In 1989 Mr. Simpson pleaded no contest to beating and threatening to kill his wife and was fined. The couple, who had two children, divorced three years later. Friends said they had recently been working on a reconciliation.

Jim Lampley, a sports announcer for NBC, where Mr. Simpson is an analyst on the pregame show "N.F.L. Live," said in an interview today: "I've not seen O. J. for three or four weeks. But when I was last with him, he was in a long period of seeing Nicole and working things out because it was best for the children.

"O. J. brought her to Dallas for the Thanksgiving Day game, and they had dinner with us. Nicole and O. J. were together at the Super Bowl. His highest priority was to put the marriage together."

But Susan Forward, an author and psychologist who said she had treated Mrs. Simpson in 1992, told KCBS-TV tonight that her patient was "a classic battered wife" who described being threatened, stalked and beaten by Mr. Simpson.

The beatings "were very severe," said Dr. Forward, who wrote the best seller "Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them." "He would say to her things like, if he can't have her then no one can, and, 'If I can't have you, I'm going to kill you.' "

The nature of Mrs. Simpson's relationship with Mr. Goldman remained a question today. Mr. Goldman worked at the Mezzaluna restaurant, and his co-workers said he and Mrs. Simpson were friends and worked out together at a gym.

"Everyone wants to make it out to be a sex scandal," said Stewart Tanner, a Mezzaluna waiter, "but it's not. They were just really good friends. They were friends with a lot of people. They all met at the gym, and they would go out for coffee and hang out together with a bunch of people after working out." The Day of the Killing