Throwing the Book at O.J. Simpson

Lawyers he's hired simply cannot find Simpson's money -- though tax returns they obtained in 2002 and 2003 show he was making nearly $400,000 per year. His pro football and acting pensions are protected from seizure. He lives on a nice street in Miami, he takes his children on vacations to the Bahamas, in large part, Goldman's attorneys say, by a complicated scheme of refinancing loans on his home, using that money for living expenses, while having the payments back to the mortgage company protected by law.

Simpson pocketed roughly $680,000 from "If I Did It," Goldman attorney David J. Cook says, by setting up a shell company for the initial payment from publishers, then immediately channeling it into debts he owed to the Internal Revenue Service, his mortgage company and other bills -- all of which were protected from seizure by the Goldmans.

(Calls placed late yesterday to Simpson's attorneys in Los Angeles and Miami were not returned.)

Given these years of fury and frustration, when a judge ruled that Goldman could seize the rights to the book, no matter its notoriety, things changed, Goldman said.

First, he learned after reading it that it was not, as he feared, a gory, book-length exposition on how to murder two people.

"We view the book, without question, as an admission of guilt," he says. "It's mostly about his relationship with Nicole, with one chapter devoted to the killings. And the fact is, there is more gruesome material about the case on the Internet every day of the week."

The opportunity to turn the point of the book on its head became clear to him: Simpson, confessing in his own words. His plan to enrich himself would instead go primarily to Goldman. And Goldman would, at last, finally stick it to Simpson.

"To be able to occasionally say, 'Damn it, we nailed the SOB' is a very positive experience. I wish we could do it more often."

Sharlene Martin, the literary agent who helped Goldman reshape the book, said Simpson implicated himself in the writing process. She says he wrote (with the help of a ghostwriter) with perfect accuracy about most facts in the case, then begins the chapter on the murders with the phrase, "Now this is hypothetical."

"It sticks out like a sore thumb," Martin says. "It becomes clear to any reader with a modicum of intelligence that it is very clear that this is not hypothetical."

(Simpson has consistently said the ghostwriter penned that chapter, and that it is entirely fictitious.)

For Denise Brown, this is pointless. The book gave Simpson the "sickening" opportunity to trash Nicole's name and reputation, then taunt the families with details of the murders. Goldman had already stopped publication of the book, she says, and there is no motive left in publication but to make money.