American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense

Just when you thought every drop of bathos, blather, and recrimination that could be squeezed out of the O. J. Simpson murder trial had been, along comes this book, which reveals the "Dream Team," Simpson's cabal of defense lawyers, as an even less charming bunch of egomaniacs and prevaricators than anyone imagined. Johnnie Cochran is a puffed-up silver-tongued bantam with suspicions that his celebrity client is, after all, guilty; Robert Shapiro is a status-obsessed moron; F. Lee Bailey almost derails the whole defense strategy more than once with his courtroom mishaps. How did these guys win? Produced by Larry Schiller, who co-wrote Simpson's jailhouse bestseller I Want to Tell You and who has a history of plumbing the depths of famously sordid murder cases, this book carries its own lurid fascination.