The Story of O.J. Simpson

1. Two Bodies on Bundy Drive
1 min. 18 sec.
June 12, 1994. Just past midnight, a Brentwood woman walking her dog discovered two bodies on the walkway outside 875 South Bundy Drive. The first was Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, the ex-wife of NFL Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson. The second was Ronald Goldman, 25, a Mezzaluna restaurant waiter who had come by to return a pair of eyeglasses Nicole's mother had left at his workplace. Both had been stabbed to death. LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman was among the first officers on scene. He walked the perimeter. He noticed a single bloody leather glove near a rear fence. He memorised the killer's shoeprints. He knew whose house was two miles away.
1. Two Bodies on Bundy Drive
2. The Glove at Rockingham
1 min. 1 sec.
Later that same morning, four LAPD detectives — Ronald Phillips, Tom Lange, Philip Vannatter, and Mark Fuhrman — drove to O.J. Simpson's Rockingham estate to notify him of his ex-wife's death. They found his white Ford Bronco parked outside the property, with what appeared to be blood on the door handle. They climbed the perimeter wall. Fuhrman found a second bloody leather glove behind the guest house. It matched the glove at the Bundy Drive murder scene. The detectives had not yet obtained a search warrant. The glove had already been photographed in place. The Brentwood crime scene was no longer only on Bundy Drive. It was now also at Rockingham.
2. The Glove at Rockingham
3. The Red-Eye
1 min. 8 sec.
While Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman's bodies were still being processed by the LAPD, O.J. Simpson was on American Airlines Flight 668, a red-eye from Los Angeles to Chicago. He had boarded shortly before 11:45 p.m. on June 12 — hours after the killings. He was in first class. He was carrying a small black bag he would not permit any flight attendant to touch. He arrived in Chicago at 5:30 a.m. and checked into the O'Hare Plaza Hotel. He would be notified of Nicole's death by phone at approximately 6:00 a.m. He flew back to LA on the first available flight.
3. The Red-Eye
4. The Interview
59 sec.
June 13, 1994. LAPD Central Division. O.J. Simpson agreed to be interviewed by Detectives Vannatter and Lange. The questioning lasted 32 minutes. He provided three different accounts of how he had cut his left middle finger. He could not explain the blood in his Bronco. He could not account for his whereabouts between 9:45 p.m. and 10:55 p.m. on the night of the killings. He was not arrested. He walked out of the front doors of Parker Center. Television cameras caught him on the steps. The next time he left a public building, he would leave in handcuffs.
4. The Interview
5. The Charges
55 sec.
June 17, 1994. The LAPD had obtained enough evidence to charge O.J. Simpson with two counts of first-degree murder. His attorney Robert Kardashian was told to bring him in by 11:00 a.m. or the LAPD would send a tactical team. The deadline came. Simpson did not appear. Kardashian did not know where he was. Detectives arrived at the Rockingham estate to find both Simpson and his longtime friend Al Cowlings missing. A search of Simpson's guest bedroom found a letter he had written the previous night — a farewell letter — along with $8,000 in cash, a fake beard, a passport, and a loaded revolver.
5. The Charges
6. The Note
1 min. 5 sec.
5:30 p.m. June 17, 1994. Robert Kardashian stood in front of every television camera in Los Angeles and read O.J. Simpson's farewell letter aloud to the American public. The letter contained the line — 'First, everyone understand, I had nothing to do with Nicole's murder.' It ended with the sign-off 'Peace and love. O.J.' To everyone watching, it sounded like a suicide note. Kardashian read it in a shaking voice. Behind him, the LAPD was already mobilising. Fifty minutes later, a motorist on the 405 freeway dialled 911. He was driving behind a white Ford Bronco. O.J. Simpson was in the back seat. He was holding a gun to his head.
6. The Note
7. The White Bronco
57 sec.
6:45 p.m. June 17, 1994. Ninety-five million Americans turned on their televisions and watched a white Ford Bronco crawl up the 405 freeway at 35 miles per hour. Al Cowlings was driving. O.J. Simpson was in the back seat with a .357 revolver against his own temple. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department vehicles followed at a distance of approximately 200 yards. Helicopter news crews from every American network broadcast the pursuit live. Fans lined the freeway overpasses holding signs of support. The chase lasted 90 minutes. It became, and would remain, the most-watched live event in American television history to that point.
7. The White Bronco
8. The Surrender
1 min. 0 sec.
8:50 p.m. June 17, 1994. The Bronco pulled into the driveway of Simpson's Rockingham estate. He did not exit for another 45 minutes. He remained in the back seat with the revolver against his head, negotiating by cellular phone with LAPD SWAT commander Peter Weireter. At 8:50 p.m. he stepped out onto his own driveway carrying a photograph of his mother and his passport. He was arrested on his own front lawn on two counts of first-degree murder. Bail was denied. The case was assigned to Judge Lance Ito, a 44-year-old veteran of the Los Angeles Superior Court who had just become the most famous trial judge in America.
8. The Surrender
9. The Dream Team
46 sec.
Within seventy-two hours of his arrest, O.J. Simpson had assembled the most expensive criminal defence in American history. Robert Shapiro as lead counsel. Robert Kardashian. F. Lee Bailey. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of the Innocence Project, brought on as DNA specialists. Johnnie Cochran, who would ultimately assume the lead role. The team was, within 48 hours of formation, christened by the American press as the Dream Team. Their combined billed fees would exceed six million dollars across the following 15 months. They were, by any measure, the most powerful defence table ever assembled in an American murder trial.
9. The Dream Team
10. Marcia and Chris
1 min. 13 sec.
Across the aisle from the Dream Team sat two Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorneys. Marcia Clark, 41, a veteran of the office's special-trials unit, was assigned as lead prosecutor. Christopher Darden, 38, was brought on partly to counter the racial dynamics the case had taken. They were paid, combined, approximately $190,000 a year. They were about to be outspent thirty to one. On January 24, 1995, Clark stood in Department 103 of the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building and told the jury that there was 'a trail of blood from Bundy through his own Ford Bronco and into his house in Rockingham.' She believed they would convict him.
10. Marcia and Chris

1. Two Bodies on Bundy Drive

2. The Glove at Rockingham

3. The Red-Eye

4. The Interview

5. The Charges

6. The Note

7. The White Bronco

8. The Surrender

9. The Dream Team

10. Marcia and Chris