O.J. Simpson’s ‘If I Did It’ Makes Its Long-Delayed Internet Leak Debut

Some exciting news for those among you disappointed at never having gotten a peek inside If I Did It, leisure enthusiast O.J. Simpson’s disclaimer-heavy memoir outlining how one might, say, brutally stab one’s wife and her friend to death outside a Brentwood condo, hypothetically speaking. TMZ.com has obtained a copy of the unpublished manuscript – rights for which were recently awarded by a federal bankruptcy judge to Ron Goldman’s family – and republished excerpts. Among them, a paragraph in which a hazy Simpson assesses the post-double-homicidal-scuffle scene:

Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can’t tell you exactly how. I was still standing in Nicole’s courtyard, of course, but for a few moments I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there, when I’d arrived, or even why I was there. Then it came back to me, very slowly: The recital-with little Sydney up on stage, dancing her little heart out; me, chipping balls into my neighbor’s yard; Paula, angry, not answering her phone; Charlie, stopping by the house to tell me some more ugly shit about Nicole’s behavior. Then what? The short, quick drive from Rockingham to the Bundy condo. And now?

Now I was standing in Nicole’s courtyard, in the dark, listening to the loud, rhythmic, accelerated beating of my own heart. I put my left hand to my heart and my shirt felt strangely wet. I looked down at myself. For several moments, I couldn’t get my mind around what I was seeing. The whole front of me was covered in blood, but it didn’t compute. Is this really blood? I wondered. And whose blood is it? Is it mine? Am I hurt?

Amazingly, Simpson pulled through the ordeal fully intact, and now spends his days cutting badly planned deals with opportunistic media conglomerates and chipping balls into a different neighbour’s yard, wondering all the while what exactly would have happened that night…if he did it.

• OJ “Did It” Manuscript Leaked Online [TMZ]
• O.J. Book Rights Awarded to Goldman Family [abclocal.go.com]