...ASTRODOME.... [The following article is a magnum opus (even for me) and took several weeks to produce, including about 60 hours for the 25 figures that illustrate it. It depicts, step by step, inch by inch, second by second, how two professional killers could have accomplished this crime in 80 seconds flat, and left behind exactly the indications that the police later found. The version here does not contain the graphics images. To see this article completely illustrated, please go to our web site at http://www.wagnerandson.com .] It has been claimed that this crime could not have involved two killers because the space was too small. This has been expressed by Ron Egan saying, "It ain't the Astrodome." And, indeed, it ain't, but there is just enough room that in a carefully planned crime by professionals there is enough room to work comfortably and quickly. I demonstrate the fact below with scaled cartoon figures showing the actual amount of space they take up in various postures during the crime, and superimpose those over a scaled sketch of the scene. THE CRIME SCENE: For the crime scene, I have used the charts of the prosecution exhibits. Figure 1 shows the physical arrangement from the curb at Bundy drive to Nicole's front door. I have modified the details in Figure 1, moving the mailbox and the intercom from the location depicted by the prosecution chart to those shown in the photograph in Fuhrman, page 206+1, and also a similar photograph from the L.A. Times. (The prosecution spent nine million dollars on the case, and couldn't get the details in their chart of the crime scene right!) I have also shown, in Figure 2, a rough idea of the illumination in the area. Near the condo, this was entirely the result of the porch light, and areas shadowed from that by structure were completely in the dark. At the steps by the gate, the ground was in the shadow cast by the top of the steps out to about the position of the gate. At places higher up than the ground, however, there was some illumination from the porch light in the vicinity of the gate. The region toward the street from the gate got little illumination from the house, at best, and with the partially opaque gate closed, it got even less. Shown in orange in Figure 2 is the area illuminated by the (pink) sodium vapor street light. Parkway trees prevented the slight streetlight illumination from reaching much up Nicole's front walk. For the figures, I have resorted again to the Poser 3 program to depict the various parties in poses at critical moments. To facilitate the identification of the participants, I have dressed them in bright colors, with each in a shirt color different from the others. I realize that Nicole was wearing a black cocktail dress, but I have put her in slacks and a shirt in order to better depict the position of her legs in later parts of the scene. Similarly, I expect that the killers wore black or a near-black color, not the bright colors I have shown. Also, I have not shown certain accessories, such as the knit evidence cap that I assume Gus had in his belt until the very end of this process, or the penlight that was in his shirt pocket. PORTRAYAL: The general scheme here is to show a map of either the entire area from Nicole's front door to the sidewalk, or just the area around the gate. On this map are posed the characters involved in the action, as they would be seen from above. Although this gives a good idea of the position and the space occupied by the parties, the top-down view does not make clear what they are doing. So, each scene is also illustrated with a horizontal view of the action figures. Figure 3 is an example of such an action scene, in which an assailant is holding Goldman restrained on the front walk outside the gate, while another assailant is waiting to attack Nicole elsewhere. SCALING: In order to relate the figures to the size of other objects, such as the spaces in the crime scene, it was necessary to make assumptions about their dimensions. The following were used -- FIGURE HEIGHT SHOULDER WIDTH Nicole 5' 5" 14" Goldman 5' 9" 16" K2 5' 11" 17" Gus 6' 1" 18" It was also assumed that Nicole's neck was 4" wide, side to side, and 5" thick, front to back. It is 12" from the top of her head to her collar bone, and 3" above that to the place where her throat was slit. From her shoulder to her seat is 24", and her total length when kneeling is 37". By matching these dimensions to the scale which is included in the crime scene background sketch, it is possible to size the figures correctly. PREMISE: On the basis of many considerations that can not be explored here, it appears that the following situation led to the crime. Simpson had been engaged in a dispute which had some characteristics that prevented it from being resolved in court. The other party to this desired redress, and had underworld resources at his disposal. Simpson was intransigent, and in January, 1994, Kardashian tried to solve the problem by hiring an amateur thug, Bill Wasz, in a plot to kill Nicole. When that plan failed, the disputant began planning his own campaign to murder Nicole and frame Simpson. That plan was executed on June 12, 1994. The subject of the dispute may have been Simpson's brief participation in, and then withdrawl from, an agreement to steer high rollers he met on the golf links to a pricey national bookie operation, for example. Because this was a very carefully planned operation, it involved the development of contacts which were close to Nicole and to Simpson, though those people were not overt conspirators. They simply played roles that were natrural and obvious to them without any awareness that they were facilitating a crime, or even that Simpson was involved in a serious dispute with shady characters. In this way, Simpson's travel schedule could be known, and it was possible to influence Nicole's choice in small matters, such as where to have dinner after the dance recital and how to react to Simpson's offenses. It was also possible to steal Simpson's cap and gloves a month before the final act, and have enough influence on him that he could be tricked into going to Nicole's condo just after the murders had been done. INITIAL CONDITIONS: The final event began at the Mezzaluna restaurant where Nicole's party of ten was dining after the dance recital. At that occasion, Juditha (Nicole's mother) Brown's glasses were taken from her under circumstances that she would not make an issue of before leaving the restaurant, but would call that place about them immediately after getting home. (See "The Host" for a way in which this could be done.) The conspirators then created conditions whereby Goldman would still be in the restaurant, but free to leave when the issue of the mother's glasses came up, motivated him to be interested in taking them to her, and motivated Nicole to want company (such as Ron's delivery of the glasses) that night. (See "Critical Phase" for how this could be accomplished.) By 9:45, the two men who would actually commit the crime had entered Nicole's property, and were lurking in the shadows. "Gus" the one who would attack Nicole was waiting in the atrium recess on the north condo wall, and K2 (killer #2) was hiding in the bushes just south of the intercom to waylay Goldman as soon as he had finished talking to Nicole. The previous Wednesday night, when Nicole was away at Faye Resnick's intervention session, these two men had disabled the remote gate unlatcher, and so knew that Nicole would have to come to let Ron in the gate herself when he paged. The two aspects of the plan that were uncertain were 1) whether the mother would call about her glasses, and 2) whether Simpson could be lured to the scene. The conspirators had only limited influence on these two decisions, but were effectively in control of all other aspects. If the mother called the restaurant, the murders -- according to plan -- were a done deal. If she did not, there was a backup plan. And, if Simpson did not go for the bait and visit the crime scene, there was already enough indication of his guilt that he would be widely blamed, though perhaps not convicted. So, at 10:09 when Goldman paged Nicole from the front gate, this was the situation: K2 was watching him from the bushes three feet away, Gus was hiding in the atrium recess waiting for Nicole to pass by on the way to the front gate. Nicole was at the intercom in her kitchen, just leaving that location to go to the front gate to let Ron in. The children and the dog were sleeping in the children's second floor bedroom. The front gate had been rigged so that it was not latched, but appeared to be so. The circumstances that caused Nicole to ask Ron to bring the glasses account for the contradictory indications in the conditions on the first and second floors of the condo, and also explain the ice cream cup on the banister (see "Critical Phase"). 10:09:00 GOLDMAN FINISHES INTERCOM CONVERSATION WITH NICOLE. [Figures "10_09_00" & "K2_WATCH".] As soon as Goldman had finished talking to Nicole, and was standing in front of the gate, facing it, his car keys in one hand and the envelope with the glasses in the other, K2 bounded out of the shadows to Goldman's left, and was behind him before Ron could cry out or take any other action. K2's left hand was over Ron's mouth, and the knife in his right hand was to Ron's throat. Goldman was startled and confused, he dropped the things in his hands to use his hands to fend off the attack; before the end, the keys and the envelope were deliberately kicked closer to Nicole's body to confuse the indications. By drawing the knife twice across Goldman's throat, K2 persuaded his compliance. He had Ron turn around and face the street, move three feet toward it, then sit straight legged in the middle of the walk. K2 squatted behind him and continued to keep him compliant with his left hand over Ron's mouth, and the knife to his throat (Figure 3). 10:09:19 NICOLE WAYLAID AS SHE PASSES ATRIUM RECESS. As Nicole hurried to the front gate, she passed the atrium recess on the north condo wall. We know that at this time the front gate was still closed, or she would have clearly seen from there that it was not, would have been suspicious of the fact, and probably would have stopped in her progress. [Figures "10_09_19" & "NIC_02W"] As she passes, Gus lunges out with his right fist, striking Nicole in the right temple, and causing her to be stunned. In one stride, he is behind her, supporting her so that she does not fall in her daze, and simultaneously keeping her silent. 10:09:23 GUS PRODS NICOLE TO THE STEPS. With Simpson's gloves on his hands, Gus holds his right hand over Nicole's mouth, uses the knife in his left hand to prod her with superficial cuts to the back of her scalp, and thereby gets her to move to the steps and down them almost to the gate. [Figures "10_09_23" & "G&N_01"] Twice during this Nicole makes feeble efforts with her hands to fend off the attack, and Gus reaches out with the knife on these occasions to discourage Nicole's use of her hands by cutting them. Gus makes a sound to K2, indicating that he has Nicole under control, and at hearing this, K2 turns from restraining Ron to trying to kill him. K2 would like to attack the carotid artery, as Gus was about to do with Nicole, but the lighting at K2's location, particularly from the north where Ron's left carotid is, is impossible, and K2 can not make a clean job of it. He ends up butchering Goldman without actually killing him. 10:09:30 GUS PERFORATES NICOLE'S CAROTID ARTERY. Gus prods Nicole all the way to the steps, down them, and she is facing in that direction (east). To better see the left side of her neck, Gus twists the top part of Nicole's body a quarter turn counter-clockwise, so that her neck is illuminated by the porch light. Resisting, she does not cooperate with this maneuver, and her feet are still pointing east. Gus probes Nicole's neck four times along a vertical line down from the left ear until he obtains a solid perforation of the artery; Nicole goes instantly unconscious, and Gus releases her. ["10_09_30" & "G&N03"] 10:09:32 NICOLE FALLS BACKWARDS ONTO STEPS. She falls backwards striking the back of her head a glancing blow on a corner of a step. Because it is a sliding impact, tissue of the scalp over a one inch diameter is suddenly and thoroughly traumatized, and a bruise of that size forms immediately. Gus promptly drags her, still lying on her back, down the stairs to their foot, causing her to suffer the small abrasions described by Dr. Spitz to her dorsal aspect (neck, shoulders, elbows). When she is on the walk, he rolls her onto her stomach, draws up her knees, and moves her so that in this kneeling position her face is over the middle of the first step. ["10_09_32" & "G&N00"] 10:09:36 NICOLE'S THROAT SLASHED. Crouching behind the kneeling Nicole, Gus holds a fistful of her hair in his left hand to steady her head, and with the knife in his right hand reaches under her neck until the blade is under her left ear. Then he makes a forceful stoke with the knife while holding her head to the step; when that is done, he makes a second identical stroke. Nicole is bleeding greatly over the step throughout and after this. Gus reaches up with his right hand and sets the knife on the north side of the second step. ["10_09_36" & "G&N02"] 10:09:50 NICOLE'S BODY REPOSITIONED. Still holding a fistful of her hair, Gus uses this as a handle to move Nicole back (east) a few inches, then swing her 90 degrees clockwise, until her head is pointing north. He rolls her onto her left side. Then he maneuvers her feet under the fence on the south side of the walk and jams her right leg in there forcefully so that death spasms can not cause a substantial change in the position of her body as she is dying. Her throat continues to bleed greatly, but less than when it was over the step. Gus recovers his knife, bangs it several times on the step to dislodge loose blood, and also shakes his right arm over Nicole's shoulder to cast off loose blood that has drenched his right hand and forearm. ["10_09_50" & "G&N04A"] 10:09:57 GUS JOINS IN THE ATTACK ON GOLDMAN. Ever since Gus had snared Nicole at 10:09:19, K2 has been trying to kill Goldman on the front walk outside the gate. Although K2 has inflicted wounds which would be fatal in less than an hour without treatment, Goldman is not yet dead, and Gus comes through the gate, pushing it into its final fully open position, to finish the job. Until now, K2 has been squatting behind Goldman holding the victim in a straight-legged seated posture that has resulted in splotches of blood on the front of his pants, but a uniform haze of blood all across the back of the pants from Goldman's writhing on the bloody surface of the front walk. Now, K2 forces Goldman's back to the concrete, continues to hold his left hand over Goldman's mouth, and holds Goldman's left arm to the ground with the other hand. Gus comes to Goldman's right side, squats beside him, and restrains Goldman's right arm with his own left foreleg. In this posture, Goldman is only free to flail his legs. With the penlight in his left hand and the knife in his right, Gus nicks Goldman's right cheek to see if it bleeds; it does. Gus then takes a long armed sweep with his knife intending to stab Goldman in the belly, but Goldman flails his right leg to deflect the strike, and takes the blow in his right thigh. After that, Goldman gives up further resistance. Gus checks the cheek again, and sees that it still bleeds; he makes another full-armed strike at Goldman striking him in the abdomen. Gus continues this process until he has stabbed Goldman four times, and checked status five times, before verifying that Goldman is dead. ["10_09_57" & "RONKILLD"] 10:10:09 GOLDMAN'S CORPSE HEAVED INTO ALCOVE. When Gus was satisfied that Goldman was dead, he put the knife in his pocket, the penlight in his shirt pocket, and reached down to lift Goldman's body off the walk. With his right hand under Goldman's jeans and his left hand under Goldman's shirt, Gus carried the corpse two steps west, through the open gate, to the threshold of the alcove. Standing at an angle that was more facing the street than facing the north fence, Gus heaved the body into the alcove in a move whereby the body moved as much along its long axis as perpendicular to it. Its flight was arrested by a sapling in the alcove, causing some loose material (blood and the pager) to fly off the body and toward the north fence. ["10_10_09" & "CARRY"] 10:10:20 GUS AND K2 FLEE THE SCENE. With Goldman's body disposed of, Gus took the knit cap from his belt and flung it under the agapanthus at his feet. He took off the left hand glove, and flung it there too. Then he took off the right hand glove and dropped it on Nicole's corpse. Again using the penlight, he looked at where he had stepped and saw that he had left a partial right footprint at the edge of the alcove, and reached there with his foot to smudge it into ambiguity (his left foot at the alcove had been in the dirt). Then he took two careful steps back to the dirt in front of the intercom, kicked the keys and the envelope containing the glasses toward the bodies, and followed K2 down the dirt path south of the walk to the street. It would have been a perfect crime but for one thing: he forgot to recover and carry away the Bonita Ecuador fruit sticker that they had used in its execution. ["10:10:20" & "FLEE"] CONCLUSION: Although it is true that there is not much space at the crime scene, and there may be many scenarios in which there is not enough room for two killers to work, there is a scenario in which two killers could do the job in this space. And, since the scenario that works also explicitly explains much evidence that his been previously considered to have occurred "somehow," this scenario is probably close to the actual event. (Lakshmanan's five "testing wounds" and two "threatening wounds," the difference in style between the four stab wounds to the body and the numerous butchering wounds to Goldman's head, the uniform thin blood stain on the back of Goldman's jeans, indications that there was no struggle in the "killing cage," indications that the cap and gloves did not fall by themselves through the leaves of the agapanthus, indications -- near proof -- that Nicole's throat was slashed over the first step, the small scrapes on Nicole's dorsal side, the specific reason for every wound to Nicole's body, etc., etc.) Although the foregoing is thoroughly consistent with the evidence, that by itself does not prove that this was the sequence of the crime. Some other scenario may be equally consistent with the evidence (though I have not heard it.) But, this review does show that there was room enough for two killers to accomplish the crime in such a way as to leave the indications that were later seen. Dick Wagner • Van Nuys, CA (3/30/99) NG_533 CONFUSED: Thanks for the clarification. I agree; the plants bordering Nicole's front walk are not damaged. What an irony that you should mention this fact. I have often cited the unharmed agapanthus at the entrance to Goldman's alcove as one of the reasons I do not think a life-and-death struggle passed by there, and my antagonists seem to think these plants are made out of cast iron. Now, they are made out of glass when they would have been in the killers' way. Well, I think glass is closer to the truth than cast iron. (I bought and studied an agapanthus, myself.) Now, as I look at the sketches in "IT AIN'T THE ASTRODOME," particularly 10:09:57, which shows K2 with Goldman alone, and 10:10:09, which shows both assailants working on Goldman, I do not see that anyone's foot is off the walk and on the plants. It is true that in the second of these, K2 is squatting in such a way that his butt has pushed the open gate back into the plants on the north side, but I do not think that this would cause them to become conspicuously broken. Of course, I can not say with certainty exactly where these two killers had their feet during the final moments, but in the sketch I have shown that there are places where the plants along the front walk would not be harmed, and since they appeared undamaged when the police saw them, I would guess the killers' actual posture was close to what I showed. The only other time the killers were near these plants was during the escape, and then they ran on the outside of the row of plants bordering the walk. There was no need to get close to them at that time, and even if they did hurt them, how would we know? I doubt that the police took photographs of the south side of that row. So, I don't think that there is a problem with undamaged border plants invalidating the scenario. By the way, I received an e-mail hint from somebody else that the reason you posted "Nicole4" was that you wanted to illustrate how visible the front walk was to the street. I have begun to prepare a rebuttal to that idea, even though you have not expressed it, and it should be ready in a couple of days. (These graphics projects are slow.) Thanks for sharing your concern about the scenario. --dick wagner CONFUSED: [The following refers to a graphic image which is not included in the version posted to the newsgroup. To see it, please go to our site at http://www.wagnerandson.com , and consult "ON SECOND THOUGHT" in the group, "Detailed Articles." This should be available by the end of Wednesday, 4/07/99.] You asserted -- and I agreed -- that the photo, "Nicole4.jpg" did not show any damage to the plants bordering the front walk, to which I replied that the nature of the attack against Goldman there would not necessarily have caused any damage to those plants. BROKEN LEAVES: Since saying this, I have spent some time with that photograph, and I now believe that there is an indication of damage. Of course, the planting bed does not show the kind of damage as though an elephant had trampled through there, but there are individual leaves that are broken. (It is the nature of these plants that they have long slender leaves that arc out from the roots. The typical damage to a leaf is a transverse break that causes a discontinuity in the usual arc, so that the leaf has two arcs that proceed at different angles from the point of the break.) I have annotated "Nicole4.jpg," and thereby created "Nicole4b.jpg". I show the area of broken leaves inside a blue circle. The points at which there is a discontinuity in the arc of the leaf is shown in three cases with red arrows. Because of this I now believe that on the south side of the walk, near the gate, there was damage to the border plants. LEAVES PUSHED BACK: I also notice that in the last three or four feet toward the gate, the leaves on the south side of the walk are pushed back into the bed. Compare this region, in which the leaves do not encroach on the walk by more than an inch or so, with the east end of the walk (ten feet or so) in which the leaves cover the walk consistently by six inches to a foot. Also notice that on the north side of the walk the leaves cover the walk by 6 to 12 inches beyond the edge of the walk. Only in the last few feet before the gate on the south side are there no leaves beyond the edge of the walk. This, of course, is the region where the fragile leaves would have been most at risk if the attack on Goldman occurred as I specified, and the leaves could have been thrust back into the bed by Goldman’s flailing feet. Now, the fact that some leaves are broken and others are pushed back into the plant does not prove how that happened. It is possible that the gardeners deliberately pruned the plants near the gate to prevent interference for people going through the gate. Or the natural traffic there could cause damage, and the gardeners remove the injured leaves. But, whatever the cause, I now see that it is not correct to say that there is no damage to the leaves of the plants bordering the south side of the walkway near the gate. SELF CLOSING GATE: Since the beginning I have expected that a gate such as Nicole’s would have a self-closing hinge. The usual arrangement is that there is within the hinge a cam that causes the gate to rise up slightly as it is opened. Then, gravity tends to close the gate when it is released. The restoring torque is slight -- just a few foot pounds -- but if there is nothing holding the gate open it will close by itself. Assuming (as I still do) that Nicole’s gate was of this type, why did it stay open after the crime, and not close itself after the killer(s) left? We see the reason in Nicole4.jpg (and Nicole4b.jpg). At the bottom of the open gate there are the tips of perhaps a dozen leaves of the border plants behind the gate. They are wedging the gate so that the slight force of the self-closer can not be effective. Like so many things in this case, the indication is ambiguous. It could be because the killer deliberately jammed the gate back into the plants so that it would not close after he left, or it could be because there was a fight there that slammed the gate into the plants. (Notice however, no blood on the gate, not a drop or smear as far as can be seen in this photograph.) But, at least I now know why the gate didn’t close by itself. Dick Wagner • Van Nuys, CA (4/06/99) NG_538 CONFUSED: [The following reply refers to two graphics which can be seen in the version of this ("Where K2 Watched") on or site at http://www.wagnerandson.com .] THE PLANTS NEAR THE GATE: You say, "You show K2 standing just outside the [row of border] plants [on the south side of the front walk]. I assume that they had to get to Ron by some means that didn’t cause any conspicuous damage. So did they run around the plants or leap over them?" To answer this, I dredged up a photograph published on the front page of the L.A. Times in the first week (I think) after the crime. It shows Nicole’s (closed) front gate from the perspective of the sidewalk in glaring daylight. I have annotated it, and show it as "LA_TIME2.JPG". It shows quite clearly something I had been previously aware of; the prosecution chart (Goldberg, p. 130+5) is completely screwed up in identifying the mailbox as the intercom. I have labeled these correctly. Although this figure does not explicitly show the condition of the south row of plants near the mailbox, we can infer that the row must stop short of the gate, or a person (mailman or other) who wanted access to the box would be inconvenienced by the plants. From this, I expect that there was a two or three foot clear space at the end of the row of plants to allow access to the mailbox. I also see that the tall shrubs south of the border plants are not tall enough to conceal a standing man within a yard of the intercom, unless the darkness of the place (and the killer’s dark clothing) did that job alone. So, in view of what you have drawn my attention to, I would have to revise my scenario to show that K2 waited for Goldman in the same place, but crouching. However, I further see something that I was not aware of before, and which is different than in the prosecution chart (those damned yo-yos). Just south of the mailbox there appears to be a man-sized recess, which I have labeled, "K2 Standing". This would be a perfect place to wait for Goldman; it’s dark, out of Goldman’s eye line to notice, and very close. K2 could easily hear Goldman’s end of the intercom conversation, and know when that was over, then take one stride forward, and another to the north, and be behind Goldman before he knew what had happened. (And without encountering any plants along the way, since he was only moving through the area that a mailbox user trod.) I think that I would do it that way. I show my revised understanding of the configuration south of the front gate in a second figure, "ENTRANCE.JPG". Here the space at the end of the border plants to give access to the mailbox is shown, and also the newly realized recess in the front wall just south of the mailbox. Finally, I also notice in "LA_TIME2.JPG" that there are no border plants on the north side of the walk at the time this picture was taken. However, these are very noticeable in "NICOLE4.JPG" which we have previously discussed. We even see them projecting under the gate, and keeping the gate from closing. I can’t imagine why someone would have the plants removed so soon after the crime. OTHER: You go on to say, "It was nice that they stayed within the lines when committing murder. [Since it was their objective to conceal their presence, and blame the crime on Simpson, they were motivated to do so.] It was also nice that Ron didn’t flay around at all while being murdered. [Considering his posture, and the enormous disadvantage he was at, I don’t think he had a whole lot of choice. Also, I imagine that his attention was pretty tightly focused on the knife that was menacing his face and neck, and that he did not take time to rationally analyze the situation.]" You also say, "There is nothing that suggests that anything happened anywhere around those plants. It is silly to suggest that a murder could take place there without there being conspicuous evidence including blood splatter." You recall the scene of the front walk differently than I. I recall that the area in which I allege that Goldman was attacked was covered by a thin haze of blood, which matches the uniform haze of blood on the back of Goldman’s jeans. If Goldman were being attacked while he was in such a posture, the "splatter" would be seen on the front of this shirt and pants, but not on the back or the ground. This is, in fact, exactly what we see in the evidence, and I wonder how you explain the thin uniform blood stains to the back of Goldman’s pants, and to the front walk. Dick Wagner • Van Nuys, CA (4/07/99) NG_538b ps: I was talking to my son this afternoon about our site, and he said, "Oh, there’s somebody right now on it from University of (wherever)" I said, "Considering the weird time stamps on his postings sometimes, I would guess that’s Confused." If I am right about this, then you are not one of those that makes wild and off-the-cuff objections, but are actually reading and thinking about this proposition. Thanks for that, I really value thoughtful comments. RON: UNDAMAGED AGAPANTHUS: You say (of my assertion that the undamaged agapanthus is AN indication that Goldman’s body was heaved into the alcove), "You assume someone should have stepped on the [agapanthus], but that don’t make it so." The space through which the fight (which was by Goldman’s autopsy furious, and was not focused on the niceties of avoiding harm to the landscaping) was only 20 inches wide without stepping on the plant. So, it is more than an ASSUMPTION on my part that the plant should have been stepped on, I think it is a reasonable expectation that if a life and death struggle progressed through that narrow space, somebody’s foot would have smashed the plant. You may have another conclusion about this, but my idea is not simply an assumption. ACCESS TO GOLDMAN: In the same paragraph, you discuss the problem of K2 assaulting Goldman after lying in wait south of the walk. I have addressed this in detail in a posting to Confused at this same time, and have illustrated the situation with a photograph and a diagram ("Where K2 Waited) on our site. NOT ENOUGH ROOM ON THE WALK: You say, "The walk is all of 4 feet wide, and you already have two people [K2 and Goldman] engaged in a life-and-death struggle while staying perfectly aligned on it. Now you add a third [Gus, the second killer], and none of the three happens to smash even one plant? You may have depicted the ‘killers’ neatly fitting on the walk, but how did the second one ever get into that position to begin with? On tiptoes while #1 held Ron (who would have to be cooperating in his own murder) in the perfect position so HE wouldn’t be off the walk on the opposite side?" I would think, Ron, that of all people you would believe that if one sets out to accomplish a difficult and dangerous operation, he would think through where the points of compromise to the plan might be encountered. If it is the plan to frame Simpson, then clearly one of the details that would screw it up would be any indication of what you had done. So, the killers know that it is important not to make a mess of the border plants themselves, and to try to keep Goldman’s feet away from them as well. (If this can not be successfully managed, the plan is slightly compromised, but does not fail entirely, since a "Simpson as killer" scenario could also result if some of the plants were damaged.) I think that with K2 squatting behind a seated Goldman, knife to his throat, he was in considerable control of Goldman, and could determine in which direction Goldman’s feet were pointing. If K2 did not want Goldman’s feet in the border plants, they would not go there. As to Gus’ entry on the scene, you did not mention the possible problem of his opening the gate. K2 and Goldman would have to be almost a yard from the gate to give clearance; but this is possible. You say that Gus would have to "tip toe" to get in position. I think you overstate the situation, but even if tipping toe was required, I don’t think the killers would blow the plan because they didn’t want to do it. Also, at the point that Gus came to Goldman, K2 realized that the plan was shifting from K2 killing Goldman to Gus killing Goldman, and K2 knew that his role then was to get (an already weakened) Goldman on his back with his left cheek to the ground, and hold him that way for Gus to finish off. I disagree that Goldman would have to cooperate. He was weakened already, must have been utterly confused as to what was happening and why, and was being assaulted by two professional killers with a plan. His cooperation was not required; they were in control of the situation. SCALING: You also question my assumption that Goldman’s shoulders were 16 inches wide. I think you may have a point on this, I had to guess at some of these things, and I put my guesses down explicitly to see what others thought. I think the value for Nicole (14") is good, since I got such a value from Rosanne, but maybe the men should be closer to 18 to 20 inches. Thanks for this one. (I don’t think it completely blows the analysis, however.) SOUTH SIDE OF PLANTS: I had asserted (guessed) that the killers fled on the south side of the border plants, thereby avoiding leaving any indication on the walk itself. Of this, you say, "Are you equally sure that they [the police] never even looked there for footprints or plant damage?" No; I don’t know what the police might have looked for there, but there was never any report of such observations. Also, I am not sure that by daylight that area had not been well trod by the police themselves. As you yourself stand at the sidewalk, and look up into that scene, would you not be a little reluctant to walk right up the walkway, and thereby risk compromising evidence? I would guess that the police themselves (after Riske) gained access to the gate by going through the yard, rather than up the walk. So, by the time somebody could look at it in daytime, it would be trampled by innocent feet. Just a guess. I honestly don’t know if the police looked at this detail, or if they did, what they found. VISIBILITY TO THE STREET: I’m working on it. You say, "How will a graphics project refute what photos show?" Photos show a different situation than that which existed at the time of the crime. Just as one example, there was no sheet on the front walk when the killers were there. _____________ I see that you have made many other comments elsewhere, and I will get to them as quick as I can. Dick Wagner • Van Nuys, CA (4/07/99) NG_538c WALTER: In "doing your part to help," you offer a news account of Dr. Henry Lee's statement in the civil trial. The article tells us that the "world renowned forensic scientist" saw a blood drop trail leading to the sidewalk that was not visible in cropped pictures of the place shown to him (and the world) in earlier versions. If there are such blood drops, my interpretation would be that they were victim blood dripping from the killers as they fled to their car on Bundy or on Dorothy. This then would require me to revise the last panel of my scenario in which I show the killers fleeing on the south side of the front walk border plants, not the front walk itself. DR. HENRY LEE: Sadly, I am not so impressed with this "world renowned forensic scientist" as I am supposed to be. I think my suspicion was first aroused when he was introduced with his 50 page cirriculum vitea: nobody needs 50 pages to hit the high points of their accomplishments. Then, I was put off by his condescending way of holding class in the courtroom. At the end, I wondered if his greatest claim to fame -- and the place where he puts his greatest effort -- is not in public relations. As he went through the evidence, I was appalled at the way he approached it. He made a very big deal of the wet transfer on bindles he had received. ("Something wrong," still rings in the ears.) This was much ado about a detail that could have arisen in any one of a dozen innocent ways. And yet he watched as the defense made this the confirming fact that there was a conspiracy in the LAPD to frame Simpson. Then, there is the matter of the five drop blood trail. He noticed the "irregular spacing" of the drops, and concluded that this was not the natural indication from a fleeing suspect. Ergo, the five drop trail was planted to frame Simpson. In my article, "The Bundy Blood Trail," at http://www.wagnerandson.com I show that in fact the spacing of the drops is completely consistent with a scenario in which a man traveled that route, bleeding from his left hand at a constant rate, and carrying a glove in that same hand. The fact that Lee could not come to this same simple understanding astonishes me, and makes me wonder about his "world renowned" status. (Of course, I realize that he was feted to a razzle-dazzle reception while he was out here, and I could excuse him on the grounds that he was distracted.) In the end, I got the impression that I was supposed to accept his opinion on things, not because he could demonstrate his case within the evidence, but because he was the famous Henry Lee. That approach does not work with me, as you may have noticed. EVIDENCE SHOWN, BUT NEGLECTED: Lee did display a couple of pieces of evidence that he did not draw any conclusion from. In one, he showed a photograph of the BACK of Goldman's jeans, and in that we saw that it was uniformly discolored by a haze of blood stain from seat to hem, and from both inseams to outer seams. This is in marked contrast with the front of the jeans which were covered with splotches and globs. What did that mean? The good doctor did not have a clue. But, I will tell you that it is an indication that Goldman spent some time sitting straight legged on a surface (the front walk) that had blood on it (his own.) In a second missed opportunity, Lee pointed out that Goldman's pager was on the other side of the north fence, in the neighbor's yard. Considering that there was a sapling a foot south of that fence which prevented the struggle from actually progressing as far as the fence (if there was even a struggle in the alcove) he might have wondered how the pager got where it did. The answer is that Goldman's body was heaved into the alcove, and when its flight was arrested by the sapling, loose objects (like blood and the pager) kept on going. The loose blood splattered onto the fence, and the pager went through the rails into the next yard. THANKS for doing your part to help. Dick Wagner • Van Nuys, CA (4/07/99) NG_538a WALTER: Worse than reading the web page with a closed mind, I did not read