America's Most Shameless Fallen Hero Finally Gets the Lack of Attention He Deserves

Think about how remarkably different this O.J. trial was than the one that ultimately defined our generation. On early Saturday morning when the Las Vegas jury recited their not-so-surprising guilty verdict, you saw O.J. purse his lips, quietly accept his fate, and move on. Surprisingly, there were no white people celebration-rioting through the streets of Brentwood, drinking white wine spritzers and over-spending on drapes. The only people seemingly affected by it were the two "family friends" embracing and weeping. (Which was...odd and pathetic.) Perhaps the story was pushed out by the lazy weekend news cycle and the ever-looming financial crisis that left America's most famous acquitted double-murderer as an afterthought. Maybe it was because, regardless of this verdict, he'll still enter prison as a bumbling crook instead of throat-slashing monster most of America considers him. Even more karmic than the fact that O.J. will (finally) head to prison is the lack of wall-to-wall attention this trial received. What was most troubling throughout O.J.'s time as a free man was how publicly he still chose to live his life. His odd interviews, his road rage trial, his failed Punk'd-style reality television show, his failed creepy book, and, of course, this bizarre memorabilia stick-up in a Vegas hotel room which ultimately did him in. Regardless of how inappropriate his quest to rejuvenate his public persona was, Simpson never shied away from attention. There was never any pangs of guilt of sense of loss or shame — even when strangers would harass him for the murders, he would always just smile, take it, and thank the individual for still caring. It was obvious that after the first trial he lacked even the most basic level of humanity to ever garner any type of sympathy. Besides his slimy lawyers and his small group of celebrity-collecting friends, O.J. will always be remembered as the man who got away with murder then, because he was both morally and financially bankrupt, attempted to capitalize on it in the same way that Kato Kaelin did. As soon as the sentencing gets handed down, O.J. will never be front-page news ever again. Maybe his death will spark some sort of retrospective that will garner him cultural icon status he so desperately seeks but, thankfully, he won't be around to enjoy that either. Simpson found guilty [LA Times]