LOS ANGELES
Ron Goldman's sister says she's inclined to believe a memorabilia dealer who
says O.J. Simpson confessed to him that he killed his ex-wife and Goldman.
But Kim Goldman says she's not ready to accept Mike Gilbert's apology for
helping shield the former football star's assets when her family tried to
collect on a $33.5 million wrongful death judgment Simpson was ordered to pay.
She questions why, if Gilbert's apology was sincere, he didn't come to the
family with information on Simpson's assets before publishing the book so that
they might lay claim to them.
"When push came to shove, when we asked him to help us, he didn't," she said.
Gilbert, the memorabilia dealer who once tried to peddle the suit Simpson was
wearing on the day he was acquitted of murder, says in a just-published book
that the former football player was high on marijuana when he confessed to him
that he stabbed Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson to death on June 12, 1994.
Gilbert, who says Simpson confessed shortly after jurors in his criminal
trial acquitted him, goes on to apologize to the Goldmans for helping Simpson
hide his fortune after families of both victims won the wrongful death lawsuit.
"I think it's reasonable to assume that the confession in this is not a
shameless plug for the book but that it's the killer's words," Kim Goldman told
The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Those are things we need to keep reminding
ourselves about. We are dealing with evil, and this is just another example."
That said, she quickly added, "I don't want anybody to misconstrue that he's
doing a wealth of good here, 14 years later, trying to come clean. It's a little
late."
Gilbert's book, "How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder: The Shocking Inside
Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret and Remorse," was published Monday. Simpson
lawyer Yale Galanter has said the writer's claims are untrue.
Asked whether she would accept his apology, Goldman said, "I don't mean to be
disrespectful, but I haven't even thought about it."
She said the book isn't the first time Gilbert has tried to apologize to her
and her father, Fred Goldman. He also did so last year, Goldman said, when he
contacted the family soon after Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas on armed
robbery and kidnapping charges related to a bumbling effort to recover sports
memorabilia Simpson says was stolen from him. He faces trial Sept. 8.
At the time, Gilbert also told the family he was planning on selling
Simpson's acquittal suit and wanted the Goldmans' blessings. Kim Goldman said
her family told him to do whatever he wanted with it. She said she also made it
clear she had no interest in hearing his apology.
"My feeling at the time was, I'm not anybody's confessional and I don't want
to be in that position," she said.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press