| | Newsweek: O.J. book 'claims' that 'Charlie' told Simpson to stop killings
RAW STORY
Published:
Sunday January 14, 2007
 Newsweek has obtained a chapter from the canceled book by ex-gridiron great O.J. Simpson in which he "hypothetically" describes how he might have killed his ex-wife and her friend over a decade ago in one of the most notorious "murder mystery" cases ever.
"The firestorm burned hot and fast: within days of acknowledging one of its divisions was publishing O. J. Simpson's 'hypothetical' account of the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, News Corp. reversed course and canceled the book in late November," Mark Miller writes for Newsweek, adding that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch later apologized for the "ill-conceived project," and then "fired Judith Regan, the hard-charging publisher who acquired the book for her ReganBooks imprint and who had conducted a TV interview with Simpson to air on Fox."
Miller continues, "As always with the so-called trial of the century, there were competing narratives. Regan called the book Simpson's "confession"; his attorney scoffed at the idea that the Juice had admitted to anything. But NEWSWEEK has obtained a copy of the book's key chapter from a source who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing controversy. The narrative is as revolting as one might expect, but it's also surprisingly revealing. What emerges from the chapter is something new in the nearly 13-year Simpson saga: a seeming confession in Simpson's own voice."
Along with a description of the killings which is very similiar to the "prosecution's theory of the case," the chapter also includes a reference to an "unwilling accomplice" named "Charlie that Simpson "claims" assisted in the brutal crimes," Newsweek reports.
Excerpts from article:
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To be sure, Simpson never explicitly admits to slicing his ex-wife's neck so savagely that he almost decapitated her. (According to the source, he told the ghostwriter that he could not have his children read such gruesome details of the slashing.) Simpson's Florida attorney, Yale Galanter, said again last week that the account is "purely hypothetical": "In the final manuscript and in the book there is a clear, concise statement disclaiming anything that is contained in the chapter as being fact or close to fact." NEWSWEEK did not obtain the book's six other chapters.
As a correspondent for this magazine, I covered the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman through the criminal trial and acquittal of O. J. Simpson in 1995. What is striking about the chapter I read, "The Night in Question," is how closely it tracks with the evidence in the case—and how clearly Simpson invokes the classic language of a wife abuser. In his crude, expletive-laced account, Simpson suggests Nicole all but drove him to kill her. He describes her as the "enemy." She is taunting him with her sexual dalliances, he says, and carrying on inappropriately in front of their two children.
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Simpson's account does diverge from the prosecution's theory of the case in one significant way. In his telling, a second man, a close friend he calls Charlie, is with him during the killings. Charlie is an unwilling accomplice, repeatedly urging Simpson to stop what he is doing. Does "Charlie" really exist? Perhaps. At the time, many wondered if Simpson had help, if not with the actual killings then with getting rid of evidence. The police never found sufficient evidence to charge anyone else. Fred Goldman, Ron's father, thinks the idea of a second man is absurd, but isn't surprised to hear what Simpson has written (he hasn't read it himself). "This is the guy who murdered them—of course he knows what the evidence is and how he did it," Goldman told NEWSWEEK. Denise Brown, Nicole's sister, told me in an e-mail that she agreed with my analysis. "It just goes to show you that he is guilty and that is what I have always said from the beginning ... Know this, though—I won't be reading [the book]."
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FULL NEWSWEEK ARTICLE AT THIS LINK
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