Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406200118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By FRED BAYLES ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES NOTE: ABOVE LENGTH: Long
He appeared first on the sports pages, an invincible running back with no chinks in the armor of personality common to today's athletes. He moved gracefully to the features pages: an affable commercial spokesman and actor, a knowledgeable sports commentator.
But the journey has veered off the road of celebrity into a drama as wrenching as Othello.
How could things go so wrong for a man whose life had been a signpost for success with grace?
With hindsight, the experts offer explanations for what would have been unthinkable a week ago.
O.J. and Nicole, they said, were caught in a web of uncontrolled jealousy and passion that trapped abuser with abused. His violence flared with his love; she couldn't leave despite the threats and beatings.
``The majority of people who physically assault their spouse are not violent in any other example,'' said Murray Straus, a director of the University of New Hampshire's Family Research Laboratory. ``The only difference in this case is that O.J. is publicly known as a nice guy.''
The ``nice guy'' description echoes across the years of O.J.'s life, made even more compelling by his beginnings: a poor child, born with rickets, raised in a single-parent home in a tough San Francisco neighborhood.
Simpson has given credit to his mother, Eunice, a nurse and a churchgoer known in the neighborhood for her strong, guiding hand.
``You just don't know what it is to be 8 years old and all your friends think you have the best mother in the neighborhood,'' Simpson said at his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Others cite the determination of the young boy who devoted himself to football to escape the crime and gangs pushing into the edges of his life.
By his final high school years, Simpson knew where he wanted to go. He played for City College of San Francisco, after being snubbed by four-year universities. But his skills were recognized. He transferred to the University of Southern California where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1968.
He went on to the Buffalo Bills, setting a National Football League record 2,003 yards rushing in 1973.
He crossed the barrier of race to cash in on his skills. His role as spokesman for Hertz - the famous commercial of him dashing through airport aisles - has become a historical artifact. He was a widely respected football commentator and managed to parlay his fame into an acting career, almost exclusively playing good guys. It was not, as they say in Hollywood, a stretch.
But there was another Simpson that apparently existed outside the public's perception.
An 11-year marriage to Marguerite Whitley, marked by various separations, came to an end in 1979. By 1977 Simpson had a new love. He met a waitress, Nicole Brown, a vivacious blonde and former homecoming princess who had just turned 18. Within a year, they were living together. O.J. became very possessive.
``I only attended junior college for a very short time, because respondent wanted me to be available to travel with him whenever his career required him to go to a new location, even if it was for a short period of time,'' Nicole said in a 1992 divorce deposition.
The marriage became more than confining. Police began to know the gated estate in the posh Brentwood section of Los Angeles by answering complaints of domestic battles.
The worst came three hours into 1989. According to a police report, officers responding to a 911 call saw a hysterical and badly bruised Nicole Simpson run from a hiding spot in the bushes, wearing only a bra and sweatpants smeared with mud.
``He's going to kill me,'' she yelled over and over as she clung to one of the officers.
At one point, the officer asked if Simpson had a gun. ``He's got lots of guns,'' she replied.
Simpson appeared outside, wearing only a bathrobe. ``I don't want that woman sleeping in my bed anymore,'' he yelled at the squad car where Nicole was sitting. ``I got two women and I don't want that woman in my bed anymore.''
Simpson later pleaded no contest to a charge of wife beating. He agreed to pay $400 in fines and do 120 hours of volunteer work. Instead he did 175 hours, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for a camp for children with cancer. He underwent counseling.
Friends continued to describe a loving couple, struggling to raise their children, to stay together even after their divorce.
``I was with O.J. and Nicole together a couple of times last fall, and extensively at the Super Bowl at Atlanta,'' sportscaster Jim Lampley said. ``What I saw was quite inspiring, a couple of parents with a lot of experience under their belts, really wanted to put that family back together.''
Talk of reconciliation continued, even the day before her death. Simpson and Nicole attended a dance recital for their 9-year-old daughter, Sydney. But the family friend said appearances were not what they seemed.
``There was no harmonious family reunion or family get-together,'' the friend said. ``She had been asked out on dates the last three weeks and declined and told people she declined because he was not doing well with the situation.''
A day later Nicole was dead. A friend, Ronald Goldman, was dead. And O.J., the smiling Good Guy, is now in police custody charged with their murder.
by CNB