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O.J. Simpson reveals 'hypothetical' murder details in 2006 Fox interview

"This is one story the whole world got wrong," Simpson says in the intro.
Credit: POOL/AFP/Getty Images)
Murder defendant O.J. Simpson (R), prosecutor Marcia Clark (2nd L) and defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. (C) look over documents during the afternoon session of the O.J. Simpson double murder trial in Los Angeles, 21 February.

In an interview that has been under wraps for 12 years, O.J. Simpson offered a "hypothetical" explanation for the 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Fox aired a two-hour special, O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?, in which an interview Simpson did in 2006 with publisher Judith Regan was repackaged and broadcast for the first time Sunday night.

"This is one story the whole world got wrong," Simpson says in the intro.

The program begins with Simpson discussing the history of physical altercations he had with his ex-wife. According to prosecuting attorney Christopher Darden, police had been to their house "multiple times" to respond to domestic disputes.

"Nicole left for us the diary, notes, photographs. She documented the abuse," Darden says in a panel discussion in between segments of the Simpson interview. "My sense is that she knew she was going to die and she wanted to make sure we knew who killed her."

After one particular incident in 1989, Simpson was convicted of spousal abuse after beating Brown so severely that she required hospital treatment.

"The one thing that hurts me as much as anything in this — aside from being considered a murderer — is being a batterer," Simpson says. "Somehow, I came out of all of that because of that night as the poster boy of an abuser."

June 12, 1994

Both O.J. and Nicole Simpson attended a recital for one of their daughters, but afterward he wasn't invited to a group dinner at the Mezzaluna restaurant where waiter Ron Goldman worked.

Simpson, who never took the stand at his criminal trial and has never given an interview about his actions on the night of the murders, describes what happened next -- but only in a "hypothetical" sense.

("He felt if he could claim 'hypothetical' at this point, he would have deniability with the children," Regan says on the panel discussion.)

Simpson says he and a friend named Charlie - who he had known for a few weeks - went to Nicole's house later that evening.

"In the hypothetical, I put on a cap and gloves," he says. He gets a knife from under the seat of his car. "I always kept a knife in that car for the crazies and stuff because you can't travel with a gun."

While Simpson was there, Goldman arrived to return a pair of glasses left at the restaurant. The two men argued and Nicole came out of the house because of the commotion. He says Nicole fell and hurt herself.

"At that time, I think Charlie had followed this guy in, to make sure there was no problem, and he brought in the knife," Simpson says.

Moments later, "this guy kind of got into a karate thing, and I said, 'Well, you think you can kick my (expletive)?' " Simpson continues. "I took the knife from Charlie, and to be honest, after that, I don't remember, except I'm standing there and there's all kinda stuff around. Blood and stuff.

"I didn't think any two people could be murdered the way they were without everybody covered in blood. We've all seen the grisly pictures after. Everything was covered in blood."

("I think he's confessed to murder," Darden says during a break in the interview. "I don't think there's any question that he's the person who's wielding the knife. ... This is no hypothetical. This is reality.")

Simpson admits he took off his shoes, pants and shirt and put them in a bundle. "Somebody had to get rid of the bloody clothes," he says.

After leaving Los Angeles for a business trip to Chicago, Simpson returned to a media circus and was questioned by police.

The hardest part?

"It seemed so easy listening to TV that week that it was that easy for people to believe that I could kill two people. I thought my whole life meant something," Simpson says. "It was hard for me to accept that people would believe that."

The Bronco chase

Once Simpson became a suspect and it came time to turn himself in to authorities, he was a no-show. But he left behind a note that addressed his relationship with Nicole: "If we had a problem, it's because I loved her so much."

In the interview, Simpson says he was considering suicide when he disappeared with his friend Al Cowlings in a white Ford Bronco.

TV helicopters found the vehicle and for more than two hours, Cowlings drove Simpson along the freeways around Los Angeles as police gave chase.

"I'm in the back of the truck and I can't believe what I'm seeing. Everytime we go by intersections ... where did these people get the time to make these signs? 'Go O.J.' and stuff," he says. "What was strange is I was being depicted as a fugitive on the radio, but on the sides of the road it was people cheering."

The verdict

Simpson was taken into custody and at the end of a memorable 11-month trial. Simpson was acquitted of double murder in 1995 in what widely was known as the "Trial of the Century."

"I felt that if there was anything right with the universe, there's no way they can convict me of this," he tells Regan. "And we're not talking hypothetical here. That's how I felt."

At the conclusion of the interview Simpson is asked how he thinks he will be remembered.

"Everybody is going to give their opinion. They're going to hypothesize what this book means," he says. "Whatever you want to take from it, I cannot control it. Whichever reason why I did it, you decide. You read it. You decide."

Epilogue

The original 2006 special, If I Did It, was a companion to Simpson's book of the same name, which Regan edited. When the victims' families balked that Simpson would have profited from its airing and several Fox stations and advertisers pulled out, the show was not run. Fox chief Rupert Murdoch later admitted it was "an ill-considered project."

About 45 minutes of the special were screened for media Thursday.

Simpson was convicted in civil court in 1997 and ordered to pay $33 million as part of a wrongful death suit.

Simpson, now 70, was convicted in 2008 on felony charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, but was granted parole and released from a Nevada prison on Oct. 1, 2017.

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