Get the Truth: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Persuade Anyone to Tell All (16 page)

Ralph:
They trust me and I betrayed their trust. And this ain’t cheap! [Ralph was referring to the fee for Michael’s professional services.]

Michael:
[Laughs] This is tax dollars, this is tax dollars. This is nothing. Don’t worry about that. This is the least of your worries. People are going to respect you. People are going to respect you—that you had the guts to own up to it.

Ralph:
Yeah, but I should have told them.

Michael:
Look, and I wasn’t kidding before when I told you, if they’d handled you differently, if they hadn’t scared you away in the beginning, I think you would have told the truth. I really do. Don’t you think?

Ralph:
Yeah, when they told me I molested her …

Michael:
I know that. I know that.

At that point, the lieutenant overseeing the investigation was brought into the interrogation room. Ralph repeated his confession in the lieutenant’s presence. In the end, he didn’t go to jail. He was terminated, but he was later hired by another police department. And Judy was vindicated.

12.

IF O. J. SIMPSON DID IT: THE INTERROGATION THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

On the evening of June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, were savagely murdered at Nicole’s home in Brentwood, California. On October 3, 1995, Nicole’s ex-husband, Orenthal James Simpson—the football hero turned movie star who had been charged with the murders—was acquitted in what many see as one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice in U.S. history.

In late 2006, a publisher announced the pending release of a book by Simpson, titled
If I Did It
, a hypothetical account of a scenario in which Simpson committed the murders. Public outrage in response to the announcement compelled the publisher to cancel the release. Ultimately, a Florida bankruptcy court awarded the book rights to the Goldman family, which in January 2008 published
If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.
The book includes Simpson’s original manuscript, and provides an invaluable psychological insight into the mind of the hypothetical killer.

The assignment to question Simpson when he was brought in by the Los Angeles Police Department the day after the murders fell to LAPD detectives Philip Vannatter and Thomas Lange. The encounter commenced at 1:35 in the afternoon, and was terminated just thirty-two minutes later. It took the form of an interview—Vannatter and Lange never interrogated Simpson.

Our review of the transcript of that interview, the full text of which can be found in Appendix III, has prompted us to consider a hypothetical situation of our own: What would have happened if we had questioned Simpson that day?

Before we proceed any further, it’s essential to make clear the fact that our aim is not to disparage Vannatter, Lange, or the LAPD in any way. We have the utmost respect for the men and women of the LAPD—in fact, we have had opportunities to conduct training for the department in the past, and we have highly valued those engagements. Beyond that, we are very much aware that there’s nothing particularly valiant or laudable about the role of Monday morning quarterback, especially when it’s performed with the benefit of nearly two decades of hindsight. It’s just a matter of the Simpson case having gained such widespread notoriety, and the fact that so many people are familiar with it to one degree or another even after all these years, that lends the case so compellingly to examination here. Our purpose, then, is not to claim that our hypothetical encounter with Simpson would necessarily have been fruitful, since any such claim is obviously impossible to substantiate. It is imperative that readers be very clear that the responses we have attributed to Simpson in this exercise are purely hypothetical. They reflect our speculation, based on years of experience in other elicitation scenarios, of what Simpson might have said had he been questioned using the methods described in this book. The exercise is intended to illustrate, as coherently as possible, how the interview and elicitation process is meant to be executed from beginning to end.

With that understood, let’s go back to that June day in 1994, and imagine that we’re the ones who got the call to question Simpson. Our approach would have recognized that in a law enforcement situation, such an encounter begins with an objective interview. Whether or not the interview transitions to an interrogation would depend on the case facts, the evidence that had been collected to that point, and the information gleaned from the interview. For the purpose of this exercise, we’ll put Michael in the questioner’s seat. What follows is the approach we would have taken, and what we see as the way it might have unfolded, based on the experience we’ve had in such cases.

Michael:
O.J., please come in and have a seat. My name is Michael Floyd, and I will be asking you some questions this afternoon about the deaths of your ex-wife, Nicole, and a young man who we have now identified as Ronald Goldman. Do you mind if I call you “O.J.”?

Simpson:
No, that’s what most people have called me my entire life. I’m fine with that.

Michael:
O.J., before we get into it, I need to take care of some preliminary housekeeping tasks, if you don’t mind. First, may I see some identification, please?

Simpson:
[Produces his California driver’s license]

[Michael records the information and notices that Simpson is favoring a bandaged middle finger on his left hand.]

Michael:
The final thing I need to do before we get started is to read you your constitutional rights per our conversation with your attorney, Howard Weitzman. Are you okay with that?

Simpson:
Yes. I’ve got nothing to hide.

Michael:
I’m glad to hear you say that. O.J., 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?

Simpson:
Yeah.

Michael:
Do you have any questions about that?

Simpson:
No.

Michael:
Do you wish to give up your right to remain silent and talk with me today?

Simpson:
Uh, yes.

Michael:
Do you give up your right to have an attorney present while we talk?

Simpson:
Yeah.

Michael:
First of all, O.J., thank you very much for coming in. We appreciate your willingness to do that. We know you’re very concerned about your children, and that you’re eager to get back to them to make sure they’re okay. So while there is a lot to cover, we’re going to stick to the most important issues. O.J., I think the most important thing we need to ask you about is, what happened at Nicole’s last night?

Simpson:
[Behavioral pause] What happened at Nicole’s last night? You’re asking me what happened at Nicole’s last night? How would I know what happened? I was in Chicago. I wasn’t anywhere near there last night.

Michael:
I understand. Let me explain to you that, obviously, this is a very important case because of who you are. I know you would want us to have every available officer working on this case, and I can assure you we do—every resource we can muster is being tapped to resolve it. As a matter of fact, as we speak, we have officers scouring Nicole’s neighborhood and your neighborhood, trying to figure this thing out, and we’ve been developing some interesting information. O.J., is there any reason that any of the neighbors will tell us they saw you in Nicole’s neighborhood last night?

Simpson:
[Behavioral pause] Well, um … um … I do occasionally pass through the neighborhood, and sometimes I stop to check on the kids. It’s only ten minutes from my house, and now that I think about it, I did drive through last night, but I didn’t see any lights on, so I didn’t stop.

Michael:
Thanks for that. That’s helpful to know. I have to ask you, O.J., was it you who caused the deaths of Nicole and that young man last night?

Simpson:
Are you kidding me? I loved Nicole with all of my heart. She’s the mother of my kids. I didn’t even know the other guy. This is crazy, man, really crazy. Do you think I killed them?

Michael:
That’s why we’re having this conversation right now, so you can help us sort this thing out. My only objective is to find out what happened, so everyone involved can begin to put their lives back together. Before I get into some specific questions, I’d like you to walk me through your activities last night, starting at nine
P.M
. and ending at eleven
P.M.
Please be as absolutely detailed as you can be, okay?

Simpson:
Okay. Let’s see, I went to Sydney’s dance recital at Paul Revere High School. It ended about six-thirty, quarter to seven, something like that, you know, in the ballpark, right in that area. Nicole was there with her family, her mother and father, sister, my kids, you know. I remember Nicole was wearing a short skirt that would have looked inappropriate on a sixteen-year-old. She looked ridiculous. Her mother said something about me joining them for dinner but I said no thanks. I went home for a while and dumped my Bentley and got my Bronco. I went looking for my girlfriend, Paula, for a while but she wasn’t home. I was calling her and she wasn’t around, so I went back to the house. It must have been eight-something, maybe. Kato was there. He hadn’t done a Jacuzzi … we had … we went and got a burger, and I’d come home and kind of leisurely got ready to go. I mean, we’d done a few things. That’s about it, I guess. I think you know the limo driver picked me up right around eleven.

Michael:
Thanks for that, O.J. But maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough earlier. What I’m most interested in has to do with what you did between the hours of nine
P.M.
and eleven
P.M.
last night. You said you got back to your house at maybe eight-something. Let’s pick up your activities from there. Why don’t you walk me through in detail what you did until the limo driver picked you up, okay?

Simpson:
Man, everything is a blur right now. It’s hard to remember exactly what I did.

Michael:
I can understand that, O.J., but it’s extremely important to nail some things down, so I need you to do the very best you can to reconstruct your activities, all right?

Simpson:
Let’s see, I remember that I leisurely packed for my trip. I chipped some golf balls in the yard. I took a nap and then the limo driver rang the house and woke me up because I had overslept.

Michael:
Earlier you mentioned having driven by Nicole’s house to see if they were home. Tell me about that.

Simpson:
Oh yeah, sorry about that. I forgot about doing that. Let me think. Maybe after Kato and I got back from McDonald’s, I jumped in the Bronco and took a real quick ride over there on the off chance I might catch them. It must have been nine at the latest.

[Michael recognizes the unintended message. Simpson’s phrase, “catch them,” is likely what motivated him to drive to Nicole’s house. The reason may have been to catch Nicole with her lover.]

Michael:
Describe your trip to Nicole’s house in detail: the route you took to and from, who you were with, who you saw, who you talked to, what you did at Nicole’s—your best guess on when you left your house and when you returned.

Simpson:
Wow. Okay. It was just me. I went south on Rockingham, left on Highwood Street, right on Bristol, left on Sunset, right on Bundy. I went home the same way. I always take that route. It’s only about six minutes. Like I said, the lights at Nicole’s were off, so I figured either the kids were already in bed or they hadn’t gotten home yet. So I just kinda went home and that’s about it, as far as I remember.

Michael:
What time did you leave your house on Rockingham?

Simpson:
About nine-fifteen or so, I think.

Michael:
Could it have been before nine?

Simpson:
No.

Michael:
Could it have been after nine-thirty?

Simpson:
No way. I’m really sure about that one.

Michael:
Why is that?

Simpson:
Because I needed to take a shower and finish packing before my trip.

Michael:
Who did you see during the trip to and from Nicole’s?

Simpson:
Not a soul. Trust me.

Michael:
Who did you talk to during the trip to and from Nicole’s?

Simpson:
Not a soul. Trust me.

Michael:
What did you do while you were at Nicole’s?

Simpson:
Nothing. Like I said, I just drove by.

Michael:
At any time did your car ever come to a stop at Nicole’s?

Simpson:
I probably slowed down a little, but I’d have to say I didn’t stop, man, and that’s the honest to God truth.

Michael:
At any time did you enter her alley?

Simpson:
That’s where I park when I go over there.

Michael:
Last night between nine and eleven, did you park your Bronco at Nicole’s, even for just a short time?

Simpson:
Not that I remember, no.

Michael:
O.J., I want you to give this next question some serious thought. Is there any reason that someone would have told us that they saw your white Bronco parked at Nicole’s last night?

Simpson:
Who said they saw me?

Michael:
I’m not saying at this point anyone saw you, but if someone tells us they did, it’s important you clear it up now, because that could explain a lot of things. Just because someone saw you doesn’t mean you hurt anybody. It’s possible you had a good reason for being there that is completely unrelated to what happened. If that’s the case, we need to clear it up now.