O J Simpson died this past week.
Reaction was mixed.
There has been a lack of uniform grief at his passing, as there often is in the case of the departure of an acknowledged good person from Earth.
The casual observer doesn’t know precisely what took him, but his family indicated it was some form of cancer, perhaps prostate.
Maybe that is just as well.
Despite his checkered past, he seems no less entitled to privacy than the next person, whose virtue may be above reproach.
His trial in 1994 for the murder of his abused wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, was anything but private.
Featuring a litany of high-profile (and high-priced) attorneys, it was dubbed ‘The Trial of the Century,’ and riveted the nation during its 11 month duration.
Although he was ultimately acquitted (“if the glove don’t fit, then you must acquit”) of murder, two years later he was found liable for the murders in civil court and ordered to pay the Goldman family $33M.
They never saw the money.
In this one case, it was likely never about the money.
Fred Goldman, father of murdered son Ron, once essentially said something to the effect: “If O J would but admit guilt, he wouldn’t have to pay a dime.”
Neither ever came — an admission nor the figurative dime.
