Prometheus 6

Before HarperCollins pulled the plug on “If I Did It,” Goldman, 66, and his attorneys repeatedly said they wanted to stop Simpson from profiting but also to prevent publication. The Brown family has been adamantly opposed to the book’s publication and apparently will not share in any of the profits.

Why Fred Goldman Wants O.J. Book Published
The family of Ron Goldman now says it wants O.J. Simpson’s book published. What changed their minds?
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Andrew Murr
Newsweek
Updated: 9:37 p.m. ET March 16, 2007

March 16, 2007 - O.J. Simpson’s hypothetical tell-all book “If I Did It” may be published after all—with the help of murder victim Ronald L. Goldman’s family. A California court ruled Tuesday that proceeds from the auction of the book rights would go to the Goldman family, not Simpson. Simpson was found liable in 1997 for the wrongful deaths of Goldman and O.J.’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, which occured on June 12, 1994. Simpson has paid almost nothing of the $33.5 million judgment (now, with interest, grown to $38 million) he owes to the Goldman and Brown families.

So this week a judge in Santa Monica, Calif., took the book’s “reversionary” rights from Simpson, and awarded them to the Goldman family. He also ordered that the rights be auctioned at a sheriff’s sale in Sacramento, where current publisher HarperCollins has an office. The mysterious company that originally sold the book to HarperCollins may try to block the sale, according to Simpson’s attorney, which could happen next month. But in theory, when HarperCollins’s rights to the book lapse this summer, the new owner would be free to publish.

The sale of the rights opens the door to the eventual publication of the book, which Fred Goldman says he and his daughter, Kim, face with “mixed emotions.” Before HarperCollins pulled the plug on “If I Did It,” Goldman, 66, and his attorneys repeatedly said they wanted to stop Simpson from profiting but also to prevent publication. The Brown family has been adamantly opposed to the book’s publication and apparently will not share in any of the profits. In a telephone interview with NEWSWEEK’s Andrew Murr, Goldman explains that his thinking has changed. He’s glad Simpson won’t profit, and he sees some virtue in having people read what he sees as Simpson’s actual confession. But he is clearly uncomfortable with criticism that he could earn money at the cost of having a hypothetical account of his son’s murder in print.