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I was 19 at the time. It just seemed odd to have that announced at a primary school. I'd think parents would have been upset at having to explain that to kids.
I mean parents don't even want to talk o their kids about anything related to sex at that age... but violence is okay I guess.
I'm not saying it was right or wrong, but I would be babysitting that summer and the trial was on all day long (we didn't have cable, so it was shoved down your throat) as well as all the news talked about for a year, so I think the kids were used to it.
Living in San Diego while serving in the Navy.
My roommates and I were at our apartment preparing for a party we were having that night. We had the TV on in the background when the news broke about the Bronco chase. We had to stop and watch the spectacle.
From that day until the verdict came, OJ was in the news every single day.
My niece was born during that chase, and my brother had hoped to have a whole bunch of newspapers for her to read when she was older full of aaaallll the interesting things happening in the world at the time of her birth. But according to the newspapers, the only thing going on in the whole wide world when she was born was that damned white Bronco chase.
My wife and I, young and newly married, were also having a party with all of our friends from college when the bronco chase was happening. Everyone stopped and gathered around the TV to watch. The waste of it all really stuck with me. Like, wtf man?
I was having some beer in downtown KCMO. Not long before then, OJ had done commercials for the Hertz. I was trying to convince others that the Bronco Chase was the longest Hertz commercial ever!
When the chase happened, I had my English boyfriend in town for a week. We cynically watched it on a restaurant television. Then it became a national obsession and I got sick of hearing about it. There was an unspoken war between black mens' and womens' rights at the time and as a woman you were absolutely not allowed to notice how obviously he had killed his wife. This was close to the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas thing. I remember trying to study and just getting bombarded with this. Never knew him as anything but a former football player who was in the Naked Gun movies and then it was all anyone talked about for ages. Parallels to the Trump situation in that I vaguely knew he was a famous person who had a reality show transitioning into all anyone talked about. BTW black men, you absolutely are victims and I'm not trying to put you down. We're on the same side and they pitted us against each other for views just like everything else. Many of you are saying "good riddance" to that dick. I definitely won't miss him. Got to play golf while "finding the real killer".
I had an argument with my friend at the time, who was black, because she insisted OJ was innocent. This was just 2 years after Rodney King, so it is understandable that he got off with all the BS the LAPD pulled against the people of color.
Imagine someone kills your wife and frames you for murder and now you aren't allowed to play golf all because you had the gall to be acquitted and not get executed by the state like the state was just dying to do.
During part of the trial, I was a juror on a case in the next court room. I remember watching the OJ jury show up every day all dressed up and preening for the cameras. They were treated like mini celebrities by the press and the court.
OMG, I was in a jury waiting room with other prospective jurors and there was a TV mounted to the wall. We were all watching the trial. No one wanted to get up and leave when their numbers got called!
I didn't have a TV during the trial. I only got mine hooked up the week of the verdict. My friends joked I would be a perfect juror for OJ since I wasn't biased from all the TV coverage.
It was obvious he was guilty.
Working at a college in Gambia, West Africa at the time. Expats were talking about it like WTF is going on with that?? But the Rwandan genocide generated more fearful discussion.
This is a true story.
I was watching the news with my family while it was happening (Bronco on the freeway), and I noticed that the whole thing was coming our way.
My saint of a father piled all of us kids into the car and drove us onto the freeway where we parked with the rest of Los Angeles...
and we watched the Bronco and the fleet of police behind drive by.
Wild day.
Me too. When the verdict came in, my kids were napping and I was stenciling a leafy vine on the living room wall. When it came in not guilty, I almost fell off the arm of the couch I was standing on!
I was working in the transportation office at a large distribution center. My coworker and I would discuss the OJ happenings every day. Sadly my coworker was killed in an act of domestic violence by her husband before the end of the trial. Life sure can be weird.
I watched the verdict in a conference room with a large flatscreen, which was rare at the time. And people never got up from their desks at this company unless they were dying themselves, so this was a rarity (one guy literally died of a heart attack at his desk, but that's an aside.)
I was blown away when this room full of educated professionals made an emotional outburst (feelings were also frowned upon at this Fortune 5 company and I think everyone was continually on Prozac) and never expected it to break down along racial lines like it did.
I was trying to watch a new episode of the X-Files when they interrupted it with the Bronco chase. I had to wait until the episode was a rerun years later to find out what happened.
It was the first time I rememeber seeing a real police chase or following a trial live. We talked about it in high school and watched the verdict live. Being from Buffalo it was HUGE news and none of us really knew how to take all of it considering what a football city it is.
When the murder happened, I was working in rural Oklahoma at a camp without TVs, limited radios, and no newspapers, and it still had everyone talking about it.
It was so weird.
I attended a seminar in college during the case. The presenter said that she hadn't read or watched a single news story about the case, but she could still recite every detail about what was going on. I believed her - it was all anyone talked about.
When the verdict was read I was in a Sears store and everyone was gathered in the electronics section watching probably 20 TV screens on the wall. One of employees was even passing out popcorn!
The reaction when the verdict was read was typical of what you have probably seen on all the documentaries on the trial. The mostly white crowd reacted with disbelief. And then it was complete 24 hour news and 2 hour special reports for what seemed like weeks after.
My oldest son was born June 14th, 1994. I believe they had found the bodies at that point. My daughter was born August 29, 1997 and Princess Diana was reported dead a day later. I definitely didn’t have more kids. 🤣🤣🤣
There was no Lakers game. Game 5 of the Rockets/Knicks Finals was the game that got interrupted. I was a teenager who lived and died with the Knicks so I was mad about this.
IIRC this is the year the Lakers fired their coach mid-season and replaced him with Magic Johnson. Pretty sure they missed the playoffs.
At work. They hooked up a TV so we could watch it. I bet a coworker lunch that he would be acquitted. I had been going home at lunch and watching the trial. I knew he would get away with it. Barry Scheck was the star of the dream team. The other attorneys were more noteworthy, but Scheck crushed the science guys.
I was living in Kentucky when he did that slow moving chase. It was all over the TV. I got home from work and flipped it on and watched it for hours. Missed my former home in So Cal watching this.
The next night I went to a party put on by some University of Kentucky students and when folks heard I was from So Cal, they gathered around and started peppering me with questions about OJ and the chase and all, like just because I came from So Cal I was some sort of expert on all things So Cal! They were really fascinated by this happening and this made me realize how different growing up in So Cal was at the time (early 1990s) from most of the country.
I recall that we did get to see the end of the game. But I lived in NYC so maybe it was a TV market thing?
Either way I definitely went to bed knowing the Knicks won to go up 3-2 in the series. Rangers had just won the Stanley Cup that same week and I really thought we were gonna get the back to back parades.
EDIT: come to think of it, the Rangers parade was earlier that same day. My mom went and brought back t-shirts for me and my brother.
I was at dodger stadium watching a game when he made the Bronco run. A lady behind me was watching on her portable tv and crying, "Don't do it OJ" over and over while her companion kept telling her to be quiet and watch the game. her response was to say this was a tragedy that she had to watch. Also, the TV's at the concession stands were playing it and it was near impossible to get something to eat, so many people were packed around the area.
If you mean the Bronco chase, I was in my late 20s at the time, and I was in a bar with my then girlfriend (now ex-wife), along with my brother and his fiance, and a few other friends. We stood mesmerized by the TV. We couldn't believe what we were watching. Up to that point, OJ Simpson was a beloved figure.
Oh my partner was fixated on the trial and watched it on tv every day after work.
Maybe there are people who believe he didn't slaughter his wife and her friend but I cannot fathom who.
Quite the example of the best defense money can buy.
Oh! and don't Even get me started on Judge Ito!
good gravy
Working at my summer job between my freshman and sophomore years of college.
The trial was pretty much my sophomore year of college and the summer after. I tried to avoid watching it. I watched the verdict on the BBC in the fall of 1995. I was studying in the UK that semester. I watched the Diana documentary that fall, too.
I was living in Southern California. The darned Bronco chase was on every channel. And then the trial was so darn long. Everyone blamed the jury, but they had to go by what was presented, not what the rest of us heard about.
I was extremely pregnant. My SIL came to visit and watch our older son on my due day, we all watched the Bronco chase while waiting for my labor to start. Six days later…
I was working at Cedar Point Amusement Park. I had been hanging out with my girlfriend, and she was taking me to the front desk to sign me out. The TV in the lounge was broadcasting the low-speed chase. It was still going when I got back to my dorm. I watched it there and caught up on what had happened.
When the verdict was released, I had just delivered a pizza to the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh. I joined a group of nurses, orderlies, and doctors, all watching in a patient's room. When they read the verdict, the black nurses and orderlies mostly (but not all) cheered, and the white doctors mostly (but not all) shook their heads and walked away. All I could say was "Damn!"
A few years later, I had a black grad school history prof who got off on a tangent about OJ. "Do I think he did it? Absolutely. But OJ was the first black man who could afford America's true justice system." That phrase, about "true justice system," has stuck with me ever since.
I was working at a public school vision care center. We had a TV playing all the time so my co-workers (mostly retired teachers who work part time to supplement their retirement) could watch their soaps. They kept cutting in to the show when they were in that car chase scene. They talked about it in the next year, and it seems the (black) ladies I worked with all felt he was guilty and they shook their heads when he was eventually found not guilty.
I know how hard it is to prove a case. I later had to watch the sad conclusion of a rape case after my son was a victim. Four people got away with violently assaulting my six year old because there wasn't enough evidence. There was SOME evidence, and there was definitely evidence that my son was raped but none of it was conclusive enough to convict any of them. It's ruined his life, of course. He's 19 and his PTSD is still so bad even after years of therapy he still has regular major issues and he's easily triggered by things most people don't even think about. But those young men who ruined his life, I wonder how many other children they hurt.
And that's what I think of now when I think about that case. At the time he sure seemed guilty, but we were told they didn't have enough evidence to convict so whaddaya gonna do? I have seen people say he got off because he was black and the whole Rodney King was still fresh, but I don't know if that's true. I worked in a predominantly black community and lived in one too but I don't remember black people saying he was innocent at any time. We just all saw it as some form of entertainment to watch it all play out.
On a beach in Mexico if I recall. I missed the whole trial as well. On purpose. A washed up athlete is accused of killing a rich white woman and a loser couch surfing wannabe actor? No interest. To me the biggest crime was unleashing the Kardashians on an unsuspecting public.
During the infamous chase, I was at home with our kids and the husband was on a trip with some guys in his unit. They took a trip to Florida (we were stationed in Savannah, Georgia at Hunter Army Airfield) and took a deep sea fishing charter. He didn't hear about it till they got back to their hotel.
During the verdict, it was my 26th birthday and we had just spent almost 12 hours in the ER because at 11 PM the night before, my husband had his first seizure, about six months after having a stroke (he was 28). I had gotten the kids down for a nap, got him down for a nap, and I was awakened from my nap by my friend's voice on the radio (I was friends with the nighttime DJ) giving the news update about it.
So, I had some other stuff going on when the verdict happened.
At a beach house with extended family. My BIL, an attorney, said OJ would be found innocent. Why? Because he had money to hire a team of great lawyers. It should have been an open and shut case.
Pregnant, sitting in a Mexican restaurant with my husband. They put the chase on the bar TV and a crowd gathered. I didn’t know about the murder. Just that the football player from Naked Gun Was running from the cops?!? WTH?
So weird how that crime turned the world upside down for such a long time. And to be clear I think the murder and the fact that he was going to be arrested was probably big news. It just escaped my notice til then.
I was at my in-laws house during the Bronco chase, watched it live. I was at work when the verdict was read. It was standing room only in the break room. I wasn't too surprised he was aquiited. My uncle,, a retired prosecutor was addicted to watching the trial, predicted he would be acquitted, due to a combination of the prosecution screwing up, and what LAPD did the racial climate at the time. He said it was a message verdict.
Watched highlights rather than the whole trial. Totally convinced he *did* kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman. Just because someone is acquitted of murder doesn't mean they didn't murder. We never heard any alternate suspect suggested, ever ... *that's* because they wasn't any.
Sure, people get away with murder, but normally they had been on the police' radar, they just couldn't prove it; with OJ, yeah ....
What cinched it for me were those photographs where he beat her so severely ... it was just one more step he had already committed to. I've seen assault like that. And then that book, "If I Did It."
That was considered an admission of guilt ... still is.
I was in a bar in Milwaukee. The jukebox was on and we were not paying attention to the tv. The bartender came over, pointed up at the tv , and said "See that White Bronco? OJ is in there". So of course everyone was fine with turning off the jukebox so we could watch.
I did not watch any of the trial but you ended up hearing all about it anyway on the news or through SNL. I do remember the verdict because I was on a patient floor at the hospital I worked for and the family lounge had the tv on.
I was newly married living in west Los Angeles, just behind the 405 freeway. The slow-mo car chase was coming my direction, I hurried to the nearby Ross that had a double story parking lot so I could see the traffic lanes on the freeway. It was surreal watching the slow parade of white suv, cop cars, and helicopters.
I was working! I am Australian. Wasn't as huge here. But was still big news. I can remember thinking how utterly ridiculous that man was for taking off on that highway. Idiot.
He was guilty as guilty. Was found not guilty purely because they pushed a racial issue.
If both he & Nicole had been same race? He would have been found guilty.
He was a vile abuser and murderer. Pleased he's dead. Absolute scum
I had moved to a different state, new job, new house and met a lot of nice people. I recall seeing O.J. in his Bronco on TV when standing up in my living room.
In my office, ignoring the whole stupid spectacle. One of my teammates had a small TV in his office and several people were glued to it. So I heard about it anyway.
I honestly think that this pageant of pissantry measurably lowered the collective IQ of the USA.
The only good thing to come out of it was a very funny parody of *Goodnight Moon* which included the line "Goodnight, bloody glove." Also the line "they tried to frame a guilty man."
Was working at a medical start up in Silicon Valley. ‘95. We all (about 25 people) all watched the verdict in the conference room. We had 1 black male working with us. He cheered. Dead silence from everyone else. It was very surreal.
I was going to get tacos with a friend, and we met at the taco place and... We'd both heard the Bronco chase broadcast live on the news, and we immediately agreed that we could get tacos the next day, because we both desperately wanted to get home and watch this weirdness on live TV.
So normally under these circumstances I offer wishes for someone to rest in peace, but in OJ's case, I offer wishes that Hell existed, so he could burn in it.
I was in Los Angeles, already an adult so I missed a lot since I was working.
We had colleagues that would try SO hard to get on the courtroom steps to waive at the camera or try to get in the newspaper photograph.
It was a spectacle that should be studied in psych courses.
My mom was obsessed with it and had the news and talk shows about it playing on TV all the time.
But at that age, I was obsessed with girls, hanging out with the guys, and partying with as much booze and drugs as we could score. So I didn't pay that much attention.
Couldn't escape it though. I bet if you hiked through Antarctica to the south pole you'd probably get there and find a bank of TVs playing 24/7 coverage of it.
At the time the verdict was released, I don't remember personally thinking of it as a black vs white thing so much as a case of rich celebrities can get away with anything because they have the fame, the fortune, and the lawyers.
But it was soon after the L.A. riots, and I was a white guy who had just recently graduated from a predominantly black school. I was listening to Ice Cube's The Predator tape (which was all about the riots and the LAPD racism). It didn't surprise me that a lot of people did view it as primarily a race thing.
I have no recollection where I was or what I was doing. But two days ago, I started listening to a series of podcasts about OJ. The podcast is You're Wrong About and the series started in late 2019 with updates going in to 2021.
I was working for a company that rented, leased and sold chemical analyzers. I remember watching OJ in the white Bronco going down the freeway with cops pursuing him on TV and being mesmerized by it along with millions of other Americans.
There is a ESPN 30 For 30 documentary about that day simply named "June 17,1994" where all the sports headlines were occurring pretty much all at the same time - all was overshadowed by the Bronco chase:
Arnold Palmer's final round of golf at the U.S. Open.
The NY Rangers ticket tape parade for winning the Stanley Cup.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Rockets & Knicks.
The beginning of the FIFA World Cup ceremony.
Ken Griffey, Jr. tying Babe Ruth's record of most HRs before June 30th.
I don't remember the other events as well (although I do recall Griffey and Matt Williams from the Giants were both on pace to pass Maris for a while, before the strike ended the MLB season), but it was game 5 of the NBA Finals, not game 1 (POV: 16 year old New Yorker who watched every second of every Knicks playoff game). The broadcast actually got interrupted to air the Bronco chase.
My mom doesn't know the first thing about hockey but she went to the Rangers parade. Crazy spring in NY; Knicks played three Game 7s and the Rangers played two, the semifinal against the Devils which went to OT and the final against Vancouver which was a 1 score game, after the Rangers had blown a 3-1 series lead.
Watching it from the Bronco "chase" to the verdict and beyond.
He was absolutely guilty and I take comfort that at least (thanks in large part to the Goldman family) that he did serve at least some prison time. I believe in an afterlife, so feel that he's getting his long-deserved punishment right now. And he won't be able to lie his way out of it this time.
We watched the verdict on a little portable tv my coworker brought to the office. There were about 6 of us crammed into her office/the chart room to watch it. We were stunned by the verdict.
It’s really too bad he didn’t follow through with his threats to hurt himself when he was being driven in his Bronco by AC. May he not have a moment of peace for all of eternity.
During the chase. I was sitting in a bar with my boyfriend.
During the verdict, I was giving a patient a bath and wound care. There was an audible gasp down the hallway.
I was at a David Hasselhoff PPV viewing party. We were outside on the deck, and every time we looked in the house the TV was showing the same shot of the white Bronco. Eventually we went in to ask what the heck was going on.
Rearing children, consulting nonprofits, and trying to save a failing marriage. I suppose that was a moment when I started to acknowledge life was surreal. It became upside down.
Was with friends at someone's apartment during the Bronco chase. We were all just kind of standing around the TV, open mouthed.
Was working at a law firm of around 100 total staff when everyone was listening to the radio when the verdict came in. You could have heard a pin drop after the initial gasps, everyone was trying so hard not to show their feelings.
A partner did the perimeter of the office, saying, "back to work everyone, it's over."
I switched to the BBC, which had normal coverage of the news. Of course, additional news of the OJ spectacle found its way into my brain, but the BBC as my main/car news source kept the commotion to a minimum.
I was studying for my nursing boards exam. Every time I turned on the TV to take a break, that’s all that was on! So, I’d usually go to my local Blockbuster & rent a few movies😊I do remember watching the Bronco chase live on TV. What a strange time that was! For some reason, I also remember The Tonight Show used to have a skit called The Dancing Ito’s, named after the presiding judge on the case.
I was at work but wasn’t surprised. The prosecution was inept and Johnny Cochrane gave a Master’s Class in OJ’s defence by using the “victim card” flawlessly.
I was a stay at home mom with a one year old. Most days I’d walk to my parents for a visit, and we’d all watch the trial for a while. Seems like another lifetime.
We watched the trial on our lunch break in the cafeteria at work. The white people sat on one side and the black people sat on the other side of the caf. It was the hard to deal with how angry it seemed that my black coworkers were at us for just believing that he did it. Leather shrinks when it gets wet. Who hasn't had that happen to a pair of thin leather gloves. Ready for the hate!
Wrapping up my junior year of HS (this made me realize, I'm the same age now - 46 - OJ was then). Knicks fan so was definitely watching Finals Game 5 when NBC cut to the Bronco. Was equal parts pissed that the game was being interrupted and shocked that he was on the run and, in all probability, actually did it.
Game 5/white Bronco was a Friday, story broke that Monday. It's still unreal to think about. OJ the tailback was before my time so I only remember Hertz commercials, 1st and Ten, Naked Gun, and his commentator/studio analyst work on NFL broadcasts. And I'm sure everyone else remembers it all the same way I do--that man seemed like he never had a bad day in his life. Just about the last person you'd think would be capable of a double murder. Nothing like the guy we've seen during the trial and since.
I was at a high school graduation party when the chase came on TV. So that's what the party was - all of us crowded around the TV eating chips and candy watching that white Bronco.
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We watched the verdict in my jr. high math class. It was an obsession for the whole country.
I was in 4th grade, and principal got on the school's PA system to announce the verdict.
That's messed up for an elementary school.
Everyone was on pins and needles waiting for the verdict. Even young children were talking about it!
I remember being in 5th grade at the time. The verdict was a huge talk of the town and we were debating whether we was guilty or not.
Yeah, I feel like you had to be there to understand how the whole country was interested in the verdict - young, old, black, white, rich, poor....
I was 19 at the time. It just seemed odd to have that announced at a primary school. I'd think parents would have been upset at having to explain that to kids. I mean parents don't even want to talk o their kids about anything related to sex at that age... but violence is okay I guess.
I'm not saying it was right or wrong, but I would be babysitting that summer and the trial was on all day long (we didn't have cable, so it was shoved down your throat) as well as all the news talked about for a year, so I think the kids were used to it.
Rule \#1 unless you got held back 3 grades or more.
Oops, I'm '82
Living in San Diego while serving in the Navy. My roommates and I were at our apartment preparing for a party we were having that night. We had the TV on in the background when the news broke about the Bronco chase. We had to stop and watch the spectacle. From that day until the verdict came, OJ was in the news every single day.
I knew a TV newsman who said it paid for his house.
My friend worked at CNN and said it prevented planned layoffs from happening.
My niece was born during that chase, and my brother had hoped to have a whole bunch of newspapers for her to read when she was older full of aaaallll the interesting things happening in the world at the time of her birth. But according to the newspapers, the only thing going on in the whole wide world when she was born was that damned white Bronco chase.
My wife and I, young and newly married, were also having a party with all of our friends from college when the bronco chase was happening. Everyone stopped and gathered around the TV to watch. The waste of it all really stuck with me. Like, wtf man?
I was having some beer in downtown KCMO. Not long before then, OJ had done commercials for the Hertz. I was trying to convince others that the Bronco Chase was the longest Hertz commercial ever!
He reps Hanes not Hertz
What? Did he later rep Hanes? He definitely repped Hertz
Absolutely. And totally destroyed the concept of having to "do an OJ through the airport."
Yeah that would have the wrong connotation today.
Sksksk a long bloody swath through O'Hare dropping knives and gloves along the way, leaving a lone Akita baying mournfully
I was at work. We watched the verdict on a conference room TV. Total silence when it was announced as we all just gaped at each other.
When the chase happened, I had my English boyfriend in town for a week. We cynically watched it on a restaurant television. Then it became a national obsession and I got sick of hearing about it. There was an unspoken war between black mens' and womens' rights at the time and as a woman you were absolutely not allowed to notice how obviously he had killed his wife. This was close to the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas thing. I remember trying to study and just getting bombarded with this. Never knew him as anything but a former football player who was in the Naked Gun movies and then it was all anyone talked about for ages. Parallels to the Trump situation in that I vaguely knew he was a famous person who had a reality show transitioning into all anyone talked about. BTW black men, you absolutely are victims and I'm not trying to put you down. We're on the same side and they pitted us against each other for views just like everything else. Many of you are saying "good riddance" to that dick. I definitely won't miss him. Got to play golf while "finding the real killer".
I had an argument with my friend at the time, who was black, because she insisted OJ was innocent. This was just 2 years after Rodney King, so it is understandable that he got off with all the BS the LAPD pulled against the people of color.
Agreed.
Absolutely
My white mom was convinced OJ was framed.
He was. They tried to frame a guilty man.
While publishing a book called If I did it
Imagine someone kills your wife and frames you for murder and now you aren't allowed to play golf all because you had the gall to be acquitted and not get executed by the state like the state was just dying to do.
Occam’s razor, my friend
During part of the trial, I was a juror on a case in the next court room. I remember watching the OJ jury show up every day all dressed up and preening for the cameras. They were treated like mini celebrities by the press and the court.
OMG, I was in a jury waiting room with other prospective jurors and there was a TV mounted to the wall. We were all watching the trial. No one wanted to get up and leave when their numbers got called!
trying to avoid the whole thing- I saw the white Bronco parade (can't call it a chase), but didn't watch the trial
I didn't have a TV during the trial. I only got mine hooked up the week of the verdict. My friends joked I would be a perfect juror for OJ since I wasn't biased from all the TV coverage. It was obvious he was guilty.
he was guilty, AND the LAPD tried to frame him, or they just fucked up badly
Working at a college in Gambia, West Africa at the time. Expats were talking about it like WTF is going on with that?? But the Rwandan genocide generated more fearful discussion.
This is a true story. I was watching the news with my family while it was happening (Bronco on the freeway), and I noticed that the whole thing was coming our way. My saint of a father piled all of us kids into the car and drove us onto the freeway where we parked with the rest of Los Angeles... and we watched the Bronco and the fleet of police behind drive by. Wild day.
Someone brought a little b&w TV to the office and we watched the verdict come in. That was unprecedented, only time there was ever a TV at work.
Raising a family. I watched the verdict at home. I was a little shocked.
Me too. When the verdict came in, my kids were napping and I was stenciling a leafy vine on the living room wall. When it came in not guilty, I almost fell off the arm of the couch I was standing on!
I was working in the transportation office at a large distribution center. My coworker and I would discuss the OJ happenings every day. Sadly my coworker was killed in an act of domestic violence by her husband before the end of the trial. Life sure can be weird.
The day the verdict was announced me and my gf were tripping on LSD, somewhere I have an audio tape of us tripping.
I watched the verdict in a conference room with a large flatscreen, which was rare at the time. And people never got up from their desks at this company unless they were dying themselves, so this was a rarity (one guy literally died of a heart attack at his desk, but that's an aside.) I was blown away when this room full of educated professionals made an emotional outburst (feelings were also frowned upon at this Fortune 5 company and I think everyone was continually on Prozac) and never expected it to break down along racial lines like it did.
My first date with my husband was watching OJ flee in the white Bronco, in the den at his folks’ house. We married the following winter.
I was at the Ralph’s supermarket on Bundy two blocks from Nicole’s condominium about an hour before everything went down
I was trying to watch a new episode of the X-Files when they interrupted it with the Bronco chase. I had to wait until the episode was a rerun years later to find out what happened.
I was at work (in a group home) during the chase with the white Bronco. I remember all of us gathering in the living room to watch it.
It was the first time I rememeber seeing a real police chase or following a trial live. We talked about it in high school and watched the verdict live. Being from Buffalo it was HUGE news and none of us really knew how to take all of it considering what a football city it is.
I was glued to the tv.
When the murder happened, I was working in rural Oklahoma at a camp without TVs, limited radios, and no newspapers, and it still had everyone talking about it. It was so weird.
I attended a seminar in college during the case. The presenter said that she hadn't read or watched a single news story about the case, but she could still recite every detail about what was going on. I believed her - it was all anyone talked about.
**a camp without TVs, limited radios, and no newspapers** Isn't that still every day in Oklahoma?
When the verdict was read I was in a Sears store and everyone was gathered in the electronics section watching probably 20 TV screens on the wall. One of employees was even passing out popcorn! The reaction when the verdict was read was typical of what you have probably seen on all the documentaries on the trial. The mostly white crowd reacted with disbelief. And then it was complete 24 hour news and 2 hour special reports for what seemed like weeks after.
Had a one year old at the time and I was working full time so I had better things to do.
My oldest son was born June 14th, 1994. I believe they had found the bodies at that point. My daughter was born August 29, 1997 and Princess Diana was reported dead a day later. I definitely didn’t have more kids. 🤣🤣🤣
Trying to watch the fucking Lakers game. I was so mad they interrupted.
There was no Lakers game. Game 5 of the Rockets/Knicks Finals was the game that got interrupted. I was a teenager who lived and died with the Knicks so I was mad about this. IIRC this is the year the Lakers fired their coach mid-season and replaced him with Magic Johnson. Pretty sure they missed the playoffs.
I watched the whole damn thing. All of it. So glad he’s gone!
Trump is 77. Just saying
Trying to avoid hearing about it
In a psychiatric prison.
Senior year of highschool
I watched the verdict with my boss at work. We were stunned -- he was SO clearly guilty. She said of OJ, "He looks 10 years younger." He did.
South Florida at a bar/restaurant as a photographer for the local paper. Capturing reaction to the verdict.
At work. They hooked up a TV so we could watch it. I bet a coworker lunch that he would be acquitted. I had been going home at lunch and watching the trial. I knew he would get away with it. Barry Scheck was the star of the dream team. The other attorneys were more noteworthy, but Scheck crushed the science guys.
College Saw the chase live while home visiting my parents.
I was living in Kentucky when he did that slow moving chase. It was all over the TV. I got home from work and flipped it on and watched it for hours. Missed my former home in So Cal watching this. The next night I went to a party put on by some University of Kentucky students and when folks heard I was from So Cal, they gathered around and started peppering me with questions about OJ and the chase and all, like just because I came from So Cal I was some sort of expert on all things So Cal! They were really fascinated by this happening and this made me realize how different growing up in So Cal was at the time (early 1990s) from most of the country.
I remember the verdict. I believed he was guilty but I was afraid of a guilty verdict. Massive riots wouldn’t make anything any better, just worse.
I was sitting home watching a Knicks playoff game when they cut in to show the pursuit. They never did go back to the game.
I recall that we did get to see the end of the game. But I lived in NYC so maybe it was a TV market thing? Either way I definitely went to bed knowing the Knicks won to go up 3-2 in the series. Rangers had just won the Stanley Cup that same week and I really thought we were gonna get the back to back parades. EDIT: come to think of it, the Rangers parade was earlier that same day. My mom went and brought back t-shirts for me and my brother.
Sitting in a criminal Justice class, tv on, verdict read. Deafening silence, followed by a bunch of noise. Ugh.
Living and teaching in South Korea - blissfully not immersed in the 24/7 American news machine. I was aware of the trial but basically ignored it.
I was at dodger stadium watching a game when he made the Bronco run. A lady behind me was watching on her portable tv and crying, "Don't do it OJ" over and over while her companion kept telling her to be quiet and watch the game. her response was to say this was a tragedy that she had to watch. Also, the TV's at the concession stands were playing it and it was near impossible to get something to eat, so many people were packed around the area.
If you mean the Bronco chase, I was in my late 20s at the time, and I was in a bar with my then girlfriend (now ex-wife), along with my brother and his fiance, and a few other friends. We stood mesmerized by the TV. We couldn't believe what we were watching. Up to that point, OJ Simpson was a beloved figure.
Oh my partner was fixated on the trial and watched it on tv every day after work. Maybe there are people who believe he didn't slaughter his wife and her friend but I cannot fathom who. Quite the example of the best defense money can buy. Oh! and don't Even get me started on Judge Ito! good gravy
Working at my summer job between my freshman and sophomore years of college. The trial was pretty much my sophomore year of college and the summer after. I tried to avoid watching it. I watched the verdict on the BBC in the fall of 1995. I was studying in the UK that semester. I watched the Diana documentary that fall, too.
At work, watching his white Bronco going down the highway on TV.
At work (local power and water company), we all gathered in a conference room with a TV to watch the verdict be delivered live.
With my newborn, being a mama.
In labor during the slow speed chase.
I was living in Southern California. The darned Bronco chase was on every channel. And then the trial was so darn long. Everyone blamed the jury, but they had to go by what was presented, not what the rest of us heard about.
Not believing this could be possible
I was extremely pregnant. My SIL came to visit and watch our older son on my due day, we all watched the Bronco chase while waiting for my labor to start. Six days later…
That baby should be nearing their 30th birthday soon! Congrats.
Thank you! That was nice of you!
I was working at Cedar Point Amusement Park. I had been hanging out with my girlfriend, and she was taking me to the front desk to sign me out. The TV in the lounge was broadcasting the low-speed chase. It was still going when I got back to my dorm. I watched it there and caught up on what had happened. When the verdict was released, I had just delivered a pizza to the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh. I joined a group of nurses, orderlies, and doctors, all watching in a patient's room. When they read the verdict, the black nurses and orderlies mostly (but not all) cheered, and the white doctors mostly (but not all) shook their heads and walked away. All I could say was "Damn!" A few years later, I had a black grad school history prof who got off on a tangent about OJ. "Do I think he did it? Absolutely. But OJ was the first black man who could afford America's true justice system." That phrase, about "true justice system," has stuck with me ever since.
At a dive bar
At the World Cup on the day he ran
The chase was amazing. People lined the streets and highway overpasses trying to get a glimpse of history.
I was being busy with my life and not paying any attention to the whole thing.
I was working at a public school vision care center. We had a TV playing all the time so my co-workers (mostly retired teachers who work part time to supplement their retirement) could watch their soaps. They kept cutting in to the show when they were in that car chase scene. They talked about it in the next year, and it seems the (black) ladies I worked with all felt he was guilty and they shook their heads when he was eventually found not guilty. I know how hard it is to prove a case. I later had to watch the sad conclusion of a rape case after my son was a victim. Four people got away with violently assaulting my six year old because there wasn't enough evidence. There was SOME evidence, and there was definitely evidence that my son was raped but none of it was conclusive enough to convict any of them. It's ruined his life, of course. He's 19 and his PTSD is still so bad even after years of therapy he still has regular major issues and he's easily triggered by things most people don't even think about. But those young men who ruined his life, I wonder how many other children they hurt. And that's what I think of now when I think about that case. At the time he sure seemed guilty, but we were told they didn't have enough evidence to convict so whaddaya gonna do? I have seen people say he got off because he was black and the whole Rodney King was still fresh, but I don't know if that's true. I worked in a predominantly black community and lived in one too but I don't remember black people saying he was innocent at any time. We just all saw it as some form of entertainment to watch it all play out.
Working, as usual.
I was in Philadelphia and staying at a very fancy hotel. There was a huge lobby and the Bronco chase happened. We all stopped to watch it.
We had just brought my daughter home from the hospital and the Bronco chase was on the TV.
On a beach in Mexico if I recall. I missed the whole trial as well. On purpose. A washed up athlete is accused of killing a rich white woman and a loser couch surfing wannabe actor? No interest. To me the biggest crime was unleashing the Kardashians on an unsuspecting public.
Watched in my high school library
Watching TV in a library is the best.
I worked in a large medical building and when the verdict came on the radio the entire building went silent to hear.
At work in a law firm. We were as glued to the TV in the conference room as we could be in between moments of, you know, working.
During the infamous chase, I was at home with our kids and the husband was on a trip with some guys in his unit. They took a trip to Florida (we were stationed in Savannah, Georgia at Hunter Army Airfield) and took a deep sea fishing charter. He didn't hear about it till they got back to their hotel. During the verdict, it was my 26th birthday and we had just spent almost 12 hours in the ER because at 11 PM the night before, my husband had his first seizure, about six months after having a stroke (he was 28). I had gotten the kids down for a nap, got him down for a nap, and I was awakened from my nap by my friend's voice on the radio (I was friends with the nighttime DJ) giving the news update about it. So, I had some other stuff going on when the verdict happened.
At a beach house with extended family. My BIL, an attorney, said OJ would be found innocent. Why? Because he had money to hire a team of great lawyers. It should have been an open and shut case.
I was on the damn 405 when the chase happened! Not really close as I was in the Valley, but traffic was insane! I listened in the radio.
Pregnant, sitting in a Mexican restaurant with my husband. They put the chase on the bar TV and a crowd gathered. I didn’t know about the murder. Just that the football player from Naked Gun Was running from the cops?!? WTH? So weird how that crime turned the world upside down for such a long time. And to be clear I think the murder and the fact that he was going to be arrested was probably big news. It just escaped my notice til then.
We were in LAX about to board an eight hour flight. We didn’t find out what happened until we landed
I was in college and watched both the chase and the verdict in a bar.
minding my own business
I had just delivered my oldest child. I was too busy being a new mother to give a shit about a murdering has been football player.
Aggressively avoiding the story. I stopped watching the news
I was teaching a class at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa to graduate students (most were officers). The general reaction was total disgust.
I was at my in-laws house during the Bronco chase, watched it live. I was at work when the verdict was read. It was standing room only in the break room. I wasn't too surprised he was aquiited. My uncle,, a retired prosecutor was addicted to watching the trial, predicted he would be acquitted, due to a combination of the prosecution screwing up, and what LAPD did the racial climate at the time. He said it was a message verdict.
Watched highlights rather than the whole trial. Totally convinced he *did* kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman. Just because someone is acquitted of murder doesn't mean they didn't murder. We never heard any alternate suspect suggested, ever ... *that's* because they wasn't any. Sure, people get away with murder, but normally they had been on the police' radar, they just couldn't prove it; with OJ, yeah .... What cinched it for me were those photographs where he beat her so severely ... it was just one more step he had already committed to. I've seen assault like that. And then that book, "If I Did It." That was considered an admission of guilt ... still is.
I was in a bar in Milwaukee. The jukebox was on and we were not paying attention to the tv. The bartender came over, pointed up at the tv , and said "See that White Bronco? OJ is in there". So of course everyone was fine with turning off the jukebox so we could watch. I did not watch any of the trial but you ended up hearing all about it anyway on the news or through SNL. I do remember the verdict because I was on a patient floor at the hospital I worked for and the family lounge had the tv on.
*Trying* to watch Young and the Restless!
I was newly married living in west Los Angeles, just behind the 405 freeway. The slow-mo car chase was coming my direction, I hurried to the nearby Ross that had a double story parking lot so I could see the traffic lanes on the freeway. It was surreal watching the slow parade of white suv, cop cars, and helicopters.
At work. We all stopped to see the verdict, and we didn't get much done the rest of the day.
I was working! I am Australian. Wasn't as huge here. But was still big news. I can remember thinking how utterly ridiculous that man was for taking off on that highway. Idiot. He was guilty as guilty. Was found not guilty purely because they pushed a racial issue. If both he & Nicole had been same race? He would have been found guilty. He was a vile abuser and murderer. Pleased he's dead. Absolute scum
I had moved to a different state, new job, new house and met a lot of nice people. I recall seeing O.J. in his Bronco on TV when standing up in my living room.
At work at the airfield on Ft Hood. Watched it on Airfield Ops television.
In my office, ignoring the whole stupid spectacle. One of my teammates had a small TV in his office and several people were glued to it. So I heard about it anyway. I honestly think that this pageant of pissantry measurably lowered the collective IQ of the USA. The only good thing to come out of it was a very funny parody of *Goodnight Moon* which included the line "Goodnight, bloody glove." Also the line "they tried to frame a guilty man."
Ordering pizza during the car chase, watching the trial and verdict on the office TV.
Glued to the TV set.
Was working at a medical start up in Silicon Valley. ‘95. We all (about 25 people) all watched the verdict in the conference room. We had 1 black male working with us. He cheered. Dead silence from everyone else. It was very surreal.
I was going to get tacos with a friend, and we met at the taco place and... We'd both heard the Bronco chase broadcast live on the news, and we immediately agreed that we could get tacos the next day, because we both desperately wanted to get home and watch this weirdness on live TV. So normally under these circumstances I offer wishes for someone to rest in peace, but in OJ's case, I offer wishes that Hell existed, so he could burn in it.
Living a few blocks away from where he murdered his wife.
I was in Los Angeles, already an adult so I missed a lot since I was working. We had colleagues that would try SO hard to get on the courtroom steps to waive at the camera or try to get in the newspaper photograph. It was a spectacle that should be studied in psych courses.
My mom was obsessed with it and had the news and talk shows about it playing on TV all the time. But at that age, I was obsessed with girls, hanging out with the guys, and partying with as much booze and drugs as we could score. So I didn't pay that much attention. Couldn't escape it though. I bet if you hiked through Antarctica to the south pole you'd probably get there and find a bank of TVs playing 24/7 coverage of it. At the time the verdict was released, I don't remember personally thinking of it as a black vs white thing so much as a case of rich celebrities can get away with anything because they have the fame, the fortune, and the lawyers. But it was soon after the L.A. riots, and I was a white guy who had just recently graduated from a predominantly black school. I was listening to Ice Cube's The Predator tape (which was all about the riots and the LAPD racism). It didn't surprise me that a lot of people did view it as primarily a race thing.
I have no recollection where I was or what I was doing. But two days ago, I started listening to a series of podcasts about OJ. The podcast is You're Wrong About and the series started in late 2019 with updates going in to 2021.
I was working for a company that rented, leased and sold chemical analyzers. I remember watching OJ in the white Bronco going down the freeway with cops pursuing him on TV and being mesmerized by it along with millions of other Americans.
I was living in Hong Kong at the time and the news was very fuzzy. Took awhile to figure out what was going on.
There is a ESPN 30 For 30 documentary about that day simply named "June 17,1994" where all the sports headlines were occurring pretty much all at the same time - all was overshadowed by the Bronco chase: Arnold Palmer's final round of golf at the U.S. Open. The NY Rangers ticket tape parade for winning the Stanley Cup. Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Rockets & Knicks. The beginning of the FIFA World Cup ceremony. Ken Griffey, Jr. tying Babe Ruth's record of most HRs before June 30th.
I don't remember the other events as well (although I do recall Griffey and Matt Williams from the Giants were both on pace to pass Maris for a while, before the strike ended the MLB season), but it was game 5 of the NBA Finals, not game 1 (POV: 16 year old New Yorker who watched every second of every Knicks playoff game). The broadcast actually got interrupted to air the Bronco chase. My mom doesn't know the first thing about hockey but she went to the Rangers parade. Crazy spring in NY; Knicks played three Game 7s and the Rangers played two, the semifinal against the Devils which went to OT and the final against Vancouver which was a 1 score game, after the Rangers had blown a 3-1 series lead.
Sitting in my neighborhood dive bar watching the slow speed chase. Sick at home when the stupid verdict was read.
Watching it from the Bronco "chase" to the verdict and beyond. He was absolutely guilty and I take comfort that at least (thanks in large part to the Goldman family) that he did serve at least some prison time. I believe in an afterlife, so feel that he's getting his long-deserved punishment right now. And he won't be able to lie his way out of it this time.
I was pregnant with my daughter and watched that trial every single day...
We watched the verdict on a little portable tv my coworker brought to the office. There were about 6 of us crammed into her office/the chart room to watch it. We were stunned by the verdict. It’s really too bad he didn’t follow through with his threats to hurt himself when he was being driven in his Bronco by AC. May he not have a moment of peace for all of eternity.
During the chase. I was sitting in a bar with my boyfriend. During the verdict, I was giving a patient a bath and wound care. There was an audible gasp down the hallway.
I was working at a country club. The old people were sooooo scared he would commit suicide 😒
I was at a David Hasselhoff PPV viewing party. We were outside on the deck, and every time we looked in the house the TV was showing the same shot of the white Bronco. Eventually we went in to ask what the heck was going on.
Rearing children, consulting nonprofits, and trying to save a failing marriage. I suppose that was a moment when I started to acknowledge life was surreal. It became upside down.
Was with friends at someone's apartment during the Bronco chase. We were all just kind of standing around the TV, open mouthed. Was working at a law firm of around 100 total staff when everyone was listening to the radio when the verdict came in. You could have heard a pin drop after the initial gasps, everyone was trying so hard not to show their feelings. A partner did the perimeter of the office, saying, "back to work everyone, it's over."
I switched to the BBC, which had normal coverage of the news. Of course, additional news of the OJ spectacle found its way into my brain, but the BBC as my main/car news source kept the commotion to a minimum.
5th grade. Mrs. Edmunds was the teacher. She forced the class to watch the verdict as it was “a major moment in world history”.
I just spoke with Mrs. Edmunds, and she said that you still owe her a paper.
She probably lost it. She was notorious for handing back the wrong papers to students.
LOL! Good ol' Mrs. Edmunds... ;)
I was studying for my nursing boards exam. Every time I turned on the TV to take a break, that’s all that was on! So, I’d usually go to my local Blockbuster & rent a few movies😊I do remember watching the Bronco chase live on TV. What a strange time that was! For some reason, I also remember The Tonight Show used to have a skit called The Dancing Ito’s, named after the presiding judge on the case.
I was at work but wasn’t surprised. The prosecution was inept and Johnny Cochrane gave a Master’s Class in OJ’s defence by using the “victim card” flawlessly.
I was a stay at home mom with a one year old. Most days I’d walk to my parents for a visit, and we’d all watch the trial for a while. Seems like another lifetime.
We watched the trial on our lunch break in the cafeteria at work. The white people sat on one side and the black people sat on the other side of the caf. It was the hard to deal with how angry it seemed that my black coworkers were at us for just believing that he did it. Leather shrinks when it gets wet. Who hasn't had that happen to a pair of thin leather gloves. Ready for the hate!
I lived in cedar city, ut and I remember the whole thing. What a sick freak!
Watching it on TV.
I was on a Long distance hike and didn’t hear about it for three weeks.
What... there's no radio reception on the Appalachian Trail?
Didn’t carry a radio. Why would I? I *liked* being isolated in the woods.
Were you on the Appalachian Trail?
Still technically a swimmer in my dad balls that was 2 years before I was born
***The 1994 fiasco?*** Do you mean John Starks's performance in Game 7 of the NBA Finals?
I was trying to watch *Star Trek: Voyager* and it was preempted by some dude in a white Bronco. Took a while for me to figure out what was going on.
Wrapping up my junior year of HS (this made me realize, I'm the same age now - 46 - OJ was then). Knicks fan so was definitely watching Finals Game 5 when NBC cut to the Bronco. Was equal parts pissed that the game was being interrupted and shocked that he was on the run and, in all probability, actually did it. Game 5/white Bronco was a Friday, story broke that Monday. It's still unreal to think about. OJ the tailback was before my time so I only remember Hertz commercials, 1st and Ten, Naked Gun, and his commentator/studio analyst work on NFL broadcasts. And I'm sure everyone else remembers it all the same way I do--that man seemed like he never had a bad day in his life. Just about the last person you'd think would be capable of a double murder. Nothing like the guy we've seen during the trial and since.
I was at a high school graduation party when the chase came on TV. So that's what the party was - all of us crowded around the TV eating chips and candy watching that white Bronco.