Ron, age 25, single, no children, suffered multiple sharp force stab wounds to his neck, chest, head, abdomen, thigh, face, and hands. He suffered multiple blunt force injuries to his upper extremities. He ultimately died from four fatal stab wounds to his jugular vein, lung, and aorta.
Nicole, age 35, divorced, mother of two, suffered multiple sharp force stab wounds to her neck and head. She suffered multiple injuries to her hands and fingers. She ultimately died from a deep, incised, fatal cut to her throat—lacerations to left and right arteries and left and right jugular veins.
October 3rd, 1995, Los Angeles, CA
Orenthal James Simpson was found not guilty of the crime of murder.
February 5th, 1997, Santa Monica, CA
Orenthal James Simpson was found liable for willfully and wrongfully causing the deaths of Ron and Nicole and it was found that he committed battery with malice and oppression.
The jury ordered $7 million in compensatory damages and $12.5 million in punitive damages to the Goldman family.
The jury ordered $12.5 million in punitive damages to the Estate of Nicole Brown, of which her children are the beneficiaries.
He continues to walk as a free man.
Ron was in the prime of his life, just about to launch his own business, when he encountered the beast that would literally cut it short in a few short minutes and change our lives forever.
We have no interest in arguing the merits of the case and the subsequent trials. By now, a majority of the public has made its decision about his guilt or innocence; however, even thirteen years later people still passionately debate the facts of these gruesome crimes. Maybe the debate will end once you read his confession.
We had been through much together as a family long before Ron was stabbed to death. The grief and pain of losing him could have devastated us, but in actuality it cemented our bond as a family.
We made a commitment to Ron that no matter what, we would fight to ensure that he is remembered and that justice would be served in his honor. We felt that nothing we endured as a family would ever come close to what he suffered in the last few minutes of his precious life. That has never changed. We have never wavered. We stay committed to our promise.
It has been almost eleven years since a jury unanimously awarded us a verdict in the civil case. At that time we were grateful that a jury of his “actual” peers saw it the way we did and saw it the way the evidence showed—that he killed Ron and Nicole. The pride that we felt was overwhelming. But as quickly as the jury returned their verdict, he pushed himself back from the table and sauntered out of the courtroom, waving to the cameras as he entered his SUV and drove off into the night. In a blink we were reminded that despite having the verdict that HE DID IT permanently inscribed on the record, he had the power to walk away. He had the audacity to go out for ice cream minutes after being told he was a killer. We were left with a piece of paper that said he owed us $19 million and he went out for cookie dough.
The killer’s brazen disregard for the pain he caused, his endless taunting of our family, and his continued disrespect for the system that gave him his freedom—all of it empowers and motivates us to pursue this path toward justice as fervently as we have all these years.
This book project is not the first attempt to hold him accountable. We have been chasing him all this time and he has consistently escaped our reach. He has surrounded himself with a team of “professionals” that vow, as he does, that they will do whatever they can to avoid honoring the judgment. How can that be right? The rest of us would have to pay. If you didn’t pay your phone bill, they would shut off the phone. If you were delinquent on your car insurance, your policy would be canceled. If you didn’t make a mortgage payment, your credit scores would drop. The point is that there are consequences for our actions—most of us adhere to that way of thinking; the ramifications are far too great to ignore them.
The killer would tend to disagree. He lives his life believing he is above it all and rules that are enforceable for the rest of us don’t apply to him. And we would argue, “What else would you expect from a beast that stabs another man in the heart and nearly decapitates the mother of his children, leaving their bodies to be found by a five- and eight-year old?”
When the judgments were handed down, some criticized us for trying to “cash in”—some called us greedy, some made anti-Semitic comments; some voices were louder than others. We struggled with that, confused by the notion that a grieving family, who would much rather have had the killer sentenced to death row, could be accused of “greed” for wanting him to be held accountable in some way. We defended ourselves constantly, explaining that we would much prefer that he be behind bars, but since that was not an option, this was our only course of action.
We heard complaints that we were “picking on him”—that he was found not guilty and he should be left to live his life. Some even said that our efforts would hurt the kids because any money we collect would take away from them. We battled all of it because we understood how much the public supported our efforts and how much this case meant to this country on every moral, ethical, and legal level. But the whole time, one thing remained constant for us—this was about Ron, this was about justice denied, and this was about making him pay for what he did.
The civil system could not punish him with jail time; its only recourse was to punish him by assigning “damages” for his wrongdoings. What the system didn’t give us were the resources to pursue those damages; that’s when the fight began. As we tried to satisfy the judgment, no matter what situation came our way, we were always left with the same two options: Do nothing and allow him to get away with his crimes 100%, or fight and hopefully succeed in holding him accountable for his actions. We always chose to fight. We never thought we would collect—we kept hitting walls every time we were tipped off about something he did or was paid for. It never occurred to us that we might scratch the surface of the now $38 million judgment that he owes. (The judgment increases at a rate of 10% each year. We started with $19 million, and ten years later it has essentially doubled). The judgment has always made us feel like we were playing with Monopoly money.
The reality is that if we do succeed in the collections phase, then we will have real money. Since he is not out planting gardens or flipping burgers, the money he earns will be tainted and dirty because he is using his infamy to make it. It will be blood money because it’s coming from evil. There is no other way to reconcile that in our minds. However, the options are still the same—do nothing or fight. Our attempts to enforce this judgment have never been about lining our pockets or “cashing in,” or exploiting Ron’s death: it is our legal right. But from an emotional standpoint, it is about taking from him, it’s about making him feel the impact of what he did. It’s about hitting him where it hurts—his pockets, his livelihood. Some people have accused us of having vengeful motives but it is not about revenge, and we are not going to apologize for wanting him to feel a tenth of what we feel every day. We have suffered a great deal and want to see some measure of justice, in whatever form it must take. Sadly, we have been unsuccessful … until now.
Leading up to the publication of his confession, we spent many, many days in court trying to collect on a “judgment-proof judgment.” Why do we call it that? He moved to Florida in order to avoid paying. Florida is a debtor-friendly state and he is taking full advantage of its laws. He is protected by the Homestead Law which safeguards his house; he lives in a right-to-work state, which means we can’t garnish his wages; he is the beneficiary of numerous pension plans, including his NFL pension. All of these amount to millions of dollars of income available to him that are 100% protected from the civil judgment. He has established companies in the names of his children to serve as “pass throughs” for his own gain. He has completely taken advantage of the system and manipulates it to avoid paying. He continues to thumb his nose at us and at the system that afforded him the ability to live and breathe outside a jail cell. He is virtually untouchable and has spent the better part of a decade laughing and mocking our family.
So when HarperCollins announced that If I Did It, his hypothetical confession, was to be published, and it was reported that he was paid upwards of $1 million as an advance, we understandably became incensed. We launched a massive campaign to shut the book down and held HarperCollins and Judith Regan of ReganBooks responsible for helping him defraud our family. The precedent-setting move by Rupert Murdoch to stop the book in November 2006 was a shocking response to the public outcry. At the time, we believed that this was a “how to” book about murder, so we felt relieved that HarperCollins wanted to do right by the victims’ families.
In fact, prior to pulling the book, News Corp. (the parent company of HarperCollins) had approached our family and offered us compensation for the pain they had caused.
Representatives flew to Indiana to meet our attorneys to discuss how they could remedy the horrific situation they had created. They threw around big dollar amounts, hoping it would help ease our pain. They knew that we were angry and offended, not only at the content but also because they contributed to his efforts to hide his earnings. We called the Brown family, specifically Denise, and explained what was happening. She encouraged us to ask for as much money as we could. “Don’t take less than $10 million,” she demanded. We took that to mean that the Brown family was willing to become part of the continued conversation with the attorneys from News Corp.
It was over the course of a very long, very emotional, and highly stressful weekend that we contemplated accepting their offer. At that point they were telling us they wouldn’t stop the release of the book, but they never asked us to stop boycotting the project. We were torn. We were concerned about how it would appear to the public if we accepted an offer of compensation from News Corp for the pain they inflicted on our family, but then continued to speak out against the book’s publication. We knew in some ways it was a PR stunt for them to save face, but they kept telling us they wouldn’t pull the book, and this was the best they could do. We were facing an incredible dilemma. He had been paid and would continue to be paid—we couldn’t change that. The book was going to hit the stores—we couldn’t change that. We were suffering—that wasn’t changing either. Would accepting this compensation be the right thing to do?
The attorneys called the Browns one last time and offered them a portion of what News Corp. had offered our family. We received a call from them the following day, and they said “no way.” The book was pulled from publication hours later. That move would set new wheels in motion.
It marked the beginning of the long and twisted journey that has resulted in our family publishing the killer’s confession in 2007. So much happened between his book being yanked and this book finding its way back. We learned through contracts, depositions, and declarations that he had created a company called Lorraine Brooke Associates (LBA) that served as the conduit between HarperCollins and his bank account. LBA was named after the middle names of his two daughters, Arnelle Lorraine and Sydney Brooke. We learned that Arnelle is the president, and that his children with Nicole, Justin and Sydney, are each 25% owners in the company that allowed an estimated $630,000 to flow into their father’s pockets for the publication of If I Did It. We learned that his family knew about this book and signed off on it back in March 2006. And in his own words, he said he did it so his kids could make millions. Despite the fact that he spent the entire advance on bills, the kids each stood to benefit from the sale of this project.
By this point, we realized what we had thought was a “manual for murder” was no such thing: it read much more like a confession than anything else. That helped slightly when the attorneys came to us and advised us that the best thing to do to completely stop him from ever publishing and profiting from this book would be to levy on it; meaning place a lien on all rights, title, and interest of his interest in the book. We were struggling again, but now it was over the idea of owning this book that we had worked so hard to remove from society. How could we show our faces again and justify publishing the book ourselves after we had shouted so loudly about how disgusting it was that it had ever been written?
Again, we went back to our options: Do nothing and then he gets it, publishes it, hides the money, and continues to profit along with his children, or fight him tooth and nail to end up with the book ourselves, knowing we took away his work product, his “meal ticket.” At this point, aware of all his efforts to defraud us, the choice was clear. We decided to follow the law; we decided to fight, yet again. We took a very deep breath and gave the attorneys the green light. We’re not sure we have let that breath out yet.
The California state court awarded us the ability to sell the killer’s rights, title, and interest in If I Did It at an auction to be held by the Sheriff’s Department of Sacramento in April 2007. Because our family had a multi-million dollar outstanding debt owed to us, we essentially had a $38 million credit card to use to purchase the book. Days before the auction, we were still undecided about what we would do if we ended up with the manuscript, but, fortunately or unfortunately, we never got the chance to pursue that path. Just before we were to leave to attend the Sheriff’s sale, the Brown family, specifically the Estate of Nicole Brown, filed a claim requesting half the proceeds of the book. The judge denied the claim and everything resumed as planned … for about seven minutes.
As we walked out of the courthouse to discuss our next move, we received a phone call informing us that LBA had filed bankruptcy and everything was off the table.
Of course it would happen this way—of course we would spend hours debating in our hearts and minds over what to do and how to proceed, only to be distracted by yet another move on his behalf to stop us from succeeding. The attorneys told us that forcing the book into bankruptcy court would prove to be the best thing for our family. In that moment, we only felt defeat and exhaustion; there was no silver lining, we saw nothing but another long and endless road leading us to Miami.
LBA’s attorneys filed bankruptcy with the hope that the corporation would retain the rights to the book, and that they could just restructure their phony company and publish the book on their own. After months of hearings and depositions, their efforts proved futile. The federal bankruptcy court ruled that LBA was a sham company, only established to perpetrate a fraud. This echoed the same ruling made weeks earlier in a California court that had also deemed LBA a sham corporation. LBA was a shield designed to avoid having to honor the civil judgment. We had been the only ones who stood to lose in this chaotic situation, and now a court breathed a bit of energy back our way. We had caught a glimpse of the silver lining, ever so slightly. To hear two judges say it was a fraud was a validation of what we had known all this time.
After weeks of negotiating with the bankruptcy trustee, whose main responsibility is to liquidate the assets of a company in order to satisfy all its debt, they finally agreed to sell us the book rights. Days before the judge was slated to sign off on this agreement, the Brown family filed yet another motion asserting their civil judgment and asking for 40% of the proceeds from the book. A team of attorneys argued before a judge in Miami and the motion was denied. Moments later, our deal was approved, and then the judge made a comment in open court that moved us to tears. He said, “The Goldman family’s offer to publish the book and turn over 10% of the proceeds to the bankruptcy court is more than reasonable.” He went on to say that he didn’t feel there was any better choice than for our family to pursue this option, as we were motivated and committed to actively pursuing the civil judgment as reflected by our efforts over the last decade. He wished us luck and we were done. We had finally succeeded, 100%.
The killer swore he would never work a day in his life to honor the judgment … well, he just had. He had worked hard on this book, thought he would retire off of it, and we took it right out from under him. He had escaped our reach for nearly eleven years, but not this time.
The specifics of the bankruptcy agreement are confusing. The simplest way to explain it is this: we levied on the book back in January 2007, so we had a secured claim on that asset. When it was forced into bankruptcy court, we had the biggest vested interest, since we also had the biggest claim ($38 million). We agreed to turn over a portion of the proceeds to the court in an effort to pay off LBA’s other debts, which included the Estate of Nicole Brown (Justin and Sydney), which is owed $20 million, and a few attorneys who are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. The ironic twist is that we were now ordered to publish a book to help pay down our own judgment to help pay off his other outstanding “bills,” and to pass money along to the family that helped create this drama to begin with. But again … it came down to him or us.
So here we sit, having to take on this incredibly controversial book project, which many deemed abhorrent, disgusting, and dirty, and turn it into something powerful and positive. Having read the manuscript in great detail, we are more determined than ever to put this product out into the world as an exposé of a murderer. We recall the language of the civil verdict: “he willfully and wrongfully caused the deaths of Ron and Nicole with malice and oppression.” According to the civil code, malice and oppression means “despicable conduct carried out by the defendant, to cause injury and that subjects a person to cruel and unjust hardship.” This is what you will see when you read his confession.
The journey to get here was painful. We spent endless nights, hours and hours of conversation with our team of attorneys, literary agent, publisher, and friends trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel. We argued, cried, negotiated, and experienced ups and downs worse than the biggest roller coaster ride, just to ensure that we were doing the right thing. We knew that our decision to pursue this book might not sit well in the hearts of the people who stand so close beside us. We risked the back-lash and the criticism, believing that this was a just course of action to take, that this book would ultimately turn his own words against him and expose him for the murderer that he is. We put faith in ourselves that, at the end of the day, our commitment to Ron is the only thing that matters—that our intentions are pure and authentic. We put faith in you, the public, trusting that you will understand why we did this and why this was the only option we had to get justice for Ron.
Many assume that being the victim of a crime leaves you powerless. Those of us who live in that world know all too well that we are survivors and we are a mighty force. We have a will within us that is deep and empowering. We have a need to right a wrong and to make the path less painful for those who will inevitably follow in our footsteps. We have a determination to make our lives as full as we can, despite having a huge part left empty. We have a need to keep our loved ones’ memories alive and to honor them with our strength and courage to go on living, despite sometimes wanting to give up. We can not give up.
We have spent years traveling the country and meeting thousands of victims and survivors who walk down the same path we do—we see their bravery and their determination and we are in awe. We are inspired, motivated, and comforted by these incredible people who fight the system every day just to see some measure of justice. We are a mighty force.
When we had the chance to write this portion of this book, we knew immediately what we wanted to say. Our first priority was to explain why we changed our minds about the publication of this book. We want to show readers how deceitful and disrespectful he continues to be, and give insight into how we feel about his confession being out in the world. It’s no secret that we think he is guilty; we are not asking people to change their opinions based on what we think—but now readers will have a chance to read his version of how and why he stabbed Ron and Nicole to death on June 12th, 1994. There is no doubt in our minds that this book was originally written so that he could finally tell his side of what happened. After all, the killer was quoted in a television interview on MN1 as saying, “I’m tired of people talking for me.”
Since announcing that we were publishing this book, we have taken quite a few hits. We have been cast as “hypocrites” for changing our minds and going forward with the publication. Truthfully, we expected to feel some heat, but not to the degree that we have felt it. Our attorneys have been criticized, our literary agent, publicist, and publisher have received tremendous amounts of hateful emails and phone calls, and we have been the subject of numerous smear campaigns on the internet. We have heard people accuse us of “commercializing blood money,” saying that we sold ourselves to the devil, that we are now in the same class as the killer, and finally, that we were purposefully causing Justin and Sydney to relive the pain of losing their mother. We have been called every name in the book and our religious affiliation has been attacked. We have suffered immense pain and anguish and are now having to face critics in the public who once said, “good for you for fighting and getting that judgment,” but now say, “you’re taking blood money.” How can it be both?
In our heart of hearts, we believe we had no other choice. And thank goodness for the majority of the public who continue to stand beside us. Those voices are the ones that give us the strength to stay our course. We didn’t do this to cause pain, we didn’t do this to “reopen” wounds, we didn’t do this thinking it would “bring Ron back,” we didn’t do this to get rich. We did this because it’s the right course of action to take against the beast that stabbed Ron to death. We can’t feel bad for a killer. We can’t abandon our pain and our mission because people don’t always agree or understand. If we walked away now, wouldn’t that be the truest definition of hypocrisy?
For us, the hardest part of reading this book was hearing him talk about that night. We have seen all the evidence and heard all the testimony, but nothing prepares you for hearing it straight from his mouth. Listening to him talk about taunting Ron and about how Ron tried to defuse the situation was gutwrenching—but we also heard about how Ron stayed to protect Nicole instead of running away. We were once again reminded that Ron is a hero. When we start to question “What should we do?” we pause and think of Ron.
He stayed to fight and so will we.