A woman’s futile effort to rescue best friend from OJ Simpson
OJ Simpson after he was granted parole in 2017 after serving nearly nine years behind bars for armed robbery.
What you need to know:
- Nicole Brown Simpson was viciously murdered by her ex-husband OJ Simpson after years of domestic abuse.
- Her best friend Faye Resnick wrote a memoir detailing Nicole's life and the cycle of violence she endured from OJ.
- Despite being acquitted of the murders, OJ later confessed to killing Nicole in his 2006 book If I Did It.
Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted is a memoir about the most infamous murder and court case in US history. It was written and completed by the victim’s best friend, Faye D. Resnick, a few weeks after Nicole’s abuse culminated in her predictive murder at the hands of former American football star Orenthal James (OJ) Simpson.
Faye wrote the book to inspire women to seek help and drive them to escape the cycle of domestic violence and the impending mental ruin that often leads to death. Faye was first introduced to Nicole in the spring of 1990 in Los Angeles, California, by her friend, Kris Kardashian.
Nicole and OJ were living in the white suburb of Brentwood, California, a 19-minute drive from downtown Los Angeles, in a mansion on Rockingham Street. When OJ first met Nicole in 1977, she was a 17-year-old girl working as a waitress at The Daisy, a Beverly Hills high-end restaurant. OJ, who had just retired from an exemplary American football career with the Buffalo Bills, was still married to his first wife, Marguerite Whitley.
OJ and Nicole had sex that first night and within days he bought her an apartment and a brand new Porsche. They continued their steamy extramarital affair that led to Marguerite and OJ’s divorce, before he wedded Nicole in 1985.
He influenced Nicole’s personality to reflect his perception of an ideal woman, recommending how she should dress, talk, eat, and behave. OJ treated her like his prized possession and further forced her to undergo silicone breast implant surgery.
He would burst into jealous rages if he thought another man was staring at her and during his violent temper tantrums, he’d hit her so hard she’d often lose consciousness. When Nicole was pregnant with her two children, Justin and Sydney, he repeatedly called her a “fat pig” and mercilessly derided and assaulted her.
Nicole later underwent six abortions after having her two children, to avoid the demeaning verbal and physical abuse OJ subjected her to. During a trip to Las Vegas, OJ savagely assaulted Nicole and slammed her onto the corridor while she was stark naked. When OJ gave a pair of diamond earrings worth $20,000, which Nicole expected for her birthday, to his side girlfriend Tawny Kitaen, she confronted him and he punched her repeatedly.
He then locked her in the closet for hours, in between watching a football match, he would return, open the closet and punch her multiple times before locking it again. Nicole confessed to Faye that the closet assault was the worst day of her life. Faye urged her to file for divorce.
OJ’s violent attacks were so consistent that Nicole’s daughter Sydney developed a sleepwalking problem due to her bedroom being in close proximity to her parents’. She would hear the beatings and squabbles that eventually impacted her psychologically.
In 1989, OJ viciously battered Nicole and discarded her outside the gate of their Rockingham residence, while she was dressed only in a bra and sweatpants. He was sentenced to two years of probation for the assault. That meant that if he was accused of assaulting Nicole again, he would be sentenced to prison for a lengthy period. Suddenly Nicole held power over him.
When Nicole and OJ’s divorce was finalised on October 15, 1992, the court awarded her a lump sum settlement of $450,000. She also received $10,000 a month in child support, and a luxury $650,000 condominium at 875 South Bundy Drive within Brentwood, two miles from OJ’s Rockingham home.
Intimate longings
After the divorce, Nicole found it difficult to adjust to the lack of frequent sex. When she was married to OJ, they had sex at least five times daily. OJ’s sexual drive was superior to that of the men Nicole dated after the divorce, and her intimate longings were left unsatisfied. The only man who met her sexual needs was Los Angeles Raiders American football star and OJ’s best friend, Marcus Allen.
When OJ found out about Marcus and Nicole’s intimacy, his volcanic temper erupted and he threatened Nicole that if she ever slept with Marcus again, he would kill her. OJ then started drinking heavily and snorting cocaine. On May 4, 1994, he walked into a Los Angeles knife shop and bought a 15-inch German stiletto knife and incessantly began stalking Nicole. During a visit to her South Bundy house in June, he stole her house spare keys and the remote to her garage door.
Nicole was found dead by the doorstep of her house on June 12, 1994. She had inflictions of four stab wounds, three deep and one shallow, on the left side of her neck and a massive knife wound that almost severed her head. On October 3, 1995, OJ was absolved of murdering Nicole by the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Although he was acquitted, he confessed to murdering Nicole in his 2006 memoir, If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer.
The writer is a novelist, Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff’s Fitness Centre (@jeffbigbrother).
