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# BYJACKNEWORTH BOOKREVIEW ‘If I Did It’ The Goldman Family • Beaufort Books
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/b-y-j-a-c-k-n-e-w-o-r-t-h-bookreview-if-i-did-it-the-goldman-family-beaufort-books/
- Published: 2007-10-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T03:20:43.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

In one of Woody Allen’s early comedies his character tries to buy porn magazines at a supermarket. He grabs The New Yorker, Time, U.S. News & World Report, and buries the X-rated mags in the middle. At the checkout counter, however, the clerk holds up the nudie mag and shouts into the P.A. system, “What do we charge for Orgasm?”

Currently, on my coffee table, I have OJ’s so-called tell-all book sandwiched between “Mother Theresa: Come Be My Light” and Alan Greenspan’s “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.” Guess you can say I have the same predicament.

Before I begin my review, let me say I believe wholeheartedly in the criminal justice system precept that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is, until OJ Simpson. It started when he entered his plea, “100 percent, absolutely, not-guilty!”

“Not guilty” wasn’t enough, nor was “absolutely not guilty.” I was surprised he didn’t tell the judge he was “110 percent not guilty.” (Athletes often throw in that extra 10 percent.) In “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer” OJ portrays himself as a victim (too kind, too generous) and portrays his slain wife Nicole Brown as a promiscuous drug user, though oddly enough, he often refers to her as a great mom. The book traces their passionate, tumultuous relationship from day one to the night of the murders. How OJ describes meeting Nicole is fascinating. Even though his first marriage was falling apart, he buys his first wife an anniversary gift. Afterwards he goes to the Daisy Restaurant for breakfast and encounters an 18-year-old Nicole Brown as his waitress. Trying to appear gallant by buying his soon-to-be ex-wife an anniversary present, he’s oblivious to how sleazy he sounds when he hits on (no pun intended) his gorgeous waitress. Put it this way, if you think OJ Simpson is a sociopath, “If I Did It” will do nothing to dissuade you.

The book opens with heartfelt commentary by the Goldman family. The manuscript is unchanged except the Goldman’s added “Confessions of the Killer” to the title. Then there’s a prologue from ghostwriter Pablo Fenjves, who was not only Brown’s neighbor on the night of the murders, but he reported her dog’s wailing barking to the police. Born to Holocaust survivors, Fenjves worked at the National Enquirer where he befriended publisher Judith Regan. It was Regan who came up with the concept and took the idea of publishing a book to Rupert Murdoch before public outcry forced the book’s cancellation. Regan said she “wanted him (OJ) and the men who broke my heart, and your hearts, to tell the truth, to confess their sins, to do penance and to amend their lives.” Judith, dear, I have two words for you: You’re nuts.

According to published reports, at the start of their writing sessions Fenjves told Simpson he’s convinced he’s guilty. After collaborating on the manuscript he tells him he’s even more convinced. Simpson took it well, charmingly so. He compliments Fenjves on capturing his “voice.” In fact the book does sound like The Juice actually talking it out. At one point in the book he says, “I know half the country thinks I’m guilty.”

Half? How about “all?” There are so many examples like this where OJ seems delusional.

“If I Did It” is currently third on Amazon’s most popular list and fifth on the New York Times best-seller list. This confirms one critic’s view that “it’s so lacking in taste and decency that people are lining up to buy it.” It may be lacking in both, and yet it has compelling passages and the description of the night of the murders is absolutely chilling. The book builds to that chapter, entitled, “The Night In Question.” (Sounds so casual.) It begins with OJ’s caveat, “Now picture this — and keep in mind, this is all hypothetical.” He then proceeds to describe the morning, day and evening, and how he managed to murder two people and still make his flight to Chicago. He confesses he had help at the murder scene, a friend he calls “Charlie” to whom he gave his bloody clothes and knife with instructions to get rid of them. Since it’s OJ doing the narrative the reader is never sure what to believe. Many details ring true. Like a concerned parent, OJ chastises Nicole in the book for not having the back gate to her condominium fixed. This is, however, how he gains entrance on the night he murders Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.

Simpson will not make a dime from the book’s sales — thankfully. (Although he pocketed and spent his reported $800,000 advance.) Some book proceeds will go to the Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice, a nonprofit to help victims of violent crime.

To the millions who got hooked on this saga 13 years ago, “If I Did It” provides some more fuel to the fire. To those who’d rather forget it, in the Mother Theresa book I mentioned earlier the saintly woman admits to a life-long struggle with doubts about God, and in his book, Alan Greenspan tells us the war in Iraq was all about oil.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 12, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101207.pdf?ref=smdp.com)