By Lawrence Schiller - American Tragedy (1997-07-16) [Mass Market Paperback] Mass Market Paperback – July 16, 1997

Author Lawrence Schiller wrote in the Foreword to this 1996 book, “This book is a factual account of the defense of O.J. Simpson and is directly based on personal interviews, documents, court transcripts, and other material I obtained while researching this work. More than two dozen people involved in the case were interviewed… In most cases the people I interviewed kept personal notes and diaries from the first days of their involvement in the case, and their memories were supported by these notes and other written material… Since this is a book about the Simpson defense, I have not attempted to interview the prosecution team… [who] would have been understandably reluctant to share their sensitive strategies with me.” [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the original 703-page hardcover edition.]He adds in the Epilogue, “I am especially grateful to Robert Kardashian, with whom I worked most closely and who has assisted me in the preparation of this book. My own involvement in the Simpson defense presented me with a dilemma… I knew Robert Kardashian personally and spoke to him often… by assisting [Simpson] in writing his book, I Want To Tell You, I was understandably viewed by many as a member of Simpson’s team… Inevitably, there came a day, after the verdict, when I knew I had to step away from being on the inside and resume a normal journalistic stance, free to tell the inside story without obligation to Simpson or his defense...” (Pg. 687)He notes of the polygraph test that Simpson’s team had administered to him prior to the trial, “Simpson scored a minus 22, Nellany [the examiner] says. Kardashian has no idea what that might mean… That is about as bad as you can do, [Robert] Shapiro comments… Minus 22 means Simpson failed virtually all the questions about the murders… There are some factors to consider here, Nellany adds. The test was administered close to the time of death, a very emotional time… Kardashian knows that doesn’t settle it. He just doesn’t know what to do. No way his friend could have done this.” (Pg. 32)He recounts that when Simpson was to surrender to police, he repeatedly said he was going to commit suicide. “‘I’m gonna kill myself,’ he says in a rasping voice … ‘You can’t. You have your little children, and they need you.’ … ‘I just can’t live with the pain. I just can’t go on. Nicole is gone. I can’t go on.’” (Pg. 56) During the famous Bronco “chase,” Simpson calls Kardashian, and said, “‘I shot myself in the head…’ Simpson tells Kardashian that a minute earlier he had held the gun against his head and pulled the trigger. The pistol malfunctioned. Nothing happened.” (Pg. 60) Later, Simpson calls again, saying, “‘I tried to see her, but they wouldn’t let me. I was going to do it at the cemetery.’ ‘What do you mean they wouldn’t let you?’ ‘There was a police car blocking the way… We drove around the back and looked over the fence. I wanted to climb the fence, but there were people around.’” (Pg. 69)After hearing the 1993 911 call from Nicole, “Bob Kardashian didn’t have a word for his reaction to the 911 tape… In Kardashian’s opinion, O.J. Simpson wasn’t a violent man… Certainly there had never been any violence toward Nicole… The out-of-control man on those tapes who broke down a door and bellowed his rage was someone Robert Kardashian had never met… Now he had to question everything. Was he really O.J.’s friend, or just the admirer of a mask the athlete always wore for him? The question… [was] so unsettling that Bob blocked it out.” (Pg. 92)As the defense team worked with “trial” juries while preparing for the trial, they discovered, “They’d assumed African-American women would dislike Simpson for marrying white. Instead, black women hated HER. They resented Nicole’s lifestyle. The big house, the servants, the travel, the jewelry---all from a black man’s money… They didn’t criticize Simpson for living an upscale white lifestyle… The gut issue was Nicole. This white woman had lived THEIR fantasy. She had things they should have had. The team was stunned. The women came close to calling Nicole a w____. They came right to the edge of suggesting she got what she deserved. Everybody had assumed that black women would be risky jurors… What they learned that day influenced the defense’s thinking throughout the trial---including, of course, their plans for jury selection.” (Pg. 194)While Simpson is in jail and stating that he wants to testify in his case, his lawyers conduct a mock cross-examination: “‘Have you ever hit your wife?’ Simpson stiffens. He glares at Shapiro and leans forward… ‘Have you ever yelled at your wife?’ Simpson launches into long-winded, aggressive answers, a life history every time… ‘Have you ever lost your temper at your wife?’ Simpson’s voice rises. He dances away from topics, talks about what Nicole did to him. ‘That’s not good enough, O.J.,’ Shapiro says quietly. ‘The more you explain, the more trouble you get into.’ [Johnnie] Cochran has come to jail thinking O.J. will do well… But today it is obvious that Simpson could be a disaster on the stand.” (Pg. 198-199)Soon after, “Shapiro motions Kardashian into his office. ‘Shut the door. I’ve figured it out… O.J. got mad because she didn’t’ invite him to dinner at Mezzaluna. He took a knife over there to slash her tires.’ Kardashian can’t believe this. Shapiro has Simpson sneaking into Nicole’s garage… ‘She caught him,’ Shapiro says… She orders him out the front. ‘He got mad, and slashed her throat. Then Ron Goldman came. He killed him, too.’ ‘It didn’t happen like that. No way!’ Kardashian hates what Shapiro keeps doing, and he storms out of his office.” (Pg. 205)Kardashian talks to his ex-wife Kris, who warns him: “‘Don’t get in too deep here… You haven’t been around O.J. for two or three years… You don’t really know what you’re talking about… It doesn’t look good, you know. How do you explain blood all over the entry…and blood in the bathroom?’ Kardashian fumed. ‘You’re allowed to bleed in your own house,’ he said. ‘…Then how do you explain O.J.’s blood at the crime scene?’ ‘It was old blood,’ Kardashian says… ‘And Nicole’s blood in the Bronco?’ Kris asked. ‘Nicole’s been in that Bronco before.’ ‘Robert, he’s guilty. Why is the defense trying to cover it up?’ Kardashian controls himself. It would be too easy to start an argument. ‘Why don’t you just wait to see what happens?’” (Pg. 207-208)At a defense team meeting, they ponder the DNA results: “‘You’re saying that the likelihood that it’s O.J.’s blood is almost certain? … And Ron Goldman’s blood. That’s certain?’ ‘Right.’ … Shapiro then lot the silence drag on… Kardashian [mused]… All along, Shapiro thought O.J. might have done it. Now Goldman’s blood has convinced Shapiro O.J. is guilty. Has Shapiro been right all along? The DNA results also dismayed Michael Baden… The meeting finally ended. Everyone went home discouraged.” (Pg. 225)He notes, “On Tuesday, October 11, in Ito’s courtroom, Shapiro turns to O.J. during a break and urges a plea bargain… ‘I don’t want to talk about it! I didn’t do it, I’m not going to plead Period.’ Simpson’s voice is rising. His eyes turn hard with anger. ‘How could you bring this up? You’re my lead attorney.’ … Simpson’s voice nearly breaks. ‘I don’t EVER want to hear you talk about this again.’ Shapiro gets up without a word and walks into Ito’s chambers to join the other lawyers.” (Pg. 228-229)He points out, “The blood evidence weighed heavy on Kardashian. Bob trusted Ed Blake’s expertise. If he said the DNA testing was okay, it was. To others, Kardashian could pretend that nothing bothered him. He could tell his ex-wife it was old blood. He could listen to Henry Lee discus a second set of shoe prints and wonder if the cops had planted something. But the sheer volume of evidence was affecting him. Why was O.J.’s blood in SO MANY PLACES? Worst of all, why was Ron Goldman’s blood in the Bronco? That question got down into his bones.” (Pg. 238)As O.J.’s Rockingham home is prepared for a visit from the jury, “A nude portrait of Paula Barbieri vanishes from its spot near the fireplace in Simpson’s bedroom. There will be not pictures of white women in O.J.’s bedroom. A silver-framed picture of O.J. and his mother goes on his bedside table… The white women on the walls have got to go, and the black people have to come in… Simpson always surrounded himself with photographs of his friends… The faces were overwhelmingly white. That’s not the way to please a jury dominated by African-American women. ‘We’ve got to have pictures of his family, his BLACK family, up there,’ Cochran says.” (Pg. 371)Late in the trial, they were trying to talk Simpson out of testifying, and conducted a mock cross-examination with two female attorneys. “Simpson couldn’t be O.J. with [the two attorneys]. His charm was useless. Every time he tried his usual routines they cut him off immediately. When the lawyers got tough, Simpson got uncomfortable… he couldn’t put his usual spin on everything… Now he had to explain difficult and awkward matters precisely and in detail, and he couldn’t.” (Pg. 490-491)Of the revealing tapes of detective Mark Fuhrman, he observes, “It was obvious that Fuhrman hadn’t been tricked into making these tapes. He was answering [Laura] McKinney’s questions based on his own experience. He was clearly a racist cop. That was how Johnnie saw it.” (Pg. 536) Fuhrman talks about the glove: “I am the key witness in the biggest case of the century. And, if I go down, they lose the case. The glove is everything. Without the glove---bye-bye.” (Pg. 558)He observes, “Where and when the cuts appeared on O.J.’s hand is a quagmire… What interests [Alan] Dershowitz… is what Simpson has already told the cops about this. Did he break the glass in Chicago when he heard the news about Nicole’s death from the cops, or was it when he was speaking to the operator? [Barry] Scheck points to a conflict here. O.J. has said he cut himself in L.A. Did he also cut himself while he was cleaning up in Chicago? ‘That’s not what he said to the reservation operator,’ Johnnie says… ‘I’m starting not to believe him…’ Now Johnnie sounds upset. How could O.J. break a glass in the hotel bathroom while talking on the phone in the bedroom?” (Pg. 587-588) Later, Cochran tells Kardashian, “I was jumping on him [Simpson] I said, You know, O.J., you’re never been clear about the cuts, the blood, the various cuts. You remember every detail of everything else. But about the cuts you say, ‘I don’t know exactly when I got them.’” (Pg. 658)Whatever one’s position on Simpson, if you have any interest whatsoever in the criminal trial, this book is absolutely “must reading.” It contains material of tremendous significance to both sides of the case.