Newsweek has printed this summary of what was in O.J. Simpson's If I Did It book about the murders. It all sounds reasonably credible up until the part about him having an accomplice who disposed of the bloody clothes and knife.
That's possible, I suppose…and it's a nice, simple explanation to one of the difficult-to-explain parts of the whole case. The trouble is that in none of the testimony, including that of houseguest Kato Kaelin, was there any mention of Simpson hanging around with anyone else that evening. It's a bit difficult to believe that someone just dropped by and Simpson said, "Hey, let's take a ride so I can scare my ex-wife with a knife. And tell you what — if I lose control and kill her and any visitors she has, you can get rid of the evidence for me." I also don't recall investigators finding any physical evidence of another person around.
What's intriguing here, of course, is the notion of Simpson having an accomplice. As I understand it, there's a three year Statute of Limitations on murder in the state of California so the guy who helped him, if there was such a person, is in the legal clear. But I'm not inclined to believe there was such as person. It just sounds too "written."
You know: I read an awful lot about the Simpson case…more than I should have, certainly. If someone came to me and offered enough cash to whore myself out and ghost this book…and if Simpson asked me to work out a possible explanation that he could endorse…I think I'd have written something like that. Much of it is logical conjecture, and I would have skirted the explicit details of the knifework, as the account apparently does, because it would be too difficult to write something that would precisely match the physical evidence. I'd also have made up the accomplice because it would easily explain where the bloody knife and outfit went, and since Simpson might well want a detail or two that would lead researchers away from the truth.
And of course, the next step down the line, after Simpson's wrung every possible dollar out of this book, is for him to disavow it. That's when he might say, "Hell, I didn't even write that chapter. Since I didn't commit the murders, I told this ghostwriter to just put down any silly theory he could come up with. Ask him…he'll tell you." That's how I would have done it if I'd done it…but I didn't.