Associated Press journalist Linda Deutsch was already a legendary court reporter when O.J. Simpson stood trial for killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. She’d covered high-profile criminal legal proceedings involving everyone from Charles Manson and Patty Hearst to Sirhan Sirhan and the “Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez.
But Judge Lance Ito designated Deutsch the trial’s pool reporter and she soon became a familiar face to millions as a trusted TV commentator providing context for the case. Simpson himself approved of her coverage and, after he was acquitted, she became his go-to media contact for exclusive interviews in the ensuing decades.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Deutsch, who retired in 2014, after the Simpson family announced the Heisman winner turned actor and pitchman died on April 10.
You’ve said you never decided if Simpson was guilty. Was that a personal decision or a professional one?
My job wasn’t to decide the verdict. It was to report what was going on. In O.J.’s case, everyone had strong feelings. I did not. The [criminal] trial didn’t prove him guilty. Had I been on the jury, I would’ve also acquitted him. The evidence wasn’t there — the case wasn’t proven.
You’ve covered a lot of trials, both before and since the Simpson saga. What set this one apart?
That it was televised gavel to gavel. People hadn’t seen that before. They were able to see the evidence, the witnesses, get familiar with the language of the courts. On TV or in a movie, a trial is compressed. Here it fully played out. It lasted a year.
Simpson reached out to you after he was acquitted to get his message out. Then he went on to give you a series of interviews over the years when he wouldn’t speak to anybody else. Why?
He said it was because I never said if I thought he did it or he didn’t do it. So, it was my objectivity.
He was a great talker — he loved to talk. I always said, ‘If he’d done it, he would’ve told somebody.’ Because he couldn’t stop talking.
Did you keep in touch with anyone else from the trial?
I kept in really close touch with the other reporters. We had a big reunion on the 20th anniversary. Everyone wanted to be together. We also put together a big memorial when [Vanity Fair crime columnist] Dominick Dunne died. It was at his favorite place, the Chateau Marmont.
Dunne was famously not objective about Simpson. He thought he was guilty.
I can tell you a story about Dominick. He came out to Las Vegas to cover that crazy [2008] trial about the memorabilia robbery. He wanted to see the last act in O.J.’s court life.
When Dominick arrived at the courthouse, I immediately introduced him to O.J., who was standing in the hallway. With O.J., the key to his personality was charm. He held out his hand to Dominick and said, “I watch you on TV all the time, I’m so happy to meet you.” Didn’t even talk about the fact that this was his enemy. After about two days, Dominick came up to me and said, “I have to tell you, I really like this guy.” And the day the jury went out to deliberate, the three of us were sitting on a court bench in the hallway, and they had really bonded. Dominick told him, “I hope you beat this.” You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.
You spoke to him over a long period of time. Did his tune change?
When he got out of prison after serving nine years on that memorabilia case, I did a big interview with him. He said he wouldn’t talk about [the murders]. He said it’s not part of my family’s life now. He said, “We changed our focus. We now live in the positive world.”
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