Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / Tom Lange — The Airport Witness and the Missing O.J. Simpson Evidence | Part 2
Transcript
- 0:00There's two trash containers, one on the left, one on the right.
- 0:0244 inches high, four square, flat top, four openings.
- 0:07This little bag that I discussed is on top of this container.
- 0:11Simpson is reaching into the bag, pulling thi- items out
- 0:15that you can't be identified by this witness, and placing
- 0:18them down into the container.
- 0:19Not just throwing them in there, but shoving them
- 0:22down in the container
- 0:32Tom Lange led the LAPD investigation into the
- 0:36murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
- 0:39That same night, Simpson caught a flight to Chicago.
- 0:42What he did at the airport before he left is where
- 0:45this conversation picks up
- 0:46I get it that, uh, OJ did it, did it by himself at the murder scene.
- 0:51All the evidence pointed to him.
- 0:53But, you know, there, there's this nagging question I think
- 0:56on, on most minds, which is how does OJ commit a murder with
- 1:01all that blood and, and somehow within a matter of, you know,
- 1:05minutes, if not, you know, an hour or so, dispose of his
- 1:09bloody clothes, his… the bloody weapon, and, and, you know, you
- 1:14would think maybe he did have some help after the fact that,
- 1:17that somebody maybe, uh, helped dispose of some of the evidence.
- 1:20What, what, what are your thoughts about how he got rid of all
- 1:23the blood and evidence, uh, in such a quick manner, in such an
- 1:27effective manner as it turned out?
- 1:30Okay.
- 1:30Uh, yeah, another great question.
- 1:32Uh, we spent a lot of time on this, and w- um,
- 1:35right down to minutes.
- 1:37How long does it take to get from point A to point B?
- 1:40In other words, Bundy to Rockingham at 10:30
- 1:43on a Sunday night.
- 1:44Not long.
- 1:45Uh, people say that the times come together.
- 1:49The murders occurred probably about 10:35, 10:36
- 1:54because of Heidstra, the guy walking his dog.
- 1:56I believe his testimony.
- 1:58Prosecution didn't.
- 2:00They didn't think it was… They, they thought it be,
- 2:02uh, it happened about 10:15.
- 2:05Well, I, I go along with the guy walking the dog, quite frankly.
- 2:08Number one, he was there.
- 2:09He does the same thing every night, same
- 2:11timeframe, everything else.
- 2:12So I would stick with that timeframe We took three trips
- 2:17from Bundy to Rockingham on a Sunday night at 12:35, 10:35.
- 2:23At no point did it take more than four and a half minutes to
- 2:25get from Bundy to Rockingham.
- 2:27We went code three in a police car, red lights and
- 2:30siren, took about two minutes.
- 2:33We went busting street signs, it took about, uh, three minutes.
- 2:37Then we stopped at every … Took our time to get from Bundy
- 2:39to Rock- never took more than four and a half minutes.
- 2:42So we had plenty of time to get from one point to the other.
- 2:46As far as what he did with this stuff.
- 2:51When Fuhrman found that glove behind the, uh, behind Kato's
- 2:56bungalow, that was just good fortune that Kato happened
- 3:00to mention the thumps.
- 3:02Right.
- 3:03To Fuhrman, who happened to be talking to him.
- 3:05Fuhrman did the proper thing in going around
- 3:08behind, being curious.
- 3:09Now, why would somebody be thumping into the, into the,
- 3:12uh, air conditioning unit?
- 3:14If you look at that area back there, it's very narrow.
- 3:17Simpson's a big guy.
- 3:19You've got this huge air conditioning unit taking
- 3:21up at least two-thirds of the width of that walkway.
- 3:24There are no lights back there.
- 3:25There's a fence and there's a wall.
- 3:27You have almost … You've gotta go walk sideways if you wanna
- 3:30get by the, uh, air conditioner.
- 3:33Now, why is the glove near the air conditioner behind there?
- 3:36Because if you continue beyond those three bungalows all
- 3:39the way to the rear, there's a large open area, probably
- 3:42about 40 by 40 feet, where they store a lot of junk.
- 3:45There's old wheelbarrows, shovels, dirt, cement, just crap
- 3:50that, construction crap that's piled back there that they
- 3:54It's like a junkyard.
- 3:55Put it back there until they find something better to do with.
- 3:58It's n- it's, it's not easy to get to because you have to go
- 4:01behind the bungalows, and you got this air conditioning unit.
- 4:05This is my belief.
- 4:07I can't prove this, but I believe that when Simpson
- 4:09got home and the limo driver, Allan Park, was trying to get
- 4:13ahold of him, he's in a hurry.
- 4:15We find blood in the shower, so he started to take a shower.
- 4:19We're unable to type the blood in the drain, but we know there
- 4:21was human blood in the, in the drain Where Simpson started
- 4:26to take kind of a shower.
- 4:29I say that he picked up the bloody clothing, shoes,
- 4:32gloves, everything that he had, probably the knife, and
- 4:37went back behind the bungalows and was gonna take all of this
- 4:40stuff to this little junk area and dump it there temporarily.
- 4:44Because he had to get a plane that night within an hour and a half.
- 4:48He didn't wanna be caught with all this stuff.
- 4:51He got behind there.
- 4:52He was gonna dump it there temporarily.
- 4:53When he returns the next day, later in the day, he'll come
- 4:56back and deal with that then.
- 4:58But he couldn't deal with it now.
- 4:59He had to get rid of it temporarily.
- 5:01So Simpson went back behind the, uh, the bungalow there
- 5:05and ran into the air unit because he was a big guy.
- 5:08I'm not anywhere near as big as Simpson, and I couldn't
- 5:10e- I had a hard time getting around that air conditioning
- 5:13unit, but I did it anyway and found this area back there.
- 5:16There were still cob- uh, spider, spiderwebs and everything
- 5:19else, so I know nobody had been back there in a while.
- 5:22He didn't get any further than the air conditioning unit.
- 5:25And when he bumped into the air conditioning unit,
- 5:27he inadvertently dropped that right-hand glove.
- 5:31And he walked back out and he says, "Now what am I gonna do?
- 5:34I got, I got a chauffeur waiting here.
- 5:36I got all this stuff.
- 5:37What am I gonna do with it?"
- 5:38Well, m- cut now to the, to the limo there and Kato coming
- 5:44out and Ash- and, uh, at the Ashford gate and Simpson
- 5:48coming out with his bags.
- 5:50He had one little half-moon shaped travel bag that
- 5:52he had in the driveway.
- 5:54Kato says, "Here, let me get that." He says, "No,
- 5:56no, I'll take care of that one," and he grabs the bag.
- 5:58He doesn't let Kato take this one.
- 6:01They load up his golf clubs and everything else, and he
- 6:04takes off to the airport,
- 6:05okay?
- 6:07Where is the, where's the knife?
- 6:08Where are the cl- or the shoes?
- 6:10Where is anything that he wanted to dump, which is my
- 6:13belief, that he wanted to dump behind in that little junkyard
- 6:16behind the Rockingham home until he could deal with it?
- 6:19Well, how about that little bag?
- 6:21Because now we'll switch to the airport 30 minutes later, where
- 6:25a very good witness sees Simpson, identifies him, looks behind.
- 6:30He's waiting there for his wife to appear, and she's running late.
- 6:32She happens to work in American Airlines.
- 6:35She's still working.
- 6:37He turns back around and he sees Simpson's limo pull in.
- 6:40Sees L- Simpson jump out, the red cap comes out, the chauffeur
- 6:45gets out, and they start taking out Simpson's stuff, and he,
- 6:49and he identifies Simpson.
- 6:51And he sees Simpson standing, once everything is inside, it's
- 6:55just Simpson standing there.
- 6:57No one else is around.
- 6:58Simpson just standing at the left side of the entranceway.
- 7:01There's two trash containers, one on the left, one on the right.
- 7:0444 inches high, four square, flat top, four openings.
- 7:09This little bag that I discussed is on top of this container.
- 7:13Simpson is reaching into the bag, pulling thing, items
- 7:16out that can't be identified by this witness, and placing
- 7:20them down into the container.
- 7:21Not just throwing them in there, but shoving
- 7:23them down the container.
- 7:25Wow.
- 7:25Simpson zip up the bag, pick up the bag, walk in, and that's it.
- 7:29Now he's thinking, well, that's kinda strange, but not a big deal.
- 7:32The next morning, this thing breaks, because at the time
- 7:35that this happened, the bodies hadn't even been discovered.
- 7:38Yeah.
- 7:38Nobody knows about this.
- 7:40The next day he hears the news about that Simpson, about,
- 7:44uh, Ni- Nicole and Goldman, and Simpson could be a suspect
- 7:48because this, that, and the other.
- 7:50The, the media speculating this and all.
- 7:52This guy calls up the defense.
- 7:54He gets one of the, uh, defense investigators that I've known for
- 7:58years, and he tells him the story.
- 8:01Well, the investigator knows better.
- 8:03He doesn't, uh, he doesn't wanna hear any of this,
- 8:06so he tells the attorneys.
- 8:08Uh, the attorneys aren't about to let this go.
- 8:09Now, if they use this guy as a witness, it's,
- 8:13it's, it's discoverable.
- 8:15If you don't use this witness, it's not discoverable.
- 8:17They don't have to tell us anything about this guy, and they
- 8:20don't until eight months later.
- 8:22I'm sitting in court, I go back to lunch, my phone rings.
- 8:25It's the same witness.
- 8:26He tells me this story, and initially he had called the
- 8:30defense, and the defense, of course, didn't want
- 8:32anything to do with it.
- 8:33So he tells me this story, and to that date, nothing
- 8:37has been discovered.
- 8:38What happened to the evidence?
- 8:39The same question you guys are just asking.
- 8:41Well, uh, how about that trash container?
- 8:44So we get ahold of this guy and I say, "Meet us at the airport."
- 8:48I said, "Can you get out there right now?" He says, "Yes." So
- 8:51I bust out there with another guy and a photographer, and I
- 8:54meet him at American Airlines.
- 8:56Number one, there's no cameras anywhere back then in '94.
- 9:00We're looking at the containers.
- 9:01We find out there's two pickups a day in LAX, the airport, and
- 9:07they … Uh, sorry, three pickups a day, and they go to two common
- 9:10landfills within the area.
- 9:12What are the chances of finding anything eight, nine months
- 9:15after the murders at one of two landfills It's an impossibility.
- 9:20In fact, they've already started building a, a home
- 9:23development on one of these right off the San Diego Freeway.
- 9:27There's no chance we're gonna do it.
- 9:29Is that a reasonable thing to think that maybe there's
- 9:32something inculpatory in those trash containers?
- 9:35Well, we go through all of this.
- 9:37I rush into Marcia, the DA, and I say, "Marcia, look what we got."
- 9:42I, I don't get excited very often, but I was excited because
- 9:45of this witness seeing Simpson's arm in the trash container.
- 9:49We've haven't seen this bag since then.
- 9:52So I tell her what I have and she says, "Well, not really
- 9:55because it's a one-on-one." Well, what she's saying is
- 9:58we can't corroborate his story because we only got
- 10:00one witness seeing one thing.
- 10:02I'm, I'm saying, "So what?
- 10:04This is good stuff.
- 10:05This is a hole we have here.
- 10:07People wanna know where are the shoes, the gloves, the clothing?
- 10:10Well, what about this?
- 10:11This is very reasonable.
- 10:12This is a solid witness.
- 10:14Why in hell wouldn't you wanna use him?" "Well, because
- 10:17we got this one-on-one, we can't back him up," you know.
- 10:20This goes on nonsense.
- 10:22You know what happened with all of this crap, you
- 10:24never saw this guy testify.
- 10:27Now,
- 10:2720, 27 years pass and I'm doing a special on this
- 10:31thing, and I'm interviewing the limo driver, Allan Park.
- 10:36And he's telling me about what happens.
- 10:38And he's saying, "Yeah, I, I dropped Simpson, uh, off
- 10:41and we're driving away and I just saw him there standing
- 10:43by the trash container.
- 10:44He's got some bag in his…" And it kept going.
- 10:46I said, "Wait up, what'd you say?" And I s- I said, "You saw Simpson
- 10:50standing by a trash container?" He said, "Yeah, he was standing
- 10:53by the container to the left there of the door going in, and I know
- 10:56his bag was there and nobody else.
- 10:58He's just kind of looking around.
- 10:59I drove away.
- 11:00I had to go on my next call, but I saw him as I drove away." I said,
- 11:04"You didn't tell anybody this?" He says, "Yeah, I told somebody."
- 11:07I said, "When?" He said, "Well, I told Marcia when she interviewed
- 11:10me 27 years ago before the trial."
- 11:14And you know, Tom, I think you just answered- Wow … you
- 11:17just answered a couple- That's the testimony of the witness.
- 11:18She lied to me.
- 11:20She lied to me.
- 11:21Yeah.
- 11:21Yeah.
- 11:22I
- 11:22want
- 11:22to- He saw that all along.
- 11:23And it was also something in our first, uh, podcast
- 11:27with you that you told us that's for another day.
- 11:31We'll talk, you know, that'll be a whole another episode that we
- 11:34could get into to discuss that, but that is really interesting.
- 11:40And why do you think Marcia held that back?
- 11:42Okay, she's playing games.
- 11:44Okay?
- 11:46Don't misunderstand me, Marcia Clark is a very intelligent woman.
- 11:49She was an outstanding prosecutor, but she was playing games here,
- 11:54which I don't have a problem with if you tell me about it.
- 11:56The game was, this is LAPD on trial.
- 11:59Again, we'll go back to what I started with.
- 12:02There's no evidence, nothing that's helpful to her
- 12:04here, so you're gonna have to do something drastic.
- 12:06Well, what do we do?
- 12:07We put the cops on trial.
- 12:09Every one of you guys knows that's exactly what happens all the
- 12:12time to one extent or another.
- 12:14This is a big deal.
- 12:15This is a big extent here because you got a double murder.
- 12:18We're gonna put these cops on trial with a jury who
- 12:21really doesn't like cops.
- 12:22This is two years after Rodney King, and I don't blame a lot
- 12:26of people for that because it, it looked horrible.
- 12:28It's, it was not a good moment for LAPD, period.
- 12:31I don't care how you cut it.
- 12:33But you don't lie about these things.
- 12:36She knew we were on trial.
- 12:38She knew we were gonna go through a lot of crap.
- 12:41That's fine, but all she has to tell me as her investigator
- 12:44is what she's doing.
- 12:45I wanna know what you have in your mind if you're saying, "Listen,
- 12:48Tom, you guys are on trial, so I'm gonna have to play this game.
- 12:51I don't wanna put this one on.
- 12:52I don't wanna look like you're really doing your job and out
- 12:55there looking at evidence." In, in a homicide investigation, when you
- 13:00file a case, it belongs to the DA.
- 13:03It no longer belongs to the police, but that doesn't
- 13:06mean the investigation ends.
- 13:08Your investigation can start up 20 years later.
- 13:11If there's something, evidence in this case, you're
- 13:13gonna be the investigator, but you work for the DA.
- 13:16You don't work for yourself.
- 13:18Your job is over.
- 13:19She's got the case.
- 13:20It's their case.
- 13:21They filed it.
- 13:22You'll continue to work for them, and that's what we did.
- 13:25The majority of the, the, uh, evidence in this case came
- 13:29after that case was filed.
- 13:31It was filed on the basis of the DNA and a blood, foot-
- 13:34footwear impressions, and all the stuff at the crime scenes.
- 13:37But I got three typewritten pages of things that should
- 13:41have been brought up throughout the trial that answer a lot of
- 13:44those questions you probably have, that were never brought
- 13:47because we were on trial.
- 13:49And that's fine.
- 13:50If that's the district attorney's way to handle things, it's your
- 13:53case, you do what, do what you want, but tell me about it so I
- 13:56know what the hell's going on.
- 13:58So what was your relationship and discussions with her
- 14:04post-trial and afterwards?
- 14:08Interesting question, because there was none.
- 14:11I was genuinely pissed.
- 14:13Yeah.
- 14:13And I think that she was an intelligent woman, maybe a
- 14:17little bit of a sociopath.
- 14:18I don't know, but I don't think she had a
- 14:19conscience with any of that.
- 14:21Again, which is fine.
- 14:22Cops are on trial, you gotta handle it that way, but
- 14:24tell us we're on your side.
- 14:27So you- I was on the stand for over eight days.
- 14:29I had more problems with her on direct than I did with Johnnie
- 14:32Cochran on cross, because I knew exactly where he was coming from.
- 14:36I didn't know where she was.
- 14:38It was, it was like one-on-one against one
- 14:41another, and I'm her witness.
- 14:42Did you ever have a conversation where you went to her and
- 14:45you say, "You know, you screwed this up. It's on you"?
- 14:49Probably not face to face like that.
- 14:52Uh, timing would've been terrible.
- 14:55It would've been, uh, would've looked like an idiot.
- 14:58She would've denied it, and we would've had the problems
- 15:01then that we have today.
- 15:04It's a little too soon for that.
- 15:05It's very obvious what happened, and everybody knows about it.
- 15:10The other prosecutors know about it.
- 15:12Everybody knows what went on with this whole case.
- 15:14Um, it's just unfortunate.
- 15:18How about all these years later and the defense attorneys?
- 15:21Did you ever have a sit down with them and just kinda
- 15:23reminisce about the trial and, and say, "Yeah, well…"
- 15:26Well, like I say, Johnnie Cochran, uh, and a, a couple
- 15:31others, yeah, we, we played a game back and forth.
- 15:33A few of them were kind of straight-laced, too much so.
- 15:36Johnnie Cochran had a great sense of humor, very funny.
- 15:39Some of the stories were hilarious.
- 15:41But we really got along.
- 15:42We'd have coffee sometimes and sit together, and it'd be like
- 15:44you put your, your game face on, and you go in, and you knew
- 15:47exactly what was gonna happen.
- 15:49Because while they weren't in charge, they kinda were,
- 15:52because they had us as, as their, you know, their, their foils.
- 15:57That was very easy for the defense to do under these circumstances
- 16:00because, again, unfortunately the timing of the Rodney King thing.
- 16:04And when your own prosecutor is playing games with you
- 16:07and you don't know it, uh, it makes it just twice as bad.
- 16:11So Tom, what I'm talking about is after the trial's over,
- 16:15you know, however long, couple years, whenever, did you ever
- 16:18sit down with those guys and, and throw it around a little bit?
- 16:22Not sit down, but it would be a little remark here and again.
- 16:25Um, it wasn't that type of a thing.
- 16:29Uh, it's, the one problem that I had with their attorney,
- 16:32probably the only one, were with Alan Dershowitz
- 16:35Who is still in the news.
- 16:37Yeah.
- 16:38It came out just a couple of days ago of this crime.
- 16:40Yeah.
- 16:41I like him.
- 16:42I did like him.
- 16:43I have a problem with him now because he's either
- 16:45totally ignorant of the evidence or he's lying.
- 16:48And I don't wanna say he's lying, but he's lying.
- 16:52Blood on the socks.
- 16:53Are you sure?
- 16:54Are you sure about that, Tom?
- 16:56The blood on the sock- we had the socks, we had our own criminalist,
- 16:59uh, Rod Englert, 50 some-odd years experience as a criminalist
- 17:03and a cop, good friend of mine.
- 17:06Had those socks.
- 17:07He was, he was, he was hired.
- 17:09Again, Henry Lee wanted to be hired, I think, by the, by the
- 17:12prosecution, but they ended up with Rod Englert, which is
- 17:14just as good, if not better.
- 17:17Rod got those socks, put them under high intensity lighting.
- 17:21The blood on the socks was spattered.
- 17:23It was not poured.
- 17:24To this day, Alan says, "My partner Phil Vannatter took
- 17:28the beaker of blood and poured it on the socks."
- 17:31There's no pouring, there's no socks, it's
- 17:33soaking on those socks.
- 17:35It's spattered with blood, the same type of spatter
- 17:38on Ron Goldman's shoes that's at the crime scene.
- 17:42It's spattered with 39 projectiles on one sock, 19
- 17:46projectiles on the other.
- 17:48Simpson's glo- appear- uh, blood appears on the rim of the sock
- 17:52and on the toe of the sock, where he probably removed the
- 17:55socks and threw them on his, on his, uh, bedroom floor.
- 17:59But all the blood, Nicole's blood, is spattered.
- 18:0339 projectiles on one, 19 on the other, no question.
- 18:07Here are the photographs.
- 18:08I don't think Al never even looked at those socks.
- 18:11If you look at them, you see the spatter marks,
- 18:13because I saw photographs.
- 18:16And they're all spatters.
- 18:17There's no soaking of blood.
- 18:19When you pour blood on socks, there'd be a soaking.
- 18:22Vannatter, number one, didn't plant evidence.
- 18:25He's not a crooked cop.
- 18:26He wouldn't do that.
- 18:27There's no evidence that he did.
- 18:29To this day, he still spouts this stuff.
- 18:33That's bad enough, but nobody confronts him.
- 18:36They don't confront him with the evidence.
- 18:37Say, "Here are the photographs."
- 18:39By the way, you didn't see those at trial either.
- 18:42But these are spatters.
- 18:43This is not a pouring of blood.
- 18:45And, and to beseech someone's reputation, like of Phil
- 18:49Vannatter, who's been gone now for years, and to say that
- 18:52he planted blood, why would he do that to begin with?
- 18:55This is a double murder case.
- 18:57He'd go to jail the rest of his life if that could be proved.
- 19:00Right, right.
- 19:01Regardless of this outcome on the case, that was just not true.
- 19:05And to this day, Dershowitz gets away with this crap,
- 19:07and I can't believe it.
- 19:09You know, and I wanna ask you a personal question.
- 19:11I get- Forget about Dershowitz, and there's been
- 19:13all this latest stuff with these so-called mob guys.
- 19:16But just in general, say we, we rewind just six months before, uh,
- 19:21ago, before all this latest stuff.
- 19:23Just in general, Tom, if OJ Simpson … Say you, you
- 19:28are … Tom, you were the lead LAPD homicide investigator
- 19:34in the OJ Simpson case.
- 19:36Had he been convicted, do you think that we'd still
- 19:40be talking about it today, and do you think there would
- 19:44have been this much intrigue and interest for this long?
- 19:49Definitely not.
- 19:51Um- Again, you see these things.
- 19:55You're gonna see, right, this isn't gonna go away
- 19:58because this is probably 32 years later, if not more so.
- 20:02Again, the, the people who are most interested in this case
- 20:04weren't even born back then.
- 20:06This is a new generation-
- 20:07Yeah
- 20:08… that are being entertained with all of this BS.
- 20:11They're being entertained because of the celebrity.
- 20:14They're being entertained by, "Well, the cops did this and
- 20:16the cops did that." This is entertainment for most people.
- 20:21For me, it's a job.
- 20:23Uh, I look at it different.
- 20:24That's the problem with high-profile cases.
- 20:26I've got a lot more cases that were a whole
- 20:28lot more difficult than
- 20:29This isn't in the top 50, guys.
- 20:32This is not that difficult to figure out what happened here.
- 20:35Uh, and again, when you have exculpatory evidence,
- 20:39you deal with that.
- 20:40I had nothing to deal with that as far as … If anything,
- 20:42it was exculpatory here.
- 20:44Um, if it not had been for the way this thing is pushing, people
- 20:49are making a lot of money on this.
- 20:51And all of a sudden, The New York Times comes out with this,
- 20:53this ex- this all this nonsense.
- 20:57It is total nonsense, and it's gonna go away as quick as it came.
- 21:00But stick around, because it ain't going anywhere.
- 21:03So T- Tom, you call it nonsense and, uh, and the BS and everything
- 21:07else, but you know, cop to cop, 32 years or so later,
- 21:12are you glad that you were the lead investigator on this?
- 21:18Boy, he came up with some pretty good questions.
- 21:22Uh, I, in some ways, yes.
- 21:25In other ways, perhaps no.
- 21:26I don't care for the notoriety.
- 21:28I never did.
- 21:30It drives my wife nuts.
- 21:32Yeah.
- 21:32We went to Europe on a vacation after this, and
- 21:34people were coming up to me.
- 21:37In Europe.
- 21:38Uh, they'd watched the trial.
- 21:40Yeah.
- 21:41It's just cameras in the court.
- 21:42That's the other thing, if there'd been no, if, if the
- 21:44cameras weren't allowed in there, they wouldn't have
- 21:46known most of the people that were involved with us, and it
- 21:48would have been a lot better.
- 21:50I'm not, I'm not in, into entertainment, okay?
- 21:53I don't like the recognition at all.
- 21:56I wanna do my job, and I want to be proud and have respect
- 22:00for the job that I do, not because it's a big exposure, uh,
- 22:05to, to, uh, entertainment for most people, which it has been
- 22:08entertainment for most people.
- 22:11Again, um, uh-
- 22:14But do you, do you believe it's defined your legacy?
- 22:20I hope not, because I had a lot of other cases that
- 22:23were real cases, all right?
- 22:24Yeah.
- 22:25Mm-hmm.
- 22:25Uh, and it took real police work.
- 22:27This took a little bit of some.
- 22:28You gotta play some games, but I've, I'm probably at
- 22:31well over 100 homicides, and the unit that I worked
- 22:35didn't take the self-solvers.
- 22:37Here's your case and you had to work.
- 22:39Some of them never got solved, but I know who did,
- 22:43uh, these types of things.
- 22:45The district attorney's office is in charge of these
- 22:48cases, you know, their cases when they file them, but
- 22:51that's a political office.
- 22:53If you're the DA and you're running to maintain your office
- 22:55or to, to con- to, to continue on as a district attorney in
- 22:59any major city, and you don't have a 90-plus conviction rate,
- 23:03you ain't gonna be the DA.
- 23:04It's as simple as that.
- 23:06I have had a lot of cases turned down that should not have been,
- 23:09and I came back when they've killed again on serial cases,
- 23:13and it just pisses you off at the time, but that's politics.
- 23:17Cops sh- cops make lousy politicians, and
- 23:21politicians make lousy cops.
- 23:23You keep those things in mind.
- 23:26So I define the… I don't know what's to define
- 23:29because it's all there.
- 23:30I mean, there, there's, there's no unanswered questions.
- 23:33There's just supposition now and hearsay.
- 23:36There's nothing relevant that hasn't been answered
- 23:40You know, um, I, I think I mentioned this in their
- 23:43last episode, and, and Bill, you were with me.
- 23:46Uh, Dennis, this may be news to you.
- 23:47But Tom, uh, uh, years after the OJ case was over, uh, we did a
- 23:53Witness to History event where Tom was, uh, part of a panel to
- 23:56discuss the OJ case as part of the National Law Enforcement Museum.
- 24:01And, uh, after that event, uh, Tom was very gracious and, and
- 24:06donated one of the most, uh, uh, valuable historical items I think
- 24:11we have in the museum collection.
- 24:13And that is the journal he kept from, uh, day one in the case,
- 24:18uh, through his investigation, all his observations, all
- 24:21his opinions about what was going on, and, uh, that is now
- 24:24part of, uh, the National Law Enforcement Museum archives.
- 24:29And I think, uh, you know, 100 years from now, generations
- 24:33from now, people are gonna, uh, still be intrigued by
- 24:36this case, and they're gonna wanna know what happened.
- 24:39And, uh, the lead detective in the case, his observations and
- 24:43opinions are gonna be perhaps more valuable than anything else.
- 24:47So Tom, I, I just wanna thank you again for, for donating
- 24:51that, that, uh, very historical piece of, uh, uh, history, and,
- 24:56uh, being with us again today to talk through this case.
- 24:59Every time we're together, I, I learn new things, and,
- 25:02and you enlighten me about, uh, the facts in the case.
- 25:06Uh, just so, such overwhelming evidence that, that OJ Simpson
- 25:09committed these murders, and it's a travesty of justice
- 25:13that he was not convicted.
- 25:14But, uh, but you did your job, sir. Right.
- 25:17And you are truly one of those heroes behind the badge.
- 25:20And, and to, a- and to your, and to your legacy, Tom,
- 25:23uh, uh, if you get a chance, check the comments in, uh,
- 25:27on the last two episodes.
- 25:28I'm sure we'll get plenty on this one, too.
- 25:31Uh, there was a true affection for you.
- 25:34Yeah.
- 25:34Uh, I mean, people said, "Hey, this dude is a straight shooter.
- 25:38He's telling it like it is.
- 25:40He's a h- he's the hero.
- 25:41He's the one that stood up and, uh, uh, uh, with all
- 25:45this political bullshit going on, he's the one that stood
- 25:48up and told the real story."
- 25:50A lot of people get it, okay?
- 25:52They get it, and they appreciate you after all
- 25:56these years still coming on to do this type of a podcast.
- 26:00And, uh, your legacy certainly, uh, is not just one case.
- 26:05So many of our guests on Heroes Behind the Badge, they're here
- 26:09because of one case, but that is not their legacy And, uh, there's
- 26:14a lot of people out there in our audience that support you.
- 26:17So, uh, we appreciate you spending this time again with us.
- 26:22Every time we get, uh, something a little new, don't we?
- 26:25We get a little something that we didn't know before.
- 26:28And, uh, for that, I thank you.
- 26:30Uh, you don't have to do this, but you chose to do it,
- 26:33and we appreciate that, so.
- 26:35Well, I appreciate you saying that.
- 26:36Thank you very much.
- 26:38Again, that's gonna wrap it up for this episode of
- 26:41Heroes Behind the Badge.
- 26:42You've been listening to Tom Lange.
- 26:44If you liked anything Tom had to say, please
- 26:46subscribe, like, and follow.
- 26:49We're sponsored by Citizens Behind the Badge,
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- 26:54Check us out.
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- 26:58men and women of law enforcement.
- 27:00We'll see you next time on Heroes Behind the Badge.
- 27:04Thank you for joining us on Heroes Behind the Badge.
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