The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson (76 page)

This book was written during a fellowship at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University. I am grateful to all my colleagues there, especially its leaders during my tenure, Everette Dennis, Nancy Hicks Maynard, and Nancy Woodhull. Matt Dallek provided terrific research assistance and welcome companionship. My gratitude also to Nancy Grimes for her help at an earlier stage. I thank the West Publishing Company for providing me with on-line access to the trial transcript.

I could not have had a more supportive publisher. At Random House, Ann Godoff steered this project (and me) with confidence, savvy, and good cheer. The copy-editing team of Beth Pearson and Veronica Windholz greatly improved the manuscript. To Elsa Burt, Enrica Gadler, Ivan Held, Carol Schneider, and the boss, Harry Evans, my thanks for their enthusiasm. My agent, Esther Newberg, was (and is) always three steps ahead of everybody.

I must have done something right in my life to deserve friends like Michael Lynton, Jamie Alter, and Eloise Lynton, who allowed me to become the second-most-notorious houseguest in Los Angeles.

Thank you, also, to Wendy Gray and the Pirate.

I have been covering the Simpson case for almost half of my daughter’s life and about two-thirds of my son’s. Ellen brought great sophistication to her analysis of the case (“I think O.J. Simpson should be in time-out for a long time!”) and Adam a healthy skepticism for the whole endeavor (“No O.J., Daddy!”). They have flourished so much despite their father’s frequent absences because of their mother, Amy McIntosh. In addition to her duties at home, my beloved McIntosh has also scaled her own professional heights during this period and still found time to edit this manuscript with care. I treasure the adventure of our life together.

New York City

July 1996
       

This book is based principally on my observations and interviews during the two years I covered the Simpson case. During this time, I interviewed more than two hundred people for this book. Many of them spoke to me on the condition that I not report what they said until Simpson’s criminal trial had ended. All quotations from private conversations come either from the person who made the comment or a person who heard it. All quotations from court proceedings come from the official court transcript. In Chapter 2, all of the statements by the police officers come from their grand jury, preliminary hearing, or trial testimony, but my account is also based on my interviews with the participants and the internal police reports of the investigation.

In addition to my own efforts, I have steeped myself in the voluminous media coverage of the case. I wish to acknowledge my great debt to my colleagues in the Simpson press corps. In addition to the works cited by name below, I also studied the continuing coverage of the case by a number of journalists. The
Los Angeles Times
served as the newspaper of record on the case, and I learned a great deal from the work of Jim Newton, Andrea Ford, Henry Weinstein, Tim Rutten, Stephanie Simon, Ralph Frammolino, and especially Bill Boyarsky in his invaluable column, “The Spin.” Also in the
Times
, I profited from the conscientious and thoughtful analysis of the case by (and my own conversations with) Professors Peter Arenella and Laurie Levenson. My work as a magazine writer was made more difficult by David Margolick’s brilliant and witty daily coverage of the trial in
The New York Times
; my thanks to him nonetheless. I also express my appreciation to Linda Deutsch and Michael Fleeman of the Associated Press; Mark Miller and Donna Foote of
Newsweek
; Elaine Lafferty and Jim Willwerth of
Time
; Michelle Caruso of the New York
Daily News
; Ann Bollinger of the
New York Post
; Sally Ann Stewart of
USA Today
; Shirley Perlman and Joe Demma of
Newsday
; Lorraine Adams of
The Washington Post
; and the inimitable Dominick Dunne of
Vanity Fair
.

I watched a lot of television, too. I always learned a great deal from my friends Dan Abrams and Kristin Jeannette-Meyers and all of their colleagues at Court TV, as well as from Jack Ford at NBC, Cynthia McFadden
at ABC, and Bill Whitaker at CBS. Thanks, too, to Jim Moret and the Simpson coverage team at CNN. For assisting me in tracking down videotapes and transcripts of television coverage of the case, I thank Tracy Day of ABC, Stacie Griffith of NBC, Tom Mazzarelli of CNN, and Sybil MacDonald of KCBS in Los Angeles.

I drew on the following books and articles in my analysis of the case and its context.

Abramson, Jeffrey, ed.
Postmortem
. New York: Basic Books, 1996.

Bailey, F. Lee.
To Be a Trial Lawyer
. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1994).

—–, with Harvey Aronson.
The Defense Never Rests
. New York: Signet, 1972.

—–, with John Greenya.
For the Defense
. New York: Atheneum, 1975.

Barich, Bill.
Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California
. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Berry, Barbara Cochran, with Joanne Parrent.
Life After Johnnie Cochran
. New York: Basic Books, 1995.

Bugliosi, Vincent, with Curt Gentry.
Helter Skelter
. New York: Pocket Books, 1975.

—–.
Outrage
. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1996.

Cooley, Armanda, Carrie Bess, and Marsha Rubin-Jackson.
Madam Foreman
. Beverly Hills: Dove Books, 1995.

Darden, Christopher, with Jess Walter.
In Contempt
. New York: Regan Books, 1996.

Davis, Mike.
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

Dershowitz, Alan M.
The Abuse Excuse
. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1994.

—–.
The Best Defense
. New York: Random House, 1982.

—–.
Reasonable Doubts
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Deutsch, Linda, and Michael Fleeman.
Verdict
. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1995.

Didion, Joan.
After Henry
. New York: Vintage International, 1992.

—–.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968.

—–.
The White Album
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.

Domanick, Joe.
To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD at War in the City of Dreams
. New York: Pocket Books, 1994.

Dutton, Donald G., with Susan K. Golant.
The Batterer: A Psychological Profile
. New York: Basic Books, 1995.

Elias, Tom, and Dennis Schatzman.
The Simpson Trial in Black and White
. Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1996.

Eliot, Marc.
Kato Kaelin: The Whole Truth
. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1995.

Fox, Larry.
The O.J. Simpson Story: Born to Run
. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1974.

Gebhard, David, and Robert Winter.
Los Angeles: An Architectural Guide
. Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 1994.

George, Lynell.
No Crystal Stair: African-Americans in the City of Angels
. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.

Horne, Gerald.
Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s
. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995.

Kennedy, Tracy, Judith Kennedy, and Alan Abrahamson.
Mistrial of the Century
. Beverly Hills: Dove Books, 1995.

Knox, Michael, with Mike Walker.
The Private Diary of an OJ Juror
. Beverly Hills: Dove Books, 1995.

Lardner, George, Jr.
The Stalking of Kristin
. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.

Los Angeles Times
staff.
In Pursuit of Justice
. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times, 1995.

McWilliams, Carey.
Southern California Country: An Island on the Land
. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.

Ovnick, Merry.
Los Angeles: The End of the Rainbow
. Los Angeles: Balcony Press, 1994.

Reid, David, ed.
Sex, Death and God in L.A
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Resnick, Faye, with Mike Walker.
Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted
. Beverly Hills: Dove Books, 1994.

Shapiro, Robert L., with Larkin Warren.
The Search for Justice
. New York: Warner Books, 1996.

Simpson, O.J.
I Want to Tell You
. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1995.

—–, with Pete Axthelm.
OJ: The Education of a Rich Rookie
. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Sonenshein, Raphael J.
Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles
. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Starr, Kevin.
Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

—–.
Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Turner, Patricia A.
I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Uelman, Gerald F.
Lessons from the Trial: The People v. O.J. Simpson
. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1996.

Vernon, Robert.
L.A. Justice: Lessons from the Firestorm
. Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family Publishing, 1993.

Weller, Sheila.
Raging Heart
. New York: Pocket Books, 1995.

Colvin, Richard Lee, and Tina Daunt. “Shapiro Now Faces His Defining Moment,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 26, 1994, p. A1.

Dunne, John Gregory. “The Simpsons,”
The New York Review of Books
, September 22, 1994, p. 34.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man,”
The New Yorker
, October 23, 1995, p. 56.

Goodman, Michael J. “For the Defense, Johnnie Cochran,”
Los Angeles Times Magazine
, January 29, 1995, p. 10.

Hancock, LynNell, et al. “Putting Working Moms in Custody,”
Newsweek
, March 13, 1995, p. 54.

Holden, Benjamin A., et al. “Race Seems to Play an Increasing Role in Many Jury Verdicts,”
The Wall Street Journal
, October 4, 1995, p. A1.

Jervey, Gay. “Michael and Reggie’s Magician,”
The American Lawyer
, May 1994, p. 56.

Jones, Tamara. “The Silent Persuader: Johnnie Cochran,”
The Washingtonton Post
, October 3, 1995, p. B1.

Katz, Jon. “Guilty,”
Wired
, September 1995, p. 130.

Krikorian, Greg. “Co-Workers Paint Different Portrait of Mark Fuhrman,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 8, 1995, p. A1.

Lafferty, Elaine, et al. “The Simpson Verdict,”
Time
, October 16, 1995, p. 48.

Lopez, Robert J. and Jesse Katz. “Nicole Brown Anti-Abuse Charity Beset by Problems,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 10, 1995, p. A1.

Margolick, David. “Trial Lawyer Now Forced to Fight His Fame While Battling for His Client,”
The New York Times
, January 20, 1995, p. A12.

—–. “Prosecutor of Distinction,”
The New York Times
, January 22, 1995, p. A17.

Newton, Jim. “Jackson Being Persecuted, Ministers Say,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 19, 1994, p. A5.

Noble, Kenneth B. “A Showman in the Courtroom, for Whom Race Is a Defining Issue,”
The New York Times
, January 20, 1995, p. A13.

Parloff, Roger. “How Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld Tripped Up the DNA Experts,”
The American Lawyer
, December 1989, p. 50.

Perlman, Shirley. “Judge Ito Steals the Show,”
Newsday
, November 13, 1994, p. A7.

Reibstein, Larry, et al. “Disorder in the Court,”
Newsweek
, April 17, 1995, p. 26.

Schaeffer, Danna Wilner. “How to Be Marcia Clark,”
Mirabella
, January/February 1996, p. 30.

Shapiro, Robert L. “Using the Media to Your Advantage,”
The Champion
, January/February 1993, p. 7.

Silverman, Ira, and Fredric Dannen. “A Complicated Life,”
The New Yorker
, March 11, 1996, p. 44.

Sipchen, Bob. “Schiller’s Twist,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 3, 1995, p. E1.

Simpson, O.J. “The Playboy Interview,”
Playboy
, December 1976, p. 77.

Turow, Scott. “Simpson Prosecutors Pay for Their Blunders,”
The New York Times
, October 4, 1995, p. A 31.

Weathers, Diane. “The Other Side of Johnnie Cochran,”
Essence
, November 1995, p. 87.

Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case
—

United States v. Oliver North

Before becoming a staff writer at
The New Yorker
in 1993, J
EFFREY
T
OOBIN
served as an assistant United States attorney in Brooklyn and as an associate counsel in the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh—which provided the basis for his book
Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case—United States v. Oliver North
. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.