O.J. calls chapter of book fictional

Former football star O.J. Simpson says a chapter from his unpublished book, “If I Did It,” that hypothesizes how he would have killed his ex-wife and her friend was created mostly from a ghostwriter’s research and is not a confession.

“I’m saying it’s a fictional creation,” Simpson said Sunday in a telephone interview. “It has so many [factual] holes in it that anybody who knew anything about it would know that I didn’t write it.”

His comments came as Newsweek magazine published an article for its current issue paraphrasing the chapter, called “The Night in Question,” which the magazine said it had obtained from an anonymous source.

Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Lyle Goldman after a yearlong trial. A civil jury later held him liable for the killings. On Sunday, Simpson again denied killing the pair.

Simpson declined to provide a copy of the chapter to the Associated Press.

“I don’t have it,” he said. “I shredded everything I had about it, and I thought I shredded it from my memory.”

Newsweek’s account of the chapter describes Simpson as becoming angry with his ex-wife at their daughter’s dance recital. He later went to her condominium to scare her, entering through a back gate with a broken latch, the account states.

Simpson, holding a knife, encountered Goldman and accused him of planning a sexual encounter with Nicole. He became enraged when Nicole’s dog appeared to recognize Goldman as a familiar visitor, the account states.

Nicole rushed at Simpson and fell, hitting her head on the ground, according to the account. Goldman then took a karate stance, further angering Simpson, who dared Goldman to fight before pulling back.

“Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can’t tell you exactly how,” Newsweek quoted Simpson as writing.

The account contains no descriptions of the killings but says Simpson was drenched in blood and holding a bloody knife when he regained control of himself. His ex-wife and Goldman were dead.

Simpson said he saw a number of factual flaws while proofreading the chapter but did not correct them because he thought that would prove that he did not write it.

The book was to be published on Nov. 30 by News Corp.-owned HarperCollins. News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch called off the project 10 days before, apologizing for any pain it had caused the families of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

“Was it tacky?” Simpson said. “Yes, it was tacky.”