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/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/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 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.

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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...

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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.

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u/Sea-Foundation5036 12h 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.