Regan Turns on O.J. Simpson

Nov. 16, 2006 — -- Publishing maverick Judith Regan issued a statement Thursday night, calling her most-famous author a "killer" and acknowledging that she set up O.J. Simpson in a bid to get a confession out of him on behalf of battered women everywhere -- herself among them.

Regan, Harper Collins' enfant terrible, is being widely vilified for publishing what is being touted as a "fictional" confession to the real murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

The fictional confession is given in Simpson's forthcoming new book, "If I Did It."

Regan now says that she was physically abused by her husband and other men. She says the interview she did with Simpson was an attempt at personal justice and "closure" for herself -- and apparently, for the nation.

Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife and Goldman in 1995. A civil court jury found him liable for their deaths in 1997, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the families of the victims.

In the new book, the former gridiron great describes how he would have committed the slayings if he had done them.

Regan describes her feelings as she interviewed Simpson.

"The men who lied and cheated and beat me -- they were all there in the room," she said. "And the people who denied it, they were there, too. And though it might sound a little strange, Nicole and Ron were in my heart. And for them I wanted him to confess his sins, do penance, and to amend his life. Amen."

Later in the statement, Regan concludes, "When I sat face to face with the killer, I wanted him to confess, to release us all from the wound of the conviction that was lost on that fall day in October of 1995."        "For the girl that was left in the gutter, I wanted to make it right,'' she added.

But Regan also said she had never met or spoken to Simpson before they sat down recently.

Regan told the New York Times late Thursday that she "contracted with a third party'' that told her the money would go to Simpson's children.

"They said the money was not going to Simpson,'' she said. "If it is I hope Fred Goldman and the Browns and everyone else can get it.'' She told the newspaper that she would share information about the financial deal with the families.

"If I Did It" purports to be a fictional "confession" that many -- now including Regan -- believe to be true.

Regan said that she took a cue from a former CIA specialist friend, who told her that "when killers confess the way they often do, it is by creating a 'hypothetical' -- and then they spill their guts."

Goldman's sister, Kim Goldman, told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit that she didn't "know what to make of" Regan's statement.

"I don't know why she wrote it," Kim Goldman told ABC News from her home in California. "It seemed weird to me. If it's just to justify what she did, I don't really care why she did it. She offended a country. She offended my family. And she offended the Brown family."

"This to me is a little bit of 'cover your ass,'" Kim Goldman said. "Find a different way to right the wrongs of battered women in this world. … It's really just about her -- and him. … It's a little strange to me. I don't know what to make of it, so I'm going to try and not pass judgment on it."

Goldman and her family launched a Web site this morning, www.dontpayoj.com that asks viewers to sign a petition and urges them to "let it be known that you do not, and will not, support any entity that assists and encourages a murderer to profit from his crimes."