Both he and Nicole were lying in giant pools of blood. I had never seen so much blood in my life. . . . I again looked down at myself, at my blood-soaked clothes, and noticed the knife in my hand. The knife was covered in blood, as were my hand and wrist and half of my right forearm.

When I read those words, my scalp tightened and cooled, and I read them again.

And again.

O.J. confessed!

A lot of readers of "If I Did It" will do what I did. First, they'll want to make sure they read it right. Then, they'll let the words sink in. Maybe they'll pause a moment while their image-drenched imaginations re-create that awful crime scene. Then their hearts will race and their mouths might dangle open just a little bit as they absorb this very plausible explanation for two of Los Angeles' most controversial and brutal murders.

I felt that a great burdensome lie had finally been exposed and that the world was a slightly better place for it, 13 years after those crimes were committed.

I felt that the truth had made me free.

Then I wondered why there were no big headlines proclaiming O.J.'s functional confession, no hastily arranged TV specials, no klieg lights, nothing to rival the coverage of O.J.'s latest escapade in Las Vegas.

Sure, there was media coverage surrounding the Sept. 14 publication of "If I Did It," but most of it dealt with how the book came to be published, who stood to profit from it and, of course, how it had jumped to the top of some bestseller lists.

Is that all these reporters and pundits could say?

Didn't they make it to page 132?

Didn't they get it?

Were they just sick of the whole story?

I read the book again.

Another passage from page 132:

Now I was standing in Nicole's courtyard, in the dark, listening to the loud, rhythmic, accelerated beating of my own heart. I put my left hand to my heart and my shirt felt strangely wet. . . . The whole front of me was covered in blood. . . .

Nowhere does he say "if" he was standing there, or "if" his hands and knife were drenched in blood, or "if" two innocent people lay dead before him.

Then, just a few pages later, Simpson gathers himself, martials his energies and pronounces himself "absolutely 100 percent not guilty."