O.J. Simpson Shopping a New Book About Life With Nicole

Jan. 15, 2007 — -- O.J. Simpson wants to write another book, this time a nonfiction account about his life with his murdered ex-wife, one of his lawyers tells ABC News.

Attorney Yale Galanter says his phone has been "ringing off the hook" with offers to buy a book about Simpson's life with Nicole Brown Simpson.

"Everybody, regardless of what they are saying publicly, is interested" in the book, Galanter told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit.

The news comes just as details are emerging about his controversial and now-canceled book, "If I Did It."

'Something Went Horribly Wrong'

Today, Newsweek published obtained excerpts from a chapter titled "The Night in Question" -- and noted that Simpson's account adhered closely with the prosecution's theory of the murders.

In the unpublished account, Simpson writes that his ex-wife charged at him like a "banshee."

"Then something went horribly wrong," Simpson writes, according to the magazine. "And I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how."

He writes that he blacked out, and then came to with a bloody knife in his hands and the bodies of Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, lying on the floor.

Galanter said that because HarperCollins and parent company News Corp. canceled the publication of "If I Did It," "we are taking the position that the contract with them is null and void. Or more accurately, others are free to try and get the story."

"If I Did It" included a highly controversial "fictional" account of the night of the murders of Brown Simpson and Goldman. Publisher Judith Regan referred to it as Simpson's "confession."

The book was met with such widespread public outcry that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch canceled publication of the book and a TV special late last year, and publicly apologized to the victim's families.

Last month, Regan was fired. A new book would not include a chapter on the murders.

In 1995, Simpson was found not guilty of murder in the slayings of his ex-wife and Goldman in a criminal case. In 1997, a jury in a civil lawsuit found him liable for the deaths and awarded the Goldman and Brown families $33.5 million.

The murders are not described in the book, a fact that Simpson told The Associated Press Sunday he insisted upon to shield his children.

Simpson also said he begged HarperCollins not to publish the "created half chapter." He said the company told him "it was the hook that would sell the book."

Still, he said Sunday, he has no regrets.

"Was it tacky?" he said. "Yes, it was tacky, but it was brought to me. I didn't have an agent out there saying, 'Here's a book from O.J."

Simpson said the murder chapter in the book was created by a ghostwriter, and again denied that it was a confession on his part.

New Proposal 'Tasteful'

Noting that he had "nothing to do" with the HarperCollins project, Galanter said he would be representing Simpson in a new proposal that would be "basically a very descriptive compilation of his life with Nicole."

He predicted that the new project would not be met by the same public outcry that greeted "If I Did It."

"What HarperCollins did -- using a ghostwriter, the title they picked, how it was deceiving -- it was very distasteful and a horrible thing. I can tell you that if we do this project, it will be done the right way, very tastefully, and I don't think we'd get the same [public] reaction," he said.

Galanter said the Goldman family was "entitled to pursue whatever legal remedies they believe are appropriate."

"But they are talking out of both sides of their mouths," he said. "They want the money from him, but they don't want him to work."

Goldman attorney Jonathon Pollock told ABC News that he would pursue any profits from any book or project that Simpson did.

"It's my job to make sure that if this book gets published … the proceeds go to where they should go -- which is in the hands of the families of the victims."

For Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, the publication of excerpts from the controversial chapter in "If I Did It" is "just a reaffirmation for me that, without question, as we all know, this person murdered Ron and Nicole."

Goldman said it was "ridiculous" for Simpson to suggest that he had urged HarperCollins not to create or publish a chapter about the murders.

"He had a choice. If he didn't want that chapter used, he didn't have to write it," Goldman said.

The Night in Question

In his fictional "confession" to the murders, Simpson writes that he killed the pair because Brown Simpson was taunting him and charged at him like a "banshee."

He lost control of himself, according to excerpts of the crucial chapter that was published this morning in Newsweek.

Furious at his wife for taunting him over her sexual indiscretions, he drives to her home and enters through a backdoor brandishing a knife he keeps in his car to ward off the "crazies" in Los Angeles.

He writes that he wants to "scare" her. He is wearing the knit cap and gloves he keeps in his car to stave off the early-morning chill on California's golf courses.

Brown Simpson shrieks at him. Her dog gives a friendly tail wag to Ron Goldman, who has arrived to return her mother's glasses, which she left at the restaurant Goldman worked at earlier in the evening.

The dog's reaction confirms to Simpson that Goldman is a familiar presence in the home.

"You've been here before," Simpson screams at the young man. His ex-wife angrily demands that Simpson leave him alone, and then charges at him. She slips, falls and smashes her head hard on the floor.

Then Simpson writes that he blacks out. "Then something went horribly wrong," he writes. "And I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how."

When he comes to, he is holding a bloody knife over the mutilated bodies of his ex-wife and Goldman. He panics, according to this account.

He heads back outside to the alley, strips off everything but his socks, and rolls the bloody clothes into a small pile. He then returns to his Rockingham estate, slipping past a car waiting to take him to the airport.

He famously bangs into the air conditioner outside the guest house where Kato Kaelin is staying.

Throughout, he is aided by a friend he calls "Charlie." There was no evidence at the criminal trial that Simpson had an accomplice.