O.J. Is Innocent And I Can Prove It by William C. Dear Yesterday we published some explosive evidence from private investigator Bill Dear's book "O.J. Is Innocent And I Can Prove It."

But not everyone was convinced. Tony Ortega, editor in chief of The Village Voice, has republished a lengthy rebuttal from 2001 (in response to similar claims from Dear).

The article supposedly "tore [Dear] a new asshole over his reprehensible way of gathering information to make pure fantasy sound plausible."

Here are Ortega's main complaints with Dear's theory:

1) "Dear discounts evidence of OJ's violent history, while overplaying and misdiagnosing Jason's own mental health history, according to an expert we consulted."

2) "Dear's timeline for that night is a complete farce."

3) Dear can't explain the size 12 Bruno Magli footprints found at the scene of the crime.

4) Dear left out the "the single strongest piece of evidence suggesting O.J.'s guilt" which is "O.J.'s blood at the scene of the crime, in the Bronco and at the Rockingham estate."

Which account should you believe? After reading both, we have to say that Dear's evidence stands up well against Ortega's arguments. This doesn't mean that OJ is innocent, but that perhaps the case should be reopened to consider OJ's son as a suspect.

As for the claim that Dear ignores OJ's violent history, domestic violence expert Dr. Lenore Walker told Dear that — despite official complaints of domestic abuse — O.J. "did not fit the profile of a batterer who murders."

O.J. and Nicole had been together for 17 years, and as late as May 1994 O.J. had nursed Nicole back to health from pneumonia. He saw or spoke to their two children on an almost daily basis and knew they were at home (and thought one had a friend over) at the time of the murders.

As for Jason's mental health history, his own therapist said he was sick enough that if he "was guilty he could never be convicted because of his mental condition."

Dear's timeline makes sense to us too.

The morning of the murders O.J. played golf and cards with friends. A couple of hours before the murders, O.J. bought flowers and attended his daughter's dance recital before making a date with Playboy Playmate Gretchen Stockdale over the phone and then going to McDonald's with Kato Kaelin. He was back at home at about 9:30 p.m. and didn't seem to be in any kind of frenzy around the time the murders occurred (i.e. between 9:45 and 10:05).

Jason was working at Jackson's Restaurant that night (and expected Nicole's family to be there). His alibi placed him at Jackson's Restaurant (cooking for about 200 people) until leaving at about 10:30 p.m., dropping off his girlfriend and watching TV at home from 11 - 3 a.m. But a waiter who worked at Jackson's on June 12, 1994, told Dear that the restaurant could only hold 87 people at full capacity and that Jason left sometime between 9:30 and 9:45. In addition Dear acquired Jason's handwritten time card from the night and surmised that he was alone by 9:50.

As for the bloody footprints, forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee told Dear that there were actually two sets of bloody footprints at the scene — which complements Dear's theory that O.J. didn't commit the murders but was at the crime scene shortly after — and if we assume that O.J. was wearing his Bruno Magli's that night, "they should have been covered in a tremendous amount of blood."

In order to clean his shoes and clothes before he got in his car, O.J. would have had to plan the murders down to the moment, but Lee said the "crime scene shows this was a disorganized killing."

Bloody socks were found in O.J.'s room, but forensic scientist Dr. Frederic Rieders told Dear that the "blood found on the socks came from a vial of blood and not from contact with the crime scene or a bleeding person."

Lastly, the blood at the scene of the crime was not an exact match to O.J.'s. In the book Killing Time, DNA experts stated that any blood drops at Bundy Drive left by one of O.J.'s children would have been virtually indistinguishable to their father's.

Experts said the assailant would have been drenched in blood (given the brutality of the killings) and yet "all the blood that was recovered from O.J.'s Bronco, from his Rockingham home and his clothing could have fit onto the end of a grown man's fingernail," according to Dear.

Dr. Lee told Dear that the three cuts found on O.J.'s left hand were "inconsistent with a knife." Dear posits that O.J. cut his hand as he jumped over the chain link fence at Rockingham (which had exposed prongs) as opposed to during a knife fight with the victims, and medical examiner Dr. Vincent J. M. Di Maio told Dear that this was consistent with the evidence.

If O.J.'s DNA had matched the hair in the navy watch cap or the skin under Nicole Brown Simpson's fingernails (indicating that she was scratching her assailant), the prosecution would have used that evidence to prove O.J.'s guilt. But Dr. Lee said that the "conclusions from forensic evidence did not prove who is the killer."

In 2001 Dear published what he had at the time to see if creating awareness would produce some leads, and it paid off in the form of obtaining Jason Simpson's clothes, diaries, knife and photos.

So at the very least Ortega is mistaken when he says that "Bill Dear has repackaged the same horseshit he was peddling eleven years ago."

In our opinion Dear's aggregate evidence gives credence to his theory that Jason should be considered a major suspect and O.J. acted to protect him.





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