"If there's a negative legacy I have, it's all of those damned court shows on TV. "

Everyone Knows He Did It!

O.J. Simpson (Orenthal James Simpson) is a retired American football player. He holds the record for the largest margin of victory for the 1968 Heisman trophy. He was running back for the Buffalo Bills (1969 - 1977) and San Fransisco 49er's (1977 - 1979). He is known as the suspected killer in the 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her companion, Ronald Goldman.

In the article "Simpson Transcript Describes Murder" in the February 3, 2007 edition of the New York Times, Russ Buettner and Edward Watt report that in November 2006, O. J. Simpson gave an interview which included "a hypothetical recounting of how, if he had been the killer, he might have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman more than a decade ago."

The interview was taped to publicize a book, "If I Did It." The interview was never broadcast and the book was not published, due to public outrage over the idea that Simpson could profit from the murders that many people believe he committed, despite his acquittal in a criminal trial.

The New York Times obtained a partial transcript of the interview from a person who had been involved in the aborted televised production. The interview was conducted by Judith Regan, the publisher of the proposed book. At one point during the interview, Mr. Simpson says: "As things got heated, I just remember Nicole fell and hurt herself. And this guy kind of got into a karate thing." It was then, he says, that "I remember I grabbed the knife." Later, asked about whether he had taken off a glove before handling the knife, Mr. Simpson says, "You know, I had no conscious memory of doing that, but obviously I must have because they found a glove there."

Yale L. Galanter, Mr. Simpson's lawyer, said that the interview was intended to be entertainment, not a news event. "It was even more than entertainment," Mr. Galanter said. "It was entertainment with a purpose, and the purpose was to sell the book."

Publisher Judith Regan was fired by her employer, HarperCollins, as a result of the controversy surrounding the planned book. Her lawyer said she viewed the interview and the book as "tantamount to a confession."

HarperCollins is owned by the News Corporation. Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of News Corporation, had approved the book project. But responding to the furor generated by the initial publicity, he called it "ill-conceived" and scrapped the book.