And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.
As we all know, O. J. Simpson was very popular before these murders. I’ve been told that if a popularity poll had been taken among employees when he was working in the sportscasting department at
NBC
, he would have won hands down. He is a charming, friendly, personable, and likable human being in many ways. He is also a cold-blooded killer, as well as the most audacious one I have ever known.
There’s an old Turkish proverb that whoever tells the truth is chased out of nine villages. Because this book has been so hard-hitting, I hope I’ll still be allowed to sit on a park bench in the town square, feed a resident pigeon or two, and contemplate the real complexities of life.
I can tell you, the reader, that I have enjoyed this personal conversation with you that my editor suggested just a few months back. I hope that, despite the subject matter, you have also enjoyed it, and more important, that it shed some light for you on the most publicized murder trial of our time, and why it ended the way it did, with someone who we know committed two particularly terrible and savage murders walking free among us.
Vincent Bugliosi
March 1996
Los Angeles, California
COMPLETE
LAPD
INTERROGATION
OF O. J.
SIMPSON
ON
DAY
AFTER
MURDERS
(transcribed from tape)
Note: P.V. is Detective Philip Vannatter; T.L. is Detective Thomas Lange; O.J.S. is O. J. Simpson.
P.V.: My partner, Detective Lange, and we’re in an interview room in Parker Center. The date is June 13, 1994, and the time is 13:35 hours [1:35 p.m.], and we’re here with O. J. Simpson. Is that Orenthal James Simpson?
O.J.S.: Orenthal James Simpson.
P.V.: And what is your birthdate, Mr. Simpson?
O.J.S.: July 9, 1947.
P.V.: Okay, prior to us talking to you, as we agreed with your attorney, I’m going to give you your constitutional rights. And I would like you to listen carefully. If you don’t understand anything, tell me, okay?
O.J.S.: All right.
P.V.: Okay, Mr. Simpson, you have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney and to have an attorney present during the questioning. If you so desire and cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed for you without charge before questioning. Do you understand your rights?
O.J.S.: Yes, I do.
P.V.: Are there any questions about that?
O.J.S.: (Unintelligible.)
P.V.: Okay, you’ve got to speak louder than that.
O.J.S.: Okay, no.
P.V.: Okay, do you wish to give up your right to remain silent and talk to us?
O.J.S.: Ah, yes.
P.V.: Okay, and you give up your right to have an attorney present while we talk?
O.J.S.: Mmm hmm. Yes.
P.V.: Okay. All right, what we’re gonna do is, we want to…We’re investigating, obviously, the death of your ex-wife and another man.
T.L.: Someone told us that.
P.V.: Yeah, and we’re going to need to talk to you about that. Are you divorced from her now?
O.J.S.: Yes.
P.V.: How long have you been divorced?
O.J.S.: Officially? Probably close to two years, but we’ve been apart for a little over two years.
P.V.: Have you?
O.J.S.: Yeah.
P.V.: What was your relationship with her? What was the…
O.J.S.: Well, we tried to get back together, and it just didn’t work. It wasn’t working, and so we were going our separate ways.
P.V.: Recently, you tried to get back together?
O.J.S.: We tried to get back together for about a year, you know, where we started dating each other and seeing each other. She came back and wanted us to get back together, and…
P.V.: Within the last year, you’re talking about?
O.J.S.: She came back about a year and four months ago about us trying to get back together, and we gave it a shot. We gave it a shot the better part of a year. And I think we both knew it wasn’t working, and probably three weeks ago or so we said it just wasn’t working and we went our separate ways.
P.V.: Okay, the two children are yours?
O.J.S.: Yes.
T.L.: She have custody?
O.J.S.: We have joint custody.
T.L.: Through the courts?
O.J.S.: We went through the courts and everything. Everything is done. We have no problems with the kids, we do everything together, you know, with the kids.
P.V.: How was your separation? Was that a…?
O.J.S.: The first separation?
P.V.: Yeah, was there problems with that?
O.J.S.: For me, it was big problems. I loved her, I didn’t want us to separate.
P.V.: Uh huh. I understand that she had made a couple of crime…crime reports or something?
O.J.S.: Ah, we had a big fight about six years ago on New Year’s, you know, she made a report. I didn’t make a report. And then we had an altercation about a year ago maybe. It wasn’t a physical argument. I kicked her door or something.
P.V.: And she made a police report on those two occasions?
O.J.S.: Mmm hmm. And I stayed right there until the police came, talked to them.
T.L.: Were you arrested at one time for something?
O.J.S.: No. I mean, five years ago we had a big fight, six years ago, I don’t know. I know I ended up doing community service.
P.V.: So you weren’t arrested?
O.J.S.: No, I was never really arrested.
T.L.: They never booked or…?
O.J.S.: No.
P.V.: Can I ask you, when’s the last time you’ve slept?
O.J.S.: I got a couple of hours’ sleep last night. I mean, you know, I slept a little on the plane, not much, and when I got to the hotel I was asleep a few hours when the phone call came.
T.L.: Did Nicole have a housemaid that lived there?
O.J.S.: I believe so, yes.
T.L.: Do you know her name at all?
O.J.S.: Evia, Elvia, something like that.
P.V.: We didn’t see her there. Did she have the day off perhaps?
O.J.S.: I don’t know. I don’t know what schedule she’s on.
T.L.: Phil, what do you think? We can maybe just recount last night.
P.V.: Yeah. When was the last time you saw Nicole?
O.J.S.: We were leaving a dance recital. She took off and I was talking to her parents.
P.V.: Where was the dance recital?
O.J.S.: Paul Revere High School.
P.V.: And was that for one of your children?
O.J.S.: For my daughter Sydney.
P.V.: And what time was that yesterday?
O.J.S.: It ended about six-thirty, quarter to seven, something like that, you know in the ballpark, right in that area. And they took off.
P.V.: They?
O.J.S.: Her and her family, her mother and father, sisters, my kids, you know.
P.V.: And then you went your own separate way?
O.J.S.: Yeah, actually she left, and then they came back and her mother got in a car with her, and the kids all piled into her sister’s car, and they…
P.V.: Was Nicole driving?
O.J.S.: Yeah.
P.V.: What kind of car was she driving?
O.J.S.: Her black car, a Cherokee, a Jeep Cherokee.
P.V.: What were you driving?
O.J.S.: My Rolls-Royce, my Bentley.
P.V.: Do you own that Ford Bronco that sits outside?
O.J.S.: Hertz owns it and Hertz lets me use it.
P.V.: So that’s your vehicle, the one that was parked there on the street?
O.J.S.: Mmm hmm.
P.V.: And it’s actually owned by Hertz?
O.J.S.: Hertz, yeah.
P.V.: Who’s the primary driver on that? You?
O.J.S.: I drive it, the housekeeper drives it, you know, it’s kind of a…
P.V.: All-purpose type vehicle?
O.J.S.: All-purpose, yeah. It’s the only one that my insurance will allow me to let anyone else drive.
P.V.: Okay.
T.L.: When you drive it, where do you park it at home? Where it is now, it was in the street or something?
O.J.S.: I always park it on the street.
T.L.: You never take it in the…?
O.J.S.: Oh, rarely. I mean, I’ll bring it in and switch the stuff, you know, and stuff like that. I did that yesterday, you know.
T.L.: When did you last drive it?
O.J.S.: Yesterday.
P.V.: What time yesterday?
O.J.S.: In the morning, in the afternoon.
P.V.: Okay, you left her, you’re saying, about six-thirty or seven, or she left the recital?
O.J.S.: Yeah.
P.V.: And you spoke with her parents?
O.J.S.: Yeah, we were just sitting there talking.
P.V.: What time did you leave the recital?
O.J.S.: Right about that time. We were all leaving. We were all leaving then. Her mother said something about me joining them for dinner and I said no thanks.
P.V.: Where did you go from there, O.J.?
O.J.S.: Ah, home, home for a while, got my car for awhile, tried to find my girlfriend for a while, came back to the house.
P.V.: Who was home when you got home?
O.J.S.: Kato.
P.V.: Kato? Anybody else? Was your daughter there, Arnelle?
O.J.S.: No.
P.V.: Isn’t that her name, Arnelle?
O.J.S.: Arnelle, yeah.
P.V.: So what time do you think you got back home, actually physically got home?
O.J.S.: Seven-something.
P.V.: Seven-something? And then you left, and…
O.J.S.: Yeah, I’m trying to think, did I leave? You know I’m always…
I had to run and get my daughter some flowers. That was actually during the recital, so I rushed and got her some flowers, and I came home, and then I called Paula as I was going to her house, and Paula wasn’t home.
P.V.: Paula is your girlfriend?
O.J.S.: Girlfriend, yeah.
P.V.: Paula who?
O.J.S.: Barbieri.
P.V.: Could you spell that for me?
O.J.S.:
B-A-R-B-I-E-R-I
.
P.V.: Do you know an address on her?
O.J.S.: No, she lives on Wilshire, but I think she’s out of town.
P.V.: You got a phone number?
O.J.S.: Yeah, of course, [310] 470-3468. [The number is no longer in service.]
P.V.: So you didn’t see her last night?
O.J.S.: No, we’d been to a big affair the night before, and then I came back home. I was basically at home. I mean, anytime I was…whatever time it took me to get to the recital and back, to get to the flower shop and back, I mean, that’s the time I was out of the house.
P.V.: Were you scheduled to play golf this morning, some place?
O.J.S.: In Chicago.
P.V.: What kind of a tournament was it?
O.J.S.: Ah, it was Hertz, with special clients.
P.V.: Oh, okay. What time did you leave last night, leave the house?
O.J.S.: To go to the airport?
P.V.: Mmm hmm.
O.J.S.: About…the limo was supposed to be there at ten forty-five. Normally, they get there a little earlier. I was rushing around, somewhere between there and eleven.
P.V.: So approximately ten forty-five to eleven?
O.J.S.: Eleven o’clock, yeah, somewhere in that area.
P.V.: And you went by limo?
O.J.S.: Yeah.
P.V.: Who’s the limo service?
O.J.S.: Ah, you have to ask my office.
T.L.: Did you converse with the driver at all? Did you talk to him?
O.J.S.: No, he was a new driver. Normally, I have a regular driver I drive with and converse. No, just about rushing to the airport, about how I live my life on airplanes, and hotels, that type of thing.
T.L.: What time did your plane leave?
O.J.S.: Ah, eleven forty-five the flight took off.
P.V.: What airline was it?
O.J.S.: American.
P.V.: American? And it was eleven forty-five to Chicago?
O.J.S.: Chicago.
T.L.: So yesterday you did drive the white Bronco?
O.J.S.: Mmm hmm.
T.L.: And where did you park it when you brought it home?
O.J.S.: Ah, the first time probably by the mailbox. I’m trying to think, or did I bring it in the driveway? Normally, I will park it by the mailbox, sometimes…
T.L.: On Ashford, or Ashland?
O.J.S.: On Ashford, yeah.
T.L.: Where did you park yesterday for the last time, do you remember?
O.J.S.: Right where it is.
T.L.: Where it is now?
O.J.S.: Yeah.
T.L.: Where, on…?
O.J.S.: Right on the street there.
T.L.: On Ashford?
O.J.S.: No, on Rockingham.