Outrage Over O.J. Simpson Book
ZAHN: On to our top story in crime tonight, the outrage over O.J. Simpson's new book. It has been 11 years since a jury cleared Simpson of the bloody double murder of his ex-wife and her friend. But now in that book and a T.V. interview he is describing how he would have killed them if he had committed the crime. Yes, that's right. That's what the book's about. And Ted Rowlands has just filed this story with an update for us tonight.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Either O.J. Simpson is trying to tell us he's guilty or he's just making some cash from the 1994 murders of his ex-wife and her acquaintance, Ron Goldman. His new book "If I Did It" is described by the publisher as quote, "a bone-chilling account of the night of the murders in which Simpson pictures himself at the center of the action, a terrifying eye-opening portrait of a deeply conflicted man."</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You wrote, I have never seen so much blood in my life.</s>ROWLANDS: There's a two-part television show featuring Simpson airing on the FOX Entertainment Network, which they've already started to promote. According to this FOX promo, at one point Simpson apparently talks about the amount of blood at the crime scene.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An interview that will shock the nation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You write, I had never seen so much blood in my life.</s>O.J. SIMPSON, AUTHOR: I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How it Happened.</s>ROWLANDS: The idea that someone may actually be paying O.J. to offer a morbid analysis of the gruesome murders has outraged the victim's families. Nicole Brown's sister Denise, in a statement says quote, "It's unfortunate that Simpson has decided to 'awaken a nightmare' that we have painfully endured and worked so hard to move beyond. We regret that Nicole's children Sydney and Justin will be exposed to Simpson's 'inexplicable behavior.'"</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.</s>ROWLANDS: Because Simpson was found not guilty 11 years in the criminal trial, nothing he says in the show or in the book could lead to a new trial for the murders. But because he lost the civil case, he owes the Goldman and Brown family millions.</s>ROWLANDS: Whether they'll get any of the money he stands to make from this deal remains to be seen. The producers of the special and the publishing company, Regan Books, refused to talk to CNN about the project and they aren't releasing any financial details.</s>ROWLANDS: Simpson of course has a $38 million outstanding judgment against him. I talked to Kim Goldman a few minutes ago, Ron Goldman's sister. She called this disgusting and despicable saying quote, "if it's a full confession or true confession, it is his children's mother and innocent man that he is talking about how to kill," raising a lot of eyebrows tonight.</s>ZAHN: A lot of eyebrows and certainly engendering a lot of disgust. Thank you so much for dropping by. And you mentioned that Simpson owes more than $33 million to the Goldman family. So far he has failed to pay up. But members of the Goldman family have a new strategy to get that money. They want to take over the rights to Simpson's name and likeness. Joining me now is Karl Manders, the intellectual property consultant the Goldman family has hired. Good of to you join us. You have talked to the family about this book and we heard what one of the sisters had to say. What is the parents' reaction?</s>KARL MANDERS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSULTANT: Well, it's just a despicable situation. This man is a killer. We don't pay child molesters and drunk drivers to get on TV and glorify in their crimes. This man needs to be shunned. Not only does O.J. Simpson need to be shunned, but FOX network needs to be shunned. For them to pay this man money, to revel in his crimes is despicable and we're hoping the public will turn its back not only on O.J. Simpson and not buy this book, but on FOX network and any other media that promotes this type of despicable act. It's horrible.</s>ZAHN: Let me come back to what you just said. You said he's being paid to revel in his crime. Do you think this book amounts to a confession?</s>MANDERS: This man killed these two people. Absolutely whether he elaborates in this book accurately or not is irrelevant. The point is he murdered two people, and he is going to get on TV, and make, you know, millions of dollars from this book, glorifying himself in what he did. He thinks it's a joke. He doesn't care anything about his victims, about his victim's family, and America needs to turn its back on O.J. Simpson and on any media that would pay him to do this. It's absolutely despicable and for FOX network to do this, it's interesting to note that while FOX network is concerned about the war on Christmas, the Murdoch empire is timeless to come out for the Christmas buying rush. It's absolutely despicable. They are hawking this book at the time when most of the world is celebrating the prince of peace. I don't know what's wrong with this network but it's just despicable.</s>ZAHN: Let's go back to the issue of the money. Because regardless of what you say, you know there's going to be a great deal of interest in this book. People are going to buy it. It probably will make millions of dollars for O.J. Simpson, so just help us better understand the Goldman strategy of how they're going to go after this money.</s>MANDERS: Well, we're going to aggressively seek this money. As you know, O.J. Simpson hasn't paid virtually anything to the victims of this crime, and we're going to take very strong measures to try to get a hold of this money. This money never should have been paid to O.J. Simpson. The people that paid him money should have paid the victims. They should have had the courage to do that. They obviously didn't, but our legal team is going to pursue O.J. Simpson vigorously and we hope to be able to recover all of this money.</s>ZAHN: Karl Manders, thanks for your time tonight.</s>MANDERS: Thank you.</s>ZAHN: Our pleasure. And we will have much more on this at the top of the hour, when Larry King welcomes Ron Goldman's father and sister. Time out for a quick biz break.</s>ZAHN: Tonight's top story in health may come as a surprise to you. Did you know that if you go to the emergency room you could also become a human guinea pig? Coming up, who is doing medical tests without patients' permission?