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Title: Outrage : The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder by Vincent Bugliosi ISBN: 0-440-22382-2 Publisher: Island Books Pub. Date: 10 March, 1997 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (94 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Truly outrageous
Comment: Having read all of the reviews of this book, I am not convinced that even had Vince Bugliosi prosecuted Simpson, he could have secured a guilty verdict.
I seems that despite having read Bugliosi's irrefutable - not just persuasive, but irrefutable - arguments, a small minority of readers still believe Simpson to be innocent of the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. No, I don't mean "not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" (thanks to the bumbling and incompetent - Bugliosi's word - prosecution team), but actually innocent! Why do they think this? I really have no idea. Why do people believe in alien abductions, paranormal phenomena, or the tooth fairy? People have actually written books arguing Simpson's innocence, but then again, people have written books claiming that alien abductions and ghosts are real.
Was it a case of a predominantly black jury seeking revenge on "White America" for hundreds of years of injustice? As if freeing Simpson - a white man in black skin - of the murder of two innocent people could ever do that! Was it simply that the prosecution was so unbelievably bad that it made it seem that Simpson must truly be innocent? (Having read Darden's words to the jury - which virtually said "there is real doubt about this man's guilt, so free him" - I can't understand why he was not disbarred.) Was it because Fuhrman had made racist remarks 10 years ago, remarks that had nothing to do with the case, and which he was too embarrassed to admit to? It seems that a reformed racist (who had none-the-less gone out of his way at one time to prove the innocence of a black suspect, and got on well with black officers) could never be believed but a wife-beater could. Was it because one juror couldn't distinguish DNA from the racing guide, or Madam Foreman didn't think that the suspect's blood at the murder scene was significant to the case? Could an entire police force hatch an elaborate conspiracy literally at the drop of a hat? Anyway, read the book if you want to know more.
There are some valid criticisms of this book - it is somewhat repetitive and it does seem that Bugliosi is indulging his ego at times. However, in his defence, I would say that he is writing as if he were spoon-feeding a jury - ie. say it over and over again, say it in different ways, leave no room for doubt. Also, he can't avoid telling the reader how he would have argued certain points - that isn't "Monday morning quarterbacking", it's just showing how simple and obvious it really was. Don't forget that had he been the prosecutor he would have actually had a lot more time (and access to evidence, and witnesses and co-prosecutors and assistance of many other forms) to prepare his case than he did in the writing of the book.
Read it. If you don't believe in the tooth fairy then you will be as outraged as Mr Bugliosi!
Rating: 4
Summary: A Gang of Martian Drug Dealers Did It!
Comment: 3 1/2 stars
This book is the work of a brilliant, vital, insightful mind, who nonetheless shied away from at least one crucial, unavoidable conclusion of the facts he presented. Vincent Bugliosi, the celebrated, former L.A. prosecutor who put away the Charles Manson cult of serial killers (and wrote about it in Helter Skelter) surveys the mountain of evidence that showed that O.J. Simpson was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt (i.e., beyond the legal requirement of "reasonable doubt") of having murdered his estranged wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goodman, and draws the inevitable conclusion, that Simpson was in fact guilty.
Unfortunately, in Bugliosi's romantic wish to maintain positive race relations with black Los Angelenos, he blames the jury's innocent verdict on prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden. Others might have done a little better or worse, but Clark and Darden did their jobs competently. The jury's verdict had nothing to do with any flaws in the prosecutors' presentation of the case. (O.J. could have been caught in the act, drenched in blood, and they still would have voted to acquit him!) Rather, it was the result of the sort of hardcore, obscene racism on the black jurors' part that once led a white southern jury to acquit the deputies who had butchered young Emmit Till. In both cases, jurors voted to acquit not because they were convinced that the defendant (defendants) had not comitted the crime in question, but because they were convinced that he (they) HAD. (By the way, contrary to the fantasies of a previous reviewer, O.J. did have cuts on his fingers, not to mention blood on his sock, on the door of his SUV, its steering wheel, dashboard, etc., etc., ad infinitem, ad nauseam).
And yet, Bugliosi's is such a rich sensibility that it is worth it to buy his book, even if one does not agree with all of his positions. Having written a stack of articles on philosophy of religion, I can also safely say that the former Catholic school student even considers theological issues in a much more compelling and original fashion than do contemporary philosophers.
Rating: 4
Summary: Justifiable "Outrage" .....Gratuitous Criticism
Comment: In the first week of October 1995, only one person on the planet was angrier than I was - and that person was none other than Vincent Bugliosi - star prosecutor of the Manson gang. Thus, I was drawn to his account of the debacle known as the O.J. trial as if it contained the secrets of Tutankhamen. There are many attributes to this seething indictment of our legal system, the brain-dead jury who rendered the laughable verdict, and the bunglings of the prosecutors (and the eunuch-like judge) involved in this case. However......
Bugliosi gives an "F" grade to Marcia Clark, Chris Darden, et. al. A failing grade? Really now, Mr. Bugliosi. The same evidence that convinced you, me and millions of other non-retarded individuals was presented by the very prosecutors you excoriate in this book. Yes, they were clumsy. Yes, they made critical errors. But let's face some salient facts here. Forrest Gump could have presented the overwhelming (and irrefutable) evidence in this case - merely by calling in the DNA experts, who proved beyond ANY doubt that Simpson's blood was dropped at the crime scene. Virginia Woolf, in the midst of a lithium overdose, could have been convinced of the disgraced NFL star's guilt.
Mr. Bugliosi states, with the supreme confidence of someone supremely confident, that "he could have convinced the O.J. juty to convict O.J." Come again? Let's be reasonable here. The genius prosecutor of Manson and his trogledyte terrorists did not have a jury inflamed by Rodney King, nor were Manson and his co-defendants sports icons. The Manson jurors were reasonable, compassionate people who listened to the evidence, maintained a healthy respect for justice, and saw through the sophomoric antics of the defense team. (Anyone remember Irving Kanarek? If you don't, count your lucky stars.)
"Outrage" marked the first and only time I've ever been somewhat annoyed with Vince Bugliosi. He can't expect every prosecutor, especially someone with a mountain-sized chip on their shoulder (C. Darden) to perform to his standards. Lightning doesn't strike twice - and neither will Bugliosi's genius of the early seventies.
Bugliosi is absolutely correct in disdaining the woeful verdict that exonerated O.J. for his despicable behavior. His meticulous examination of the mistakes that pervaded the trial is beyond reproach. However, I believe he fails to recognize another irrefutable fact: His own staggering brilliance would not have swayed O.J.'s jury; rather, it would have worked against him. It's fairly obvious that this jury would not have convicted the wife-battering O.J. - not even if they had witnessed the crime first-hand. (Two words: "Brenda" and "Moran" come to mind. As Dominick Dunne so succinctly said, "Never underestimate the power of stupidity.")
Yes, there was plenty of blame to go around in one of the bleakest events in the history of American justice. Bugliosi is justifiably bitter; I too shall be saddened until the day I leave this earth. Like Bugliosi, I cannot regard the lives of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman as any less sacred than those of Emmett Till or Medgar Evers. I regret that I was not old enough to vote on those juries so many years ago, because I despise the mockery of justice and virulent racism that pervaded those proceedings. Like O.J.'s jury, those panels were populated by ignorant persons possessed of personal animus, limited intelligence and misdirected rage.
"We've got to protect our own," Carrie Bess allegedly belched to one her fellow jurors. Let's put the blame where it belongs, Mr. Bugliosi: on a defense attorney whose insipid blatherings shouldn't have scared a two-year-old; on a jury who refused to see the truth - and who deliberated for an appallingly short time - and a flaccidly foolish judge who couldn't control his own courtroom. It is Bugliosi's heavy-handed condemnation of the prosecution that detracts from an otherwise excellent presentation. Yet, I shall always admire and respect Mr. Bugliosi for his years of dedication to the cause of justice, and my loyalty is unwavering - now and for always.
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Title: Murder in Brentwood by Mark Fuhrman, Mark Fuhrman ISBN: 0821758551 Publisher: Kensington Mass Market Pub. Date: December, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry ISBN: 0393322238 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: And the Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi, Bruce Henderson ISBN: 0804109176 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 22 December, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: American Tragedy by Lawrence Schiller, James Willwerth ISBN: 0380730596 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Till Death Us Do Part: A True Murder Mystery by Vincent Bugliosi ISBN: 0393088219 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 1978 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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