The Night the Dream Died: O.J., Nicole and the Shattered Illusion

at 10:15pm on 06/12/1994 a man walking his akita in the quiet los angeles neighborhood of brentwood found his dog agitated its paws stained red last week we explored the secrets hidden behind the walls of a beverly hills mansion in the menendez case where a perfect family image crumbled from within tonight we are just a few miles away on south bundy drive where the illusion of another perfect life one lived in the full glare of the public eye was about to be shattered for the entire world to see before the white ford bronco before the glove before the trial of the century there was just oj he wasn't orinthel james simpson the man he was a symbol a myth you saw him gliding through airports for hertz a movie star smiling from the screen of the naked gun a football hero

who seemed to run not just past defenders but past the very idea of race in america he was handsome charismatic universally loved he was proof that the american dream was real that you could transcend humble beginnings transcend prejudice and become an icon his life with nicole brown simpson was part of that story the beautiful blonde the football legend their two perfect children the sprawling rockingham estate it was a california fairy tale but fairy tales as we know often have a dark side there were whispers police had been called to the rockingham house multiple times for domestic disturbances nicole had

told friends she was afraid she kept a diary photos of her bruised face locked in a safe deposit box but these were private fears hidden behind the high walls and the blinding celebrity to the public the image was intact oj was still just oj he was one of the good guys the illusion was powerful it was comfortable and america wasn't ready to let it go then came the night of june 12 the akita's discovery led police up the walkway to nicole's condominium and there they found a scene of shocking brutality nicole brown simpson and a young waiter named ronald goldman who had simply come to return a pair of forgotten sunglasses were dead the violence

was personal intimate and overwhelming and as detectives began to piece together the evidence a trail of blood a single leather glove their investigation led them to the one person nobody wanted to suspect it led them to rockingham it led them to a hero the days that followed felt like a national fever dream the news broke oj simpson a person of interest it didn't seem possible then he was a suspect a warrant was issued for his arrest his friend and lawyer robert shapiro held a press conference oj was gone he'd left behind what sounded like a suicide note read aloud on national television by his other friend robert kardashian it felt like a tragic end to

a hero's fall but it wasn't the end it was the beginning of the spectacle suddenly he was on the freeway in a white ford bronco driven by his loyal friend al cowlings oj was in the back reportedly with a gun to his own head and for hours the nation watched news helicopters abandoned their regular programming domino's pizza reported record delivery sales people gathered on freeway overpasses holding signs some read go oj go others run oj run it was surreal a slow speed chase that wasn't really a chase it was a public procession a bizarre televised pilgrimage that ended right back where it started at the rockingham estate where he finally surrendered

the man who had spent his life running had nowhere left to run but the question that hung in the air shouted from the overpasses and whispered in living rooms across the country was what was he running from and what was he running to the trial that began in january 1995 was never just about murder it was instantly something more it was the trial of the century and it became a battle of two powerful competing stories on one side you had the prosecution led by marcia clark and christopher darden their story was built on a mountain of physical evidence a history

of domestic abuse the blood trail leading from bundy to rockingham dna evidence that was at the time cutting edge science hairs fibers and the infamous bloody glove found behind oj's guesthouse a glove that matched the one found at the crime scene for the prosecution the story was simple a jealous enraged ex husband had brutally murdered his ex wife and an innocent bystander the facts they believed were undeniable but they weren't facing an ordinary defense attorney they were facing the dream team robert shapiro f lee bailey alan dershowitz and at its heart the brilliant and charismatic johnny cochran and cochran knew something crucial he knew that in a courtroom the best story often wins regardless of

the facts he didn't just attack the evidence he reframed the entire narrative this wasn't a murder trial he argued this was a trial about a racist police department the lapd framing a famous black man every piece of the prosecution's case was spun into this new story the lead detective mark furman was exposed as a virulent racist who had lied under oath about using racial slurs suddenly the bloody glove wasn't just evidence it was a prop could it have been planted the question once unthinkable was now in the air the police work was sloppy evidence was mishandled the chain of custody was broken cochran exploited every doubt every inconsistency and then came the single

greatest moment of legal theater in american history chris darden asks simpson to try on the glove it was a gamble a huge one and it failed spectacularly simpson struggled to pull the leather stiff with dried blood over his hand it was too tight he held his hands up for the jury to see and in that moment johnny cochran was given the line that would define the entire trial the line that became a mantra if it doesn't fit you must acquit it was genius it was simple it was a story a story more powerful for that jury than any dna statistic so what was this really about as the trial wore on it became a national

rorschach test a referendum on race celebrity and the very nature of justice in america for many white americans the evidence was overwhelming to see him acquitted felt like a catastrophic failure of the system a celebrity had gotten away with murder but for many black americans the trial looked completely different this was the same lapd that had been videotaped brutally beating rodney king just a few years earlier the same justice system that had acquitted those officers sparking the la riots the idea that this police force would frame a black man even a rich and famous one wasn't a conspiracy theory it was a lived reality mark fuhrman wasn't an aberration he was confirmation oj's acquittal for

many wasn't about oj at all it was a kind of cosmic balancing of the scales a symbolic victory against a system that felt hopelessly wicked on 10/03/1995 100,000,000 people stopped what they were doing to watch the verdict the jury which had deliberated for less than four hours found og simpson not guilty the cameras captured the split screen of a nation cheers erupting in some communities stunned tearful silence in others we were all watching the same event but we were seeing two different worlds the story didn't end there of course a later civil trial found simpson liable for the deaths of nicole brown and ron goldman ordering him to pay millions to their families the standard

of proof was lower the jury was different but for the public the criminal verdict was the one that lodged itself in the american psyche it left us with a set of irreconcilable truths a man was acquitted of murder yet held responsible for the same act two families were left without justice a hero was destroyed and the racial fault lines running just beneath the surface of american life were exposed for everyone to see the trial didn't create these divisions it just held up a mirror and forced us to look