In case you missed it in the news, O.J. Simpson is back in court, this time for reportedly robbing memorabilia collectors at gunpoint in Las Vegas. O.J. has been charged with criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, assault, robbery, use of a deadly weapon, and just generally being a despicable human being. Okay, I embellished a bit on that last charge.
(Photo by Gerald Johnson, a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee and taken during official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.)
Anyhow, as might be expected, this O.J. Simpson trial is a bit of a circus just as the last one was. The trial started with the jurors being told to forget O.J.’s past – hardly an easy task! The first witness, Bruce Fromong, pointed to his chest while testifying and the proceedings had to be stopped so paramedics could check him out.
Famed crime writer Dominick Dunne is there covering the trial, although his doctors advised against it. Last week, some woman ran up to Dunne and kissed him, causing her ejection from the courtroom. Today, Dunne had to leave the courtroom and be taken to a local hospital. He told a CNN journalist as he left that he was in a “lot of pain.” Dunne has been diagnosed with bladder cancer, but told CNN later via a phone call that he was “OK.” But, he said he may have to go back to New York in a few days, meaning he won’t be able to see the trial through to the end.
Dominick Dunne is a famous crime writer, but his career didn’t come easily. Dunne started out his career as a movie director then moved on to the vice president position at Four Star Pictures. He wrote a book in the late ‘70s, but he really focused his life on crime writing when his daughter was murdered. Dominique Dunne, who starred as the older sister in the film Poltergeist, was strangled by her boyfriend during an argument. She lingered in the hospital for five days before the family, being told the brain damage was irreversible, decided to pull the plug.
Dunne attended the trial of his daughter’s murderer, John Sweeney. He and the rest of the family were outraged when Sweeney was charged with involuntary manslaughter and served only 2 ½ years of his 6 year sentence. At that point, Dunne wrote “Justice: A Father’s Account of the Trial of his Daughter’s Killer.” After that, he covered most high profile celebrity murder trials including the Menendez Brothers, O.J.’s first trial, Phil Spector, and Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel.
Dunne had already said this trial would probably be his last, perhaps in part because of his health and age (82) and because he planned to work on his memoirs.