On Thursday, I went over to South Bundy Drive in Brentwood, the place the double homicide occurred. O.J. Simpson was dead at 76. And that well-known scene of violence was eerily quiet on a shimmering spring day in Los Angeles.
I had written nearly 30 years in the past concerning the barbaric slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and her buddy Ron Goldman at Ms. Simpson’s condominium, and the notorious trial that drilled into essentially the most delicate components of the nationwide psyche, exposing conflicting views about race and policing and celeb and authorized equality.
There have been farcical components of O.J. Simpson’s “trial of the century,” from the witness Kato Kaelin, the houseguest with the frosted shag who had starred within the comedy “Beach Fever,” to Choose Lance Ito, who was such a narcissistic digital camera hog that he turned often known as Choose Itomaniac.
However I all the time considered it as an awesome American tragedy. It had echoes of “Othello,” essentially the most trenchant work ever written on the deadly flaw of jealousy.
Othello was a hero, a Black man beloved for his exploits on the sector, a person who conquered racial setbacks and beguiled his followers and soared to nice heights.
He was married to a gorgeous youthful girl. However, because of Iago — a deputy to the final who was jealous himself as a result of he was handed over for a promotion in favor of one other aide-de-camp — Othello was poisoned with jealousy, unable to deal with the demons in his head.
Desdemona, his spouse, was confused, as a result of Othello was spun up over false data. Her servant, Emilia, defined that jealous individuals “are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster, Begot upon itself, born on itself.”
Othello murdered Desdemona, whereas nonetheless loving her.
A 12 months after O.J.’s homicide trial, I stood in line behind the soccer legend’s lawyer, Johnnie “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit” Cochran, at Invoice Clinton’s second inaugural. Cochran, who acted as if the Simpson case was a civil rights wrestle akin to Brown v. Board of Schooling, would quickly have his personal present on CourtTV.
A stream of women and men excitedly approached Cochran, eager to have their photos taken with the lawyer who received O.J. off.
Superstar trumps all. Or virtually all.
O.J. escaped in his felony trial however not in his civil trial, although he by no means paid the penalty or expressed any penance.
He didn’t, nevertheless, escape the opprobrium of many in America who felt that he received away with homicide.
In 1995, as an acquitted O.J. plotted to rehabilitate himself, I felt that the victims had gotten misplaced within the circus.
I drove an hour outdoors of Los Angeles to the Ascension cemetery in Lake Forest. There have been bougainvillea, carnations, sunflowers and daisies heaped on the plain darkish marble marker at Nicole Brown Simpson’s grave. Individuals had left teddy bears and rosaries.
One little boy wrote a be aware promising he would by no means be imply to a lady when he grew up. A mom wrote a be aware assuring Nicole that her two youngsters can be OK: “Your children’s guardian angels will take care of them.”
I talked to a lady named Teresa Myers from Portland who stood staring on the grave for a very long time. “Maybe she’s better off now because she’s at peace,” Myers told me. “But maybe she’s not because she knows now that nobody can touch him.”
Once I left South Bundy on Thursday, I stated just a little prayer for the victims and their households. Fred Goldman, Ron’s father, stated upon listening to of O. J.’s loss of life, “No great loss.”
I really feel the identical.
