Nearly 30 years after her death – a crime for which no one has been convicted – the documentary “The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” aims to shed light on what the mother of two and ex was really like. -wife of OJ Simpson.
The Lifetime docuseries airing June 1 and 2 features home movies of German-born Brown Simpson, being held by her parents as a child and dipping her daughter Sydney’s toes in the water. Brown Simpson and Simpson welcomed two children during their seven-year union: Sydney, now 38, and Justin, 35.
Brown Simpson’s sisters — Denise, Dominique and Tanya Brown — reflect on their adventurous siblings in the documentary series, which concludes Sunday (8 EDT/PDT), with friends including the reality star/wife Kris Jenner affairs.
“One of my favorite memories of Nicole was when she would climb on the roof at Christmas and make all of her own Christmas lights,” Jenner says. “And it would amaze me, and of course I would run home and try to make my own Christmas lights.”
At just 35 years old, Brown Simpson was fatally stabbed outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994, along with her visiting friend Ron Goldman. Although OJ Simpson, who died in April, was tried and acquitted of the murders, the documentary series makes it clear that his hands were far from clean.
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Here are the surprising revelations from the first night of “The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.”
Nicole Brown Simpson’s sisters remember“adventurous” spirit before meeting OJ Simpson
An ‘energetic’ OJ Simpson ripped Nicole Brown Simpson’s pants on their first date
At 18, Nicole lived in Los Angeles with her friend David LeBon. She worked at The Daisy restaurant on Beverly Hills’ famous Rodeo Drive and met Simpson there in the summer of 1977.
“He kept coming to see her,” LeBon says in the docuseries, “and he had this obsession with her.”
The two had a date. When Brown Simpson returned, the zipper on her jeans was torn, said D’Anne Purcilly, LeBon’s ex-wife and Brown family friend.
LeBon remembers his roommate, Brown Simpson, telling him that OJ was “getting a little energetic.” Brown Simpson told an angry LeBon to calm down and that she really loved Simpson.
Despite repeated beatings, Nicole Brown Simpson thought a baptism would make OJ Simpson ‘a new person’
Brown Simpson documented Simpson’s abuse in his diary. In a 1977 article, she accused him of cheating after finding an earring. “He threw a fit, chased me, threw me against walls, bruised me…” She also wrote of the bruises while the family was on vacation in Hawaii at Christmas 1988: “ OJ threw me against the walls of our hotel and onto the floor. Put bruises on my arms and back.
Denise says she witnessed the abuse at the couple’s Brentwood home after Denise said Simpson took her sister for granted. He yelled, Denise said, and threw pictures of the Browns. “He grabs her (Nicole) by the throat, and he puts her against the kitchen door, and he throws her out, and she ends up on her butt and with bloody elbows,” she said, also claiming that ‘OJ threw her out of the house. But the incident was never mentioned again, says Denise: “Life continued as usual. »
Denise was worried when Brown Simpson said she and Simpson were planning to get married seven years after they started dating. Brown Simpson believed that a baptism would change her future husband. “Everything is going to change,” Brown Simpson told Denise. “He’s going to become a new person.”
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OJ Simpson allegedly threatens Nicole Brown Simpson: “I’m going to cut you into little pieces”
Courtroom footage included Detective John Edwards’ testimony that he responded to a call at the Simpsons on New Year’s Day 1989. “She collapsed and started screaming, ‘He’s going to kill me .’ He’s going to kill me,” Edwards said.
Brown Simpson had a cut lip and a swollen forehead, he added. “She had a handprint on the left side of her throat.”
Spencer Marks, a retired LAPD officer, responded to an incident at Brown Simpson’s home in 1993, after they separated. “She said, ‘I know for a fact he’s going to kill me one day,'” he recalls.
And Purcilly says Brown Simpson told her OJ threatened her during the arguments. “I’m going to cut you up into little pieces and bury you in Mullholland,” Purcilly told Brown Simpson, “and no one will know where you are, not even your children.”
Witness sees OJ Simpson driving near murder site: ‘He was obviously in a hurry’
The second hour returns to the events of the night Brown Simpson and Goldman were murdered.
Limousine driver Allan Park said he arrived at Simpson’s residence around 10:25 p.m. to take her to the airport for her flight to Chicago. Simpson’s residence at 360 N. Rockingham Avenue was approximately two miles from Brown Simpson’s home at 875 S. Bundy Drive.
Park said he rang the intercom outside Simpson’s house after he arrived, but no one answered.
Grand jury witness Jill Shively recalled seeing Simpson driving as she went to get takeout at 10:45 a.m. at the intersection of San Vicente Boulevard and Bundy Drive, less than a half-mile from the scene of the murders, Shively says, “I almost collided with this Bronco going through a red light, and it didn’t have any lights on.” »
“He swerved to miss me, but then he had to swerve to miss a gray Nissan going the other direction,” Shively continued. “Then the Bronco places its wheel in the central reservation. He was yelling at the other driver to get out of the way.
Shively recognized the driver’s face as Simpson’s. “He looked angry,” she said. “He was obviously in a hurry.”
Park said that around 10:55 p.m., he saw “a dark figure coming from the garage side of the house, moving very quickly and heading toward the front of the door.” So he rang the intercom again, and this time Simpson finally answered. He told the driver that he had just gotten out of the shower and would be downstairs soon.
Park said that when he saw Simpson, he couldn’t determine whether he had recently showered. “I remember seeing beads of sweat on him.”
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