O.J. A to Z: The Complete Handbook to the Trial of the Century

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AARONSON, ELLEN—A production executive with a toy company who walked by Nicole’s split-level condo with a date on the night of the bloodbath, and testified for the defense. Ms. Aaronson confirmed she initially told police she passed by the home at about 11 pm, but later informed them she was mistaken. It was earlier, closer to the time prosecutors believed the murders occurred, she said in the revised version of her account. (See: Mandel, Danny; and Time Window.)

A CURRENT AFFAIR—A syndicated tabloid television show that devoted many hours to investigative reports and interviews with principals in the murder case. Early in the trial the show became enmeshed, along with other tabloid electronic and print media, in a rapidly burgeoning debate over the propriety of paying witnesses for interviews prior to their testimony. When Brian Kato Kaelin was called to the stand he conceded in response to a prosecutors queries he had already appeared on A Current Affair, which paid him a large sum of money. He spoke out during the interview, carried on three evening segments, about tabloid stories portraying him as O.J.’s drug dealer. I don’t do drugs, no. I don’t provide drugs. I don’t deal with drugs. (See: Black Box News, Inc.; Checkbook Journalism; Glassman, Anthony; National Enquirer; Wayne, Judge Diane; and Wedding Video.)

ABORTIONS—The National Enquirer was the first to report that Nicole had six abortions after her children were born because she had come to believe O.J. was clinically insane. But a book about O.J. and Nicole later quoted a close friend as saying the report was only partly true. Nicole had the abortions, but at least two were performed before her oldest child was born. (See: Raging Heart.)

ABRAHAMSON, ALAN—A reporter for The Los Angeles Times who coauthored a book about the case with a dismissed juror. (See: Kennedy, Tracy.)

ABRAMS, DAN—A commentator on the trial for Court TV. Abrams, 29, is a graduate of Columbia Law School and a former law clerk who never practiced law.

ABRAMSON HUG—When lead defense attorney Robert Shapiro gently massaged his client’s shoulders at the arraignment while O.J. listened to the charges against him, the action was recognized by other lawyers as an example of the Abramson hug. (See: Abramson, Leslie.)

ABRAMSON, LESLIE—Legal commentator on Court TV, who was called on for analysis of the O.J. Simpson trial. During a good portion of the proceedings she juggled two roles, commenting on developments in the continuing O.J. drama from behind the scenes, and taking an upfront job at the courthouse in Van Nuys as defense attorney for Erik Menendez. Erik and his brother, Lyle were accused of the shotgun murders of their wealthy Cuban-born parents in the family’s posh $4 million Beverly Hills home in 1989 reputedly because of hatred and greed for inheritance of an estate valued at several million dollars. Separate juries convened at a single trial for both brothers each deadlocked between verdicts of first-degree murder and manslaughter. A second joint trial was ultimately ordered and convened in the summer of 1995 with a single jury for both brothers, while the Simpson proceeding was still underway.

During the first trial, Ms. Abramson moved behind her client and sympathetically massaged his shoulder. The maneuver, performed in front of the twin juries and other spectators, seemed to be a dramatic demonstration toward her client of affection and faith. Courtroom cynics, apparently including some colleagues in the local criminal defense bar who may have believed it was performed more to gain jury sympathy than as a show of genuine affection, dubbed the maneuver the Abramson hug. Ms. Abramson was picked by ABC-TV personality Barbara Walters as one of the 10 most fascinating personalities of 1994. (See: Menendez, Erik; Shapiro, Robert L.; and Which Way L.A.)

ADELL, TRACI—Playmate of the Month for the July issue of Playboy magazine, Adell was in Maryland acting in a movie titled Life 101 when she took a telephone call from O.J. It was about 3 pm, on June 12, 1994, a few hours before the murders occurred. Although the 24-year-old actress-model had never met him, they chatted for about 45-minutes. She later said O.J. talked about his ex-wives and said he was looking for somebody new. He joked that she wasn’t his typical type, and that he had dated blondes but that didn’t work out well for him, the actress added.

ADDRESS—The defendant’s address at the jail following his arrest was:

"O.J. Simpson

Los Angeles County Jail

Terminal Annex, P. O. Box 86164

Los Angeles, California, 90086-0164

Inmate # 401 - 3970"

ADRIANCE, BARBARA—(See: California Sidebar.)

AFRICAN NECKTIES—Several principles and spectators at the trial tied to the defense and the defendant wore neckties or scarves made in Ghana with African designs to court one day to show solidarity and protest a ruling preventing the recall of retired LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman as a witness. In addition to most of the defense lawyers, a jury consultant and one of the defendant’s sisters joined in what appeared to be a protest that played heavily on the race card. (See: Angel Pins; California State Appellate Court; and Race Card.)

AGUILAR, GILBERT—Fingerprint expert for the LAPD who stated that seventeen latent prints were lifted from the crime scene and none were those of the defendant. Some of the prints were matched to Nicole, a woman friend of hers, a police photographer, and a homicide detective, the expert testified. Nine of the prints weren’t matched to anyone.

AIDING AND ABETTING A FUGITIVE—The charges reportedly being considered when a grand jury was convened to investigate the part A. C. Cowlings played in his friend’s bizarre flight after police advised they were ready to file murder charges. The grand jury did not return an indictment against him, and he was never prosecuted for any crime in connection with the case.

AIRTIGHT ALIBI—A slip-of-the-lip by police technician Collin Yamauchi inadvertently opened the door for Simpson’s lawyers to attempt to present his alibi without submitting him to cross-examination. Before conducting scientific tests on blood evidence, he overheard radio reports about the case, Yamauchi said. Like I was saying, I heard on the news that he’s got an airtight alibi—he’s in Chicago—and, you know, it’s his ex-wife and this and that, and he’s probably not related to this thing, he remarked. Defense lawyers attempted to use the bumble to justify submitting Simpson’s tape-recorded alibi statement to police to the jury without putting him on the stand. Judge Ito ruled against the defense effort. (See: Yamauchi, Collin.)

ALBANESE, MIKE—Commander of the LAPD SWAT team that was sent to Simpson’s estate to meet the Bronco at the end of the slow speed chase.

ALBUQUERQUE—The mystery destination of harried would-be witness Rosa Lopez, who alarmed defense attorneys, the court and the press when she dropped from sight shortly before she was expected to testify. While they were fretting over her whereabouts, she was driving alone to Albuquerque for a respite from the pressures of her role in the case and her sudden media celebrity. After a week of secrecy about the matter, she disclosed she left Los Angeles at 1 pm on February 22, stopped for a brief one-hour break, and arrived in New Mexico’s biggest city at 11 the next morning. She flew back to Los Angeles, arriving early the morning of February 24, and had only a brief nap before she was awakened at 5 a. m to prepare for her court appearance that day. (See: Lopez, Rosa.)

ALLEN, MARCUS—A former USC football star, Heisman Trophy winner and standout NFL running back like O.J., Allen fought-off defense efforts to call him as a material witness. It was expected the defense would use his testimony in efforts to show that O.J. wasn’t the jealous man he was depicted as by the prosecution. Allen and Nicole joined in a steamy affair just after her divorce, according to several reports—which he has denied.

Allen played for the Los Angeles Raiders for years before moving to the Chiefs in Kansas City. He and his blonde girlfriend, Kathryn Eikstadt, were later married at the Simpson estate. The couple was among the defendant’s jailhouse visitors. Allen prayed with his friend, but went to the courts to fight efforts to bring him to Los Angeles as a defense witness.

ALLRED, GLORIA—A well-known feminist attorney hired to represent the Brown family. (See: Which Way L. A.)

ALPERT, DR. MARTIN—Physician who treated Nicole at a local hospital for a bruised head after her then-husband allegedly beat her in September 1986. That was seven-years before California law made it a misdemeanor to fail to report domestic abuse. Nicole told Dr. Alpert she hurt herself in a bicycle accident.

After returning home Nicole wrote in her diary that her husband beat her up and tore my blue sweater and blue slacks completely off me. Years later when the physician was interviewed by homicide investigators, he said he hadn’t believed the story she told him in the hospital emergency room.

ALTERNATE JURORS—When a trial was expected to last as long as the Simpson proceeding was expected to take, it was a sure thing that for one reason or another some of the jurors would be dismissed by the court or decide on their own to drop out. The pressures on juries are especially great when they are sequestered as the Simpson jury would be, and after selecting the initial panel of 12 another group of nine women and three men was picked to pinch hit if necessary. The racial and ethnic composition of the alternate jurors, selected after nearly five-weeks from November 3 to December 8, included seven blacks, four whites, and one Hispanic. At the conclusion of the trial, only two alternates remained. When deliberations began the remaining alternates were separated from the main panel of jurors, but continued in the care of sheriff’s deputies in case one of the jurors had to be replaced. In that event, deliberations would have been resumed from the beginning, with the new juror. (See: Jury; and Sequestration.)

AMELI, DR. JENNIFER—A West Los Angeles psychotherapist who was reported by the tabloid press to have been counseling each of the murder victims. According to the reports she was threatened by a gun wielding stranger to keep her mouth shut or die, then a few weeks later was threatened again by a mystery motorist while she was driving to her bank in Malibu. She collapsed after the second threat and was treated at a hospital, according to the report.

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 668—The 11:45 pm red-eye flight Simpson took from the Los Angeles International Airport to Chicago on June 12, 1994, the night his ex-wife and her friend were slain. (See: Stanfield, Wayne.)

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 1691—The flight Simpson took from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago back to Los Angeles on June 13, the day after the slayings. He arrived at LAX at 11:08 am, Pacific Daylight Time. (See: Partridge, Mark.)

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION—The trial was underway only a few weeks on April 30 when the ABA released the results of an opinion poll indicating that the proceedings were leading to a precipitous drop in respect among Americans for the criminal justice system. An earlier poll taken in July 1994 during preliminary proceedings showed 28-percent of people responding to the survey indicated they had little respect for the system. Approximately 9-months later after watching the lawyers at work in the courtroom, 45-percent of the people polled said the trial had caused them to lose respect for the system.

ANGEL-OF-DEATH—Years ago when Simpson was making visits to terminally ill children in Buffalo area hospitals, he jokingly described himself as the Angel of Death.

ANGEL PINS—Nicole’s sister, Denise Brown, and other members of the family and friends wore angel pins to the courthouse beginning with preliminary hearings and continuing through much of the trial as a show of support and love for the murdered woman. During tearful and dramatic testimony for the prosecution, Denise wore a single angel earring, and two other angelic pins on her jacket. For awhile, prosecutor Marcia Clark also wore one of the pins on her blouse, but after butting heads with defense attorneys over the symbol the judge ordered her to remove it. Early, in the trial, he issued an order forbidding anyone from displaying symbols in the courtroom supporting either the defense or the prosecution. (See: African Neckties.)

ANNIVERSARY—On Friday, June 9, 1995, the defense asked Judge Lance Ito to suspend the court session on Monday, June 12, because it was the first anniversary of the murders. It would be a troubling day for all the victims in this case, Simpson’s lawyers explained. Prosecutors objected to the motion, noting that the sooner the trial ended the happier jurors would be. Ito apparently agreed. He rejected the motion. (See: Candlelight Vigils.)

AN O.J.—Term used by men to threaten wives or girlfriends after Simpson became a suspect, then a defendant accused in the murder of his former spouse. An employee of the LADA’s office told the press of receiving numerous calls from women who reported their husbands or boyfriends intimidated them by threatening, I’m going to do an O.J. on you.

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE—Spokesmen for the Jewish civil rights organization publicly condemned the manner in which during closing statements chief defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran drew a parallel between the WWII Hitler engineered genocide and the racist views of an LAPD detective. (See: Hitler, Adolf.)

ANTONOVICH, MICHAEL D.—The member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who near the end of each month computed the costs-to-date to local taxpayers for the Simpson trial extravaganza. The figures were staggering and once the trial got underway were adding up to about $1 million-per-month, according to an Antonovich press flack.

A former California Republican Party chairman, the supervisor developed some novel proposals for easing the burden on the taxpayers. Antonovich reported his earliest proposal, to invite competitive bids for televising the proceedings was shot down by the television networks and the American Civil Liberties Union. Another plan called for the state of California to pay the trial bills from the period beginning January 1, 1995 until the year 2000. The next millennium might be just about the time state legislators decide to take a close look at the proposal and do something about it. (See: Herbert, Steven.)

APOLOGIES—At times during the bitter confrontations in the courtroom it seemed that just about anyone who was on their feet was either verbally chopping someone else up, or apologizing. No one counted up all the insults or threats, but by the time it was all over 500 apologies had been uttered.

AQUITTAL MOTION—Minutes before the jury was summoned into the courtroom to hear that both sides in the exhausting contest were resting their cases, lead defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., presented a motion for acquittal. It was a routine legal maneuver made at that point in most criminal trials, and was quickly denied by the judge.

ARGUDAS, CHRISTINA—A lawyer brought in from the San Francisco Bay Area to run Simpson through his paces at the jail during two-days of mock testimony to determine how he might fare if he took the witness stand. Ms. Argudas played the role of prosecutor Marcia Clark during the deadly serious run-through in a conference room. Sources said her performance was fine; his was terrible. (See: Waiver of Testimony.)

ARIS ISOTONER—The manufacturer of the controversial gloves that figured so prominently at the trial. In December 1990, Nicole bought two pair of Aris Lights leather gloves for her husband at the main Bloomingdale’s store in Manhattan. She paid $55 for each pair, but the sales slip did not specify the color or size. The leather gloves later collected by homicide investigators outside Nicole’s condominium and behind O.J.’s house, were extra large dark brown Aris Lights, Serial Number 70263, with ribbing on the backs. (See: Bloody Gloves; and Rubin, Richard.)

ARMSTRONG, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE ORVILLE J.—(See: California State Court of appeals.)

ARRAIGNMENT—The proceeding when Simpson was advised of the charges against him and given his initial opportunity to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to formal charges of first degree murder with special circumstances. Appearing disoriented and subdued at the June 20, 1994 proceeding, he entered a plea of not guilty before Municipal Court Judge Patti Jo McKay. The family of his slain ex-wife huddled together in seats a few feet from the defense table, quietly watching the brief proceedings. Just over a month later on July 22, he was given another opportunity to enter a formal plea to the charges. This time he appeared more alert, and responded in a strong voice: I am absolutely 100-percent not guilty. (See: Death Penalty; Kennedy-Powell; Judge Kathleen; and McKay, Judge Patti Jo.)

ARREST WARRANT—Prepared by the Los Angeles District Attorney, the felony complaint and request for an arrest warrant accused him of two counts of murder. In both counts, one each for both the victims, the murder weapon was identified as a knife.(See: Murder Weapon.)

ASCENCION CEMETERY—Nicole was buried at the small Roman Catholic cemetery in Lake Forest, California, near her childhood home in Laguna Beach. She was laid to rest next to her maternal grandparents in a plot originally set aside for her mother. Even though her family deliberately held off for six-months on erecting a stone in a move to protect her privacy in death, the grave quickly became a top tourist site. Old-timers lugged along lawnchairs and teenagers carried along portable radios so they could listen to the trial while peering at Nicole’s final resting place. When the stone was at last put in place, it carried the simple loving inscription: Nicole Brown Simpson. 1959 - 1994. Always in Our Hearts.

ASCHENBACH, ANISE—Mrs. Aschenbach, 61, was one of the two white jurors. Her daughter, Denise, talked with reporters and said her mother was very upset. The New York Post quoted the daughter as saying Mrs. Aschenbach telephoned her and in tears sobbed, I think he probably did do it. The retiree reportedly added however that she didn’t believe the evidence was there, and it was primarily because of Fuhrman.

ASHFORD STREET GATE—When the driver of a white stretch limousine arrived 20- minutes early at Simpson’s estate to transport the former football star to the airport, he parked and waited across from the Ashford Street Gate. Driver Allan Park waited 15 minutes before driving to the North Rockingham Avenue gate.

When he realized there was no car there, he returned to the Ashford Street gate and repeatedly rang the bell. There was no response, so he paged his boss on a beeper. His employer returned the call at 10:52 and Park was just beginning to explain that he couldn’t rouse his passenger when Kato Kaelin approached with a flashlight and waved, but didn’t let him in. Then, according to Park’s later testimony, he saw a black person about 6-feet tall and wearing dark clothes, enter the house through the front door. Lights were turned on inside the house, and at 10:56 pm, when Park tried the intercom again, Simpson answered the buzzer.

Sorry, I overslept, and I just got out of the shower. I’ll be down in a minute, the limo driver quoted Simpson as explaining. (See: Allan William Park.)

ASSOCIATION FOR RETARDED CITIZENS—(See: Houston, Linda.)

ATHLETES’ FOOT—O.J. contracted a fierce case of the ailment in jail, and it was so bad that blisters formed on his feet. Ironically, he never once had the common fungus infection while he was an active athlete.

ATTORNEY CONDUCT RULES—Fed up with the interminable delays and incessant sniping between lawyers on both sides, Judge Ito announced a revised set of rules for the conduct of attorneys. Placed into effect on April 26, 1995, he rules were evidence of his desire to maintain control over an often rowdy proceeding that was wasting time and severely trying the patience of both judge and jury. Before advising the lawyers of the code he warned that if their behavior didn’t improve he would scold them in front of the jury. (See: Appendix # 1 for the full text of the nine-point directive.)

ATTORNEYS’ BRAINS—Sarcastic remarks by co-lead prosecutor Marcia Clark about the size of attorneys’ brains, drew a rebuke from the judge who struggled throughout the trial to deal with bickering and personal attacks between the trial lawyers. I find it childish, he sternly observed.

AUTOPSY PHOTOS—Remarking that jurors had a right to know exactly what happened, Judge Lance Ito rejected defense objections and ruled the panelists could see 44 color photographs of the two murder victims. They included 40 taken at the autopsy and four at the crime scene. Seventeen of the pictures were of Nicole, and 23 were of Goldman. The prosecution, in order to achieve the sought-after verdicts of first-degree murder, must prove deliberate and premeditated killings with malice aforethought, Ito wrote. The prosecution is proceeding on the theory that one physically superior assailant was able to overpower and slay both victims with the same sharp and pointed cutting weapon in a very short period of time.

The judge’s nine-page ruling was reported after a long delay to consider hard-fought arguments by both sides. Defense lawyers claimed the ghastly pictures would turn the stomachs of jurors and inflame them against the defendant. Defense lawyer Robert Shapiro also claimed the heads of the victims were propped up in some of the photos so that they extenuate and exaggerate the damage to the throats. The crime scene photos were extraordinarily gruesome, he said.

During the prosecution’s argument Deputy DA Brian Kelberg provided grisly details about the manner in which the victims were killed. He said Nicole was face-down with Simpson’s foot on her back when the killer pulled her head up by the hair and slashed her neck from ear-to-ear. Goldman was also probably unable to defend himself when his throat was slashed in a single, sharp clean motion, the prosecutor