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Former Brentwood resident OJ Simpson is now gone. Several have asked me to write something about this. This was a huge deal in Brentwood at the time (1994-95) and the Brentwood News got pulled into the vortex, big time.
I remember seeing all the blood on the Bundy sidewalk the morning of the murders. At first I didn’t know what it was, and I blurted out, “Is that blood?”
“No sh*t, Sherlock” came the answer from a CNN cameraman on the sidewalk in front of the condo where the murders took place.
Ten years ago, I wrote a “twenty years later” story, which you can find here: https://brentwoodnewsla.com/what-the-murders-at-bundy-drive-and-the-o-j-trial-did-for-brentwood/
I had met OJ several times. He was incredibly charming and charismatic. I introduced myself to him and Nicole Brown Simpson at a Brentwood restaurant one time. He wasn’t put out at all; he welcomed the attention and would have kept talking all night, I think.
Our daughters were in the same “Dance 4 Kids” recital. OJ was really good with all the little kids who begged for autographs. Most probably didn’t know who OJ was but asked for autographs at the urging of their parents.
I remember the day of the slow speed chase. I immediately headed over to OJ’s to get close to the action.
On the day the prosecutors asked OJ to put on the gloves, I was having a beer with my buddy Bill Foard, who helped start the Brentwood News. We were at the Brentwood Inn, a popular watering hole in Brentwood Village. We were all watching the OJ trial, live, on the big TV screen in the corner.
When the gloves didn’t fit, you could hear a collective gasp throughout the bar. We were all in shock.
Shortly thereafter, when OJ was acquitted, I wrote an article called “A Letter to OJ,” saying I thought, like many Brentwoodians, he was guilty.
We had a Black art director at the time and he was finishing up the final pages, just before we went to press.
When he read my column, he stormed into my office, saying, “You can’t write this.”
It was an almost physical confrontation, very face-to-face. I was quite shocked, really, as I thought OJ’s guilt was so obvious. Some of my colleagues got us both to back off.
But this event revealed up-close-and-personal how profound the racial divide was when it came to the OJ issue. Let’s face it: We still have issues.
We ran the article as I wrote it, and then, a day or two later, when the paper got delivered, my white friends started telling me I was crazy – that by saying I thought OJ was guilty, OJ would now come murder me.
I guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
