Nicole Brown Simpson: her version of the story as OJ Simpson's victim

In 1995, the world followed what some called 'the trial of the century'. American football player OJ Simpson was accused and acquitted of the June 12, 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. However, later he was deemed responsible for the deaths in a 1997 civil case and ordered to pay $33 million to the victims’ families.

Everyone knows the story of the trial, but not many knew or realized the harrowing history of OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown's relationship… until now. A two-part documentary by Melissa G Moore entitled 'The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson' tells the victim's side of the story.

Photo: A+E

The world remembers the tragic event 30 years after the murders when the two were fatally stabbed outside their home in Los Angeles. OJ Simpson was named as the primary suspect and, the revelations from the documentary speak volumes about their life and times after their divorce but, perhaps more importantly, their relationship from the beginning… There were red flags already.

Filmmaker Melissa G Moore told the TW that she wanted this documentary to focus on "the domestic violence that Nicole Brown Simpson endured long before the fateful night of June 12, 1994". And so, the world got to hear Nicole’s version of the story 30 years after her death.

From Nicole's point of view, there had certainly been signs. Her sisters, who contribute the most to this documentary, explain their experiences and conversations at the time with Nicole. "We would have our conversations and she would say, 'Yeah we got into an argument last night. But it was no big deal'."

"Was there something I should have picked up on?" one of Nicole's sisters says, "I probably will always think that. Was she sending me some subtle hints that something was going on? I don't know."

Nicole's sister Denise recalls an incident in which  "all hell broke loose". She said Nicole "ran out of the car" and that OJ Simpson was "going crazy". Nicole's own words later came out in a diary she kept.

Talking of that particular incident, Denise read in Nicole’s diary that OJ "had her up against the wall on the balcony. He was hurting her". Besides the stories in her diary, Nicole also stored images of her injuries in the safety deposit box, ready for all the abuse to be revealed one day.

Another harrowing moment was in 1978 when Nicole "recalled OJ hitting her inside their wine cellar before locking her in there", as Yahoo reports. The abuse Nicole was suffering was painstakingly lonely for her. 

Nicole's sister Dominique said in the documentary: "[It] makes me think how everyone needs someone to talk to. And I don't think she had someone to talk to." It seems the abuse was causing Nicole to become more and more separated from her family.

She was also portrayed as something she was not. "They were painting her as this party girl," Denise said in 'The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson', as she looked at a tabloid picture of her sister in a bikini on a boat. "They were painting her as this person that she was not."

Nicole got married to OJ Simpson in 1985, 5 years after Simpson retired from professional football. She got pregnant with Sydney, their daughter, but even this happy event in her life turned into another reason for abuse.

US Magazine reported on the sisters' comments in the documentary, saying: "She loved being pregnant, except she got really heavy and he didn't like that… He was not nice to her when she was pregnant. I remember her telling me one time, 'You are so lucky that you don't have a husband and you don't have someone telling you what to do.'"

During her second pregnancy, Nicole Brown Simpson found out her husband was cheating. A family friend claims in the documentary that "when she was in the hospital giving birth [to Justin], her husband had someone in her house and there were pictures of Nicole all over. He simply put them face down so the woman wouldn't see them. [It] was sick."

According to family friend d’Anne Purcilly, Nicole lived in fear. She says in the documentary that Nicole expressed her fears of being attacked from behind and slashed by a knife. "She said: whenever we had these big fights, he would say to her 'I am going to chop you up in little pieces and bury you up on Mulholland and nobody will know where you are, not even your children.'"

The documentary reveals several awful incidents, including harrowing 911 calls and Nicole telling police officers: "I know for a fact he is going to murder me one day." It also reveals letters from OJ Simpson in which he confirms the abuse. He sent her these letters in 1989, apologizing for harming her.

And yet, Nicole "wanted everything to work só bad" her sister Dominique noted. She continuously returned to the abuse, trying to create the relationship with Simpson that she was hoping for. Yet the abuse continued and OJ Simpson continued to stalk her and visit her house - right up until her murder.

The documentary maker said in TW that, during the interviews with her friends, especially the male ones, they all lamented "not doing enough to protect her." They all felt guilty somehow. The A+E documentary 'The life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson' is available on streaming services such as Hulu, Verizon, Xfinity, and others.

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