If I Did It book is not a confession: OJ

OJ SIMPSON has denied claims that a chapter from an unpublished book that hypothesises how he would have killed his ex-wife and her friend is a confession.

The former American football star said the account of the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman died, paraphrased in an article in Newsweek, was created mostly from a ghost-writer’s research and was a “fictional creation’’.

He admitted the book, If I Did It, was “tack’’.

The magazine said there was no explicit admission of guilt in the leaked chapter, The Night in Question.

The summary describes Simpson as becoming angry with his ex-wife at his daughter’s dance recital and returning to her home to scare her.

He apparently found Mr Goldman there and accused him of planning a sexual encounter with Ms Simpson.

Newsweek said the book then described how Ms Simpson rushed at her ex-husband like a “banshee” and fell, hitting her head on the ground, at which point Mr Goldman took a karate stance.

This was described as further angering Simpson, who dared Mr Goldman to fight before pulling back.

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

After that he reportedly says that when he regained control of himself, he realised he was drenched in blood and holding a bloody knife, while Ms Simpson and Mr Goldman are dead.

At the end of the chapter, Simpson expressed outrage that anyone could believe he had committed the murders and tells his lawyers he is “absolutely 100% not guilty’’.

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

“I’m saying it’s a fictional creation,” he said. “It has so many (factual) holes in it that anybody who knew anything about it would know that I didn’t write it.”

He was acquitted of the 1994 murders after a year-long trial but a civil jury later held him liable for the killings.

Simpson said he did not have a copy of the book, which was due to be published on November 30 by HarperCollins, but was cancelled 10 days before.

He added when the proposal for a book was brought to him, he implored the publishers not to include the “created half-chapter” about the killings.

But, he explained, “they said it was the hook that would sell the book’’.

“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 OJ.”

He said he agreed to the book because he needed the money for his family. Simpson’s lawyer, said the account was “purely hypothetical” and not “fact or close to fact”.