Thursday, June 12, 2014

Your Turn

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of when OJ Simpson killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Do you remember when you first heard about it? Do you remember when the not guilty verdict was announced?

105 comments:

Beetlejuice said...

I was in 2nd grade.

Candyland said...

Like it was yesterday. At a party watching Rockets in NBA finals during the chase. At a client meeting in Houston during verdict. (Lived in Houston mid-90's.)

aemish said...

I remember it took forevvvver for them to finally get around to reading the actual verdict.. we were listening to it on the radio at work and I stayed late to hear it. I am not a stay-at-work late kind of person.

The Real Dragon said...

was like 3 so no. I heard about it in school when i was in 8th grade.

sandybrook said...

Yes the morning after which was a Monday. I remember watching the white Broncos chase Friday night during the 6th game if the Knicks-Houston NBA final most of the important parts of the trial. And being shocked when the acquittal happened. Almost as shocked as I was when Casey Anthony got off for killing her daughter.

Anonymous said...

Chopping apples when the verdict was announced. Slammed the knife down and uttered an expletive.

TV Junkie said...

I was at work & put someone on hold. When I picked up again they said, "Put me on hold! Put me on hold!" Apparently, the on-hold radio station was airing the verdict live.

StewMcG said...

Yep, the Bronco chase was the same day as my uncle's funeral and I was on maternity leave with my oldest for the trial. I had just returned to work when the verdict came back.

M. Brown said...

Freshman yr at Umass when the verdict was read. In the TV lounge the kids of Color cheered and everyone else looked shell shocked. That's all I remember.

MISCH said...

Yes I do

Count Jerkula said...

If only PMK was there having a coke fueled 3sum with them. The world would be a better place.

Unknown said...

Yes to all. Glad he is incarcerated now, damn fool. He's hurt not only the Brown and Goldman family, but destroyed the lives of his children as well. He doesn't care. F*ck him. Although I'm pretty sure someone has already done that in prison.

Cleodacat said...

I had just started AIT after graduating from Basic Training. What I remember is many saw it as a "race" issue as opposed to a "murder" issue.

crila16 said...

Tomorrow is also Friday the 13th and a full moon. Everyone watch your backs.

I do remember when it happened and watching the TV. I was in the middle of times square when I watched the verdict.

GatorGirl said...

The twins were only 1 year old and when they announced it I cried really hard and the babies got scared and cried. I pulled it together then and damn glad he's in jail now

LottaColada said...

Nope.

WareCat said...

I was in 5th grade!
#cougar

Gayeld said...

I don't remember where I was when I heard about the murder. But when he was found "not guilty," I was in a glass bottom boat off of Catalina, listening to the verdict on my Walkman and swearing like a sailor when I heard it.

Lurker Girl said...

I was in Mexico on vacation and they showed the Chase on the swim up bar TV. For the Verdict I was traveling in North Carolina on 77 when they announced the verdict...people at the rest stop were PISSED!

Beetlejuice said...

#rawr
#mahboo

Riven said...

I remember the slowest police chase of all time and wondering if he actually that he'd get away. The only one slower was a few years later when Michael Jackson was on his tricycle.

Other than that I remember the 1992 riots more than the OJ case. People get murdered every day and I just didn't get why all the news media thought I should care about these people.


(Obligatory) :
They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the Mexican
And not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King
It's this fucked-up situation and these fucked-up police
It's about coming up and stayin on top
And screamin' 1-8-7 on a mother fucking cop

Lady Heisenberg said...

Yup. I also knew Judge Woody Clarke, who was a DNA expert on that case. He had a lot of great stories. Such an insane case. RIP Nicole, Ron and Woody

Nope said...

I was watching the Knicks game. Not bc I gave a crap about basketball, but bc I thought John Starks was cute.

Orvilla Bedinbacher said...

@count AMEN

Steampunk Jazz said...

That wasn't the only travesty in June 2008, Don't Mess with the Zohan was released.
I ignored it as much as possible once it became about"issues " but I was chilliein a bar with a frosty pint of Killians and my gold tequila sipper...
Let's just say I wasn't surprised :-\

Hammer_Girl said...

It was the only time I heard my great grandmother say a curse word.

it took forever said...

WOW enty, did OJ show you the tape of him doing it?

Audrey said...

I was at a party and I felt so sorry for the hostess because everybody stopped talking and surrounded the tv to watch the slow-mo car chase.

O'Really said...

I was at a bar watching the game when the chase happened. It was surreal to say the least. That's when we knew that he'd done it. When the verdict came in, I was working in a call center for an airline so there were about 200 people in the same room. More than half of them cheered for joy at the verdict. I don't know what disgusted me more, him getting away with those horrific murders or the people who celebrated it.

Jason Blue Eyes said...

I missed the bronco chase because my best friend and I were watching A Clockwork Orange that night. Missed the whole damn thing. I'm still bummed about it.

As for the verdict, I was inside a hospital waiting room for a Dr.'s appt. A crowd was gathered around the TV. Nurses, Dr.'s, patients, everybody. When the verdict was announced I heard this attractive female Dr. who resembled Halle Berry comment "But he's guilty as sin," while walking away.

parissucksliterally said...

hell yeah, I remember both.

Too well.

Riven said...

The only thing I remember about the OJ verdict is one of my middle school friends laughed about it and when the teacher asked why he said "I'm black and I know he did it!" But he still claimed it was a victory for racism and I was mostly confused.

califblondy said...

Watched the verdict at work and the one happy person is now my SIL. We argued the points of the case, but neither of us ever changed our opinions. I watched the special last night and I had forgotten how much evidence there was against him. What a travesty.

Dexamyl said...

Watched the chase thinking how unreal it seemed. We watched the verdict in class. The reaction was very racially divided (and divisive) unfortunately.

Unknown said...

I remember all of the preferential treatment he got during the chase, since anyone else would have been pulled out of the Bronco and cuffed on the ground.

Glitter said...

I remember the car chase and someone pranking Peter Jennings "I see O.J. and he's scared". I was in the principal's office (I was a teacher) listening to the verdict over the radio.

Pip said...

I was 7. I didn't give a shit.

__-__=__ said...

I remember watching the Bronco chase in a bar in Utah. The chase went on and on and on. We all kept drinking and watching in amazement.

Unknown said...

We were on vacation in Gulf Shores when the car chase was going on. There wasn't a soul on the beach that day. We were huddled around the TV watching it....stunned.

We were in a Sears, I think, when the verdict was read. Once again, everyone huddled around the TV watching it.......stunned.

Iskateboarding said...

october 3rd, 1995. The day i found out i was pregnant with my son, who turns 18 this Sunday

Anonymous said...

Oh god that movie was Awful!

shakey said...

I remember the car "chase". Worked late, so I ate a bowl of cereal as I flipped channels and came across that scene. Stretched out on the couch and watched the whole thing. Don't remember where I was for the verdict. Just remember being shocked.

Snapdragon said...

I remember that damn chase. Goes to show you CNN has been pretty crap for a while. :P

Brush with smarminess: I briefly met OJ at a Bills thing when I was working in Buffalo (before this all went down, obviously). Somewhere I have an autograph. Might have been earlier that same year, but I'm not sure.

Still feel for Ron, Nicole, and their families.

AJ said...

I was out to dinner at a place called the Cabin when news broke OJ was on the run. They turned every TV to OJ driving down the highway in his white bronco. Everybody just stopped and watched in shock.
I don't remember where I was when the verdict was read. I was only 14 at the time.

TH-ighs said...

Myrtle Beach with family..we all came inside to hear the verdict..you could hear a pin drop...we all just walked away from each other and went about our ways in total disbelief and silence.

Ouiser Boudreaux said...

I was in 5th, too! The teacher stopped class and turned on the tv so she could see it. We had been following it from time to time, so we all booed at the television when the not guilty verdict was read. I felt especially "in the know" because I religiously read my grandma's National Enquirer and Star mags every week.

Wee S said...

I was 9 and remember watching the chase on GMTV as I got ready for school. Crazy I still remember it.

nurysp said...

i was in high school
some kids that the teacher had a tv watched it and boy did they go crazy. Thats how the rest of us knew

KarenK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KarenK said...

I was rollerblading with a girlfriend on Miami beach. We skated back to my super fly 300ZX and heard the news on the radio. Shocking.

Unknown said...

I was a sophomore in HS when the verdict was announced in World History class. My teacher cried and told us that the justice system was broken. Most of my classmates ignored him and went on to chant "The Juice is Loose!" all day long.

discoflux said...

I don't remember where I was when I heard about the murders, but I remember going to a nightclub in Houston called Numbers and they had the bronco chase on the big projection screen.

rajahcat said...

I do remember the white Bronco chase......that just went on and on forever....it was just the strangest thing I ever saw

and yes I do remember being utterly shocked at the verdict.....he is/was guilty. And Kardashian knew it if not aided and abetted.

rajahcat said...

and how sad it is that this was made into a racial issue when so clearly it was not

it was murder in a jealous rage by a very abusive and controlling ex husband pure and simple

his poor children hide their identities now-its sad

Wen said...

I was coming back from picking up lunch and sat in my car listening to verdict. When I walked in the office, everyone was PISSED OFF, screaming I can't believe this shit.

Cheryl said...

M. Brown, had EXACTLY the same experience at the Department of Labor where I worked at the time.

AndyCane said...

My friend's 12th birthday party during the Bronco chase.
I was in an assembly in junior high and the principal came out and announced the verdict. The whole school booed.

WareCat said...

I read somewhere that OJ was supposed to play the Terminator
but the producers didn't think the public wld buy him being a heartless killer.

Riven said...

6th grade! I totes woulda been the cool older kid that taught you how to cuss during recess.

auntliddy said...

I remember it so well i was outside watering plants on mt brick patio, thinking, she will never have this earthly pleasure again. Them, before all eyes turned to oj, i happened to hear Dick Cavet on the radio from ca, which was weird because then i was in new york, and he was saying it was very well known he wld go over her house and slash her car tires, so he must have just been so mad he skashed her too. And I realized; we dont know these people at all, all we gave is our perception of them. I never forgot that. The rest of it, the trial and all was just ridiculous, i was so glad when it ended but certainly not the way it ended.

Riven said...

*Yes this happened to me in fifth grade and like most things if I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it right so I yelled out "Fuck!" And then got sent home. :(

The high fives the cool 6th graders gave me weren't entirely worth the punishment I endured.

Marie Lexingdale said...

4th grade. We watched it in class. Me and a friend made "down with OJ posters

auntliddy said...

As fot verdict, i never expected him to get convicted; mostly just happy we wldnt hv to see and talk about it anymore. And I do think he did it.

Diana said...

I was at a bar watching the bronco chase and I was at work when they announced the verdict. I remember the black women from accounting jumping up and down screaming in joy and the rest of us looking at each other in horror.

Jacq said...

I was in 7th grade, guess that makes me the oldest? Lol Mrs, Moore's social studies class. They brought in the big TV on the cart so we could watch it. Complete shock and awe (to this day) that he wasn't found guilty.

Rose Lizenberg said...

The day of the car chase, I was flying home (Sacramento) from a 7 day mexican cruise. When we got off the plane and walked into the Terminal, everyone was just staring at the TVs. At first I thought they were checking flight info, but then noticed the "breaking news" thing on the screens. The day of the verdict, I was working as a bank teller for Bank of America in a REALLY, REALLY bad part of town. I remember when they were getting ready to read the verdict, we all closed our teller windows and ran into the break room real quick to watch it.

BitsofMoxy said...

I was at art school. Mixed group huddled into the tiny smoking room (only place with a tv on campus) when the verdict was read, happy or disappointed you could hear a pin drop. We then just all quietly filed out of the little room.

Jessie said...

I was four at the time. My knowledge is limited to what I learned from SNL reruns.

Unknown said...

Nobody remembers where they were when hearing about he murders Enty!!! Memorable events were car chase and verdict.

Unknown said...

Nobody remembers where they were when hearing about he murders Enty!!! Memorable events were car chase and verdict.

trudi said...

I actually do remember where I was when I heard the first report of the murders. In the car at night listening to WABC and heard the news report. I thought OJ was still married to his first wife so I thought she was the murder victim. I didn't know he had divorced her and remarried.

Frazzled said...

I was on a flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta when the verdict was read. A flight attendant had told me earlier that they were getting news from the ground. About half way through, I walked up to the flight attendants' station and they all looked sick and I knew. I thought I had come to terms with the inevitable verdict, but it was still sickening. My parents were waiting for me as I got off the plane and they looked really strange and hurried us out of the airport. Then they told me that a lot of workers at the airport were watching TVs in the terminal and stared cheering and screaming when the verdict was read.

Unknown said...

Love that song Riven!!

Frazzled said...

I remember watching so much of the trial live on TV. That was in the Court TV days and you could watch every second live. When Christopher Darden asked OJ to put on the gloves, I screamed at the TV, "What are you doing?!?!" Anyone can make it seem like gloves won't go on easily by just flexing their fingers a little. The look on Marcia Clark's face was a terrible, sad thing that day. She knew they had lost.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Agree Frazzled - I still can't believe the reaction after he 'struggled' to put them on and the ensuing 'if the gloves don't fit you must acquit' bullshit. Bad move by Darden but amazed that a lot of people bought into the charade that they didn't fit him. Clearly they did.

OKay said...

I remember being very glad it was finally over. Not much else.

KJ Kitsom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SugarTitz said...

Just graduated hs. When he killed her
Was in college and had my wisdom teeth taken out hours after the verdict was read.

SugarTitz said...

Was at college lounge when verdict was read and local news stations were there to watch us react.

SugarTitz said...

I was at Dr waiting to have blood drawn when Casey verdict was read. A whole room of people waiting to have blood drawn. It was not pretty. Erry body wanted to draw someone's blood for her getting off.

SugarTitz said...

This also marked the beginning of hard copy and entertainment tonight in our home town. We grew up in such a small town I had never seen ET before. But once the OJ murder happened entertainment television was in such high demand for murder details and photos hard copy was the biggest show in our town. After that we got E!

SugarTitz said...

Obviously the jurors didn't either

Unknown said...

The most memorable moment was the verdict. Watch Robert Kardashian's face. He KNOWS that his friend has literally gotten away with murder. Before he passed, he told an interviewer that ultimately he doubted OJ's innocence. The other moment I'll always remember was when OJ failed to turn himself in (pre-Bronco chase), and the LAPD fellow stated, very directly: "Mr. Simpson is a fugitive from justice." *That* was so simple, yet so stark.

car54 said...

Oh my goodness. I was working at a relatively new job, a college bookstore--it was a very diverse business with all kinds of people--that I didn't know very well.
I had followed the trial religiously and we all gathered in the head of the store's office to watch on TV, and I was absolutely shocked when the verdict was given--and I assumed others would be--and then the office secretary---a little old white lady went off on how happy she was he was found not guilty and how she thought all the evidence was faked.
I had to use my hand to close my jaw after it dropped on the floor--and then I was afraid to comment on my own opinion because I didn't realize there were people who didn't see things the way I saw them.

JustTellMe said...

I was working at a car dealership in SoCal that was right off the 5 freeway. We turned on all the TV’s and just sat down and watched. Customers who came in sat and watched too. No work was done. :) A coworker had gone to high school w/ Nicole & another had Denise Brown as a neighbor. Crazy times for sure.

NaughtyNurse said...

I, like most people, LOVED OJ Simpson and-at first-didn't at all believe The Juice was capable of murder. Then the trial happened, and it was so painfully obvious that the guy was a piece of shit, wife abusing, murderer, an entitled celebrity who KNEW he would get away with it. And he did. Awful. It was awful, and I feel terrible for his kids and the rest of the families involved.

BeckyMae said...

Gardner feel old! I was living in Scotland and could not believe the verdict either... He's got his just desserts now tho...

Bleu said...

The chase really was unreal, and hard to convey to people who didn't see it and can't remember OJ from a time before. Imagine a huge charismatic sports star from 20 years ago now past his prime -- Michael Jordan? Troy Aikeman -- leading police on slow-speed chase, with someone famous with him in the Bronco, people watching thinking he's about to commit suicide, and yes, that this is evidence he murdered his wife and a young waiter.

Anonymous said...

I read about that serial killer and now I am not convinced. He had means, motive, and opportunity, and he knifed/strangled quite a few people.

Unknown said...

I remember driving past OJ's house a couple of days after the murders. Everyone in the neighborhood was freaked out and afraid that it was a Manson thing all over again. OJ had been questioned by then but hadn't been charged. Rumors were starting to go around about OJ's alibi not being as solid as it seemed but nobody wanted to believe it was him, people liked OJ. There were ribbons and flowers left at the gate and on the hedges in sympathy. There was only a handful of press and no police but that soon changed.

I watched the Bronco chase at home. I couldn't understand the people on the overpasses and by the roadside cheering for OJ Simpson the suspected murderer. I watched the verdict at home too and that was the worst. I was on the phone with my husband. He's a lawyer and he expected a hung jury. I expected a guilty verdict and I was shocked. I remember yelling "Oh NO. Oh my god." and my husband calming me down.

The only one who came out of that entire mess with his dignity and reputation intact was Howard Weitzman. He was OJ's first attorney and he bowed out of the case right away. Robert Kardashian took Weitzman's place at first, before Shapiro was hired. Kardashian removed evidence from the Rockingham house and sat with OJ every day of the trial. That's what I think of whenever I hear the name "Kardashian" mentioned. It's a family of nasty whores.

CK76 said...

When OJ flew back from Chicago, arrangements were made for one of his bags to be flown back on the flight prior to his. Wonder who picked that up and what happened to it? AC, what do you know about it??

CK76 said...

When OJ flew back from Chicago, arrangements were made for one of his bags to be flown back on the flight prior to his. Wonder who picked that up and what happened to it? AC, what do you know about it??

CK76 said...

When OJ flew back from Chicago, arrangements were made for one of his bags to be flown back on the flight prior to his. Wonder who picked that up and what happened to it? AC, what do you know about it??

Cheez Whiz said...

This guy says that OJ's son did it:

OJ's son did it?

Cheez Whiz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RP239 said...

I was stuck in traffic during the Bronco

beejers said...

I don't remember the day of the murder. I do remember the day of the bronco chase. It was my 17th birthday, me and my friends were high as all get out and watching TV, and all I could think was, all I want for my birthday is for this to end in a hail of bullets. I was sadly disappointed that night and we all went back to smoking weed.

Henriette said...

Yep, I was working at a craptastic job and miserable. I was two months from 24.

Henriette said...

I don't remember where I was for the verdict.

Buddy Bones Smith said...

@texas rose-Those gloves could have slipped on OJ's hands like they had just that minute been made for him and he probably STILL would have been acquitted.

Buddy Bones Smith said...

I had just finished undergrad and was living at home with my parents before I moved to start grad school. I vaguely remember hearing about the murders, but I definitely remember my mom hollering from her room that OJ was on the run. I thought she was nuts, ended up standing in her room gawking at the tv and thinking if he were innocent, why was he running?

The day of the verdict, I was living in Greensboro and Had been at my internship. When I left, I noticed that the streets seemed as quiet as a weekend. I turned on the radio just in time to hear the verdict. I was shocked but not, you know? I will always remember the look on Robert Kardashian's face-he knew OJ was guilty.

I also remember where I was the night Princess Diana died. I was just out of grad school and living back with my parents AGAIN, and this time my mom woke me up to tell me the news. No tv in my room, so once again, I was standing at the foot of her bed, gawking at the tv.

Bubbles said...

So basically you're saying that an ex football player did a Columbian drug lord style execution?

WUWT? said...

Warecat, I'm pretty sure I saw a movie once where OJ played someone who killed someone with a piano wire. Or someone else did, but he was in the movie. I don't remember enough about it. Channel surfing during a blizzard.

Anyway, back to real life, I remember when the bodies were found and he was out of town at the time, so he didn't seem like he could be the suspect. I was surprised when they questioned him. I remember the car chase, and by then it was clear he'd done it, bloody socks inside his house, all that. From time to time I still meet people who think he's framed. (No one I talk to thinks Casey Anthony was framed.) I wish the police had done a better job so that key evidence would not have been surpressed. I was so angry that he was out playing golf and riding his speedboat through manatee waters and STILL RICH and still surrounded by fans. So it's good he's finally where he belongs, but, seriously, jail for a fight over souvenirs and not jail for violent deaths?

WUWT? said...

I also remember how much the tabloids slandered Nichole Brown Simpson after the murder. "Lesbian hot-tub affairs!" "Cocaine use! The drugs! The fights!" "She was 'crazy'!" I couldn't remember seeing the VICTIM of a crime get such bad press before. They played her prior 911 calls with him screaming and ranting in the background, and yet, she always came off as the unbalanced one. I was appalled. Her sister made the rounds trying to shed light on domestic abuse and people treated her like an annoyance, like someone trying to get famous off her sister's death. A lot of media for many months seemed skewed in OJ's favor, even after all the bloody clothes had been found inside his house! Norm MacDonald got fired for insinuating too much on Weekend Update that OJ was guilty; too many people in high places cover for their friends, even when their friends are scum.

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