It was a warm & muggy Friday evening and I had just returned to my apartment in the West Village after completing a 5-mile run along the Hudson River. Before showering I turned on the TV to check the score of the NBA Finals game between the Knicks & Houston Rockets, but instead what appeared on the screen was a white SUV speeding along a highway. I soon learned that the white Bronco was carrying OJ Simpson on LA’s 405 freeway and it was being pursued by a phalanx of LAPD police cruisers. Seems OJ didn't show up to turn himself in as agreed (he was the prime suspect in the murder of his wife & her male friend earlier that week) and was now in the back of the vehicle holding a gun to his head threatening to shoot himself. The chase was so mesmerizing I couldn’t pull myself away to take a shower or even go to the grocery store to get dinner. I watched for at least 2 hours waiting for the moment when, befitting this perfect Greek tragedy, OJ was going to end it all. What sticks with me was the circus-like atmosphere as cars pulled over on the freeway and crowds lined the road and overpasses cheering (or jeering) as he drove by. And when the Bronco finally pulled into the driveway of OJ’s home another weird thing happened. An eyewitness claiming to be across the street from OJ’s house was interviewed on the phone by ABC News’ Peter Jennings but he turned out to be a crank caller who made an inane comment about his allegiance to Howard Stern.
Fast forward 16 months to October 3,1995, the day of the verdict in OJ’s murder trial. I was eating lunch in my office (at ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding) and turned on the radio to hear live coverage of the jury’s verdict. I had decided not to watch the coverage on TV in the conference room with others because I didn’t want to see which co-workers might be happy if he was found innocent of the charges. When I heard the not-guilty verdict I got up and closed the door to my office and sat for a while with my eyes closed trying to process the jury's decision before continuing with the rest of my day.
I wasn't aware of the freeway chase. I'm guessing this is because my daughter was in first grade, and I was working, and both of those things dominated anything that happened outside my own personal life. In fact, I believe it was days later, maybe weeks later that I even knew about the chase. In a way, this informs me that I was very much out of the loop back in those days. Eventually, I became more informed about the trial itself. I remember thinking after the verdict that, even though I was convinced of his guilt, I could see how a jury got to the opposite verdict. Police procedure. If you want to convict felons, the police have to follow the law so perfectly that evidence they collect is untainted by sloppy procedure. I really blame the LAPD for the verdict. In any case, I missed the chase itself. Until reading Rob's blog, I didn't know OJ had a gun to his head during it. I'm curious what other stories we'll hear about this.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that my memories about the chase are a little vague. I think I had just gotten home from work and turned on the TV while getting ready to meet friends for dinner. I saw the white Bronco being "chased" down the freeway, but if I remember correctly it seemed like a very slow chase and I turned it off after a few minutes to meet my friends. The day of the verdict, however is very vivid. I was working in the Chelsea area and went to The Wiz in Union Square to watch. Of course, every TV in the store was tuned to the trial. When the verdict was announced there was a combination of gasps and cheers and unfortunately the racial divide became quite obvious.
ReplyDeleteHey Rob -- great job with the blogs! I remember June 1994 as if it were seconds ago! I was always saddended and schocked at how Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were butchered to death! Yes of course OJ was guilty -- forget about thinking about the consequences of his own life, in his sick and blind rage he forgot about the next set of victims, HIS OWN CHILDREN -- who are forever scarred, my heart will always go out to his children!
ReplyDeleteBEST REGARDS!Sam Belil
Bloggers--this was on Gawker today--the anniverssary of the chase. I remember sitting in my car listening to the radio upstate on a Friday afternoon unable to move for more than an hour. I did not have a tv so had to wait until monday to see the actual chase. According to Gawker, OJ killed the Bronco:
ReplyDeleteFifteen years ago today, former football star O.J. Simpson fled his home with friend Al Cowlings in a white Ford Bronco, beginning the most famous police chase in history. Two years later, the Ford Bronco was dead. Coincidence? No.
The day before the great chase, Ford had one of the oldest names in sport-utility vehicles just as the form factor was coming into its own. What changed? How was O.J. Simpson able to kill an entire legacy? The main factor was probably that the whole event occurred during prime-time. Every news network went up with national coverage. People crowded overpasses and streets to wave at O.J. as he passed. They interrupted an important and exciting Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks. Network news magazines set all-time ratings highs that week.
A fleet of black-and-white CHP cars pursued O.J. and Al slowly as they made their way towards Simpson's house. All the while he carried a gun in the backseat while commentators assumed he was going to kill himself. It was a start of a media obsession that would last for years. Almost instantly the white Ford Bronco became the butt of numerous jokes. Late-night comedians made references to the "O.J. Edition Bronco" with its own knife storage and blood-proof floors.
The day after the chase, the Ford Bronco was the most infamous nameplate since the Corvair and Pinto. Less than two years later Ford would discontinue the Bronco and replace it with another F-series based SUV called the Ford Expedition. If only they'd taken O.J.'s car... Dan Jennings
While watching the chase with my wife and daughter I remember thinking he is guilty as hell or he would not be running for the border and threatening to kill himself.You dont have to be a psychologist or social scientist expert to figure that one out! Thanks to a flawed "justice" system many dangerous criminals escape prison while people that are not dangerous fill up our prisons and are breaking tax payers backs to keep them there!
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