On June 22... the Los Angeles Police Department released a tape recording of Nicole Simpson's Oct 25, 1993, 911 call and its case file on O.J. Simpson's 1989 arrest for spousal abuse.
District Attorney Gil Garcetti, new LAPD chief Willie L. Williams and City Attorney James Hahn all pointed the finger at one another when asked to explain the release of the 911 tape....
Even if it came too late for Nicole, news coverage of the 1989 case had focused more attention on the subject of domestic violence that any other event in U.S. history.
Women's-rights advocates descended on Washington to demand that President Clinton's crime bill include funds for training police officers and judges to deal with spousal abuse.
Time, Newsweek, ABC and CNN all reported (incorrectly) that domestic violence was the leading cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44.
Calls to the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women would more than double within a month.
Mickey Rourke, actor and professional boxer, certainly seemed to have picked the wrong time to be accused of beating up his wife.
Rouke would be charged with attacking Carré Otis at an office in Hollywood on July 18, allegedly slapping her, knocking her down and kicking her where she lay.
He faced up to a year in jail if convicted. (Then again, perhaps the actor had little to worry about: L.A. Lakers assistant coach Michael Cooper would plead guilty in October to battery against his wife, and, instead of jail time, received six months in counseling.)
It was the 911 tape, though, that revealed an O.J. Simpson his fans did not want to believe existed.
Randall Sullivan
Rolling Stone Magazine
January 1995