Barnes & Nobles to stock O.J.'s book.

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Barnes & Noble Changes Mind on Simpson
Aug 30, 2:35 PM EST


Barnes & Noble Inc. has changed its mind about the new O.J. Simpson book.

After saying it would not stock copies of "If I Did It" in its stores, citing lack of customer demand, the chain told The Associated Press on Thursday that it would indeed carry the book.

Since the initial decision on Aug. 21 against stocking the book, but selling it online, Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said: "We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it."

For days Simpson's book has been in the top 100 on Barnes & Noble.com and at one point even topped the best-seller list. "If I Did It" has also entered the top 100 on Amazon.com.

Simpson's ghostwritten, hypothetical story of how he would have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman was originally scheduled to come out last November, but HarperCollins pulled the book in response to near universal protests.

Over the summer, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded rights to the book to Goldman's family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson. "If I Did It" will be published Sept. 13 by Beaufort Books on behalf of the Goldman family, which considers the book Simpson's confession.

Simpson has maintained his innocence in the 1994 killings in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Acquitted of the murders in 1995 and currently living near Miami, he has disowned the book, saying he had little do with its creation.

The ghostwriter, Pablo Fenjves, has disagreed, saying "If I Did It" is based on extensive discussions with Simpson.
 
It's all about the $, well they said initially it was all about lack of demand so it's not as if they ever took a moral stand. I refuse to even look at that book, it makes me ill. I don't care that the money goes to the Goldmans. I understand that they want to get anything they can from him but I still think it's unseemly. Not my place to judge them at all of course, I could never know what it's like for them to have to live through and with that.
 
No, a book store owner is free to decide which books he sells and which he doesn't.
Censorship would be if the state restricted the sale of that book.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
i think the responsible thing for book stores to do would be to carry the book and allow the customers to make their own decisions.



but then Nancy Grace couldn't get outraged. :sad:
 
Irvine511 said:




but then Nancy Grace couldn't get outraged. :sad:

Oh I'm sure she'd find something...

But I agree 100% with Headache on this one. Stock the book. I'm curious to see how it does actually.
 
Irvine511 said:




but then Nancy Grace couldn't get outraged. :sad:

she'll just have to go back to killing off her guests.


seriously though... i can get a copy of mein kampf at barnes and nobles but i can't get OJ's book if i wanted to? (which i don't)

yes, it's not government censorship to not stock the book, but with the almost complete elimination of the local neighborhood book store in favor of uber super book clusterfuck'o'rama stores, it almost is.
 
I generally prefer Border's to Barnes & Noble anyway.

But I do miss the old-skool small bookstores. There was a really good used bookstore in town when I was up north, and as an added bonus you could pick up a little herb from one of the regular clerks :)
 
Why I didn't want to be part of 'If I Did It'
Goldmans wanted an ex-FBI profiler to 'break down the language of a sociopathic narcissistic murderer'
COMMENTARY
By Clint Van Zandt
Updated: 2:09 p.m. ET Sept 5, 2007

After being acquitted for the 1994 brutal stabbing murder of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, O.J. Simpson would tell others that he would spend the rest of his life looking for his ex's killer. It's now 13 years later and the double murder has still managed to elude the former Buffalo Bills running back.

Many feel that the Simpson murder trial was lost because the prosecution team simply did not present an appropriate case in court. Others suggest that Simpson's dream team of attorneys was able to turn the murder trial of a celebrity accused of a double homicide into a "get even" trial between the races. If true, the prosecution's case was doomed from the start. Yet O.J. was subsequently found liable in a wrongful death civil suit, a case that did not break down into a black vs. white issue, and one in which the former football and movie star was found responsible to pay millions of still to date unpaid dollars, to include $33 million to the family of Ron Goldman and $24 million to the family of Nicole Brown.

O.J. Simpson has remained a magnetic public figure and social icon since the murder of the mother of his two children has not shied away from public attention. In fact, he has continued to seek it since that night in 1994 when the two murders were committed at Brown-Simpson's residence. Last year it was announced that O.J., with the aid of a ghost writer, had written a book entitled "If I Did It," one touted to "almost" be a confession on the part of Simpson. Most saw the writing of this book as an attempt by Simpson to further capitalize on the media attention surrounding the tragic deaths of two people and murders that a significant percent of the population continue to believe were done by O.J.'s own hands. Simpson's publisher at that time finally caved in to the overwhelming public pressure created by the Brown and Goldman families to kill the book. With that, the book and O.J.'s murder-like biographical seemed to slowly fade away until the Goldman family was awarded the rights to the book by the civil court judge. Now the Goldman family who will receive 90 percent of any book sales related to "If I Did It," has turned around to champion the publication of it, allegedly wanting to rename it "Confessions of a Double Murderer," or something to that effect.

The book was going to receive a rewrite though, and that's where I came in. I was contacted by a literary agent representing the Goldman family who inquired if I would write a commentary for the re-issuing of the book "If I Did It," further indicating she and the Goldman family wanted a former FBI profiler to "break down the ‘language' of a ‘sociopathic narcissistic murderer' and provide insight in the way of an essay or chapter that can be included in this reissuance of the book."

It took me a few minutes to wrap my psychological arms around her proposal. She was offering me the chance to write an introductory chapter to a book that had the chance to sell millions of copies to readers who just can't get enough of this stuff. Money and public recognition would surely follow anyone who had the seized the brass ring of telling what most people already believed: that should O.J. Simpson actually committed these murders (as the book would seem to suggest), and that he was "a sociopathic narcissistic murderer." It took me about two minutes to come to my decision, "No, thank you."

From the evidence introduced in the two trials and the media statements of many involved in the original investigation, it is easy to see O.J. as someone who developed an overly large sense of entitlement over the years. Some people simply come to believe that they are the sun and we are the planets and stars circling around them. The laws of the land, and perhaps nature, do not apply to them; they can take what they want and should they sustain some kind of narcissistic injury, they believe themselves fully justified in striking out at others to restore their sense of balance. With this, you could be a political figure who took a bribe from a phony Arab Sheik, or a representative whose believed bribes were "cold cash" hidden in his home freezer. You could also be a junk bond king or the owner of a tech company who milked money from investors and employees while living a lavish life (despite permanently damaging other lives).Or you could be a priest and take terrible advantage of the lives of young people who looked up to you like they would God, or even a career federal agent entrusted with your nation's secrets and that then you sold off to the Russians because you felt you were never fully appreciated and recognized by your agency.

Somewhere along the way, people like this believe they are above the law; that the laws are made for the ordinary citizen, but obviously not for them. As the late hotel billionairess Leona Helmsley was alleged to have stated, "Only little people pay taxes," this before she went to jail for tax evasion. O.J., in Helmsely-like fashion, may have come to believe that rules, regulations and laws were likewise only for the little people, something his criminal trial for murder seemed to many to confirm.

A narcissistic injury can be suffered by someone with an over inflated sense of personal entitlement; someone who has come to believe that others should recognize and treat him special, and who then experiences a significant disappointment or socially embarrassing slight. Such an emotionally "injured" individual could, potentially, overreact and not only harm, but even attempt to destroy the person responsible for what he perceived as an intentional personal attack. The actions of a person like this are many times similar to what a stalker does to his victim, to include wanting to discomfort or harm someone he had once been close to. The gratification and sense of power that is obtained from this form of "persecution" is the food that feeds, but may not soothe the narcissistic hurt and wounded ego.


When we consider someone who could kill another human being, especially with a knife, a weapon that requires you to get up close and personal, we many times must consider such a killer to have an antisocial personality disorder, to be a sociopath, or even a psychopath. To stab someone with a knife, one has to look into the eyes of the person one is killing from mere inches away. Often, the stabbing happens in a frenzied rage.

A sociopathic person, 4 percent of our population, is either missing his conscience entirely or has been able to short circuit it to fulfill his own self centered, selfish needs. Remember, he is the sun and we circle around him. His lack of conscience, his aggressiveness to a fault, his risk taking actions, his deprecating attitude toward women, his boasting, impulsiveness and callousness; his manipulating, charismatic, egocentric personality, coupled with his inability to resist temptation, combine an individual fully capable of flying into a rage and attacking what he thought was his to possess, and anyone else that got in his way.

So were O.J. to have been the murderer that he still purports to seek, he would be someone who still craved the attention that such a book would afford him. A book would allow him to reopen the wounds suffered by his original victims and would revictimize society by reminding us, through this book, of how he got away with murder.

I didn't want any part of this, any part of providing a possible sociopath with a platform to hint at what he did and what he may have gotten away with. I'm also sure that the literary agent will find someone willing, perhaps for their own good reasons to write the chapter, to suggest the personality that could have gotten away with a double murder.

In the meantime, though, if a killer has somehow managed to elude the criminal justice system, like a running back eludes tacklers on the football field, I don't think we should go out of our way to give him the sharp stick to plunge into our eye.

Finally, I don't think Nicole Brown-Simpson's children deserve to continually have this whole mess served up in their faces. After all, they deserve a life without having to constantly contemplate the mother they lost, and without knowing more about the man most believe is responsible for their mother's death.


Clint Van Zandt is a former FBI Agent, behavioral profiler and hostage negotiator as well as an MSNBC Analyst. His web site www.LiveSecure.org provides readers with security related information.
 
Funny the Goldmans didn't want the book published but suddenly changed their minds with the prospect of a little cash heading their way. I guess blood money spends just as well as clean money.
 
I don't believe it's the actual money for them, it's just getting any justice in terms of the civil judgment. That was the only justice they got, and he still managed to use any and all means to avoid paying. He even came right out and said that Fred Goldman would never see a cent from him. Personally I still wouldn't publish the book, but I don't live in their shoes.
 
Since the initial decision on Aug. 21 against stocking the book, but selling it online, Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said: "We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it."

oh please. They're only stocking it in the stores because some idiot would have turned around and gone the whole, "that's discrimination" and "what about freedom of speech/press" route on their ass's.
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
I don't believe it's the actual money for them, it's just getting any justice in terms of the civil judgment. That was the only justice they got, and he still managed to use any and all means to avoid paying. He even came right out and said that Fred Goldman would never see a cent from him. Personally I still wouldn't publish the book, but I don't live in their shoes.

I'm sure that's part of it. But in this case, if you have a choice to either block the book totally or have it published and get the cash, I'd choose to block the book. Now if OJ were to be publishing it either way then yes I'd rather take the money than let OJ keep it.
 
Kiki said:
Since the initial decision on Aug. 21 against stocking the book, but selling it online, Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said: "We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it."

oh please. They're only stocking it in the stores because some idiot would have turned around and gone the whole, "that's discrimination" and "what about freedom of speech/press" route on their ass's.

I rather think they do so because otherwise their competitors would get the money.
 
There was something on the news this morning about the killer being questioned by police regarding a casino hotel room robbery in Las Vegas. He just can't stay out of the news.

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:37 p.m. ET Sept 13, 2007

CHICAGO - The father and sister of Ronald Goldman say by seizing control of the O.J. Simpson book, “If I Did It,” they are punishing the man they believe murdered their loved one.

Fred Goldman and his daughter, Kim, appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Thursday to discuss their decision to publish the book, released the same day. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald.

Over the summer, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the book’s rights to Goldman’s family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson. The Goldmans retitled the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”

Winfrey said she won’t buy or read the book, and asked the Goldmans if they don’t feel its proceeds are “blood money.”

“It’s sending him a message,” Kim Goldman said. “He put hours putting together this confession about how he killed Ron and Nicole, and he worked hard thinking he was going to make millions off of it. And we snatched it right out from under him.”

Winfrey said dedicating a show to the topic was a “moral, ethical dilemma” for her. She said she committed to the show when the guests were to also include Nicole Simpson’s sister, Denise Brown, who has been severely critical of the Goldmans for publishing the book.

Brown later refused to share a stage with the Goldmans, however, and Winfrey said she felt she had to keep her word to the Goldmans.

Winfrey acknowledged that her program often promotes books and authors, yet, she said, “I don’t want to be in the position to promote this book, because I, too, think it’s despicable.”

Denise Brown did speak to Winfrey, but on her own in a segment taped earlier. She said she decided against appearing with the Goldmans because she feared it would give the book “more impact.”

She called the Goldmans hypocrites for changing their minds about publishing a book Fred Goldman earlier called “disgusting” and “despicable” when O.J. Simpson stood to benefit.

“I felt the same way. I stood my ground on that,” Brown said. “I still don’t believe it should be published. I think it is a morally wrong thing to do.”

Winfrey told the Goldmans she wishes they could find some peace, but Fred Goldman said the book’s publication won’t help with that.

“It brings a certain level of satisfaction that we’ve taken something from him,” he said. “I think it also is a recognition for him to know forevermore that we’re going to be after him ... to punish him for what he’s done, to get some piece of justice.”

Simpson’s ghostwritten, hypothetical story of how he would have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman originally was scheduled to come out last November, but HarperCollins pulled the book in response to near-universal protests.

Beaufort Books, a small New York-based publisher, is reissuing “If I Did It” with Simpson’s original manuscript intact and extensive commentary, including a chapter written by the Goldmans.

Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort, told The Associated Press Thursday in New York that he believes it is the “right and proper and moral thing to do to bring this book to the American public.”

“It’s as if the American people become the jury,” he said. “And finally we’ve heard the words of the murderer, the killer, say exactly what he did.”

Kampmann even drew parallels between the book and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” saying the piece exposes Simpson’s dark side.

“At the end of the day, we see this person who can’t deal with, on one hand, being this icon, on the other hand being somebody that wants to bring his wife under control and can’t,” Kampmann said.

Simpson has maintained his innocence in the 1994 killings in Los Angeles. Currently living near Miami, he has disowned the book, saying he had little do with its creation. The ghostwriter, Pablo Fenjves, has disagreed, saying “If I Did It” is based on extensive discussions with Simpson.

As of Thursday, the book was No. 8 in sales on Barnes&Noble.com and No. 52 on Amazon.com.
 
Denise Brown is 100% correct here.

I wonder if anything will ever ease Fred Goldman's pain.
 
I like how OJ says he didn't do it, but if he did do it, (wink, wink) here's how. What a fool! I wonder what Nicole's children think of this book. They are the real losers here. They've lost their mother in the most horrible way and now their own father is saying this is how he would've killed her. I'd love to hear OJ explain that to his children.
Once again it just goes to show you how fucked up California is: We're not going to send you to prison for killing your ex-wife, but we're going to fine you 10 million dollars for doing so.

OJ can live on his NFL pension, which the courts can't touch. Therefore, no need for him to work ever again. Besides, who's going to hire the guy anyway? I would assume he's pretty much persona non grata wherever he goes. Most people think he did it anyway. Meanwhile, OJ arrogantly lives his life with his "I got away with it" attitude.
When people cheered for OJ's aquittal, they weren't glad an innocent man was set free. They were glad a guilty man got away with it after all the times an innocent man was sent to prison.
 
MrPryck2U said:
I like how OJ says he didn't do it, but if he did do it, (wink, wink) here's how. What a fool! I wonder what Nicole's children think of this book. They are the real losers here. They've lost their mother in the most horrible way and now their own father is saying this is how he would've killed her. I'd love to hear OJ explain that to his children.
Once again it just goes to show you how fucked up California is: We're not going to send you to prison for killing your ex-wife, but we're going to fine you 10 million dollars for doing so.

OJ can live on his NFL pension, which the courts can't touch. Therefore, no need for him to work ever again. Besides, who's going to hire the guy anyway? I would assume he's pretty much persona non grata wherever he goes. Most people think he did it anyway. Meanwhile, OJ arrogantly lives his life with his "I got away with it" attitude.
When people cheered for OJ's aquittal, they weren't glad an innocent man was set free. They were glad a guilty man got away with it after all the times an innocent man was sent to prison.

From what I heard, his children tried to set up some fund/account that would have given them $ from sales on the book.

This is taken from a column on FoxNews:

What’s really alarming is that those two children, Sydney and Justin, now in their late teens, don’t seem to care or understand what their father did to their mother. When Simpson first was going to sell the book and make money from it, they signed off on an agreement to form a dummy corporation in which they would profit from the proceeds.

And the link...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296746,00.html
 
^ Maybe they believe their father is innocent?
 
I watched the Oprah show yesterday, and it was quite fascinating. Marcia Clark & Christopher Darden were guests as well. I believe they said for a civil suit in Calif., restitution is awarded. As for the money, after all is said and done, the Goldman's only get 17cents a copy (I don't believe they care if it sells). A certain portion of any proceeds also go to an account for the Simpson children. I believe that the Simpson children had to sign off on the book originally. Clark said, if I remember correctly, that the chapter on the night of the murder was probably omitted in the original draft that OJ showed his kids, not that they read any of it. Supposedly OJ trashes Nicole thru the whole book blaming her for everything and calling her a slut. Oprah had a clip showing the evidence in the case. How the f**k did he get off (it's a rhetorical question here :wink: )

I understand where the Goldman's are coming from, and Ron's sister made some very interesting points. If you can find the interview, I think it's worth the watch :shrug:

From Oprah's site:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200709/tows_past_20070913.jhtml?promocode=HP21

And no, I won't be buying or reading the book :down:
 
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The estate has to go after the proceeds for Sidney and Justin-or maybe the dummy corporation is ultimately all for the killer's benefit. They understand what he did to their mother- how can anyone begin to understand what all of it has done to them, and continues to do?

It's ever so lovely that he continues to blame his dead wife who he butchered and call her a slut. I'm sure his kids will love reading that some day. He is one of the biggest pieces of scum that ever walked this earth.
 
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tmz.com

Sources say OJ Simpson and five other men barged into a hotel room last night, and took various memorabilia once owned by Simpson -- at gunpoint!

It happened at the Palace Station Hotel last night at around 7:15. Alfred Beardsley, a memorabilia dealer, had secured various items once owned by Simpson. Beardsley has said he had the suit OJ wore the day he was acquitted of murder.

Beardsley tells TMZ he had arranged to meet with someone last night who was interested in buying the suit and other Simpson memorabilia. Beardsley says the man was actually a member of Simpson's crew. He says the men stormed the room, two of them with guns drawn.

Beardsley says the men claimed to be police officers. OJ and others demanded that Beardsley and two other men surrender their cell phones. Beardsley refused to do so. Beardsley says the group stole every piece of memorabilia in the room, including items signed by Joe Montana. They also took a case of never-released leather editions of Simpson's book, "I Want to Tell You."

Beardsley told TMZ he was uneasy about the arranged meeting and did not have the suit in the room when the six men entered.

Beardsley says he made a 911 call, and cops subsequently obtained a search warrant for the room. CSI investigators took Beardsley's phone and took DNA samples and photos of his body. Beardsley says one of the guys roughed him up.

Cops tell us Simpson was questioned but not placed in custody. There is an active robbery investigation underway.
 
Well he/they shouldn't have taken the Montana stuff, but OJ claims the other things were stolen from him. Who knows of course...but a fine upstanding citizen like OJ? I'm sure he'd never steal [/sarcasm]
 
For some reason, this feels like they're trying to stick it to him for not having done it properly before which makes me doubt if the judicial system is really as objective as it should be.
 
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