Ghostwriter of controversial OJ Simpson tell-all book reflects on his life, legacy
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The neighbor who testified against OJ Simpson at his murder trial and then ended up being Simpson's ghostwriter for his tell-all book spoke with Eyewitness News Thursday about Simpson's death.
Pablo Fenjves described his relationship with Simpson as bizarre.
He met with Simpson for several months in 2006 to help him write his book, 'If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer,' which Simpson described as a hypothetical description of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.
Fenjves said he was worried after he was assigned the book that Simpson would realize Fenjves had testified against him.
Fenjves, who was Simpson's neighbor, testified in 1995 trial that he heard a dog wailing from the Simpson home around the time of the murders. Fenjves's testimony essentially created a timeline of the murders.
"The first words out of his mouth were, 'You know, whoever heard of a dog putting away a man for murder?" Fenjves recalled Simpson telling him when Fenjves first met with him at a hotel in Miami to work on the book.
Fenjves spent several, long days at the hotel talking with Simpson about his childhood.
"Then, we fast forward to the day you met Nicole - that stuff he loved talking about," Fenjves said. "He loved talking about this young waitress that he met in Beverly Hills, and what a beautiful woman she was and what an amazing love story, but once he got into the heavier stuff, he had a real problem with it."
Fenjves recalled walking down the streets in Miami with Simpson and people calling out his name and wanting to take pictures with him. Fenjves said Simpson told him, "He said, 'The people in Miami love me. In LA, I couldn't walk down the street without people cursing."
Fenjves said after spending several days with Simpson, he asked Fenjves if Fenjves still thought he committed the murders.
"I said, you know, apologetically, 'I'm sorry. I thought you did it before I flew down here and I still think you did it,'" Fenjves recounted. "And, he sort of exploded."
Fenjves said when he gave the draft of the book to Simpson for his review, the one part Simpson objected was Fenjves's description of Simpson's dog wagging his tail for Goldman.
"He says, 'take it out, take it out," Fenjves recalled. "He got really stuck on that."
Fenjves said he struggled initially with ghostwriting for Simpson, but the only reason he agreed to do it was because the book royalties were slated to go to Simpson's children.
However, when word of the book leaked, its production was shut down. A judge later awarded the rights to the book to Goldman's family in order to satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgement against OJ. Fenjves remained on the project.
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