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Forensics experts could have a field day trying to determine if Simpson seemed agitated while... [+]
About a week ago the owner of one of the most haunting, if not downright disturbing, pieces of memorabilia in the history of American popular culture opened his safety deposit box to retrieve it. For almost 22 years it had never seen the light of day. He then mailed off his unholy relic to Lelands for an auction this fall.
The extreme rarity is an invitation signed by O.J. Simpson on June 12, 1994 hours before his ex-wife’s murder. The consignor, a boy at the time, had joined Simpson in the audience for a dance recital, featuring, among others, Simpson’s daughter, Sydney, who was eight-years old then.
Simpsonologists regard the dance recital as a key event in the true crime drama . During the murder trial in 1995 the New York Times reported that “Simpson seemed agitated and preoccupied and sat alone. One of the witnesses described him as staring resentfully at his former wife.” Vanity Fair’s Dominick Dunne noted that Nicole didn’t save a seat for O.J., forcing him to walk up and down the aisle. “She knew that was the equivalent of giving him the middle finger,” said a women who knew the Simpsons as a couple.
The endless fascination with the “Trial of the Century— capped by yet another TV special,
All the major sports houses take care to treat Simpson gingerly. Typical is SCP, which auctioned off Simpson’s 75th anniversary all-time team trophy August 2015 for almost $8,000, a relatively modest sum by industry standards: “Before his well-publicized fall from grace, O.J. Simpson was a Hall of Fame running back for the Buffalo Bills. From 1969 to 1979, Simpson rushed for a total of 11,236 yards.”
Siimpson's 1973 Buffalo Bills jersey sold for $5000 in 2014. By contrast, earlier this year Heritage... [+]
With his usual flair, Jonathan Scheier, Heritage’s chief catalog writer, tried to strike a balance between the very mortal man and sports deity when describing a game-used O.J. Simpson jersey from 1973, his record-breaking season, which sold for an unspectacular $5000 in 2014: “We’ll be the first to admit that Simpson stock has never recovered. While we would certainly draw no corollary between corruption and murder, it’s clear that Joe Jackson and the rest of the Black Sox are now highly-prized by collectors precisely for their crimes, whereas few would have crossed the street for a free autograph from them in the 1920s. For better or worse, O.J. Simpson’s legend will continue to grow with the passing of the years , and far less for what he did on the gridiron than what he may have done one night in Los Angeles. And then there are the true sports purists who might not excuse Simpson for his purported crimes but choose to remember that fluid running style, that Hall of Fame talent.”
I asked Scheier, who, like me, has not bought any Simpson memorabilia, for an update in light of all the recent hoopla. “It really might be the most compelling sports story of all time--Heisman Trophy winner and leading HOF'er probably murders two people and then leads the country through a televised crazy car chase and a televised crazy trial that splits the nation,” he told me. “When I'm old and gray(er), I'll probably regret not investing.”
Gilroy wasn’t making any guarantees about his current consignor cashing in, but did hazard a guess. “The sky is really the limit, but we are hoping it will sell for at least a couple of thousand of dollars.”
