If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer Paperback – September 8, 2008

I loved this book because it gives the insight into the relationship from the Simpsons' side, even though I know it is one sided. Some of everything has some semblance of truth to it, so I believe some of the love part of it and noted that some things in this book are told differently by him in his other writings and statements, elsewhere. Don't be fooled about the title. There is only a small portion dedicated to the actual event where he gives a hypothetical of what happened. It sounded stupid because he added some fake person named Charlie and pretended he didn't know where all the blood came from or what happened and how Ron went into a karate stance and started bobbing and weaving. It just sounded stupid, though the part about Nicole losing her balance and falling to the ground sounded feasable. The rest of the book is a love story that went wrong. I was a follower of this case and I watched everything and heard all of the evidence. I bought all of the books. This one I read years ago and I read it again a few days ago. The 20th anniversary brought back my interest. There are areas in the book where he states something different than what he stated in his book "I want to tell you". I know this book is all about OJ and what a good person he is. I didn't believe it all for a second. So much of it I took with a grain of salt because I know he isn't telling the whole truth. He made himself look good and made his ex-wife look like she was a bad person, though he supposedly "loved her so much". I believe that he did love her at one point in time but I also believe that he would sell his soul to make it so people believed that he was the good guy; the INNOCENT good guy. Not buying it. In one instance of the book he stated that there was no cut on his finger when he was on the plane and someone had asked to see his ring and that person didn't see a cut...yet in the same book he printed the whole Vanatter/Lange interview where he admits that his finger was cut and he was rushing around and dripping blood BEFORE he went to Chicago...so which is it OJ? How come he can recall every detail to the nth degree of everything else, but can't remember how he got cut? How come in the civil trial deposition he lied and stated that he and Paula had not gotten into a argument about her not being able to attend the recital, yet in this book he stated that they did get into an argument. He even explained why he didn't want to take her. I believe he is a big liar. You should read the book by Dan Petrocelli (Triumph of Justice). That is a great read; a real page turner and will open your eyes a bit. A couple things intrigued me in this book...OJ stated that he was at Kardashians' house and in the bathroom trying to get ready and his arms felt like they didn't want to move and that they felt sore like he had gone to the gym. Well, yeah. I guess they would feel sore after the workout he got while he was murdering two people. I think that was a notable slip up. Another thing that intrigues everybody is about the Ben and Jerry's ice cream that was on the banister melting in the garage at the Bundy residence and the knife on the counter. Remember that Nicoles' driveway and garage are at the back of the house, off of the alley. In this book, OJ stated that he called Nicole that evening because he wanted to speak with his daughter, Sydney, so that he could congratulate her on the recital, which he had already done a couple hours earlier. What I think REALLY happened is that he called the house and he and Nicole got into a heated argument over the phone. I think him calling the house was because he really he wanted to talk to Nicole and used asking to speak to Sydney as a cover. I think he may have asked for Sydney and Nicole wouldn't let him talk to her and the denial started him to seethe. Remember Sydney said she heard her mother talking on the phone with her friend, and crying. I think Nicole and OJ had gotten into a huge, nasty argument and after they hung up, Nicole called her friend, crying. I think that OJ later went to the home because he was seething and Nicole heard a car pull up in the rear, which as he admitted, is where he always parked. I think she heard a car and was eating the ice cream. I think she was scared and she went to the garage with the ice cream in her hand and put it onto the banister while she tried to see who had pulled into the alley. I think she was fearful of any cars pulling into the alleyway, thinking it may be OJ due to the big fight they had and the fact that is how he operates (remember Gretna Green). In my garage, there are vents at the bottom of the doors and you can look through those vents to see to the outside. I think that is what she did and in her fear, she left the garage, left her ice cream on the banister and came back into the house to get the knife. From that point, it is a mystery as to why she opened the door and went outside UNLESS she felt that her "knight in shining armor" (Ron) had shown up at the front gate and she then had someone there who could protect her from OJ. So, she put the knife down, went out to open the gate, when Ron buzzed, as the latch was not working...but OJ had already come through the rear. She didn't see OJ. She let Ron in. OJ was now furious thinking that all the candles and the music in the home was for her and Ron...and his kids were sleeping upstairs. From that point all hell broke loose. The three of them in that small area. He couldn't let Ron live because Ron could identify him. This is only what I THINK happened. I guess we will never know, unless OJ is on his dying bed and decides that he wants to make some last minute cash to leave his kids. Then he might think about a true confession. This one certainly was not it.

As someone who was growing up during the events that unfolded during this book, I felt this circumstance was probably my first real look as an adult into the world of celebrity crime, etc. Like a real life CSI show, it was not hard at the time to remain fascinated by the details of the case and the celebrity aspect. However, I take a different view now after reading so many books on the subject and feel sorry for the families of the victoms who had to watch an egomaniac get away with murder and flaunt it openly to them despite a mountain of evidence that a small portion of would have convicted almost anyone else with.One of my favorite books about the trial is Mark Fuhrman's 'Murder in Brentwood'. It lays out an almost textbook/classroom lecture about the forensic mistakes and the policework while also laying out a blue print of what went wrong in the trial. This book, 'I Did It' confuses me a bit and falls short of what I was hoping for. There was really only one chapter, which also happened to be the shortest chapter of the book that deals with the actual events of the murders and much of it deals with a blackout and an obviously made up accomplice.The chapter on the murders almost seems to be written different than every other part of the book, which sounds like OJ Simpson is basically sitting down with a bottle of liquor and talking to someone about how evil, terrible, insane, etc. his ex-wife Nichole was and how he tried so hard to make everything work despite her craziness. I think if this book sheds light on anything regarding the murders, it is that OJ Simpson has a sociopathic narcissistic personality where everything is about him, he is never wrong, people do him wrong and he is entitled to anything he wants. Ad naseum.This book contains page after page ... chapter after chapter ... or intimate details about (OJ's side) of the volitile relationship with Nichole and himself. One would probably classify this as rambling because it just goes on and on with every little detail about every light fight and interaction Nichole and OJ had over their 17 years together and all ends up with OJ being the one trying to hold everything together and a crazy, violent, drug addicted Nichole ruining it at every turn.Spoiler alert ...Finally, I got to the chapter of the actual murder and it seemed to go by amazingly fast. It really didn't tell much about the murders. All of a sudden this 'Charlie' accomplice character pops up. It is clear that this was designed to throw a monkey wrench into the forensics of the situation and probably could be used as a scapegoat of Simpson to say, 'See ... I am innocent. There is no way the evidence backs up an accomplice.' AFTER he had taken in the money from the book, or so he thought. It is clear that Charlie is the voice in Simpson's head. OJ takes us through the events leading up to the murders outside Nichole's condo. He is in a rage. His descriptions to the reader are that of a violent person in a rage ... whereas 'Charlie' is begging him not to do it. Charlie is aghast at the outcome while OJ is clearheaded and calling the shots about how to dispose of the clothing and not get caught. I think this 'conversation' was going on in OJ's head ... the panic and horror vs. the satisfaction and cool headedness.I agree with other comments. The fact that OJ had a knife under the seat and a knit cap and gloves in the Bronco (in California) was unbelievable. He made it seem like 'Charlie' had come by to tell OJ Nichole was involved in an orgy and that set OJ into a rage where he jumped into the Bronco to go 'take care of this woman'. The only believable part of this account was when he spoke of Ron Goldman. Basically, OJ was taunting Ron Goldman ... believing he slept with Nichole. He says Ron nervously tries to diffuse the situation saying he is just a waiter coming by to drop off glasses and nervously saying that he wasn't sleeping with Nichole. OJ says that once Ron senses that OJ is about to hit him, he gets into a Karate pose and that enrages OJ who says, "Lets see how tough you really are mf" and that is the end of Ron Goldman. The the blackout comes, the horror, the nervousness about getting caught.The next chapter basically is just a word for word transcript of the interrogation. Which is a complete sham. I can't believe that they didn't get OJ to talk about his feelings towards the police. Or how surprised he was that even though he 'blew' several answers and couldn't explain things, etc. the police let him off the hook. Furmahn has a great chapter in his book that also gives a transcript of the interrogation but also provides Furmahn outlining why the officers blew the interrogation and what they should have been asking/saying.After that comes a chapter about Nichole's funeral and a really brief chapter about the Bronco chase, which doesn't go into too much detail at all about what was going on except a couple sentences about how OJ was thinking about killing himself with the gun he brought into the Bronco. It is in this chapter that for the first time in the whole book OJ talks about how sad he is that the situation between him and Nichole ended the way it did and that he is a human capable of emotions other than placing the blame on Nichole. However, most of the sadness in this chapter seems to come from the fact he knows that he is likely to go away to jail and miss his kids.The main focus on the book is a 'love story' about him and Nichole and anyone expecting a huge outline of the case, the trial, the murder or the interrogation will be dissapointed. I really do believe after reading this that it is not a confession as much as it is a slick way for OJ Simpson to make money on the situation. It reminds me very much of when Joran Vandersloot offered to tell the Holloways where Natalie's body was for $250,000. Obviously, Joran had killed Natalie or at least covered up the truth about her death but for some reason, he took the money but made up a completely fictitious story about where the body was. This seems like the same exact thing happening in this book only OJ had the benefit that he had been aquitted of the crime and could no longer be tried for it and had a very good legal team who could help him around the pitfalls of basically extorting to the public in this way through book sales vs. a flat out demand of $250,000 as in the Vandersloot case.The ghostwriter's forward is probably one of the best chapters in the book and really sets the tone and works well before reading the actual Simpson part. The end part where the lawyer talks about how the book came to be makes you almost as mad at lawyers as you are at a killer like Simpson. You can see how just as in the trial where justice was twisted in OJ's favor by unscrupulous lawyers ... again the lawyers had to twist things while trying to get this book published or not. There is an interesting part in the book that talks about the first time the book deal was stopped and a high powered judge offered to read the surviving manuscript of the book in the living room of the ghost writer. At the very least, we get to read what many people could only imagine about a few years ago. It really didn't provide me with too many insights into the case. It was weird to go into the twisted mind of OJ Simpson for a bit but I prefer Fuhrman's 'Murder in Brentwood' and OJ's attorney's book 'How I helped OJ Get Away With Murder' which was more of a tabloid read but had some interesting insights into the case.One thing about this book ... it was a quick read. Two days.