Without a Doubt

by Marcia Clark

Frankly, I favored a slightly different scenario: Nicole Simpson hears something outside—the sounds made by her ex-husband lurking in the shrubs around her condo. Nicole steps outside to investigate. She ventures down to the front gate, looks down the walkway and into the shrubbery to the north. Nothing. And then, when she turns to mount the steps, to reenter the house where her children are sleeping, she walks right into him, smack into the man who she had vowed would no longer be the center of her life. He is dressed for silent combat—dark sweats, knit cap, gloves. He has come to take her life. Somewhere during this time, Ron Goldman, on his innocuous errand, appears. Perhaps Ron has come up the walk while Simpson is in the midst of his stiletto mêlée. Why doesn’t he flee? Perhaps he has come too close and can’t escape. Or perhaps—and this seemed a stronger likelihood—Ron feels compelled to come to Nicole’s aid. He is about to engage in an act of selflessness that will lead to his death. In either case, my strong feeling is that Simpson did not have to confront both of his victims simultaneously. He murders first one, then the other. The blood pools on the sidewalk. The dog howls.