Original subtitles

♪♪

Well, you know, you learn more about yourself

during times of adversity.

You know, I use, you know,

Jim Ryun as an example of a guy who was a great talent,

but when he first came up against some competition,

adversity, he quit in the middle of the race.

Well, I found out about myself that I wasn't a quitter,

you know, in Buffalo when things weren't going well,

that, hey, I was still willing

to finish the race and work hard,

and it just made me understand myself a little more

and what wasreally is character, in the end.

♪♪

♪♪

Hey, everyone. I'm Hill Harper.

And welcome to "How It Really Happened,"

in part two of our O.J. Simpson story.

With no conviction, Orenthal James Simpson's guilt

in the bloody murders of Ron Goldman

and Nicole Brown-Simpson is in doubt.

The question is, who did it?

And in looking for answers,

people turned to possible culprits other than O.J.

Was it the drifter serial killer from Kentucky

who wrote a so-called confession letter,

the career criminal from Virginia

who says he was offered money

in a murder-for-hire plot to kill Nicole?

Or some even thought it might have been O.J.'s

oldest-born son, Jason Lamar Simpson.

Tonight, we explore several of the most widely

discussed theories that caused some to begin to wonder

who might have killed Ron and Nicole.

♪♪

We begin tonight with a murder investigation

where speculation is fierce, official words are few,

and legal comings and goings are plenty.

All focus on the slayings

of O.J. Simpson's ex-wife and a male friend.

HILL: What we have is a female white in the vicinity of 30 years old

and a male white probably the same age.

Both victims, Nicole Brown-Simpson

and Ronald Goldman, had been savagely attacked.

Both dead on the sidewalk right in front of the residence here.

The criminal made a mess of the crime scene.

I mean, there was blood everywhere.

There was also a knit cap, what appeared to be a knit cap,

and what looked like a glove at the feet of the male victim.

Reporter: O.J. Simpson in cuffs yesterday and possibly in trouble today

as police investigate the killing of his ex-wife.

This letter was written by O.J. today.

"I have nothing to do with Nicole's murder.

I loved her, always have and always will."

Mr. Simpson, in agreement with his attorney,

was scheduled to surrender this morning

to the Los Angeles Police Department.

[ Sirens wail ]

Reporter: Simpson, who became a fugitive, was pursued by police,

news people, and hundreds of spectators

over Los Angeles freeways...

Cowlings: this is A.C., I have O.J. in the car.

9-1-1 Operator: Okay. Where are you?

Cowlings: You got to tell police just to back off.

He's still alive, but he's a gun to his head.

Reporter: ...and eventually surrendered to police at his Brentwood home.

Reporter 2: Tonight, a beloved sports star one moment,

subject of serious questions the next.

The press whirls on O.J. Simpson.

Man: Juice! Juice! Juice!

Harper: There are numerous theories

about who committed the killings.

Detectives will tell you that often

when you have a spouse who's murdered,

their spouse or former spouse is the one responsible,

so they suspected that O.J. Simpson

might have been involved in this killing.

Man: O.J., can you tell us anything, O.J.?

Moret: A lot of people didn't want to believe it because,

let's face it, he had crafted a public image

that was impeccable.

People loved him.

Well, well-wishers have been coming by O.J. Simpson's home,

some stopping to place placards on the gate to his driveway.

One saying, "We love O.J."

Another saying, "Say it ain't so, Joe,"

and another one saying, "O.J. Is not guilty."

People don't want to believe that a guy that likable,

that handsome, that charming, that charismatic,

somebody that perfect can be so awful.

♪♪

In all, both victims were stabbed nearly 20 times.

Watts: Ronald Goldman was a self-defense-trained person

20 years younger than O.J. Simpson,

but he had 24 different wounds and cuts

and scratches on his hands, defense wounds,

and the perpetrator of that crime would've,

I thought, had more scratches, cuts or bruises,

and when O.J. Simpson came back in town,

all he had on his entire body

was just a cut on one of his fingers on his left hand.

Everyone step back, please.

Some people have their mind set that O.J. Simpson

is not guilty in their head,

and some people want to believe there's another theory.

Man: Please, get out of the way.

Velez-Mitchell: Almost from the very beginning, O.J.'s defense team

presented this alternate reality that O.J. Simpson was innocent

and the real killer or killers were out there somewhere.

Man 2: Have you been told you're under arrest, O.J.?

Watts: We would hear different theories,

and different murder plots and conspiracy theories

came forward all the time.

People are falling over each other

trying to claim that they're

[ Siren wail ]

Reporter: His capture in rural Kentucky

was like something out of a Hollywood movie.

Glen Rogers is immediately linked

to the murders of at least four women,

including one in Los Angeles.

Glen Rogers was a seedy character, a drifter.

Velez-Mitchell: He is a very, very frightening guy.

They called him the Casanova killer.

They also called him the cross country killer.

Well, how about the story in "The New York Post"

yesterday that the serial killer that you have under arrest,

I think, for four or five serial killings may have done this.

I mean, Rogers made some interesting claims.

Velez-Mitchell: He claimed at one point that he murdered 70 women,

and he tells a friend of his

that one of those women was Nicole.

According to Norman Pardo, O.J.'s business manager,

he received a letter from Rogers from prison on death row,

if you would,

that states that he, Rogers,

is the one that killed Nicole Brown-Simpson.

Ortega: He came forward and said that,

"Oh, by the way, I was painting Nicole Simpson's house

and decided that I'd kill her, too."

Alright. Now, there's a story he painted

a house two houses away from Nicole's, right?

We're doing -- that is what "The New York Post" said.

We're doing follow-up on these issues right now.

Velez-Mitchell: And after the Northridge earthquake,

he ended up in Los Angeles.

He was a drifter, and he came to be part of a repair crew,

and so he then claims that somehow he ends up

with a painting company

and is painting the outside of Nicole's condo on Bundy.

There's actually an hour documentary about this case

and Glen Rogers called "My Brother The Serial Killer,"

and it's narrated by Glen Rogers' brother,

Clay Rogers.

I'm absolutely certain that my brother, Glen,

killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Watts: And the story goes, according to Rogers' brother,

Clay, that his brother took a piece of jewelry,

an angel pin, off the body of Nicole Brown-Simpson

from the murder scene, sent it to his mom in Florida.

Velez-Mitchell: Glen Rogers is essentially saying,

"Hey, I can tell you thatO.J. didn't kill Nicole.

I I'm

The idea that he had the access, the motive,

the opportunity, and actual evidence

that he did anything to Nicole

on that night in June is nonexistent.

In a murder investigation,

you go where the evidence takes you,

not where the bs takes you, where the evidence takes you.

There's nothing of an evidentiary value

to show you that Glen Rogers had anything to do with this case.

It's not his blood at the scene.

Velez-Mitchell: Bill Wasz was this convict, tough guy.

He was a drug runner.

Wasz claimed that he met O.J.

and Robert Kardashian at the Roxbury.

Bill Wasz did play a central role

in one of the notable conspiracy so-called alternative theories

of what happened to Nicole and Ron.

Velez-Mitchell: He was a mob enforcer.

He was a guy who bragged

about dangling somebody upside down over a balcony.

Bill Wasz claims he was offered $1,000 to tail or follow Nicole

and offered $15,000 to kill her.

Velez-Mitchell: He claims that Robert Kardashian offers him $1,000

to track Nicole, to literally spy on Nicole,

and follow her around and find out

what men Nicole is hooking up with.

Man: Why did they hire you to follow Nicole?

They wanted to know who she was seeing, who she was meeting.

He supposedly kept copious notes in a 10-page, detailed notebook,

and it allegedly contained detailed notes

of Nicole's coming

and goings to the gym, hairdresser, lunch dates.

Her going to school with the kids,

what she did around town.

Reporter 3: The O.J. Simpson case has unleashed

moment-by-moment action,

questions that remain unanswered,

and now there is a new tantalizing mystery:

A mysterious notebook.

It was found inside a vehicle

owned by O.J. Simpson's girlfriend, Paula Barbieri.

Barbieri, a model who was out with Simpson

on a date the night before Nicole Simpson and her friend,

Ron Goldman, were killed.

So there's one thing that's really in Wasz's favor.

A forensic expert checked the handwriting on this notebook.

Even a handwriting expert

who examined Wasz's so-called diary book of Nicole's comings

and goings determined that it was Wasz's original handwriting.

So it kind of shows that, unless he's psychic,

he was doing something vis-a-vis Nicole

before she was murdered.

We sent a team down there and spent some time with Bill Wasz,

and they interviewed Bill Wasz.

Man: When you heard that Nicole had been murdered,

what did you think?

I thought a lot of things.

I didn't think he did it.

To this day, I don't think he did it.

Now, I probably know who did it, yeah.

I wouldn't maybe know the exact assailants,

but I probably know who is responsible.

Bill Wasz was fine in answering questions

to a point where what he says cannot be corroborated,

and he says, "I'm not going to talk to you anymore

unless I'm going to get paid."

Sooner or later, you have to say, "Enough nonsense.

Let's get on to the evidence."

If there was any evidence at all to connect Wasz to this case,

we would have pursued it.

Velez-Mitchell: Out of the woodwork comes the Texas private eye

named Bill Dear, who used to be a cop

and who loves to attach himself to high-profile cases,

and suddenly he appears and says,

"I know the killer, and it's not O.J.

It's O.J.'s son Jason."

-Hi. -Hi.

Woman: Good morning.

Here begins videotape number one in the deposition

of Jason Simpson.

Moret: The nation was transfixed by this case,

but as the case progressed,

there was a series of bombshell revelations and allegations

and theories that continued to shock everyone.

Velez-Mitchell: Out of the woodwork comes the Texas private eye

named Bill Dear, who used to be a cop

and who loves to attach himself to high-profile cases,

and suddenly he appears and says,

"I know the killer, and it's not O.J.

It's O.J.'s son Jason."

William Dear believes that O.J.'s son Jason

is the real killer and that O.J.

didn't kill Ron or Nicole.

He simply went to the location

and then decided to take the fall for his son.

I realized based on what I have been told so far that O.J.

didn't do it, but I believe

he had to have been at the crime scene.

Jason Simpson was a normal kid of a celebrity.

He had some problems.

Dear: When we checked his criminal record,

he was on probation at the time of the murders for assault

with a knife to his former employer.

A man named Paul Goldberg,

that Jason struck and threatened with a knife --

Man: You assaulted a man named Paul Goldberg, correct?

Yes, sir.

At Revival Cafe Restaurant in Los Angeles, right?

Yes, sir.

Jason had a storage unit that he stopped paying for,

and so the contents of that storage unit

went up for auction.

Bill Dear is able to purchase

the contents of the storage locker,

and it contains these diaries, these diaries of Jason

that talked about how dark and how troubled

and how difficult life was.

He talks about, "It's the year of the knife for me.

I cut away my problems with a knife.

If anyone hurts a member of my family, I will kill them."

Lange: At the time of the murders,

Jason Simpson is working as a chef

or an assistant chef at Jackson's restaurant.

On the night of the murders,

Jason was all set to cook for the Brown family

and Justin and Sydney,

and his expectation was after a recital

at Paul Revere Middle School that night,

that they were all going to come to his restaurant.

The day of the recital,

Nicole calls and says, "I can't make it.

I'm not going to go to that restaurant.

It's too expensive.

We're going to go to Mezzaluna instead."

How did you find out that the plan had been changed?

In the conversation, she said, "We can't come.

It's just a little bit too expensive,

so we were just going to go right up the street."

I was kind of hurt.

I wished they would've come to the restaurant.

Now I really wish they would've come to the restaurant,

but she wanted to go to Mezzaluna.

I interviewed several people who were there that actual night

and who told me that Jason appeared to be very upset,

and they attributed it to the fact that she didn't show up,

and then I think whatever happened escalated.

Moret: And the big question, "Did he have the means?

Did he have the murder weapon?"

Did you have a set of cooking knives?

Yeah.

And did you ever take those knives off of,

you know, your work premises?

All the time.

Watts: Dear says that Jason likely headed over

to the Bundy address, knocked on the door,

got into a disagreement with Nicole.

William Dear claims that Jason hits her

with the blunt end of the knife, knocks her to the ground

and then turns his attention to Ron Goldman

with the sharp end of the blade.

This is a really crucial part,

and maybe the most crucial part, of Dear's theory

and that is, he comes out of that rage and realizes,

"Oh, my God. What have I done?"

So William Dear claims that Jason calls his dad in a panic.

His dad comes to the house.

That's what places O.J. Simpson at the scene.

Dear: We know that the knit cap was found at the crime scene.

But they couldn't definitely say that it belonged to

O.J. Simpson.

Moret: William Dear says that there's a photo

in the storage locker of Jason wearing a knit cap.

William Dear says O.J. Simpson simply wanted to protect his son

and would even take the fall for his son to protect him.

[ Siren wails ]

Bill Dear points out that O.J. Simpson

immediately hires an attorney for his son.

We checked the records and found that Jason Lamar Simpson

was never interviewed by the Los Angeles Police Department

because he was represented by an attorney,

and he refused to cooperate.

Lange: He did not want to talk to us initially.

We wanted to talk to him.

He would not want to talk to us.

We cannot compel him to talk to us.

Rightly so, there are a lot of naysayers to Bill Dear's work.

There are a lot of things that have to happen

in William Dear's scenario in a very limited period of time.

It's ludicrous.

Woman: Nearly 2 decades later, some still feel

O.J. Simpson got away with murder.

Moret: William Dear has been fighting for one thing for 22 years.

He wants this case reopened.

He wants a grand jury to investigate this case

because William Dear believes that the real killer

was never put on trial.

Rightly so, there were a lot of naysayers to Bill Dear's work.

Moret: Even if they occurred at 10:40, there are a lot of things

that have to happen in William Dear's scenario

in a very limited period of time for Jason Simpson

to have committed these crimes.

Dear's explanation is that once he committed these murders,

Jason called O.J.

Ortega: O.J. Simpson then puts together this outfit with his gloves,

goes out the back of his estate, crawls over a fence,

which is important, because Bill Dear claims

that that's when O.J. sliced open his finger

on his left hand.

He puts on the gloves, gets in his car,

drives the 2 miles to Bundy, arrives on the scene,

is horrified to see Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown

laying in pools of blood, pulls off his glove

and only then, when he pulls off the glove

does it open up the left finger, and then O.J. begins to bleed.

Then O.J. gets back in his Bronco,

drives back to the Rockingham estate,

runs into the air conditioner and drops the other glove

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

and finally gets back into the house,

and all that has to occur in 12 minutes.

It's ludicrous.

Moret: And the real question is, do Jason's motive, means,

and opportunity really trump O.J.'s?

The prosecution would say no.

The police would say no.

Most investigators will say no.

Jason Simpson was an individual we wanted to talk to.

We wanted to interview him.

He's the son of our suspect.

He knew Nicole.

He was in the area and that he worked at a restaurant.

We want to talk to him.

It would be negligent for us

not to want to talk to Jason Simpson.

He was not a suspect because there was nothing to lead him

to be a suspect.

If you're going to entertain, seriously entertain,

one of these other theories,

you have to disregard all the evidence

that shows it's O.J. Simpson.

Reporter: Prosecutors say they have collected

about 60 pieces of evidence thus far.

They include blood samples

and a sample of O.J. Simpson's hair for comparison

with black curly hairs

found inside a cap at the murder scene.

You have to disregard that totally,

and I don't think that's a good faith thing to do.

I just don't.

Everybody wants a conspiracy theory.

They don't want just the plain, obvious fact that,

hey, a guy was rageful that his beautiful wife had left him

and was starting a fresh life.

People are interested in a good story.

That's why we are still doing this 22 years later.

They're not interested in facts.

There are no unanswered questions in this case.

Mr. Simpson is charged alone

because he is the sole murderer,

and that is why he is the only one charged.

I think prosecutors will tell you

theynever this much evidence

pinning a person to the scene of a crime.

And it's part of the prosecution's theory,

if you will, that O.J. was driven

to excessive jealousy

and that that was part of what led to the explosive attack

on the night of June 12th.

O.J. Simpson

was a jealous man and forcefully so.

Dispatcher: 911 emergency operator 461.

When you hear Nicole's voice on the 911 calls,

you hear fear, pure fear.

Not only has William Dear's Jason theory

been widely discredited,

but according to the LAPD and the prosecutors,

O.J. Simpson's son Jason Simpson

was never a suspect in the murders of Ron and Nicole.

Detectives say they wanted to question Jason,

but on the advice of his lawyer,

Jason exercised his right to refuse a police interview.

Various attempts were made to reach Jason

and his representatives, but no statement was offered.

O.J. has always insisted he is innocent,

and whether you believe O.J. did it or not,

there is no question O.J. Simpson had a dark side

to his character,

and his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson,

more than anyone else was a victim of his violence.

Reporter: Until the killing, Simpson's marriage

had looked ideal to outsiders.

But police 911 tapes revealed afterwards

that there had been troubles.

People see people on television

and assume that they know them.

Ever need to rent a car fast?

Ortega: We've seen O.J. Simpson in movies

and commercials, playing football.

And that gives us the idea that we know something about him,

but we don't know anything about O.J. Simpson.

♪♪

Moret: He was O.J.,

and most people didn't know about his violent tendencies.

That came out later.

Reporter: Officers found Nicole Simpson,

half dressed, badly bruised, crying,

and saying her husband had threatened to kill her.

Reporter 2: Detective John Edwards described a shaking and hysterical woman

crying that her husband was going to kill her.

She collapsed and started yelling, "He's going to kill me.

He's going to kill me."

Watts: He pleaded no contest to spousal battery charges,

and in typical L.A. media fashion...

This major thing had happened, you know?

...he went on Roy Firestone's show.

The day after this was over, we looked at each other.

We had, you know, we had a fight.

We were both guilty. No one was hurt.

It was no big deal, and we got on with our life.

As a matter of fact -- He totally downplayed it.

He acted like, "Oh, things got out of hand.

Nicole and I got in a little tiff.

It was no big deal."

Ortega: The people who were in his life knew O.J. Simpson.

What did they say?

You know, that Nicole was afraid for her life.

Yes, Nicole did ask him to come back.

She did try to put her family back together.

She was the classic case of the battered syndrome,

and she felt that she could change him.

When you hear Nicole's voice on the 911 calls,

you hear fear, pure fear.

Estes: She was absolutely terrified for her life.

I recognized her voice.

I recognized his voice, and it broke my heart.

At one point, Nicole was saying that she saw someone

outside her place, keeping an eye on her.

I get there, and she says,

"Someone was peeking through my window.

I think O.J. was stalking me.

I think I saw O.J."

Woman: Nicole told me that he would show up at restaurants

or bars where she had gone, and she had no idea how he knew

she was going to be there other than he must have followed her.

I knew there were isolated incidences,

and that's exactly what I thought that they were,

and -- -The people in

O.J. Simpson's life did believe

that he was capable of this kind of crime

and that Nicole was telling people she believed

that O.J. was going to kill her.

Reporter: She said what?

"He's going to kill me, and he's going to get away with it."

♪♪

Velez-Mitchell: The limo driver, Allan Park,

shows up at the Rockingham estate

of O.J. Simpson to get him for the ride to LAX

so he can go to Chicago.

He notices no cars parked on the street,

and there's no O.J. Simpson.

Toobin: The house is dark.

There is no one answering his repeated rings of the intercom.

That suggests that O.J. is not home.

I believe Goldman came in first,

and I believe shortly thereafter,

maybe right behind him, Simpson entered.

The contusion to the rear of Nicole's head

could have been at a time when she was struck initially,

perhaps with the butt of the knife.

We have defense wounds on the hands of Goldman,

so as he was getting slashed at,

he was trying to defend off the knife.

He sustains several wounds, four fatal wounds.

There's slashes to his neck

indicating he was still alive at the time,

so this went on for a while.

There are several of these slashes to the neck.

Then I believe after Goldman went down,

Simpson returns to Nicole, who is 3 to 4 feet away,

where it appears he grabbed her and threw her head back

and sliced her throat, nearly decapitating her.

Reporter: Jill Shively: The first potential witness

to be branded a liar.

Jill Shively says she sees a crazed-looking O.J. Simpson

driving wildly in precisely the route

that someone would go from the murder scene at Bundy

drive to his home on Rockingham.

Reporter: Shively said Simpson was driving a white Bronco

and almost got into a wreck around the time

that Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman were killed.

Toobin: What gave particular creditability

to Jill Shively's account

is she said she was so startled by seeing O.J. Simpson

in this very uncharacteristic way

that she tried to write down his license plate,

and she came up with a number

that was very close, in fact,

to O.J. Simpson's license plate.

The problem was that Jill Shively took money

from a tabloid TV show,

and the prosecutors decided that her credibility had been

so tainted they couldn't use her at the trial.

You know, because of 3 seconds,

my whole life has been turned upside-down.

Jill Shively is one of the great

what-might-have-been stories of the O.J. Simpson case.

Reporter: 10:56, limousine driver Park

says he sees a large black person

slip into the Simpson house.

Toobin: As it gets closer to 11 o'clock, O.J. Simpson

answers the intercom and says, "I was in the shower.

I'll be right down."

He told me he overslept,

and he just got out of the shower

and that he'd be out -- be down in a minute.

There is an hour and 16 minutes where O.J. Simpson has no alibi.

If you believe that Allan Park saw

O.J. Simpson arriving back at his home,

that certainly fits with a time line

that allows O.J. to go Bundy, kill Ron and Nicole

and come back and make his flight.

Moret: We're in the midst of a court recess right now.

In about 10 minutes, the jurors will be brought

into the courtroom, and that is when

opening statements are scheduled to begin.

I don't think anybody really knew

how big this case would become.

I certainly didn't.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

This case was the first major case,

certainly of this magnitude,

that had cameras in the courtroom,

and it created an industry that we'd never seen before

and probably never will again.

The press area near criminal courts building

is a frenzy of reporters and producers

amid a sea of satellite dishes and scaffolding.

♪♪

Did O.J. Simpson really kill Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman?

The answer to the question is yes.

Watts: The suspect is black, and the victims are white.

But beyond that what role will race play in the upcoming trial?

The O.J. Simpson trial came at the very end of some racial,

polarizing incidents in Los Angeles:

Rodney King beating, 1991.

Judge: Not guilty of the crime of assault by force --

Watts: Following the "not guilty" verdicts of the four officers

charged in the Rodney King beating,

there was the 1992 L.A. Riots

and the Latasha Harlins murder case,

in which Soon Ja Du was ordered to spend 0 days behind bars

after being found liable for that killing.

Reporter: They are still outraged over judge

Joyce Karlin's decision not to send

Latasha Harlins' killer to jail.

Woman: We just have a judicial system

that seems to work in the favor of some folks

and work against African America.

Reporter: Public opinion polls have indicated

because of race, many African-Americans feel

Simpson cannot get a fair trial.

They do it all the time.

They have a double set of standards in America.

Race plays no part.

Race is not an issue in the O.J. Simpson case,

nor will we bring it up.

You say on your oath that you have not addressed

any black person as a nigger or spoken about black people

as niggers in the past 10 years, Detective Fuhrman?

That's what I'm saying, sir.

People ask me all the time,

"What were some of the key trial moments?"

Number one was Mark Fuhrman.

He was one of the lead detectives.

He supposedly found the right-handed glove

at the Rockingham address.

He was a disaster for the prosecution.

Moret: You have the perception that the police are biased,

and who do you have as the star witness there?

You got Mark Fuhrman, who says,

"I've never used the n-word ever."

Judge: Anyone who comes to this court and quotes you

as using that word in dealing with

African-Americans would be a liar?

Would they not, detective Fuhrman?

-Yes, they would. -All of them, correct?

All of them.

And it turns out that he was lying.

I just kind of paused, and then he said,

"If I had my way, I'd gather up --

All the niggers would be gathered together and burned."

So if he's lying about that,

maybe he lied about planting the glove.

Watts: Instead of it turning out to be O.J. Simpson on trial,

Mark Fuhrman became on trial.

His credibility was on trial.

The Los Angeles Police Department's credibility

was on trial.

Mr. Simpson is a man,

not a stereotype, but flesh and blood,

who can do both good and evil.

Watts: Another important point of the trial

is Marcia Clark's inability to control her witnesses

and really connect to the jury,

and then it all boiled over one day

when she had Kato Kaelin on the witness stand.

Clark: Are you changing your testimony now,

Mr. Kaelin? -No.

Clark: Was he upset, or wasn't he when he talked about Nicole

and her tight dresses?

No, not real upset. It --

I'm going to ask the court

to take this witness as a hostile witness.

And he actually did the prosecution more bad than good.

The day nobody will ever forget, when Darden had

O.J. Simpson try on the gloves.

Your honor, I think that Mr. Simpson

seems to be having a problem putting the glove on his hand.

And that was a major turning point

because if O.J. wasn't a very good actor,

back in those 1970 movies, in 1995 in the courthouse,

he really portrayed himself well

as a guy who couldn't fit those gloves.

Velez-Mitchell: All along, the defense was picking away

at the prosecution's case, and then came closing arguments.

So much of the essential facts in this case

are just shot through with reasonable doubt.

If you were already convinced that O.J. Simpson

simply didn't have it in him to do this,

those closing arguments would have sealed the deal.

Somebody manufactured evidence in this case.

There's missing blood.

There's EDTA.

There's questions, serious, deeply troubling questions.

And then came the closing argument's finale,

Johnnie Cochran.

I'm not going to be part of the cover-up.

That's what I'm asking you do.

Stop this cover-up.

Judge: Mr. Cochran, you may make your concluding remarks.

Cochran: Thank you, your honor, Judge Ito.

Good afternoon again, ladies and gentlemen.

It's been a long, long, long road to get to this point.

Whether or not you disagree with the defense and their theories,

Johnnie Cochran put on a show with his closing statements...

Cochran: Something's wrong.

There's a cancer here.

Guilty? Maybe not.

"Maybe not" not's good enough when you're talking

about somebody's freedom for the rest of their lives.

...including that famous moment.

O.J. Simpson in a knit cap

from two blocks away is still O.J. Simpson.

It's no disguise.

It's no disguise.

It makes no sense.

It doesn't fit.

If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

It was controversial but masterful.

♪♪

After 9 months and more than 100 witnesses, the verdict.

Alright. Mrs. Robertson, would you --

Do you have the envelope

with the sealed verdict forms, please?

-Yes, your honor. -Alright.

Would you give those to Deputy Trower?

Alright. Mr. Cochran and Mr. Simpson,

would you please stand and face the jury?

Hill: I was in the courthouse when the verdict was read,

out in the hallway.

Woman: In the matter of the people of the state of California

versus Orenthal James Simpson case number BA 097211,

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 code section 187.

-O.J.! O.J.! -Not guilty!

Hill: Outside, the crowd reacted with a lot of cheers.

And one or more crimes of murder of the first or second-degree

to be not true.

And I could remember I saw the families

of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman.

It was such a horrible sight.

Did you feel sorry for the families

when you came walking back in?

-Very sad. -Oh, that's putting it mildly.

-Oh, yeah. -Yeah, we cried.

I mean, we actually cried back in the deliberation room

because there was nothing

that we could do to help these families.

You know, they had lost they loved ones,

and somebody out there had killed them,

but there's nothing we personally could do.

We had to -- and you just feel a certain responsibility.

You're out there looking at these people every day.

Brown: I was numb.

I thought it was going to be a hung jury.

I did not think that they were going convict him,

but I did not think that they were going to let him off.

I see this, and I can see a white backlash out of this.

I was elated because I felt that he didn't do it.

I just feel like my team just lost the Super Bowl.

-Celebrate. -He's free.

-Yes. -After 9 whole months,

and then we get this reaction that we were stupid, illiterate,

that, you know, they didn't deliberate long enough.

How could they have gone over the evidence?

Jury made a decision, and I'm sure they had

all of the evidence to make the decision from.

He's innocent. Jury says.

It's our system.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Brown: They had to use the race card

in order to get a guilty man off, you know,

and that still just irks me like you have no idea

because it was never about black and white.

Ever a racial feeling about this to you?

None whatsoever. No.

So you never said -- when Johnnie argued,

"Make a statement for black people," that didn't move you?

No, it did not move me.

We're talking about a human being's life

that's on the life here.

I definitely believe there was planting.

The theory of planting was very strong in my mind,

so I definitely had a lot of doubt about the evidence

and how it was collected.

I have more black people, African-Americans

that come up to me now and say, "You know what?

We knew he was guilty."

The prosecution did not prove to me

within a reasonable doubt that O.J. Simpson

committed those murders.

Ortega: I really don't blame people

for looking into alternative theories about this case.

Any other person, I think prosecutors would tell you

that they never get this much evidence

pinning a person to the scene of a crime.

The fact that he was famous, that he was able to afford

such a high-profile, high-priced defense team

and other things that happened in that trial led to the result

that's left people really unsatisfied.

They want to fill that void and figure out,

"Well, if O.J. did it, why wasn't he convicted?

If he didn't do it, who else did it?"

Jason Simpson, the eldest male child

of O.J. Simpson, will read a statement.

A statement from my father.

"I am relieved that this part of the incredible nightmare

that occurred on June 12th, 1994, is over.

But when things have settled a bit,

I will pursue as my primary goal in life,

the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole

and Mr. Goldman.

They are out there somewhere.

Whatever it takes to identify them and bring them in,

I will provide somehow."

♪♪

O.J.'s legal troubles did not end

with his acquittal in the criminal trial.

In a civil trial,

where the burden of proof is much lower,

O.J. was held liable for the slayings of Ron and Nicole,

and he was ordered to pay $33.5 million

in damages to the families of the victims.

The families say they brought the lawsuit

against O.J. for closure and justice.

Now, in December of 2008,

Simpson was sentenced to 33 years for armed robbery

and kidnapping over sports memorabilia.

This bizarre crime raises a final and striking irony

that the man who earned extraordinary levels of fame

from his legendary successes in the game of football

forfeited his freedom in a bumbling attempt

to steal his own football collectibles.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

♪♪