O.J. Simpson (Basically) Confesses To Double Murder On National Television
By Sean Pendergast
Houston Press
March 12, 2018
Well, it took 12 years and a ratings cattle prod from, ironically, the reprise of its own creation, American Idol, on a competing network, but FOX finally aired the 2006 interview that Judith Regan conducted with O.J. Simpson, at that time titled "If I Did It" but now appropriately labeled "The Lost Confession," in which Simpson "hypothetically" takes viewers through how he "would have committed" the double murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and Ronald Goldman.
And after watching the two hour special last night, I think we can go ahead and remove "hypothetically" from any conjecture regarding Simpson's involvement in the murders — he killed those two people.
The two hour special was essentially divided into two parts. The first hour or so was the backstory of O.J.'s courtship of and eventual marriage to and divorce from Nicole, all of which essentially began when she was 18 years old and he was a grown man with a family, on the cusp of his first divorce. The hour largely consisted of reliving the numerous domestic violence incidents of which Simpson was accused, and Simpson's 2006 denial, minimizing, and posthumous victim shaming surrounding these incidents. It was gross.
The first hour, though, couldn't hold a candle to the second hour, in which Simpson took viewers through the night of the murders, and if you've watched any of the documentaries or biopics about that night, he does so in alarmingly accurate detail. The only caveats were (a) Simpson couching the whole thing with the word "hypothetically" (the worst veil for a confession of all time) as if to say "I didn't do these things, BUT....", and (b) his addition of some imaginary accomplice named "Charlie" who was "hypothetically" with him the night of the murders.
Perhaps the most disgusting (but not all that surprising) part of the entire special was the fashion in which Simpson was able to seamlessly go from an in-the-moment, "hypothetical" murderer back to denying he ever did anything wrong once the interview progressed to the trial and his eventual acquittal for both killings.
The coup de gras was Simpson's contention at the end of the interview that he is looking forward to seeing his decapitated ex-wife in heaven again someday, along with his parents and others he's lost (but presumably didn't murder) along the course of his life. THAT will be an interesting group hug.
The program included a studio panel that broke down the various segments of the interview. The panel included Regan herself, a longtime friend of Nicole's named Eve Shakti Chen (who was crying throughout the broadcast), and prosecuting attorney Christopher Darden, who had to feel like Bill Buckner on a panel for Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, as it was Darden who is largely blamed for the defense's victory when he made Simpson try on the gloves that were found at the crime scene.
All in all, it was a chilling watch that amounts to nothing, since Simpson can no longer be prosecuted. In the end, it was just a two hour reminder of what a sick son of a bitch Orenthal James Simpson is, and one more reminder for the victim's families that the jury really screwed them back in 1995.
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