CASE SPAWNED A CIRCUS
Frenzy over Simpson’s alleged crimes turned many side players into dubious celebrities
O.J. Simpson wasn’t the first major American celebrity to be put on trial and he certainly hasn’t been the last, but for those of us who were around in the 1990s and remember the news of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, the arrest of Simpson, the subsequent criminal and civil trials against him, and all the madness that surrounded these events, it’s almost impossible to overstate the impact it all had on the popular culture. I wrote dozens and dozens of columns about the Simpson circus at the time; it seemed as if nearly every day for a couple of years, there was some new and bizarre development.
In the wake of Simpson’s death Wednesday night, let’s take a look at some of the ways the Simpson case impacted the popular culture — and continued to reverberate for decades.
On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death outside of Nicole’s condominium at 875 S. Bundy Dr. in Brentwood. (Like many an infamous crime scene address, the property has since been relabeled, to 879 Bundy.)
Just five days later, on the evening of June 17, NBC was showing Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks when the network switched to live coverage of Los Angeles Police tracking a white Bronco driven by Simpson’s pal and former teammate Al Cowlings, with Simpson in the back seat, holding a gun to his own head. Later that evening, over on ABC, anchor Peter Jennings was the victim of one of the most famous phone pranks of all time, with an idiot caller pretending to be a witness to events outside Simpson’s home. Sportscaster Al Michaels jumped in and said, “Peter … that was a totally farcical call. Lest anybody think that that was somebody who was truly across the street, that was not.”
Just a few months later, the white Bronco chase was the inspiration for a “Seinfeld” episode, which utilized actual news footage as part of the parody. As for Al Cowlings (who was hardly wellknown even though he had played pro ball), he was just the first in a long, long line of friends and associates and lawyers for Simpson, along with prosecuting attorneys, the judge and other tangential characters, who were given 15 or even 16 minutes of fame along the way.
Remember Brian “Kato” Kaelin, the long-haired, laid-back wannabe actor who was staying in the guest house on Simpson’s Rockingham estate on the night of the murders? Kaelin parlayed his dubious fame into TV and radio gigs. Meanwhile, Nicole’s friend Faye Resnick collaborated on two books about the case, posed nude for Playboy and appeared on episodes of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Then there was the late Robert Kardashian, Simpson’s longtime friend and attorney, who appeared shocked when the verdict was read. You might have heard of his children: Rob, Kim, Khloë and Kourtney.
Prosecuting attorney Marcia Clark saw her hairstyle and wardrobe choices become the subject of intense media scrutiny. Judge Lance Ito, who adorned his bench with hourglasses, found himself parodied on “The Tonight Show,” which featured a “Dancing Itos” routine that was painfully unfunny. Simpson’s defense team kept growing, with high-profile additions such as F. Lee Bailey (who had been involved in the real-life murder trial that inspired “The Fugitive,” among many well-known cases), and the flamboyant and beloved Johnnie Cochran, who wiped the floor with the prosecution.
After Simpson was found not guilty following a stunningly short period of deliberation by the jurors, the craziness continued, with Simpson throwing a massive victory party at his Rockingham estate — and police units assigned to provide protection and crowd control.
Through the civil trial and beyond, the books and TV specials and magazine articles kept on coming. (In 1997, I wrote a column about my lunch in Chicago with O.J.’s ex-girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, who had written a book about her time with Simpson. She wanted a hot dog, so we went to the old Gold Coast Dogs on State Street, and she said grace before the meal, during which she talked about
how it wasn’t exactly easy getting back into the dating game after breaking up with arguably the most notorious man in America.)
The most insane book, by far, was Simpson’s own, titled, “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer,” in which Simpson outlined what he said was a hypothetical description of how he would have committed the murders. The profits from the book were awarded to the Goldman family as partial compensation for the $33.5 million that Simpson owed them from the wrongful death civil suit judgment.
Fast forward some 20 years later, to 2016, and the release of the FX series “The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” with Cuba Gooding Jr., as Simpson, Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran and Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden. The show was a massive hit and won eight Emmy Awards. Three years after that, O.J. Simpson created a Twitter account where he would regularly post videos offering his thoughts about fantasy football and politics and even cases such as the Gwyneth Paltrow ski collision trial and the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, usually against the backdrop of sunny skies and palm trees and swimming pools and golf courses. His onetime vow to find “the real killers” seemed to have been lost to the years.
So, yes, the Simpson case and its aftermath provided fountains of great material through the years. What I tried never to lose sight of was this: Two innocent people were murdered, and there’s never been any real doubt about who did it.