The Juice" Juices It Again

By Amy E. Wong

O.J. Simpson is in the news again. This time, he was supposed to appear in a two-part FOX interview that was set to air on Nov. 27 and 29, promoting his book If I Did It. The controversial interview, in which Simpson explains how he would have killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, was canceled on Monday, Nov. 20.

News Corp., owner of HarperCollins publishing company and FOX television network, has decided to pull the plug on their book and television special. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. said, "I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

Truthfully, I was appalled by this story. When the murder case first broke out in June 1994, I was a kid, excitedly coming home, expecting to watch my daily two-hour block of cartoons, only to flip on the TV to see Judge Ito's stoic face. Let me tell you, I wasn't too pleased then, and I aint pleased now. It seems like "The Juice" is really squeezing his celebrity and publicity for all its worth by cashing in on high-profile murders.

I know that Simpson was acquitted of the two murders in 1995, so I'm not supposed to point incriminating fingers. However, when I was doing some wikipedia research on the case, I was boggled by how Simpson even got free, considering the condemning evidence stacked against him:

• DNA analysis in, on, and near Simpson's Bronco revealed traces of Simpson's, Nicole's, and Goldman's blood.
• DNA analysis showed that bloody socks in Simpson's bedroom were Nicole's blood.
• Simpson claimed not to have met Goldman, but his hair was found on Goldman's shirt.
• Blood on gloves was a mixture of Simpson's, Nicole's, and Goldman's blood.
• Simpson's finger had a deep cut, received the night of the murder.
• After beating Nicole, Simpson was charged with domestic battery and sentenced to three years of community service.
• After Nicole lost a set of her home keys, she told several sources that Simpson probably stole them. The keys were later found in Simpson's home.
• Nicole claimed that Simpson stalked and threatened to kill her if he ever found her with another man.
• The left-hand glove found at Nicole's home matched the right hand glove found at Simpson's home. Simpson swore that he did not own these gloves, but several media pictures show Simpson donning these exact gloves.
• Bloody footprints at Nicole's home matched the expensive and rare Bruno Magli shoes. Not only did the footprint match Simpson's shoe size, but he was seen photographed wearing those exact same shoes at several NFL football games. Simpson swore under oath that he did not own such shoes.
• Nicole and Goldman's gash wounds match the 12-inch Stiletto knife that Simpson purchased six weeks prior to the murders.

I admit that the evidence could have been planted and that Simpson could have been framed.

After all, Nicole did hang around drug dealers and mafia members. Besides double murders, there were four other slayings and one attempted murder of people who were associated with Simpson, Nicole, and Goldman. Eleven months before Nicole's and Goldman's infamous deaths, Brett Canter, a friend of Ron Goldman, was murdered in an identical fashion: from behind, slashed across the throat with stab wounds to the arms and chest. In March 1995, with the media eye fixed on Simpson's murder case, Simpson's friend, Charles Minor, was murdered. Furthermore, the killing techniques in these cases are similar to those of Frankie Viserto, a hitman close to convicted drug smuggler, Joey Ippolito. Perhaps, and this is just pure surface speculation, Ippolito (with whom Nicole and Goldman has business affiliations) dispatched several of his hitmen to kill these people. Perhaps, Simpson was framed so that the blame would be diverted from Ippolito's posse. (I'm just playing devil's advocate here.)

Frankly, I'm not sure what to think. My mind is going to explode the same way the juror's head exploded in South Park upon hearing the Cochran's Chewbacca defense.

All I know is that Simpson's a pretty irrational creep. We cannot ignore Simpson's reaction following the double murders. We cannot negate the fact that he wrote a suicide note, that he attempted to flee the police, that he had self-incriminating evidence from the police, that he lied about owning the shoes and gloves, that he couldn't recollect how he cut his finger on the night of the murders, that there were discrepancies in his statements when disclosing his alibi, and most important of all, that his DNA was on both victims and that both victim's blood were found in his car and home.

Word to the wise, News Corps. and Simpson, it just aint cool to profit on people's murder. Not when the murder is twelve years old, and especially not during our Thanksgiving Holiday. Tsk, tsk, tasteless.