
A very brief interruption, everybody.
In case you haven't heard the news until now, there has been a verdict in the O.
J.
Simpson civil trial in California.
Between 35 and 45 minutes from now, everybody will be back in the courtroom in Santa Monica to hear the verdict.
Just to remind people, we are in Washington today.
Helps our audience.
My employers have decided that some time ago, that the President's address to the nation is what's important to the future and is fascinated, I guess to be honest, as we all are about the O.
J.
Simpson verdict.
Our bosses have made the decision, so let's go back.
We must pursue a deeper dialogue with China.
I'm told people are assembling in the courtroom and that they expect to be able to read this verdict within moments.
O.
J.
looks straight at the court and she read the answer, yes, that Simpson was liable for the death of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
This jury was unified in their decision.
There was no question that he had committed these acts, and he was totally responsible beyond any doubt.
It was amazing.
Finally had a court say you're responsible for Ron's death.
Our family is grateful for a verdict of responsibility which is all we ever wanted, and we have it, thank God.
Simpson was found liable to the tune of $8,500,000.
And the jury isn't finished yet.
On Thursday jurors will return to hear testimony about additional punitive damage.
Guilty! Total $33,000,000.
We were so shocked at the figure, it was astonishing.
But what people don't realize about a civil trial is that a judgment is a piece of paper, and that is what you get.
Then, it becomes the creditor's responsibility to figure out a way to collect on it.
Do you have a moral obligation to pay any of that? I don't feel I have a moral obligation to pay, because morally, I've done nothing wrong.
I think I have a legal obligation when I have money to pay.
I wish I could sign a $50,000,000 contract and give them whatever they have to give, if I knew I could get it back on appeal.
Oh, he knew he'd never pay.
Because the system wanted to make certain that they got everything he had, they brought in the guy that handles the estates of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and James Dean, to say that O.
J.
was in that same class, that he would make that kinda money for the rest of his life.
As his agent, I'm sitting there, not gonna happen.
Those people didn't murder anybody, or at least in the perception of America, he didn't murder anybody.
It became our goal to be after him for the rest of his life.
He's gonna always know that we're right behind him, looking over his shoulder, trying to figure out a way to get him.
In other news this morning, O.
J.
Simpson has been ordered to turn over some precious belongings to satisfy the judgment against him in his civil lawsuit.
The half million dollar inventory includes Simpson's golf clubs and his Andy Warhol silkscreen of himself.
Simpson will have seven days to turn over the items to be sold.
We had received a fax in the office.
Sheriff's department needed to know where to park these two giant moving trucks.
So, we knew the day before that they were coming to seize these various items.
There was quite a few people.
His family and friends moving stuff out and taking it to different homes.
O.
J.
was out playing golf.
Deniability.
Sheriff's department, they were coming through the gates at 8 o'clock or 7 o'clock or something.
As they were coming in, I was leaving.
Literally, gates were open at the same time.
I left.
I had his collectibles, personal items, Tiffany lamps, carpet.
A bunch of stuff went out to a storage unit in south San Francisco, but it was scattered.
I mean, just all over.
It was like a biblical flood carrying away everything.
He lived a materialistically lavish life, but that wasn't what was most important.
When they wanted his mother's piano, that rocked his foundation.
They wanted her house up in Potrero Hill.
Those things bothered him.
It bothered me when they started taking things that I didn't think was just.
O.
J.
, the congratulations of all of us for your impeccable character.
Thank you, Mr.
Cosell.
Thank you, Mr.
Simpson.
How do you take away his Heisman? That was who he was when I was innocent and he was innocent.
Was that Heisman given to you? No, it wasn't given to me.
I basically just took it.
I had an arrangement with Mr.
Simpson, where I would be paid X amount of money or I could take it out in memorabilia.
So I took the Heisman and a few other items I figured were mine.
The IRS has filed a lien against O.
J.
Simpson's Brentwood mansion.
It says he owes more than $685,000 in back taxes, interest, and penalties.
I haven't made any payments in quite awhile.
I love the house, my kids were born there.
I lost a daughter there.
We had some great times there but it's gone, and now I gotta find some place else to have some great times, you know, move on.
The last day at Rockingham, it was kind of an odd, surreal day.
For me it was emotional, and for O.
J.
, I guess he had kinda mentally checked out, where it wasn't.
Hey, Mike.
I want you to go over there and shoot over the fence, walk through the gate, so I can give you the old He's like, "Okay, now go outside of the gate.
" Like I'm a tourist, and I'm sneaking in through his gate, filming him taking the flag down.
Because the tabloids were paying like 150 grand, 200 grand, crazy money.
Hey, this is private property.
C'mon man, look.
C'mon man, gimme a break.
C'mon guy, c'mon.
Putting the flag up, taking it down, putting it up, taking it down.
Him folding it and trying to get emotional, where he's tearing up.
He's really working it, tearing up.
Oh, man, that's real classy.
Take care.
Everybody's chasing O.
J.
for a story today.
Do an interview, do an interview.
I need you to do an interview.
I'm gonna dog you out bad, too.
I'm gonna pimp ya.
I needed a challenge.
I can promote anybody, anything, it doesn't matter.
So, my attorney came back and he said, "I got just the thing for you, it's O.
J.
Simpson.
" I'm like well, that's a challenge.
I'm like "Hm.
" I put him in a world where he was happy again.
Then, when I saw what happened, I said we should just get a camera and film this.
Cheers, O.
J.
Cheers.
I think that there were people offended now that you're here.
You know, I would think that the ones who were offended may be tuned into another channel.
I don't know, that's just a guess of mine.
I would like to think that the majority of your listeners would not be offended.
I know you'd like to think that, O.
J.
, but I'm not sure.
First, I just wanna say, it's interesting to have you here.
Thank you.
He was still famous and fame, infamy O.
J.
, I was told not to ask you about the incident.
Is there any reason why? What incident? The incident with Nicole.
'Cause there's nothing to talk about.
'Cause you were proven innocent Because I was innocent, I was proven innocent, and once we open that we're back into the It's what, seven years now? It's over and over and over, ya know? I mean they tell you life goes on.
We talk about O.
J.
as though the story is O.
J.
So, when you travel and when you're walking down the street and things like that, what type of reaction do you get from people? The story is O.
J.
and us.
The exact reaction, maybe a little more emotional, that I got 15 years ago.
If you took a walk with me down the street, you'd be amazed.
I don't care where I go, white, black, wherever I go.
Everybody's terrific.
The different people, watching their reactions was quite amazing.
That's why I played football.
Precious? Spell it for me.
Oh my, God, it's really O.
J.
Simpson.
In our town.
He's really here.
He was addicted to fame, and the reality is the music didn't stop.
Where do you want to do this? I don't know, you're good with the white women, now I see black women.
Hey, I'm good with the sisters too, baby.
If you didn't already have a kid and a man out there that's bigger than me.
Oh please, O.
J.
Oh, you're here.
See, he's in here.
Forget what I just said.
But you know what, O.
J.
? Not for nothing.
Good black don't crack, and you certainly do look good.
You wanna catch yourself, right? I don't know, O.
J.
I don't know.
Something takes over when you're in his presence.
He's taking you away from the sordid dark reality, but you're sitting across from somebody who probably committed murder.
All that goes away and there's just this sense of wanting to believe him and go with him to this place where everything is still okay.
The truly righteous are not the self-righteous, just remember that.
I read that in the Quran.
O.
J.
, I wanna say I don't like you, I can't stand you.
I wanna call you names, I wanna throw you right out of here, but, ya know what? Your husband's watching, you better watch.
You've done it to me.
Can I invite you to a party? Sure, I'll be there.
His friends would call it the O.
J.
effect.
They would say "Yeah, you got O.
J.
ed.
" Being O.
J.
ed is being charmed.
The confusion that you feel after you've been in his presence.
I don't think he was not guilty, but I was in touch with the fact that I wanted to think he was not guilty.
O.
J.
, damn you, I like you.
Thank you.
Damn you.
Damn you.
Damn you.
No! Oh my gosh, he hugged me! Damn you, O.
J.
Damn you, O.
J.
Simpson, you're charming.
Well, thank you.
He can get into your head and you'll like him.
There's no way around it.
I didn't know O.
J.
the murderer.
I was in jail at the time when the thing happened.
I remember O.
J.
the hero.
Playing football as a 10 year old, saying I'm O.
J.
Simpson running with the ball.
I remember O.
J.
the charming movie guy.
Police, throw down your guns! The mega hero growing up.
O.
J.
crashed the national baseball card show in Chicago and was sitting at a table signing autographs, and there was a line around the aisle for him until the promoters came and threw him out.
He was charging, I think, $150 an autograph.
So, that's what made me think, you know, hey.
This could be worth it.
We'd hire him to sign 200 autographs.
What do you got there, you got another 80 items? You know, put the TV on the USC game and I'll take care of them.
I liked the guy.
Public appearances, he'd get 50 to 100 grand.
It was a matter of him hiding from the Goldmans.
He had a team of people to make sure that any money he could get was gonna be protected.
They would form some phony company and funnel the money through that.
Then he moved to Florida.
His home suddenly became untouchable.
His pension was untouchable already, by law.
South Beach, Miami.
Nobody judges you there.
Nobody said murderer.
They just wanted to touch him.
So, he was living large, living large.
You rolling? Right now, O.
J.
Simpson is a fugitive of justice O.
J.
Simpson, football legend, has just become The prime suspect in a double murder.
Oh God, Florida was just like a nightmare.
I hate everything about Florida, everything that's happened in Florida.
In the trial of the century Lies a hero's destiny Tell me O.
J.
, what's it gonna be Every man wants to be made In the trial of the century Lies a hero's destiny That's my drink.
Whose drink is this? That's yours up there.
Motherfucker.
That motherfucker had the nerve In Florida, his group of friends was much different.
Did you get that set up? We gotta get some more money outta out of them.
Week before Christmas.
They weren't the Lynn Swann's and the Rosey Grier's.
Yo, fucking with our game, man.
He hung around with anybody that was more thuggish.
The lower people.
But to the lower people, he was like the Godfather.
You fucking with our golf game, okay? We out here to have a good time and you fucking with our game.
Because of that, his head grew.
When O.
J.
crossed over into the dark side, I guess that's probably where I came in at, you know? Because I'm no celebrity.
I'm not football star or baseball star.
I was a regular guy, but he seemed to like me.
I started liking to hang out with O.
J.
because of the perks.
We went to strip clubs, went to night clubs.
We'd drink and check out the girls, and there was always an ample amount of women around.
He said, "You know what's crazy is I'm getting more girls now.
Now I got bad boy image and I was never a bad boy.
I have to wonder, what are they thinking, because I was accused of murdering my wife.
" Since I've been in Miami, I've gone out with a Cuban girl, a Venezuelan girl, and a white girl.
You only see the white girl in the media, and they all look like Nicole from what they say.
At the time I started chronicling him, he was involved with his girlfriend, Christie Prody, and the first time I saw her drive in in a covertible I know, baby.
I did a double take, because from a distance, she looked like a spitting image of Nicole.
He's fine, he's fine.
I believe in this man.
He was going down, and what I mean by that is he had no interest in getting to either safer ground or higher ground, if it existed.
He was gonna go to, essentially, decadence.
They're talking about me, baby! Christie Prody, the cocaine and then she'd get clean, and then he couldn't get her coked up enough.
I asked him why.
You know she can't stop.
You can do coke for a couple of days and then stop.
She can't.
She will keep doing coke.
I say damn.
He said, "Yeah, but when she does this she gets me more girls than I get myself.
" We gotta get some closeups of the crotch, can't be pimpin' without some crotch shots.
The only crotch that matters around here, that crotch right there, ya understand what I'm talking about? Gotta hide this here.
I gotta big sheet of paper here, so don't even worry about it.
Ya know, the public has to identify with an athlete.
You can be in awe of an athlete, and there's many athletes out there that you in awe of, but you wanna feel a part of that person.
I think people view me as a certain way, and I don't wanna let them down.
Are you any different than you were ten years ago? 20? 30? I'm just the way I've always been.
I look at myself and think I'm a good guy.
I truly believe, in the most part, that you get what you deserve in this world.
If you allow things to happen to you, they will happen to you.
You think O.
J.
's a good looking guy? If I liked guys, I'd do him.
Oh, God.
He would go in makeup and spoof people, like you've been "Juiced" or whatever the hell it was.
Oranges from O.
J.
O.
J.
, right here.
C'mon, help the Juice, I'm kinda down and out.
It was like going and seeing the two-headed cow at the circus or something.
The freak show.
Why do people wonder about my intentions Why do people ask me so many questions 'Bout how I made it to the top 'Bout all the times I made those defensive stops See the only way I live my life is large And I got the most game with 200-plus yards O.
J.
said, "if 90% of America thinks I'm a killer, who gives a shit what else they think?" I got Juiced And I said, "Well, what about your kids?" Living your life like some 24 year old multimillionaire punk ass, hit every strip club you can, have all the threesomes you can.
Don't care about what lives you're ruining.
What your kids are seeing.
What they're experiencing.
You don't care.
Because it's all about you.
I finally walked away after the last time I saw how he treated his kids.
And when I really started looking back on everything I said, "What in the hell did I do?" And with somebody that I grew up admiring and idolizing.
O.
J.
may not have a conscience.
He may not pay for killing two people, but I sure in the hell pay for helping him get away with it.
I pay.
New outrage tonight over O.
J.
Simpson.
Simpson is trying to sell books, and he's doing it in ways that have vividly revived memories of the murders and his acquittal.
Judith Regan, a sort of powerhouse publisher, told me about this project.
It's O.
J.
Simpson and we're gonna try to get a confession.
How could I not do it? They were willing to give him 700-plus thousand dollars as an advance.
At that point he not only needed the money, but thought in a while people would be less interested.
You know, on some level he felt he was being forgotten.
Like the years had gone by.
Fame's a terrible beast.
When you get a taste of that and people forget you, it's very hard.
I needed to sit down with him and get his story, and it was emotionally difficult for him.
He goes, "I'll tell you this.
If I did it, I couldn't have done it alone.
" So there was someone else there.
He said, "There might have been.
" And it was like he was playing this little game with me, but it wasn't a particularly clever game.
Then he told me about the ride home, up the alley.
I assumed he made a right and stopped at the traffic light, because I'd heard that somebody saw him.
He said, "No, no, I didn't stop at that traffic light.
I went up the alley and took a left, and went up Grut and Green to San Basini and on home.
" And then he saw the look on my face.
He says, "That's the way I would have gone, you know, had I done it.
" To me there was no doubt about it.
He wasn't making this stuff up.
I got there thinking he was a murderer, and I left there more convinced than ever that he was a murderer.
To give a voice to a murderer is beyond imagination.
Everybody is more than willing to jump in and play his game.
Because it's money for him and then it was gonna be money for them.
Well, we wanted to put an end to it.
Disgusted by money for blood, millions pressure publisher Rupert Murdoch, who fires the executive in charge and kills the book.
As the largest debtor we got the rights to the book.
So we read it and we were shocked.
It was as close to the confession as you could ever get.
We made one change and one change only: The title of the book.
We took the word if and made it very small, and laid it into the letter I.
So it was If I Did It.
We were hearing all over the place, we were wrong for doing it.
You know what, it was, okay, you think we're wrong, so what? It's all about money.
How much money is it gonna take to make you guys happy? It's not gonna bring Nicole or Ron back.
That book was inexplicable.
He was thinking, I'm not gonna say I did it, but I'm not gonna not say I did it.
So, it's this whole kind of striptease that goes on, and everybody's complicit in it.
Like any murder story, a few more twists.
Then a twist.
In a bizarre twist the Goldman What I think I found most disturbing It's the audience and our appetite for that kind of stuff.
Unlike most murder stories this one still lacks the chapter everyone expects: Justice.
Elvis, get your pelvis away from me.
The Vegas chapter is where everything just gets so damn sordid.
I can't sit here and authoritatively tell you what went down in Vegas, because it's too convoluted.
Mike Gilbert had been pilfering O.
J.
's stuff throughout.
You know, Mike's got his eye on the memorabilia, the historical value, the money, and O.
J.
's just running.
That's what O.
J.
does, right? He runs.
And in his wake, there's all this stuff, and all these people are picking up the stuff.
I got a call.
It was Al Beardsley.
He's this six foot six, 300 pound O.
J.
fanatic, saying "Tom, I saw you on TV with the Anna Nicole Diaries.
I got something even better.
I have all the stuff from O.
J.
's trophy room.
He didn't pay his bills, his agent stole them.
" Beardsley told me that a majority of the stuff was in Vegas.
Called O.
J.
O.
J.
said, "Look Tom, this is not memorabilia.
These are personal artifacts that were stolen from me.
My football that I was holding in my arms when I rushed for 2,000 yards.
The ring from my wife who died, that I was gonna give to my daughter.
" He kept talking about a photo signed by J.
Edgar Hoover.
J.
Edgar Hoover said he was a big fan of fine young men.
"Everyone thinks nothing bad happens to me.
Here I am being robbed.
Why don't we show the world that I have to go by myself to get my stuff back?" He says, "I was invited to a wedding in Vegas.
I can be in Vegas.
" If I Did It was due to be released on the day of the wedding that he was there.
So I said, "O.
J.
, great.
Sign 200 books for me.
" He goes, "Fuck, no.
" I go, "Dude, you're asking me to help you with this shit.
" And he says, "I'm gonna write on the books I didn't write this and then I'll sign it O.
J.
Simpson.
" I said, "That's good enough for me.
" "I'll take that.
" A free inscription, too.
I met him at the Palms, at a pool party at the Palms.
O.
J.
was wearing sunglasses and he was every bit the celebrity you would think he would be before the murders.
Girls were coming up to him, like young girls.
"Are you O.
J.
? Can I take a picture?" Sitting on his lap and he had his own cabana, with a dozen people in it.
"Hey, Juice.
" Like, weasely guys like "Hey Juice can I get you a drink? "Hey, Juice.
" He was sitting there telling stories and joking around, and we were all laughing.
I ended up going up to his room.
He said, "Listen.
These people stole my stuff, and they know they stole it.
We're gonna shock the hell of those guys.
I'm gonna have my buddies coming over, and man, they're gonna shit their pants when they see us.
" Know what I remember about that? I'm up in his room, watching on TV.
There's this pretty, beautiful brunette that comes out.
He said, "That's my goddaughter.
Her name is Kim.
" I am so excited to do my reality show.
She said, "I have a show about my family.
" It's me and my whole family.
What's it called? It's called Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
"My dad was such a great lawyer.
He got O.
J.
off the hook for murder.
" O.
J.
's like, "That's bullshit.
He was a family friend.
" He's yelling at the TV.
"Baby, your dad was shit.
" I'm like, this is weird.
I didn't know what the hell a Kardashian was.
"That show ain't gonna last two weeks," O.
J.
goes.
We get to the Palms.
Simpson's there.
He started talking about some guys who stole from him, and he wanted to show some strength.
He wanted to be intimidating.
He wanted me to come along with him as security since I was a licensed firearm holder, and because I considered him a friend, I decided I would help him.
At that time I had a lot of O.
J.
Simpson memorabilia.
Thousands of pieces.
Al Beardsley said, "Hey, I've got a buyer that wants to buy O.
J.
Simpson memorabilia, and he wants to buy a lot of it.
He'd like to meet at the Palace Station.
" I think a lot people go there for quick fixes.
You don't spend a lot of money, but you can get a lot done.
I loaded everything into my truck.
I was transporting over $100,000 worth of memorabilia.
Beardsley met me, took me inside, I meet Tom Riccio for the first time.
He says, "Yeah, my buyer will be here in a little while.
Can I see what you got?" I show him photographs, footballs.
This is all the stuff I've paid O.
J.
to sign over the years.
He says, "Is this all there is?" I said, "Yeah.
" He said, "I thought there was gonna be "a bunch of O.
J.
's personal memorabilia.
" I said, "This is all there is.
" Along with that I brought along some other stuff.
He was pushing Pete Rose stuff.
Joe Montana lithographs.
I'm like, "Dude, he's not interested.
He's an O.
J.
fan.
He wants O.
J.
's personal.
" Yeah, but if he's interested in O.
J.
, he's gonna want Joe Montana.
" A lot of the things that O.
J.
thought that I had were actually in the storage unit in San Francisco, that was lost to an auction.
But we had several lockers.
The one in Hanford, Bruce emptied it out, and he's been selling it for like 10 months.
Mike took it from O.
J.
, Fromong takes it from Mike.
Now, it turns into the Marx brothers.
Everybody is now acting like a lunatic.
I'm alone in the room with Bruce Fromong, and Al Beardsley.
Beardsley is a bit of a nut.
He went to prison for stalking.
O.
J.
's phone, he calls.
They're like, "All right, we'll be there in 15 minutes.
" After about an hour, they're all getting antsy.
They're like, "What's going on? This is bullshit.
" Blah, blah, blah.
It really seemed like a drug deal.
We got to the hotel, we had to wait for some more guys.
When all the other guys showed up, they didn't look like the most ferocious men.
It was a mismatched bunch.
One of them was a frumpy looking white dude, which like, what the hell's he doing here? One of them was an older black guy that looked like he could have been a librarian.
I never met so many con-men at one time, but everybody was trying to get money.
Everyone of them guys had something up for Simpson.
Them guys got confused where the room was.
They was on the elevator going up and down.
The room was like 12 something, but it was on the bottom floor.
It wasn't on the 12th story.
It was like a weird maze.
It was dumb.
This whole situation was a very dumb situation.
At the final stage, everyone met at that hallway where the room is.
They said, "They got guns?" I go, "No.
You guys got guns? Dude, do you guys got guns?" Room 1203.
I don't think I'll ever forget that room number.
Simpson asked me to look menacing, so I had my gun out, and he was getting angrier and angrier.
Riccio pulled the key out, opened the door, and we walked in the room.
I'm on the phone talking.
The door opens very quickly.
The men that were in the room were pretty damn surprised to see us, and they were even more surprised to see Simpson.
I'm seeing O.
J.
It had been quite awhile since I'd seen O.
J.
He had always been friendly, but this guy had a face on him that was just rage.
He's yelling and screaming, I'm yelling and screaming.
I'm telling the guys to move over, do this, do that.
I had no idea who was in the room, then.
No one briefly knew anything.
I pushed one of the guys into the bathroom, and told him not to come out of it.
It was a crowded room.
I guess there was a guy in the bathroom.
One or two of them were over by Beardsley.
Beardsley is like in love with O.
J.
, so he seems almost happy to see him.
"Hey, O.
J.
" And O.
J.
looks at him.
"O.
J.
, I thought we were friends.
" "I thought we were cool.
" The guy with the gun, he hits me in the shoulder and it knocked me backwards against the chair.
Then, he put the gun in my face, you know, kinda gangster style.
I said something to the effect, "You guys are lucky we're not in LA, or you'd all be laying down.
" I'll shoot your ass.
I couldn't believe I said it, but it was just something that I said.
Then I started saying bag stuff up.
What O.
J.
called his stuff, everybody called his stuff, I called it junk.
Boxes of pictures, some ties.
They're pushing the stuff back to him.
"Here, O.
J.
" What do you think you can do, stealing my shit, blah blah blah blah, and they're all apologizing, pushing it back.
Then, the guys started taking pillow cases and stuffing Pete Rowe stuff and Joe Montana.
Like, wait a minute.
That's not your stuff.
So, the first minute went exactly as O.
J.
scripted it.
The next three or four turned into an armed robbery.
He took my phone and I had just gotten it.
I go, "O.
J.
, don't take my phone.
I just got it.
" He takes it, he says, "I'll leave it at the desk.
" And O.
J.
left.
I went up to the front desk, and I said, "I need security, I was just robbed by O.
J.
Simpson.
" And they started laughing.
911 emergency.
I was just robbed by O.
J.
Simpson and four other black men at gun point.
We need the police here right away, ma'am.
You don't have to keep telling me that.
That's why I'm needing the descriptions for the officers.
Four black men and O.
J.
Simpson is not enough.
I'm gonna need to know what they were wearing.
The cops showed up and they were really lax about it.
They were like, "So, you were robbed, O.
J.
Simpson.
Who else was here, Al Cowlings?" Once we got back over to the Palms, first thing he said, "There was no gun.
There was no gun.
" So, right then I knew he had some shit with him.
He's trying to get ready to set up all this good O.
J.
Simpson look to make himself look legitimate.
Hello, guys.
Hi! Hi, how's it going? All is well.
You're trying to put your actor face back on.
You're trying to put your pitch man face back on.
God bless, hey guys.
Take care.
Happy weekend.
But he's not fooling me.
When I got home that day, I told my wife, "I think I just did a robbery.
" The first thing she asked me is, "Did you have your gun?" I was like, "Yeah.
" I was just fighting the reality of the answer, and I knew that the cops were gonna get involved, and I knew because it was Simpson that it was gonna get huge.
Later on, I went back to the Palace Station, back to the room where the recorder was.
You recorded that whole thing? I recorded it because there was a bunch of idiots going in a room and I didn't know what was gonna happen.
I wanted to make sure it was documented.
The police were searching the room.
The one six inch area where the recorder was, they didn't find it.
As I'm putting it in my pocket, the cop's like, "Get your shit and get the f out of here, right now.
" If you woke up and heard that O.
J.
Simpson is back in the news and under arrest, rest assured it's not Ground Hog day.
This time though, he's in a jail cell in Las Vegas after a confrontation, apparently caught on tape.
No Johnnie to save you this time, O.
J.
Two hours after the arrest, I got a hold of Harvey Levin.
I ended up selling the tapes for $150,000.
I was heartbroken by it.
O.
J.
, what were you thinking? What were you thinking? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You just walked away from a double murder and you do this? All rise for Judge Jackie Glass.
Nevada District Court is now in session.
The honorable Jackie Glass.
I was looking at 12, 13 years in prison, and I don't want any parts of that.
I wanted zero parts to do with that.
I started thinking, if I testify, I could clear myself up, and if I don't testify I'm gonna be a fool.
- tell the truth, so help you God? - I do.
Have a seat please.
As far as a street code not to talk on a witness stand, there's a bunch of guys in prison right now, all over the country, behind the code.
They gave their life up for the code, but I wasn't going to jail for no O.
J.
Simpson.
Not me.
If I'd have went to jail from him, think he would have come to visit me? No.
You think he would have gave me commissary? No.
Excuse my expression but fuck him.
This case was something built from a grain of salt into a mountain of salt.
You know what I mean? Count two, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, Guilty.
Count three C.
J.
Stewart went to jail for not taking the deal.
Even though I think I did nothing wrong, and I still contend to this day I did nothing wrong with the O.
J.
thing.
Could I have spent the next couple of years defending myself against something that I don't think I did? Yes.
So, I told my lawyer before I do anything, get me immunity.
Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? I do.
O.
J.
got duped.
O.
J.
got duped by Tom Riccio.
Tom Riccio lied to O.
J.
Simpson.
He said I know someone that's got thousands of pieces of your memorabilia.
He set O.
J.
Simpson up.
Oh yeah, Tom Riccio's a rat.
Who did I rat on, did I rat on anybody here? Name a person I ratted on.
Not that I have anything against ratting, if it would help the world, I'll rat.
But I didn't rat on anybody.
Riccio says that it was O.
J.
Simpson who was giving the orders in the room.
O.
J.
was definitely in charge.
I mean, I don't know what you'd call Maybe I did rat out some people.
I don't know, maybe I did with the O.
J.
thing, maybe I did.
All right, so I'm a rat.
Thomas Riccio, their star witness, one of my favorite people ever.
I was in Las Vegas and I was reporting for Entertainment Tonight about the trial.
Such a weird confluence of events.
How does this happen? So I was watching the preliminary hearing and at lunch break we were in the cafeteria and he showed up there.
It's O.
J.
and walked by.
Mr.
Simpson.
Ms.
Clark.
It was weird.
13 years to the day after O.
J.
Simpson was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, O.
J.
was found guilty of kidnapping and armed robbery in a Las Vegas courtroom Friday night.
What happened to Mr.
Simpson, to me He was being selfish.
He's been in a lot of pain.
Pain medication, drinking, trying to control everything goes on in his life, in his relationship, his finances.
And it wasn't as good as it used to be.
You know? It wasn't as great.
The whole big picture, his life, he was just tired.
He's street, and O.
J.
regrettably reverted back to Galileo High School.
You know? He reverted back to Hunter's Point.
Sorry.
I feel like apologetic to the people of the state of Nevada.
I've been coming to Nevada since 1959.
I worked summer jobs here for my uncle in '60 and '61.
I've been coming every since and I've never gotten into any trouble.
People have always been fine to me.
When I came here I came here for a wedding.
I didn't come here to I didn't come here to reclaim property.
I was told it was here.
I called my kids and I told them I had a chance to get some of our property back.
We've called the police and asked what to do.
They told us what to try to do.
You could never find out who was selling it.
This was the first time I had a opportunity to catch the guys red handed who had been stealing from my family.
I wasn't there to hurt anybody.
I just wanted my personal things, and I realize now it was stupid of me.
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody and I didn't know I was doing anything illegal.
I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property.
That guy, he should have been the model citizen.
Should have been in church every week.
Should have been helping kids.
Instead, he did more to hurt Africa-American young men and boys by putting on this charade.
He kept pushing the envelope.
You know? And why wouldn't he? I mean, if I got away with everything time after time after time Hey, I'm a god.
All right, for Mr.
Simpson.
All right, Mr.
Simpson, I'm gonna sentence you as follows.
Count one, conspiracy to commit a crime, one year in the county jail.
Count two, conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
A minimum term of 12 months, max term of 48 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Count three, conspiracy to commit robbery.
A minimum term of 12 months, max term of 48 months in the Nevada Department of Corrrections.
Count four, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon.
A minimum term of 26 months I went to an inner city high school and our football team was terrible, but our fighters were good, and we might lose the 4th quarter the ball game, but we were gonna win the 5th quarter after the game.
The fight.
So, it's called the 5th quarter.
Count five, the first degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon.
A fixed term of 15 years, parole eligibility beginning after five years.
Count six, the first degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon.
A fixed term of 15 years.
That was, at most, a two-year crime dripping wet.
The judge in that case held the jury out until 11 o'clock on a Friday night, 13 years to the day of O.
J.
Simpson's verdict on October 3rd.
That, in my mind, was not a coincidence.
Robbery with use of a deadly weapon.
A minimum term of 60 months.
A maximum term of 180 months.
Count eight, robbery with use of a deadly weapon.
A minimum term of 60 months.
A max term of a 180 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
The assault with a deadly weapon.
A minimum term of 18 months.
Max term of 72 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
And the 33 year sentence reflecting the 33 million dollars in the civil verdict was no coincidence.
That concludes today's sentencing.
And that was the 5th quarter.
They got back at O.
J.
for winning our case.
Thank you, thank you very much.
He didn't kidnap anybody.
Nobody was moved or tortured or hit and beat up.
There wasn't none of that.
He got played by the book.
In the legal term of the law, when he said nobody leaves this room, that is kidnapping.
That wasn't about justice.
They wanted the guy that got away with murder in 1994.
Here's the thing about it.
The guns are the thing about it.
They put guns to people's heads.
Someone could have died there.
The legal elements of the case were there.
Did the jury hammer him because of the murder trial? Wouldn't surprise me.
That is white justice in America, man.
Listen, I think anybody who is happy that any human being is gonna be stuck in a cage is a horrible person.
This is not a happy day for anybody.
We're thrilled.
It's kind of a bittersweet moment, knowing that that SOB is gonna be in jail for a very long time.
And he's gonna be where he belongs, with others of his kind.
And he can complain there.
Look, I voted no then.
Then he's a stupid ass to go out there and get into some more shit.
Somewhat.
But deep in my heart, I done what I felt was right at that time.
Back then, we took care of our own.
Now, you're on your own, Joe.
A lot of people gave a lot.
But ultimately, it was all a waste.
He wasn't deserving.
My main concern is a black man's image and the beating that it's taken.
O.
J.
reached the top of the mountain and when he fell off, it should not reflect on black people at all.
It should reflect on O.
J.
He had everything.
He had adoration.
Men loved him, women loved him, children loved him.
That's the way it should be.
I mean, how many people go through life like that? When you're running the ball, it's joy.
This is the natural state of things.
For somebody like O.
J.
Simpson, who came from where he came, to have accomplished what he accomplished, to have that brutal fall from grace.
It's really an American tragedy.
I don't know how I ended up here.
I just don't know how I ended up here.
I thought I lived a great life.
I thought I treated everybody well.
I went out of my way to make everybody comfortable and happy.
I felt the goodness in myself and the goodness I gave people.
I don't feel any goodness in myself right now.
I feel empty.
I feel totally empty.
I felt I have some last thing I gotta say to somebody.
Please remember me as the Juice.
Please remember me as a good guy.
Please.