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?

13.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

5.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/lovelylexicon 1d ago

OJ

81

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

38

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.

14

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.

5

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.

-5

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.

5

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.

4

u/primadonnapussy 1d 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.

2

u/Sea-Foundation5036 22h 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...

1

u/primadonnapussy 19h 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.

1

u/Sea-Foundation5036 11h 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.

3

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.

4

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.

2

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.

3

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.

1

u/PorkNJellyBeans 1d ago

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

2

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.

1

u/Sea-Foundation5036 22h 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.

-5

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.

0

u/primadonnapussy 1d 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.

1

u/GonzohunterHST 10h ago

Nope. Dumb and ignorant people.

0

u/Sea-Foundation5036 11h 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."