Murder in Brentwood (24 page)

Before we went to the house, we had been briefed on certain items that Robbery/Homicide was looking for. They wanted to find a black jumpsuit or sweat suit, a pair of shoes, and, of course, the knife, along with any packaging for a knife. I helped with the search of the master bedroom closet. We didn’t find any knives, but Detective Marlow and I did discover an Uzi and a pistol on the top shelf of the bedroom closet. Simpson was rumored to have a large knife collection-where was it?

When the prosecution presented their Stiletto theory at the preliminary hearing without physically possessing the knife, they merely gave the defense a chance to head off the argument. Soon after the presentation, the defense miraculously “found” a knife in Simpson s home, precisely the sort of knife the prosecution said it was looking for.

In Jeffrey Toobin s book, The Run of His Life, he writes that Uelmen showed Simpson the search warrant of June 28 and asked, “Where’s the knife?” Receiving instructions from Simpson, Uelmen went to the Rockingham estate and into the master bedroom, where some shelves were set behind mirrored doors. Uelmen opened the doors and found the Stiletto that Simpson had described was there. It was pristine, with no evidence of having been used in a murder.

Reading this passage, I immediately knew the place that Uelmen described and was claiming the police supposedly never looked. I had never heard exactly where they found the knife, and didn’t think it was possible that we could have missed it. Brad Roberts was with me during the execution of both search warrants. He and I assisted two Robbery/Homicide detectives in searching the master bedroom during the first warrant, and Brad later told me he was certain the other detectives looked inside the glass cabinet. If they took apart the pipes beneath Simpson’s bathroom sink, you can be certain they looked inside the cabinet. Even if they did not at first realize it was a cabinet, they were looking behind wall hangings and fixtures, and would have taken the mirror apart if it didn’t open.

I have no doubt that Uelmen found the knife in that cabinet. But I don’t understand how that knife got there-perhaps it was the work of little elves. Does the defense want us to believe that Simpson keeps a Stiletto in his medicine cabinet? Does he shave with this knife?

If another Stiletto had been discovered by the police or a citizen, the defense s knife could have been exposed as a plant. But the prosecution’s search for the murder weapon lost steam once the defense came up with the mysterious envelope eventually revealed to contain a brand-new Stiletto. It was probably too late anyway. By finding this knife at Simpson’s home, the defense seemed to infer that they were fairly certain the murder weapon would never be found. How could they be so confident?

Perhaps because the Stiletto was probably not the murder weapon. The testimonies of Drs. Golden, Baden, and Lakshmanan concur that the victim’s wounds were caused by a single-edged knife. But the length of the knife is in question. Out of nearly thirty wounds, only one single wound went as deep as five and a half inches. All the other single wounds were four inches deep or less, with most of them in the two- to three-and-a-half inch range.

The five-and-a-half inch wound was on Ron Goldman’s abdomen, forty-five inches above his left heel, which would place it somewhere below the ribcage. That wound was fatal. It was one of the few wounds that went into soft tissue instead of hitting denser tissue or bone. When you stab someone with great force, soft tissue will compress, creating a wound that is even longer than the blade itself. Picture someone hitting you in the stomach and think how far the fist pushes into your body. Now place a knife in that hand. As the blade penetrates your body, it pushes the soft tissue in. When the body recovers and the blade is withdrawn, the wound will appear longer because the tissue was compressed. In other words, a five-and-one-half-inch wound in soft tissue does not prove that the blade had to be as long as the Stiletto’s. A shorter knife could have made that wound.

And a shorter knife could have made all the other wounds. Although Nicole’s fatal neck wound was so deep that the blade of the murder weapon nicked her spine, this is not evidence of a large blade. As Dr. Golden described in his autopsy the neck can be either flexed or extended, and in Nicole’s case the length of the wound is greater than the depth. This type of incised wound cannot be used to determine the blade length of the weapon.

In his testimony, Michael Baden, the defense’s coroner’s expert, was asked about the murder weapon’s blade length. He stated that the only way the blade length could be accurately estimated was if the weapon’s thrust was not angled and there were no movements by the victim or the suspect to increase the cutting of the blade. In other words, he could not determine the blade length of the murder weapon. This inability was compounded by the fact that he did not view the bodies before burial.

Several of Goldman’s wounds showed bruises and abrasions around the entry point of the blade, indicating that something other than just the knife blade came into contact with the skin, possibly the handle of the knife. These marks, however, were not described as being consistent with the Stiletto; it had an S-shaped hilt, which most probably would have created a distinct bruising cut on one side of the knife wound, and a dull curved impression on the other. These were not present.

During the trial, I pointed out to Rockne Harman of the district attorneys office that if the Stiletto was the murder weapon, the right-hand glove I found behind Kato’s bungalow would have tears and visible impressions on it from the forceful contact with the hilt. Did the glove have any such marks? He never told me of any such findings, or the attempt to search for them.

If the Stiletto didn’t kill Ron and Nicole, what did? Remember that during the first search of Rockingham, in the master bedroom where the Stiletto was eventually discovered, Brad and I found an empty Swiss Army knife box. The box was sitting on the bathtubs edge inside the master bathroom and was the size of one of the larger Swiss Army knives. The box looked out of place in the bathroom. In the bedroom closet, there were several other Swiss Army items, but all were still in their boxes. Where was the knife from the empty box?

Here we were looking for, among other things, the murder weapon, which happened to be a knife. And here was an empty knife box sitting in a visible and unexplained place in the house. Naturally I brought the box to the attention of the Robbery/ Homicide detectives, but I don’t believe it was ever collected as evidence, and it was never investigated. Certainly, it was never used as evidence in the criminal trial. Having read the entire evidence list for the civil trial, both plaintiff and defense, I cannot find this box listed as evidence for that trial either.

Still, a proceeding in the civil trial indicated that a Swiss Army knife might have some significance. One week before the Bundy murders, limo driver John Upson picked up Simpson after he attended a board meeting of the Forschner Group, Inc., importer of Swiss Army knives, located in Shelton, Connecticut. Simpson was a board member of the company and left the meeting with a bagful of free items, several of which were knives.

In Upson’s civil trial deposition, he stated that Simpson showed him one of the Swiss Army knives. Upson stated the following:

“’You could really hurt someone with this,’ Simpson said, making a stabbing motion. ‘You could even kill someone with this.’”

During Simpson’s deposition, Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for the Goldman family, asked: “Did you take that knife out and show it to him and make a stabbing motion?”

“Wait a minute. Don’t answer that,” Simpson’s attorney Robert Baker interjected. “No way is he going to answer that.”

Petrocelli followed up, but made a mistake that let Simpson slip out of difficulty:

Petrocelli: “Do you recall if you took a knife twelve to sixteen inches long and made a stabbing motion with it to the limo driver?”

Simpson: “I know I didn’t.”

It was easy for Simpson to say that, because the Forschner Group doesn’t make a knife that’s twelve to sixteen inches long.

“What was the longest blade of the knives that you had with you and showed to the limo driver?” Petrocelli asked.

Simpson responded: “If I took one of our utility things, I would say whatever that blade is, two inch, maybe, two and a half, maybe an inch and a half, I really don’t know. You can get one and look at it.”

This is a man who promotes Swiss Army knifes, yet he can’t come up with a name or accurate description of a knife the company makes? What Simpson is really saying is that although he didn’t show the driver a twelve- to sixteen-inch knife, he did show him a Swiss Army knife.

Simpson was then asked: “When showing the limo driver the knives, did you say ‘You can even kill somebody with this’?”

Of course, Simpson said no. But, in the same deposition, he admitted that he went to the Forschner Group, that he was given a bagful of knives, including one he described as “kind of a-it’s a top-of-the-line thing with everything involved,” that he had the bag in the car with the limo driver, and that he gave the limo driver “probably that big-whatever you call it, utility knife thing” as a gift. The only thing he won’t admit was holding up a knife and making those incriminating statements. The driver had no reason to lie about it, but Simpson did. Who are you going to believe?

And for that matter, if someone were to make that statement, would they hold up a knife with a small and unthreaten-ing blade? No, they would hold up a knife that looked like it could do damage to the human body.

As F. Lee Bailey pointed out to me several times, I was taken off the case that first night. But I can’t help being a cop, so I did a little detective work. Considering the evidentiary value of the Swiss Army knife box I found two years ago, Upson s statement, the fact that the box was empty and out of place, and that the murder weapon was never found, I thought a Swiss Army knife was a more likely murder weapon than the German Stiletto. After five minutes on the Internet, I pulled up a catalog of Swiss Army knives.

One line of knives caught my eye. The Swiss Army lockback knives are single-edged, 3 ½-inch locking blades with a contour handle and no hilt. These knives come in six models with the same blade. Could one of these be the weapon that killed Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown?

All of these weapons are capable of inflicting the wounds suffered by Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. And a couple of them could be described as “kind of a-it’s a top-of-the-line thing with everything involved.” Was Simpson given one of these knives on his 1994 visit to the Forschner Group? If he was, where is the knife now?

Seeking out more information on Swiss Army knives, I reviewed catalogues from two different sporting good stores in the Sandpoint area. The management was quick to inform me that there are two major manufacturers of Swiss Army knives in Europe. Victorinox is the original manufacturer. The Wenger version is also a true Swiss Army knife, but it is a newer manufacturer than Victorinox.

I discovered through direct contact with the Forschner Group that they import the Victorinox line of Swiss Army knives. The Swiss Army lockback knives are and have been part of their product line for years.

Maybe the murder weapon wasn’t a Swiss Army knife. But why was there an empty Swiss Army knife box next to the tub in Simpson’s bathroom? Why did the box happen to be there on the night of the murders? Did the glove have tears and indentations from the Stiletto hilt? Why were all but one of the wounds four inches or less? Why were there no bruises or lacerations from the knife hilt around the wounds? How could a Stiletto with a 6 5/8-inch blade be used in a violent stabbing attack on two humans and not leave one six-inch wound out of nearly thirty?

The thickness of the blade that was used to kill both victims is repeatedly described by Dr. Golden as 1/32 of an inch thick. This is an extremely thin blade. The Victorinox Swiss Army knife blade measures 2/32 of an inch. But the blade of the prosecution’s Stiletto is almost 5/32 of an inch. The thickness of the wound on the bodies described as 1/32 of an inch could have, and probably did, appear slightly thinner than the blade because of the closure of the wound. Comparing the autopsy findings to the thickness of both blades in question (and standard knife-blade widths in general), one can deduce that it is much more probable that the murder weapon is the Swiss Army knife.

In addition to questions about the blade thickness of the murder weapon, the blade width is also an issue. The width of the wounds can, of course, be wider than the murder weapon blade, but I find it troubling that according to the autopsy conclusions there are wounds narrower than the Stiletto, especially in a wound that penetrated deeply. An example of this is the stab wounds to Ron Goldman’s chest and thigh. The widths of those wounds range from ½ of an inch to ¾ of an inch. Yet, the width of the Stiletto blade is 13/16 of an inch, slightly more than ¾ of an inch. In other words, almost every wound in this region is narrower than the Stiletto blade. The Swiss Army knife is more consistent with the description of the stab wounds, as its blade is exactly 5/8 of an inch in width, which means that the few wounds which appear narrower are much closer to the dimensions of the Victorinox blade. Although I believe the Swiss Army knife might have inflicted these wounds, I’m virtually certain the Stiletto did not.

This much we know-Forschner imports lockback knives with 3 ½-inch blades. Simpson was given several of the larger Forschner knives when he visited the company one week before the murders. He probably brought the knives home, as he did his other freebies from Forschner. On June 12, he took a Swiss Army knife out of its box and left the box on the edge of the bathtub.

What happened to the Swiss Army knife box I found in the Rockingham residence? If Robbery/Homicide booked it as evidence, you would think that Vannatter or Lange might have used it in their interrogation. Because the knife box was never mentioned in the interrogation, or in the subsequent trial, or, as far as I can tell, in the civil trial, we can assume it was never seized as evidence. Where is the box? Where is the knife that went into that box? Why did Simpson open that box on the day his ex-wife and Ron Goldman were murdered?

I’m here in Northern Idaho and can’t own, purchase, or even handle a lockback knife. I don’t have the facilities to investigate any further. But someone else should. Or perhaps they should have back on June 13, 1994.

In a homicide case, the murder weapon can be the most crucial piece of evidence. Yes, you can still catch a murderer without one. But not only did the prosecution not have the murder weapon, they also did not have a credible theory of how the murders occurred.

What really happened at Nicole Brown’s residence on the night of June 12, 1994?

Chapter 16

HYPOTHESIS OF A MURDER

I loved her, always have and always will. If we had a problem it’s because I loved her so much.

OPENING OF O.J, SIMPSON’S SUICIDE NOTE

THERE WERE ONLY THREE WITNESSES to the event. Two of them are dead. The other isn’t talking, or at least he’s not telling the truth. Here’s what I think happened.

It’s Sunday evening, sometime after 10:00. Nicole Brown Simpson is sitting in the upstairs living room of her townhome. A telephone and two take-out menus are nearby. Perhaps she is talking on the phone, or she could be planning to order some food for her friend who is coming over.

The rear window overlooks the alley and driveway behind her house. She hears a car pull into the alley and stop near her driveway. Looking out the window, she recognizes the white Bronco. Her ex-husband steps out of the car. He’s dressed in dark clothing and a knit cap. What’s he doing here?, Nicole wonders. Simpson is the last person she wants to see. He can’t seem to accept the fact that their relationship is over. He acted very strangely at their daughters recital earlier this evening. Regardless of whether she is planning to have sex with her friend or not, she does not want Simpson there when he arrives. He is violently jealous, and Nicole does not want another scene. She has got to get rid of him. Frightened and angry, Nicole leaves the living room and heads downstairs. Meanwhile, Simpson enters the back gate and goes down the walkway to the front of the house.

As Nicole passes through her kitchen, she thinks of her ex-husband’s violent temper and the many times he has hit her. She pauses in the kitchen, takes a large kitchen knife out and places it on the counter, within easy reach in case Simpson gets inside. She continues toward the front door, still holding one of the take-out menus in her hand. Barefoot and wearing only a short dress, Nicole opens the door and walks onto the landing. She plans to confront Simpson and demand that he leave.

There he is, standing on the landing in a black sweatsuit, knit cap, and gloves. Startled by his threatening and suspicious appearance on this summer Sunday evening, Nicole pauses.

We will never know and could forever speculate about Simpson’s intentions at this point or what Nicole might have done to provoke him into a murderous rage. Perhaps she told him, again, that their relationship was over, or perhaps she ridiculed or insulted him. Perhaps she tried to calm him down and get him off her property. Perhaps she did nothing at all.

No matter what either one said to each other, at some point they both sense that Simpson’s control is slipping. He tries to regain control of the confrontation by attacking Nicole with a pounding blow to the top of her head. Nicole falls limp onto the top step of the stairway, her feet wedged beneath the metal fence. The menu drops from her right hand and comes to a rest under her right leg.

If Simpson’s intent is to murder Nicole, he would finish her off right now. She is unconscious and helpless. What stops him? We would like to believe that he realizes what he has done and gets control of himself. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is what happened.

While Simpson stands over Nicole’s body, breathing heavily, adrenaline raging through his bloodstream, his head snaps in reaction to a noise he hears from the other side of the front gate. Someone is coming.

Simpson jumps down the few steps and hides in the shrubbery of the north side of the walkway. Frightened by the noise, his heart pounding, Simpson watches

[It no longer matters whether Simpson planned to murder his ex-wife. He’s already killed Ron. Now he has to kill Nicole.]

Ron Goldman walk through the front gate. He knows Ron and Nicole are close; perhaps he thinks they are lovers. Ron immediately sees Nicole’s crumpled body on the steps. He runs toward her and tries to help.

As Simpson sees Ron, his fear turns into rage. He becomes focused on Ron and attacks. First he wraps his left arm around Ron’s neck and pulls him back into the shrubs along the walk. He has his knife out and starts stabbing. Ron fights back ferociously. Reaching up to pull away the arm that is choking him, Ron yanks a glove off his assailant’s hand. The glove falls to the ground.

Ron tries again, reaching back to the head of his attacker. This time he grabs a knit cap and pulls that off. Ron flails with both hands, hitting the iron bars of the front gate repeatedly, injuring his hands. He feels punches, blows, and pain, yet inflicts little damage on his assailant, who is strong, well-positioned, and relentless.

Simpson himself is shocked at the strength of his victim and begins to panic at the thought of losing the fight. He stabs and slashes wildly. Inexperience and fear are Simpson’s worst enemy; he is careless and cuts himself several times. One of the cuts is a deep gash to his left middle finger. Simpson’s knife continues to puncture Ron until a final slash to the throat takes his life. Ron falls onto the dirt, bleeding to death.

Now whatever plans Simpson had concerning Nicole have changed. It no longer matters whether he didn’t plan or didn’t want to murder his ex-wife. He’s already killed Ron. Now he has to kill her.

As Nicole awakens from the blow to her head, Simpson is standing above her. He begins stabbing at her head and neck. Nicole is dazed and injured; still, she fights back. As she reaches towards her attacker, her hands are sliced by repeated blows from his knife. In her final seconds of life Nicole looks into her murderers eyes. For a long time she had been afraid he would kill her. Now it is all happening so fast-her worst nightmare comes true. In disbelief, she feels the final slash. Simpson cuts her throat so deeply that his knife nicks her spine. Nicole bleeds profusely. Her hands clench in a death grip; she is dead in seconds.

The blood flows from Nicole’s throat wound onto the tiled walkway. Simpson steps in the blood of the woman he claimed to love. Stepping over her, his own blood drips from his cut left hand on to the back of his victim, the mother of his children.

Simpson goes down the side walkway, leaving bloody shoeprints and drops of his own blood on the ground. As he approaches the rear gate, Simpson swings his left hand up to the gate knob and casts blood drops onto the gate. Opening the gate with his ungloved left hand, Simpson leaves a bloody fingerprint on the turnstile knob. His Bronco is parked in the alley next to Nicole’s driveway. Simpson reaches into his pants, pulling his car keys from the pocket and dropping change onto the ground. He is in too much of a hurry and is too excited even to realize all the clues he is leaving.

Still holding the knife in his gloved right hand, Simpson opens the Bronco door, drops the murder weapon on the passenger seat, and drives away in a panic. While Simpson drives, he unconsciously transfers the victims’ blood from his shoe soles onto the Broncos carpet, and brake and gas pedals. With every movement inside the vehicle he leaves blood from his injured hand, or transfers the blood of the victims from his gloved right hand to the vehicle’s interior.

His mind is now racing; he’s got to get rid of this knife! Knowing the area well, he drives just a few blocks to a dirt alley and picks a location overgrown with grass and debris. Pulling over quickly, he opens the passenger window and throws the knife out. Speeding off, he strikes a fence or pile of discarded wood. The force of the collision wedges a piece of wood into the front of his car.

Out of control and remembering he has a flight to catch, Simpson drives recklessly back toward his house. Coming into the intersection of Bundy and San Vincente, he runs through the red light, nearly colliding with Jill Shively in her Volkswagen. The Bronco rides up onto the center median of San Vincente. Another car, a gray Nissan, also stops to avoid a collision. For a moment all three drivers are frozen. Simpson begins honking his horn and shouting, “Move your damn car! Move it! Move it!” Shively, a neighborhood resident, recognizes the Bronco driver as O.J. Simpson. The Nissan finally moves out of the way and Simpson drives off. Shively takes down the license plate of the Bronco.

When Simpson arrives at his home, he sees the limo waiting for him at the Ashford gate. He pulls the Bronco to an abrupt stop at the curb by the Rockingham gate. The sudden braking of the car dislodges the piece of wood that was picked up in the alley; it falls onto the parkway. The Bronco is parked haphazardly, but Simpson either does not notice or does not have time to correct it.

Simpson walks toward the front door, blood dripping from his left hand. He sees limo driver Allan Park ringing the buzzer at the Ashford gate. If it is possible, Simpson becomes even more panicked. Even in the dim light, Simpson thinks the driver recognizes him. After all, he is O.J. Here in the doorway, there is at least enough light for Simpson to see the cut on his left hand. This may be the first time he realizes he is cut. He puts the hand into his pocket to keep from dripping more blood.