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In the trial of the century, football legend O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. But a civil suit in 1997 found Simpson liable for Ron and Nicole's deaths, requiring him to pay $33.5 million in damages—including $21 million to the Goldmans and $12.5 million to Nicole's estate for their children, Sydney and Justin.
Since then, Simpson has never paid a cent. He appears to live a luxurious lifestyle, playing golf, signing autographs and defiantly mocking the Goldmans. "If I have to work to pay them, I won't work. It's that simple," Simpson once said. "So I'll just play golf every day."
Nine years after the civil suit, Simpson was back in the headlines promoting a book called If I Did It and a television special. Penned with the help of a ghostwriter, Simpson says the book is a fictional account of the murders if he did it.
The outraged families of Nicole and Ron took their case to the American public. "The fact that someone is willing to publish this garbage, that Fox is willing to put it on air, is just morally despicable to me," Ron's father, Fred Goldman, said on Larry King Live. "I would hope that no one buys the book."
As the outcry continued, publisher Rupert Murdoch canceled the book's publication and fired the executive in charge. But in August 2007, the book was resurrected when the Goldmans sued and were awarded the rights to the book. Now, they are publishing it, and 17 cents for every book sold will go to them.
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