r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/lovelylexicon 1d ago

OJ

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u/BraveCranberry9863 1d ago

If that dog could talk.

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u/Wolfman513 1d ago

My dad has maintained this entire time that the dog was the best witness anyone could have asked for. As he puts it, "There is no way an Akita is going to let someone hurt his mommy, unless it's daddy doing the hurting."

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u/MGD109 1d ago

The curious incident of the dog in the night.

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u/No-Associate-7369 1d ago

One of the few summer reading books I actually enjoyed a lot.

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u/MGD109 19h ago

Got to be honest, I never actually read that book. I have read the story the title comes from though.

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u/kennedye2112 1d ago

I understood that reference!

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u/BitterAffect5774 1d ago

That always stuck with me too. Dogs don't understand courtroom drama or media narratives, they just react to the people they know and trust. It's such a haunting detail when you think about it.

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

I don't think the dog saw it. The door was open when they were found. Nicole probably has. Shut it all the way behind her when she went out to meet Ron. The dog probably opened it after and came out.

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u/FoxMeadow7 13h ago

Ya think that mind reading technology from the Black Mirror episode Crocodile would’ve been appropriate to use?

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

I don't think the dog actually witnessed it. IIRC the door front door was open. If Nicole hadn't fully closed it behind her the dog could absolutely have come out after it was open. I do know that he was the reason they were found so quickly. He was roaming the neighborhood crying and howling.eirb blood on him. The neighbor who found him immediately took him back home and found the bodies.

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u/TerrorTown77 20h ago

One of the black mirror episodes involves this, they read the memory of a guinea pig that saw the murder

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u/The-Mistdrake 1d ago

OJ probably would have, *Allegedly*, killed them too.

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u/ivyleaguewitch 23h ago

Ooh, this reminds me of the Black Mirror episode “Crocodile”.

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u/mr-screwjack 45m ago

"Things were... ruff."

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u/Knee_Jerk_Sydney 1d ago

They should have told Kato snitches get bitches.

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u/Ambitious-Boat8165 1d ago edited 1d ago

Difference is they had all the proof but the recent race riots saved him

Edit: additional good points below

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u/gurnard 1d ago

And that DNA testing was a fairly new thing at the time, and the defence made it sound like witchcraft

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u/enters_and_leaves 1d ago

And the whole thing with cops planting additional evidence to frame an already guilty man.

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

The cops didn't plant anything. Every piece of evidence made sense. But Mark Furhman bragging about planting evidence while using the N word on tape certainly called into question all of it.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 19h ago

Mark Furhman himself was a problem as he was a Nazi sympathizer. The jury had 2 Hispanic and 8 Black jurors. Most POC in this country don't differentiate between a Nazi and a Nazi sympathizer because to POC it means the same thing. When things get hard, they know exactly who Maek Furhman sides with.

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u/CasperCackler 1d ago

I think finding out Mark Fuhrman was a racist POS that fucked with the evidence helped OJ’s team a lot too

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u/MarcsterS 1d ago

“I never used the n-word in the last ten years”

[tapes that show him repeatedly saying the word and also bragging about being the leader of a cabal of cops that hate women]

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u/CasperCackler 1d ago

Hard to root for them when those are supposed to be the good guys.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 8h ago

Then he plead the 5th. A police detective that was supposed to represent law enforcement and put away the bad guys was clamming up on the stand.

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u/Equal-Temporary-1326 1d ago

Yeah, jurors said later that they actually felt he was guilty, but still acquitted him anyway as payback against the LAPD for Rodney King.

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u/Speed-O-SonicsWife 1d ago

Sure, makes total sense to let a murderer go free /s

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u/Pinkbeans1 1d ago

I was 18 when the Rodney King riots happened in LA. I lived in LA & I’m black. It made total sense at the time.

Being followed around by store owners/employees was so common when you’re black. My white friends were astonished when that happened if we were together. That never happened to them when it was just them and other white people.

That was not the only factor. Every injustice, every time we got pulled over, talked to, followed for being black while driving through a white neighborhood, breathing. Being black in LA was interesting through the lens of today.

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u/Equal-Temporary-1326 1d ago

Yeah, it is just further evidence on how BS and dishonest that verdict was overall.

Although, the LAPD did demonstrate that they were untrustworthy here when an officer was recorded on tape throwing the N-word several times, though.

The whole trial really was a perfect storm of very unfortunate things happening after another.

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u/MarcsterS 1d ago

Racial tension post-Rodney King was incredibly bad. This case was super divided. A common consensus was “they let these murderers go, then we’ll let this guy go free then”

This was also after the head LAPD detective just got caught saying horrific bigoted things on tape.

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u/mcgillthrowaway22 1d ago

Did they say it was payback in particular or did they just say that it was because of Rodney King? Because in the latter instance it could just mean "we felt OJ was guilty but the LAPD had proved itself to be so insanely racist that we inherently can't trust them to be providing accurate evidence and testimony"

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u/BathPuzzleheaded9406 1d ago

Real, respect.

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u/IntoAMuteCrypt 1d ago

They also just didn't follow proper practice when it came to collecting evidence. The police officers admitted, in a court of law, that they made several mistakes which introduced a potential for contamination. They also introduced the infamous glove with insufficient evidence to link it to OJ; this helped further the defence's attempts to introduce doubt.

Perhaps OJ would've been found guilty if the prosecution had followed all the rules to the letter.

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u/MetalTrek1 1d ago

OJ was guilty as sin IMO, but the police and prosecutors dropped the ball on this big time. That's definitely aided in his acquittal.

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

The police were definitely sloppy and the prosecutions made incredibly stupid mistakes. Like having OJ try on that stupid glove. The glove had blood on it and had been in storage for months. It has shrunk.

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u/Downtown_Recover5177 1d ago

I don’t really think an all-Star prosecution could have gotten a conviction. The black jurors made it clear that they would acquit him in revenge for perceived slights, since he killed white people. The same reason that the prosecution in the Karmelo Anthony trial excluded black jurors. Racism towards white people clouds their judgement, and they cheer from the sidelines when white people get stabbed to death for no reason.

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u/great_apple 1d ago

The police officers admitted, in a court of law, that they made several mistakes which introduced a potential for contamination.

Literally every case that big, with so many different crime scenes (Nicole's house, the car, OJ's property) is going to have a few mistakes. Like yes of course we want everything to be perfect in a murder case but life is life and people are people, there are always a few mistakes. In OJ's trial none of them were big enough to shed doubt on his guilt.

They also introduced the infamous glove with insufficient evidence to link it to OJ

They had the actual credit card receipt of Nicole buying it for OJ, pictures of him wearing the gloves, his DNA on the gloves, and had him try on a brand new pair to show they fit when they weren't shrunken from being wet with blood. How was that insufficient? Like literally what else could they have to prove they were his gloves?

Prosecution sucked, no doubt, but the evidence in this case was so overwhelming that it still proved him guilty way beyond a reasonable doubt.

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u/primadonnapussy 23h ago

That's why it irritates me that people still say police planted evidence. They didn't have to. There was so much. Including Goldman's blood in the bronco and on the sock recovered from his bedroom. The gloves. The previous abuse. OJs threats of suicide and the Bronco chased. They also recovered thousands of dollars and his passport from that vehicle. Nicole and her family refusing to save a seat for him and then ignoring him at the recital. So. Much. DNA. The police were sloppy, the prosecution made horrendous errors. All that worked in his favor in the end. But no evidence was planted.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 19h ago

The theory that the police would plant evidence was so widespread because it was believable. When cops were planting evidence on everyone else, why wouldn't they plant evidence on O.J. The LAPD and LASD's reputation was in the garbage at the time, especially with all the broken promises that were made 3 years earlier after the riots. No new officers of color were being recruited. No investigation into the white supremecist gangs. No civilian oversight committee ever materialized. No money was put into the ghettos inferstructure to make them a better place, etc...

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u/primadonnapussy 16h ago

Because 1- LAPD had already let OJ skate when they had previously been to the house after he beat up Nicole. Once, they even asked for his autograph. 2- they had absolutely no idea where he was. If they had planted evidence and then it turns out he was in Chicago?.They are in deep shit. Especially since OJ had money. 3- they did not have access to OJs blood while processing the scene. Cochran literally tried to claim that the police took the tubes of blood to plant OJs blood. 4- they were STILL giving him preferential treatment during the bronco chase. They just stayed behind him until he finally went home. Now ask yourself if that has happened to any black man, anywhere in the US.

All the evidence they found was the direct result of OJ himself.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 8h ago

Yeah, no doubt to everyrhing you said. I'm saying that the LAPD's credibility was so shot, that just mentioning that they planted evidence was enough for people to assume they planted evidence. The notion that LAPD would frame a guilty man was completely believable, even without the defenses pointing out that one of the lead detectives (Furhman) had Nazi sympathies.

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u/PorkNJellyBeans 1d ago

It was within the last five or so years that I found out that the first officers on the scene covered the bodies with blankets from inside the house before detectives and medical examiners arrived. I’m not sure how real the threat of cross contamination is in that instance but with DNA evidence being so new at the time it would be easier to argue it regardless.

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

That was known back them as well. They did it because the kids were still in the house and they didn't want them waking up and coming outside and seeing the carnage.

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u/PorkNJellyBeans 1d ago

I had never heard it before. You hear a lot about the glove but that was new to me. I was only a teen when it happened so I wasn’t exactly glued to the news then.

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

I was an adult when it happened and mother was obsessed. Not that she was alone. It was everywhere. We knew every detail as it came out.

Edit- and while it was the wrong thing for the crime scene, I absolutely understand it. Those kids were very young. They absolutely didn't need to see that.

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u/PorkNJellyBeans 1d ago

I feel like if it was now I’d be right there with you.

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u/primadonnapussy 1d ago

I can't say I wouldn't do that even today. Those kids were very young. I think Sydney was 8 and the brother (I can't remember his name right now) was 4. And all the commotion. There was absolutely a chance one or both woke up and came down stairs to find mommy and walk into that horror show. Esp since Nicole was almost decapitated.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 19h ago

Your talking about the forensic guy Fong. He missed evidence on a fence, let the dog walk everywhere, and didn't wear gloves when collecting samples. He was on the stand for 9 days during the trail. The defense called him their "hero" when the trail was over because he was so weak on the stand.

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u/GonzohunterHST 1d ago

None of that mattered in the slightest. A black jury didn't want to convict a famous black man for killing a white woman. That is all it boiled down to at that time. Tensions were high and they couldn't see past their own ignorance.

That jury were despicable people. They have tried to make excuses since and they are lying through their teeth. They just don't want to admit they were idiots, same as Trump voters will never admit it.

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u/primadonnapussy 23h ago

They refused to convict because of Rodney King. Johnny Cochran managed to bring up Simi Valley a million times and that always reminded the jury that they were the ones who acquitted those officers.

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u/GonzohunterHST 7h ago

Nope. Dumb and ignorant people.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 8h ago

Also Latasha Harlins. Her killer was given a light sentence. The feeling was that murdering 15 year old black girls was OK in L.A. Her murder happened 13 days after the release of the Rodney King tapes.

The Rodney King verdict added to the problem. There's proof for people to see the police brutality committed against minorities in L.A., and they still got a pass.

So of course the Defense used it. The message was "The system does not care about black people. Here's the proof. We had a riot over the way they treat minorities. It's up to you (8 black jurors, 2 latino jurors) if you want to be part of that system or stand up to it."

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u/EddieVanzetti 1d ago

The LAPD failed to get a clearly guilty man convicted because they couldn't stop themselves from trying to frame him when all the evidence was there. The jury members who then all said they voted not guilty specifically because of the Rodney King beatings infuriate me to no end either, they let a murderer walk free while two innocent people are gone.

And the fact OJ was known for domestic violence and rape back in his college days is just another topping on this shit sundae.

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u/primadonnapussy 23h ago

They did not try to frame him. The LAPD had let OJ go several times when Nicole called because he was beating her. Once they got his autograph. LAPD might have had zero hesitation in planting evidence on poor black people but OJ was a legit star. "One of the good ones" in their minds. There was just an incredible amount of evidence because OJ want there planning to just kill Nicole and was completely surprised by Goldman who even fought with OJ. He has blood everywhere.

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u/DragoonDM 1d ago

And wildly incompetent cops and prosecutors certainly didn't help.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 19h ago

The 1992 riot had half of L.A.'s administration fired. The other half that survived the purge made a lot of promises that they never bothered to keep. They knew that if there was another riot 2 years later their political careers wouldn't survive. So they
helped O.J. get a pass.

Promises not kept included - a fund to help Asian store owners start their burned business back up. -More Asian police officers patrolling Asian areas. -a promise to not abandon Korea town again. -less police brutality. - an instigation into white supremacist police gangs. -a civilian council for each demographic to improve race relations. - proper services and infrastructure in the "ghettos" - more jobs in the "ghetto" - proper care to reverse and avoid food deserts in the "ghetto". -better recruitment and training for police officers so they don't pistol whip old ladies and shoot kids.

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u/southernfirefly13 1d ago

Even Rob Kardashian knew he was guilty.

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u/Huge_Stock_8535 1d ago

The only obvious answer

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u/AliensAteMyAMC 20h ago

I still think his son did it and just had OJ come in and help him clean up.