I am, of course, referring to the case involving OJ Simpson from the mid-1990s in which the retired American football player - and movie star - was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson - and her friend: Ron Goldman in 1994.
In October of the following year, Simpson was acquitted of all charges. However, he was found liable in a civil lawsuit three years later.
I cannot explain just how much it seemed the world was hooked on this trial. And that's coming from me - someone who lives in the United Kingdom, far away from the USA where all this went down.
For me, I cannot think of OJ Simpson without remembering the following:
- Seeing the car chase on the news over here
- Calling in to the Caesar the Geezer show on Talk Radio UK back in 1995 and asking his opinion of the trial. He told me he didn't care about it. On the surface, that was fair enough. Yet, weeks later, he found himself spending many episodes discussing the trial when everything picked up Stateside.
- Walking around a video store with my uncle during the summer of 1995 as we chose some movies to watch over a weekend. I recall pointing out a film about OJ Simpson and saying to my uncle 'they got that one out quickly didn't they?' We didn't rent it. We picked up Reservoir Dogs and Interview with the Vampire instead
- Watching the verdict live. If I recall correctly, it came in during an episode of Home and Away (I might be mistaken on that one! It was certainly the early evening for me)
- I was in London the day following the verdict. I remember visiting a newsagent which had papers from all over the world. The three shelves or so of publications had OJ on every single cover.
No comments:
Post a Comment