The Trial of the Century (Part 4) — The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson — Full Episode

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Denise answered the phone and she said, "Deanne, it's Nicole!" [00:00:09] Speaker 2: He said the kids were fine. They were at the police station. [00:00:13] Speaker 3: What the kids could have heard, what are they thinking? [00:00:16] Speaker 4: I would have promised to Nicole that I would do everything in my power to protect them. [00:00:21] Speaker 1: We know where he is. He's on the 405 freeway coming down here to us. [00:00:27] Speaker 5: When I was told I would never be able to testify, I was going to get that information out there some way, somehow. [00:00:34] Speaker 6: The controversy was Faye felt that she had to show some of the flaws in Nicole. It wasn't as if any of us are saints. [00:00:42] Speaker 7: Nicole, she had a safe deposit box and she had a diary, essentially a list of abuse. It still gives me chills. [00:00:51] Speaker 8: Why can't I protect her? Why didn't she just leave? [00:00:57] Speaker 9: Do you believe O.J. is guilty or not guilty? [00:01:01] Speaker 6: He was guilty. No question. In my mind, O.J. Simpson's guilty. [00:01:06] Speaker 10: I believed from the very, very beginning that he was guilty. [00:01:09] Speaker 11: Oh, guilty as hell. Simpson? [00:01:13] Speaker 10: There was no doubt in my mind that O.J. was guilty of these murders. [00:01:18] Speaker 12: I mean, everything pointed to him. It's like the only thing that wasn't left behind is, "Hello, my name is O.J." tag. [00:01:24] Speaker 13: I don't think anybody knows. Weird things happen all the time that can't be explained or that don't seem logical. I can't say that that's not the situation here. [00:01:35] Speaker 14: You show me any real evidence and I'll go look for a real suspect. There is nothing that points in any other direction than O.J. Simpson. [00:01:42] Speaker 1: I believe that O.J. took that knife. I believe he was trying to scare Nicole and he got carried away. And I do believe he did it. [00:01:52] Speaker 3: A lot of people turned around to say, "Well, he was found innocent." Not guilty does not mean you're innocent. [00:02:02] Speaker 4: There are kids involved and they don't have their mother. I knew that somebody was to blame and I knew that somehow there was involvement. I didn't know to what extent, you know what I mean? I didn't, I still don't know. [00:02:47] Speaker 15: I found 49 cameramen, 25 anchors, 20 producers I could see but a lot of them were inside a truck. [00:03:03] Speaker 16: The evidence found in the house of O.J. Simpson. [00:03:07] Speaker 17: This was a jury of millions and hundreds of millions of people. What's your verdict? Is O.J. Simpson guilty or innocent? [00:03:16] Speaker 3: Oh my God, what a nightmare we lived. We were driving down to go to court and hearing the helicopters and listening to the play-by-play on the radio. Oh yeah, they're following the van and the van is going to the criminal court. [00:03:32] Speaker 17: That's Nicole's mother and sister. Right down to 10:58. Did you get that? [00:03:36] Speaker 3: We would be driven underneath the courthouse into the basement down there. And underground is also where the criminals go, in the buses. So we were down there and then they took us up to, you know, the criminal court. And that was like every day for 18 months. [00:04:00] Speaker 18: I was the criminal court's reporter at City News Service. I was there every day, all day. There was an entire camp of news vans and vehicles across the street. We called it Camp O.J. There was an entire separate press room on the 11th floor full of people and it was a listening room. There was such an insatiable appetite from the public for details of this story. [00:04:26] Speaker 19: The attention seekers, the curious. Please don't forget the victim. [00:04:31] Speaker 20: It was a cash cow for so many organizations. Police, the security, everything around that trial went from justice to a business opportunity. [00:04:43] Speaker 21: On the days that I would go over to the criminal court, just many days, I would pass through vendors selling bumper stickers or clothing. [00:04:51] Speaker 22: O.J. today, O.J. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the O.J. watch featuring a spinning car, police car, chasing a spinning white Bronco. Oh, it's got a compass on it too. Why not? [00:05:09] Speaker 21: I remember that the sort of pop culture aspects of this throughout. I remember the dancing Itos. Weekend Update and Norm MacDonald, you know, sort of with a cocked eyebrow indicating how guilty he thought, uh, Simpson was. The book is entitled "God Himself Told Me That O.J. Is Guilty." [00:05:30] Speaker 22: Norm MacDonald ultimately lost his Weekend Update gig because Don Ohlmeyer, a NBC executive, was good friends with O.J. [00:05:39] Speaker 21: Really, the sense of it, of the case lifting off from a criminal proceeding and becoming this kind of cultural phenomenon was strange to observe. [00:05:49] Speaker 13: Let's talk a little about O.J. please, because I have to get it off my chest. [00:05:53] Speaker 23: O.J. O.J. was big. That's right. Black people too happy, white people too mad. [00:05:59] Speaker 24: Every time I see that walk, I think he did it. You see him, you do that? Oh no, O.J. has struck again. How about that? [00:06:07] Speaker 25: How the f*** I'ma drop a glove at the scene of the crime? [00:06:12] Speaker 26: He hit his first wife. He didn't kill her. [00:06:15] Speaker 14: The hardest part is, let's say you're watching a sitcom. Wouldn't you know it, it won't fit. [00:06:22] Speaker 27: Ah! Oh my God! [00:06:24] Speaker 13: It doesn't fit. Look at that! If Chewbacca lives on Endo, you must acquit. Damn, I hate that Catherine guy. [00:06:30] Speaker 14: You know, it's just ridiculous. And it wasn't a joke. To me, it's two people that lost their lives by somebody's hand. [00:06:41] Speaker 4: There was so much stuff going on, and dirt and trash and this and that. It was just ridiculous. Everything was just real ridiculous. It was overblown and nonsensical, really. Because it didn't have to do with the murder of Ron and Nicole. [00:07:03] Speaker 17: The prosecution's diary of Nicole's terror are a key part of the DA's case. [00:07:08] Speaker 4: Reports are the brutal images were tucked away here in a safe deposit box. [00:07:13] Speaker 21: What became more clear, especially once the contents of the safe deposit box were revealed, was that Nicole had been injured on occasion. Her diary and the letters from Simpson, I mean, all of it just gave illumination to really a protracted, violent, threatening marriage. It was not in the defense's interest to vilify Nicole Simpson exactly. But it was in their interest to portray her as sort of an equal participant in the violence. [00:07:49] Speaker 13: My name is Robert Blazier. I am a defense attorney. I was one of the attorneys in both the criminal and civil O.J. Simpson case. The evidence seemed to be pretty clear that Nicole Brown Simpson and O.J. Simpson had a very violent situation between the two of them. It wasn't kind of one person dominates and the other person is submissive. They were both very forceful type people. In situations where there's domestic violence, homicides generally don't result. [00:08:28] Speaker 17: For two days now, the diary, or divorce memo, as the defense calls it, has been the topic of the live TV court coverage. [00:08:35] Speaker 27: According to the defense, this is not a diary. This document is something prepared by Nicole Simpson for use by her divorce lawyer years later. [00:08:43] Speaker 3: They were trying to get rid of a lot of the evidence. I decided to go upstairs, and I went with this young girl, and I said, I want to speak. [00:08:55] Speaker 19: It was clear that Denise Brown's comments were not spontaneous. In fact, she came up to the 18th floor of the criminal court building, made her way down this hallway into the office of city news service, and sought out reporter Shoreen Mogame. [00:09:09] Speaker 18: All of a sudden, Denise is there. It wasn't a long interview. She left pretty quickly, and some of the other reporters who were there got wind of it, and they started coming and asking her questions too, but she ended up leaving. And I remember she said, her famous quote from that was, [00:09:24] Speaker 19: "If he is so innocent, then why is he so worried about all this evidence?" [00:09:29] Speaker 28: Clearly, Denise Brown is a relative of a victim, and she's not a lawyer. [00:09:35] Speaker 11: Denise became kind of the spokesperson for everybody, and Minnie was more reticent to discuss any of it. [00:09:50] Speaker 4: I was taking care of the kids, and I was doing things. You know, call it distraction, call it coping, call it playing. We played. And we played, and we played. [00:10:09] Speaker 29: We're going to play? Are we going to play? [00:10:12] Speaker 1: Until we couldn't play anymore. I remember Dominique told me, she said, I had to go in and ask to see pictures of Nicole's body, because I just could not get angry at OJ. She loved him. They were family. [00:10:38] Speaker 30: There were a lot of tears and more stories of physical abuse today in court, as Nicole's sister, Denise, took the stand. Denise Brown's ex-boyfriend, Stuart Chesler, watched her tearful testimony of abuse. [00:10:56] Speaker 31: This is hard for her to tell. Hang in there, Denise. [00:11:04] Speaker 3: The journals, the notes, the diaries, they did not make it in. I was the only one that made it into the criminal trial. [00:11:10] Speaker 2: People call Denise Brown. [00:11:12] Speaker 3: I was asked because I was a part of knowing about the abuse, knowing about the domestic violence in her life, and I was there when it happened. [00:11:22] Speaker 32: Grabbed Nicole, told her to get out of his house, wanted us all out of his house. Picked her up, threw her against a wall. [00:11:32] Speaker 3: It wasn't just our family. It was media, too, and strange people, and you're sitting there, and you're talking, and then you're crying, and it was just so friggin' scary. And then I saw my father, and my father was crying. Tears were coming down his face. I thought, "Oh, my poor dad has to watch me up on the stand doing this." [00:11:58] Speaker 8: Oh, my God, I just don't want him hurting. He was hurting enough. [00:12:02] Speaker 33: O.J. did not react at all. He stayed stone-faced. The jury was also-- well, they had been instructed by Judge Edo not to react at all, so they did not react. [00:12:13] Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, it did absolutely no good, because one of the jurors turned around and said, "Well, this wasn't a domestic violence case. Why are you putting me up on the stand if you're not going to educate these people on what domestic violence is and that domestic violence can kill?" [00:12:29] Speaker 30: We'll have more reaction to Denise Brown's testimony tomorrow. Now, a current affair proves we don't horse around when it comes to getting action. [00:12:38] Speaker 23: The average juror did not understand the complexity of domestic violence. It was easy to continue to blame. If she had just been a better wife from day one, she'd still be alive. Even in her grave, Nicole was being blamed for his actions. [00:13:01] Speaker 34: Entertainment Tonight has obtained exclusive access to Monday's front page story in the National Enquirer. [00:13:07] Speaker 17: Nicole's secret man. [00:13:09] Speaker 34: Nicole had six abortions rather than bring another child into their marriage. She started screaming, "You mother bleep her. You know, if you're going to do this to me, why don't you pick somebody pretty?" She's a mother bleeping dog. [00:13:20] Speaker 35: Nicole's writing is large and rounded. Someone who writes this way needs attention and approval. [00:13:28] Speaker 36: The evidence will be these ladies would go out two, three, four nights a week and stay out till five o'clock in the morning. There's a group of them and you'll hear about it. They'd go out dancing, they'd do whatever they would do. And we know Faye Resnick was using drugs in this period of time. Nobody was controlling these women. [00:13:45] Speaker 6: The defense put on this big smear campaign about Nicole and about the kind of person that she was. It was nothing like who she was. [00:13:58] Speaker 10: All the pictures that were coming out of her were in a bikini or in a modeling shot. You know, in a luring kind of way, she went from being a victim of domestic violence and murder to being a whore. [00:14:11] Speaker 6: You go to dinner and you'd hear someone at another table say, "Oh, I'm sure it was that she was hanging around drug dealers." I mean, you just hear the stuff that the defense is spewing. And I hold him responsible because he wanted them to do it. Some of the people that were in our circle were so in awe of him or, you know, idolized him so much that they couldn't grasp the fact that he could do something like this. You were in one camp or the other camp. You were Team OJ or Team Nicole. And it just divided the whole community. [00:14:51] Speaker 3: There wasn't a lot of people that you could trust at this point because you didn't know who you could trust. You know, we didn't know who's talking to the media, who's going to say something, who's going to do something. [00:15:00] Speaker 37: There was a group of women that were, you know, around. I just never bonded with them. They were so different from all our friends that we grew up with down in Laguna. They weren't, they weren't our people. [00:15:15] Speaker 17: There's another new book in the works about Nicole. It's being written by one of her closest friends, Cora Fishman. And Cora Fishman says that Nicole was not entirely blameless. [00:15:26] Speaker 16: Nicole used to tell me, I mean, she herself abused OJ. I mean, and OJ told me one time, I feel like a battered husband. So, I mean, it was both ways. [00:15:38] Speaker 25: One of the plausible or possible explanations would be that Mr. Simpson has successfully influenced her to alter or change some of her testimonials. [00:15:48] Speaker 3: At one point, one of Nicole's friends, she was flailing out in front of the media and just doing her thing and, ah, ah. And she came knocking at the door and I answered the door. That was Nicole's friend, Cora. [00:16:01] Speaker 29: I don't know who did it. I don't know. She was your friend? [00:16:09] Speaker 3: I was not going to put up with anybody doing any kind of their song and dance with the media and then thinking that they were going to come into Nicole's house and do what? I didn't want to have anything to do with her. So, I wouldn't be surprised if she became Team Simpson after that because, you know, she wasn't welcome. [00:16:30] Speaker 6: After he got arrested, he was trying to get AC to call her friends. He called me to come see OJ. OJ wants to talk to you. I said, "AC, I don't want to talk to OJ." You know, OJ thought that his, you know, with his charisma that he was going to charm us all into thinking that he didn't do it. I was upset that AC sided with OJ and that he was still carrying his water. And the fact that he would kind of give OJ a pass on her murder kind of blew my mind. It was like, why would someone do that? But then I think to myself, a lot of those guys did that. A lot of those guys just, she was just another girl. [00:17:24] Speaker ?: And he was OJ. [00:17:28] Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you for coming out this afternoon. As you know, I've been very reluctant to speak to the media. I feel that the media has consistently sensationalized the facts and negatively exploded the many aspects of this tragedy. [00:17:49] Speaker 3: AC was there for a lot of stuff. So, that's why I didn't understand why AC didn't stick up for her after he murdered her. I just didn't get it and I couldn't talk to him anymore. I didn't want to have anything to do with him because I just thought, you know what, you abandoned Nicole. You abandoned your best friend. And you have to live with that. [00:18:09] Speaker 2: So, in my personal effort to lend the truth and the sanity, I've chosen to speak to the public directly via a 900 Call AC program. I would share with the callers my life experiences with OJ from my childhood through our NFL days. My close relationship with Nicole and my views on the media. I totally believe in my friend's innocence. [00:18:37] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not the type of person that forgets easily. And I certainly don't forgive. [00:18:47] Speaker 1: During the trial, David and I weren't allowed to be called up on the stand because Lou and Judy and Denise, they wanted the kids to be able to see us freely. We were horseback riding and Justin was talking very freely with me, as they both did. He was saying how much you missed his mom. Then he said, well, you know, Deanna, I miss my dad too. And I thought he almost thought I was going to reject him because they didn't really understand what was going on. And I didn't. And I said, you know, I understand that. He will always be your daddy. And you could see he relaxed. The kids really didn't understand what was going on at the time. [00:19:39] Speaker 38: I think that black folk saw reasonable doubt based upon a history and experience of seeing racist cops convict, plant evidence on black folks who we know in our lives. [00:19:51] Speaker 39: Prior to Nicole's murder, L.A. had been in a pretty tumultuous run. There was a lot of strife between the black community and the police department for the Rodney King beating at all, you know, and we had had the riots. There was just a lot of tension in the city. [00:20:11] Speaker 40: Black and brown communities in L.A. had long complained about their treatment by police to authorities, to the public, largely on deaf ears. You know, time and time again, the response is that somehow the idea of police brutality is a figment of black people's imagination. Despite the undeniable evidence of the video, there was no justice for black people. [00:20:37] Speaker 29: 7:00 a.m. at Camp OJ, the trucks are up, cameras, mics, and lights are everywhere. It is shortly before noon, Chicago time, and history is in the making. [00:20:48] Speaker 18: The verdict was one of those moments in American history where you remember where you were when it happened. 151 million people tuned in live to watch the verdict. [00:21:03] Speaker 3: I remember Judge Ito telling all of us, "Do not make a noise. Do not react. Nothing. There has to be silence in my courtroom." [00:21:13] Speaker 12: The only way I can explain it is like going up a roller coaster, the anticipation. Your heart's racing. You know that whatever goes up comes down. It's that, that you're waiting for that drop. And then the drop happened. [00:21:26] Speaker 27: On this shift, we'll take you right through the verdict. Mr. Simpson has now come back to the courtroom. [00:21:31] Speaker 41: We, just like the rest of the country, are waiting to hear it live for the very first time. In the matter of the people of the state of California versus Orenthal James Simpson, case number B-A-097-211. We, the jury, in the above-entitled action, find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal court section 187-A, a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, a human being, as far as in count one of the information. [00:22:04] Speaker 3: All of a sudden, when the verdict was read, I heard Kim Goldman scream. [00:22:11] Speaker 41: We, the jury, in the above-entitled action, further find the special circumstance that the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson... [00:22:16] Speaker 3: We were all sitting there in shock. I couldn't cry. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't move. [00:22:23] Speaker 4: I was shocked. I don't know. Relieved. Disappointed. Angry. I mean, did, did you really want him to be guilty? Did you not want him to be guilty? It's a, it's a tough question. [00:22:41] Speaker 1: I remember going home and going and picking up our kids from school, and people were cheering. [00:22:52] Speaker ?: There was nothing to cheer about. Nothing. There was nothing to cheer about. Nothing. The jury heard the evidence and rendered its verdict. At this moment, our thoughts and prayers should be with us. with the families of the victims of this terrible crime. The jury heard the evidence and rendered its verdict. At this moment, our thoughts and prayers should be with the families of the victims of this terrible crime. [00:23:00] Speaker 1: The jury heard the evidence and rendered its verdict. At this moment, our thoughts and prayers should be with the families of the victims of this terrible crime. [00:23:09] Speaker 42: In the car going home, Judy said to all of us, Judy said to all of us, I don't want one tear in front of the kids. I want you all to put on a happy face. Remember, this is their father. We think about the verdict. And all I remember was her teaching us how to be a mom. [00:23:37] Speaker 37: O.J. was driven home yesterday in this white van. As it stopped in traffic, Simpson was approached by a camera crew and bystanders. [00:23:52] Speaker ?: Today, reporters and onlookers, the police were driving home. [00:23:57] Speaker 43: O.J. was driven home yesterday in this white van. As it stopped in traffic, Simpson was approached by a camera crew and bystanders. Today, reporters and onlookers crowded outside 360 North Rockingham Drive, hoping to get a glimpse of O.J. Simpson. [00:24:12] Speaker 44: When Simpson came home, there was a massive influx of people, tourists. You know, I saw license plates from Kansas and from, you know, Ohio and all over the country would drive out to take a road trip out to see O.J.'s house. The department had to allocate millions of dollars in overtime to pay officers to work these locations. It was a circus, a literal circus. [00:24:40] Speaker 1: When he got out of jail, he kept voicing how important it was because he wanted to get home to be with Sidney during her birthday. So he got out and went to the Browns, picked up Sidney and them and took them to Never Never Land, to Michael Jackson's property. She was showing me, look, he bought me this, it was a big stereo system and I asked him, next time we go, can we take Joey and Derek to Never Never Land? I sat down with her and I said, Sidney, you have to understand that I will never let my boys go be with your dad. Because I believe your dad killed your mother and I can't let my children go there. She just kind of looked at me and said, yeah, yeah, I know. And she got up and she ran out of the room. Lou and Judy were so afraid of losing those two kids, you know, because at any time he could have said, that's it. You know, they're minors, you don't get to see them anymore. So they played the game so that they would be able to be with their grandchildren. I unfortunately, I just, I couldn't lie. I couldn't play the game. [00:26:07] Speaker 16: The children, what will happen next with them? Sidney asked me today, she says, do I have to leave? And I said, maybe. [00:26:16] Speaker 36: But at least they have one parent to, uh, to back up, uh, their life. [00:26:22] Speaker 45: The problem with that one parent though, is that he is a batterer and that is the only thing. Nobody can take that away. [00:26:29] Speaker 3: It was a wild time for three years. It wasn't just a criminal trial, then we also had a civil trial. It's something we wanted to hear since two and a half years. And it finally came. We know justice will be done someday. Before that, we also had a child custody trial. [00:26:54] Speaker 46: When Simpson was arrested, he had signed an agreement that, uh, the Browns would retain custody of the kids. After that, the Browns decided, even though Simpson was acquitted, they knew in their minds that he had murdered the kid's mother. Even though they knew they didn't have a legal right at that point, they fought to keep the kids because they knew they'd raise the kids better than Simpson would. [00:27:19] Speaker 47: Part of the evidence introduced by the Browns' attorney was a fictional story that eight-year-old Justin wrote about a father murdering his mother. [00:27:36] Speaker ?: Children know sometimes. [00:27:37] Speaker 47: Children know sometimes. [00:27:39] Speaker ?: They know. [00:27:39] Speaker 4: It was heartbreaking to see that the things that were very, very important were not allowed into the child custody case, especially the way that Nicole had been treated. [00:27:53] Speaker 48: Why should custody have been changed now to someone who is accused of the wrongful death of the children's mother? The fact that he is a convicted wife batterer means that he may present a risk of harm to these children. [00:28:05] Speaker 4: That was the Christmas that they decided that they were going to take the children away from us. [00:28:10] Speaker 3: We had Christmas Eve with them, and on Christmas Day, he came to pick them up. And it was my mom and I, we were standing out on the driveway. Oh God, I'm gonna cry again. [00:28:22] Speaker 8: Justin, Justin went up to my mom and he handed her a piece of chocolate. He said, "Tita, it's gonna be okay." We started walking into the house together. And I just thought that's the nastiest thing anybody could ever do. Couldn't you just wait until after Christmas? Why couldn't you wait another day? It was just awful. It was just to hurt my mom. [00:28:53] Speaker 3: My mom was very good at putting things aside. She never shook his hand, didn't kiss him alone. It was just seeing him, talking to him about the kids, talking on the telephone. Only about the kids. [00:29:08] Speaker 49: Many people in this country consider you a pariah. [00:29:13] Speaker 31: I'm constantly having people hugging and touching me and buying me drinks and encouraging me to take care of the kids and move on. [00:29:20] Speaker 50: I'd like to know, could I make a reservation for two for lunch? What time do you want to come in? About two o'clock. I'd like to know, do you have any problem if I brought in O.J. Simpson? Yes, we do. [00:29:29] Speaker 51: Can I help? [00:29:30] Speaker 50: Could I just ask you something? Would you be adverse if I brought O.J. Simpson with me? I think the owner has a problem with that. [00:29:38] Speaker 52: We would hear stories about him going to restaurants that were popular in West Hollywood or somewhere else and being asked to leave. One thing in particular that struck me was the Brentwood News ran a column by its editor and publisher, Jeff Hall, who wrote kind of an open letter to O.J. and said, "The trial's over. Could you go to Mexico for a while and just leave us alone?" He sort of said the quiet part out loud that a lot of people in Brentwood, I think, felt. [00:30:23] Speaker 40: Because the trial was about more than O.J., it was easier to kind of forget about O.J. when the reality of, you know, a supposedly destitute existence kind of set in. I mean, he, you know, O.J. kind of became a joke. [00:30:43] Speaker 52: I've never personally shaken hands with a murderer. [00:30:46] Speaker 53: It's good to see you. [00:30:48] Speaker 50: Does that hurt? Huh? Does that hurt your feelings? No! [00:30:52] Speaker 49: You're planning to move to Miami. Why? [00:30:54] Speaker 31: I was constantly trying to move to Miami. I was moving to Miami before this happened. I like Florida. [00:30:59] Speaker 49: Do they talk with you or ask you about their mother's murder? No, they don't. [00:31:03] Speaker ?: Never? [00:31:03] Speaker 49: Never. It never comes up? [00:31:06] Speaker 31: It never comes up. Like most kids, they don't look back. They look forward. [00:31:11] Speaker 3: I remember a phone call that Simpson made to my mother, and he just says, "I can't make a life here for the kids. You gotta let them move." I mean, he was really, like, being a bully. My mom, I guess, when the kids came back down, had a conversation with them, and Sidney said, "Oh, God, Dita, I would love to move to Florida. I would love to go." And once my mom heard that, she said, "Absolutely." She goes, "I can go." They wanted to go. In August of 2000, they ended up moving to Florida. My mom wasn't gonna fight anymore. She was sick and tired of cords. She didn't want to fight anymore. She wanted the kids to be happy. [00:31:48] Speaker 8: Devastating, really hard for her. Yeah. I just remember her having her nights crying. That was a piece of Nicole, you know? And, um, and then they were gone. [00:32:05] Speaker 53: I was like, "Yeah, I'm sorry." Simpson did not go quietly into the sunset. When he left his home in Southern California and moved to a new life in Florida, Simpson could not stay out of trouble. [00:32:15] Speaker 4: When they moved to Florida, I lost touch with them. Yeah, that was really unfortunate. I just stayed away from the news as far as anything that had to do with OJ and any drama or any antics that were going on. I completely stayed away from everything. [00:32:32] Speaker 54: Were you aware of events in Florida that involved multiple 911 calls? [00:32:40] Speaker 3: I'm aware of a call, one 911 call that happened in Florida from Sydney. Just one. That's all I know of. But I do remember, I think, him kind of poo-pooing at a teenager not getting what she wants. We were definitely worried for her safety. Definitely scared to death, thinking, "Oh, my God, what's gonna happen?" You know, she's a lot like her mother. Is he going to do something to her? Nicole was not one--she was not a wallflower. She spoke her mind. She spoke her peace. Sydney does the same thing. [00:33:14] Speaker 54: By our count of it, there was close to 17 police reports we found. There was a series of 911 calls about violence inside the house. These were anonymous calls. [00:33:29] Speaker 3: In Florida. Oh, that's news to me. Honestly, that's news to me. [00:33:36] Speaker 54: They couldn't do anything because they couldn't determine whether there was any truth to it. Before this, there was another incident. [00:33:44] Speaker 3: Okay. [00:33:45] Speaker 54: There was a raid. FBI raid. [00:33:50] Speaker 3: Oh, my God. [00:33:51] Speaker 53: Would he finally quiet down and stay out of the public eye? Not exactly. In 2001, the FBI raided Simpson's house investigating ecstasy smuggling. [00:34:09] Speaker 55: My name is Gary Loford. I'm a retired special agent with the FBI. [00:34:13] Speaker 56: My name is Chris Piersa, and I joined the FBI in 1998. That's where we met. That's when we started working all our cases together, sort of as squad mates and partners. [00:34:22] Speaker 55: So in 1999, we had an individual who was laundering money with one of our sources in the Miami area. [00:34:33] Speaker 56: So the first wiretap we did was we went up on an individual named John Thorburn. He was basically involved in MDMA sales purchases, and he would distribute out by South Beach. [00:34:50] Speaker 55: We quickly realized that Andrew Anderson was supplying John Thorburn with the ecstasy. He was higher in the organization. Anderson was our next logical target for wiretap coverage. So one of the steps you take is initiating a pen register. A pen register simply gives digits dialed by a telephone. On Anderson's numbers dialed, the most frequently numbers dialed, it said O.J. Simpson. So that's how we first knew that he was going to come into our investigation. He came to us. We never went to him. One of the first things that surveillance teams were reporting back to us were that O.J. Simpson was frequently with Andrew Anderson. O.J. Simpson and Andrew Anderson would go to movies together. I mean, they were clearly very good friends. [00:35:44] Speaker 56: O.J. Simpson did receive MDMA ecstasy and other narcotics from Andrew Anderson. He was a user. [00:35:53] Speaker 17: Widespread allegations O.J. also abused cocaine. Newsweek wrote that Nicole believed O.J. was a drug addict who suffered from wild mood swings. [00:36:03] Speaker 55: We executed nine search warrants on December 4th, 2001. [00:36:08] Speaker 56: Mr. Simpson's house was part of a search warrant application because of his relationship with Andrew Anderson and the presence of Anderson at his home on many occasions and the receiving of narcotics. We get the warrant and like that on the same day at the same time, very early in the pre-dawn hours, we execute the search on Mr. Simpson's house. A reporter was already there. Obviously, there was a leak in the case. We don't know where it came from. We don't know how it happened. Someone knew this was going to happen at that time. He was home. His children were home at the time. The search went on without incident. He was seen through surveillance in the rear of his home by his pool pacing around. We recovered, I think, some small amounts of marijuana residue. That's all that we recovered from that house on that date. We're going to have to know where they tipped off. I can't tell you to prove that, but people were warned. [00:37:08] Speaker 55: After the search warrant concluded, I spoke to the team leader, the agent who was overseeing the search at Mr. Simpson's residence. And I asked about the children, you know, were they okay? And he said, they seemed ambivalent and kind of went, you know, got ready for school and then someone took him to school. [00:37:25] Speaker 56: Andrew Anderson did stay several nights at O.J Simpson's house periodically. There were occasions where Andrew Anderson drove Mr. Simpson's children to school. I wouldn't let my kids stay at that house, but that's what was going on there, yes. [00:37:44] Speaker 4: It makes me angry to think that the kids would have been subjected to things like that. And when we were in child custody case, they said that we weren't suitable. It was the reasoning behind it that we weren't suitable to be parents to them and then this is what they're subjected to. Yeah, it makes me really angry. Makes me really angry. Those poor kids have been through a lot of stuff. Who was there to protect them? There is a lot of irony that Nicole was portrayed as the party girl when O.J's house is getting raided for drugs. [00:38:25] Speaker 3: God, that's so freaking heartbreaking to think that they had to live like that. And I didn't even know the half of it. And then he wanted to take them. [00:38:37] Speaker 8: God, I wish my mom would have said no. God, how awful. I can't even imagine what their life was like. [00:38:50] Speaker 3: I know this happens to other children in the world. [00:38:53] Speaker 8: I know that they see horrible things, but God, when it hits so close to home, I mean, I just want to grab them and just... [00:39:02] Speaker 4: Denise's son, Sean, and my son lost their aunt, who we were with all the time. [00:39:08] Speaker 35: Let's see your rocks, Seaners. Let's see. [00:39:15] Speaker 4: That's a big deal. With their little hearts. [00:39:20] Speaker 8: She didn't get to see them grow up. She didn't get to see them have kids and have a life and graduate. He killed her before she could do anything. [00:39:37] Speaker 1: I was just so sure he was going to go to jail. [00:39:40] Speaker ?: I thought he was... [00:39:41] Speaker 1: So I didn't think my friendship with the kids would be changed. [00:39:45] Speaker ?: But it was. [00:39:48] Speaker 1: Maybe five to eight years after, that was the last time that I saw Sydney. And I want her to know that I love her and her brother very much, and I would never do anything to harm them. [00:40:05] Speaker 9: Sydney would be a mother now. She has a child, so... Does she? [00:40:09] Speaker 1: See, I don't even know. I don't even know that. I'm happy for her. [00:40:19] Speaker 9: She had a boy. [00:40:21] Speaker 1: How about... How about... Justin? [00:40:26] Speaker 9: Justin has a daughter as well. [00:40:31] Speaker 1: Oh, you know... I gotta tell you... Nicole would have been the best grandma... [00:40:37] Speaker ?: Ever. [00:40:43] Speaker 1: I'm... I'm so happy for both of them. I really am. God, I'm sorry for Nicole. [00:40:54] Speaker 35: You know what? You're gonna love these tapes when you get older. Especially when you have kids. [00:41:04] Speaker 57: Near the Fundy condo, 1,500 protesters gathered. Nicole's sister, Denise, helped lead the charge. [00:41:11] Speaker 29: If he ever says he's going to kill you, eventually, one day he will. They do kill! [00:41:19] Speaker 3: When I started going out and speaking, it was... It was about the injustice that was happening to my sister. There was such an injustice in how they were painting her as this party girl. They were painting her as this person that she was not. [00:41:36] Speaker 58: Denise didn't understand what she does now about abuse. She became an expert. She learned about what's happening. Really learned and consulted and joined forces with other people. And... and they got stuff done. [00:41:52] Speaker 37: I could see this protective, valiant, strong older sister who knew that she had to be the spokesperson for the family. That's kind of where it all started. And she says, "Do you want to do this?" I said, "Yes, let's do it." We would schedule across America. At that time, we counted 45 states. [00:42:15] Speaker 32: After reading her notes and diaries, we realized that Nicole was a battered woman. My hopes that domestic violence will be stopped. My hopes that people will understand that if he hits you once, he will hit you again. [00:42:27] Speaker 45: If we can save one life, I'll be a very, very happy person. [00:42:31] Speaker 37: We were supposed to be going to, I think, Cleveland. I get this strange call. I said, "I think this is D.C." And he says, "Hi, this is Chris from Senator Joe Biden's office." I said, "Oh, hi." And he said, "Is it possible to have Ms. Brown here tomorrow morning?" They desperately needed Denise to come help them save the Violence Against Women Act. [00:42:57] Speaker 59: You know, the Violence Against Women Act was being written. It was being pushed through Congress. It had stalled in 1994. The critical factor to get the bill moving again was that Denise Brown was brought in to testify. [00:43:10] Speaker 3: That was probably the scariest thing ever, besides going into the criminal court and being on the sand. But walking in there and seeing this and going, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. This is really crazy." [00:43:24] Speaker 51: It is the women whose death don't make it on the evening news who are counting on this Congress to do what is right. [00:43:31] Speaker 40: Nicole's murder really helped increase national awareness and support for the Violence Against Women Act. And I think also very clearly showed the way that domestic abuse can escalate to murder. [00:43:46] Speaker 3: I thought I couldn't help Nicole, but maybe I can save another life. And it's a dirty little secret that nobody wants to talk about. I said, "No, we're going to talk about it." I go to the prisons. I see the batterers. I see the victims. I go to the shelters. I see the little children. I see the looks on their faces. What I did, and moving forward and trying to help victims of domestic violence, did he try to do anything like that? Whoa! [00:44:16] Speaker 31: See that yellow flag? [00:44:17] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a mean swing. They call me Jews! The Jews! All he cared about was going on the golf course and trying to find the killer. [00:44:26] Speaker 24: I will pursue, as my primary goal in life, the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman. [00:44:33] Speaker 3: Victims of domestic violence were a heck of a lot more important than trying to find the killer when he's staring you right in the face. You know, every day you wake up in the morning and you look at yourself in the mirror and there you are. Hello. We found you. [00:44:48] Speaker 50: O.J. said to me that he had a surprise for me. I think it was his idea of a joke. My producer said he was looking for a knife from somebody who had ordered room service, but he couldn't find one. He decided to stab me with a banana, and this is it. [00:45:04] Speaker 4: Sidney used to tell me when they got older that any time anybody went on TV and made statements that they would get more media following them around and they didn't like it. [00:45:18] Speaker 11: I know they don't like being reminded of it at all. And certain things that have been written and so on, they were resentful about reading and I don't blame them. [00:45:31] Speaker 4: They just want to be normal, normal kids and just raise families. And I think that's primarily why they haven't been in the media. They haven't spoken to the media and they don't like the media. They say that as soon as there's anything in the media, they get hounded. At least that's what Sidney says. So Denise and I didn't talk for a long time. Yeah, when she got more public. We didn't talk for years. [00:46:00] Speaker 3: I think it was harder for me or for our relationship with the kids because I was so vocal on things. And talking about his guilt and saying he was guilty. And then I was talking about Sidney and Justin. I don't think they like that very much either. If I didn't go out and speak, I was letting my sister down. If I did go out and speak, I was letting them down. I wouldn't be a sister, a real true sister and love my sister as much as I did if I wouldn't do this for her. [00:46:37] Speaker 5: It was like the end of innocence. It was like all of a sudden we had to grow up in a terrible world and see terrible things. [00:47:00] Speaker 10: I want to exercise from my mind a girl laying on the sidewalk in a little black dress and a pool of blood. Because that's not who she was. [00:47:15] Speaker 11: I would like Nicole to be remembered for a beautiful, vibrant, authentic daughter, wife, mother, and someone to be admired for all her good qualities. [00:47:34] Speaker 60: She was just so generous and just so willing to give of herself and her heart and her time and help anybody that needed it. [00:47:45] Speaker 58: She was humble. She was fun. And a true friend. She would defend you to the ends of the earth. [00:47:53] Speaker 26: I know I've said it a thousand times thing, but she was, she's, she's that picture of mom of the year. [00:48:00] Speaker ?: She's it. [00:48:02] Speaker 6: I hope that by keeping her memory alive, the person that she really was, that maybe it could help someone else out there that is another Nicole. Get out of something that might ruin their lives or take their lives. [00:48:24] Speaker 1: Nicole was truly one of the special people that welcomes you into her home and her family. And I want the world to know that we missed out. We all missed out. [00:48:39] Speaker 10: I just cathartically want to talk about her, talk about who she was, what she was to me, what she was to other people, and how I will never, ever regrow meeting her. [00:48:56] Speaker 11: No one should be remembered for their last moments, their last hours, their last day. Everyone should be remembered for all that went before that. And with Nicole, there were beautiful times, and she's a beautiful person. And we all are finite. So remember why we were here, not how we left. [00:49:32] Speaker 47: Time speed. Are you ready? 10:13. Speed. [00:49:37] Speaker 9: Thank you. Thank you. Well, I'd like to ask you how this really affected you, and in what ways in your own personal lives has this been really hard? [00:49:48] Speaker 3: You know, it's funny, because I was angry for probably 13 years after Nicole's murder. But I realized while we were here, I still have a lot of anger in me. You know, and then you have to sit there and you have to think, okay, well there was great things too, and there was nice people too, and things like that. So, it took me probably about 13 years. [00:50:10] Speaker 12: What gets me is that I was getting the point to, I was getting to know her. And it was really a shame because I was, I was looking forward to that, doing more of that. Like, hey Nick, let's go do lunch. You know, let's do coffee or, you know, I'll come up and spend some time, and that's what I missed out on. [00:50:32] Speaker ?: Yeah. [00:50:33] Speaker 4: You're so afraid that you're going to forget someone. [00:50:36] Speaker 12: Yeah. [00:50:37] Speaker 4: Because you're afraid that so much time passes that you're not going to remember what their voice sounds like. And I remember. You know, it feels really good to me. [00:50:50] Speaker 51: Oh, I'm so glad. [00:50:51] Speaker 29: That's nice. [00:50:52] Speaker ?: Yeah. [00:50:52] Speaker 29: That's nice. [00:50:53] Speaker ?: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.