Although the 1995 criminal trial of
O. J. Simpson
for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman has been
called
a "a great trash novel come to life," no one can deny the pull it had
on
the American public. If the early reports of the murder of the
wife
of the ex--NFL football star (turned-NBC-sports-announcer) hadn't
caught
people's full attention, Simpson's surreal Bronco ride on the day of
his
arrest certainly did--ninety-five million television viewers witnessed
the slow police chase live. The 133 days of televised courtroom
testimony
turned countless viewers into Simpson trial junkies. Even foreign
leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Boris Yeltsin eagerly gossiped
about
the trial. When Yeltsin stepped off his plane to meet President
Clinton,
the first question he asked was, "Do you think O. J. did it?"
When,
at 10 A.M. PST on October 3, Judge Ito's clerk read the jury's verdict
of "Not Guilty," 91% of all persons viewing television were glued to
the
unfolding scene in the Los Angeles courtroom. (CONT.->)