Nicole Simpson wasn’t the real target of the savage, knife-wielding murderer who took her life – womanizer waiter Ronald Goldman was, insiders told RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Ahead of the 32nd anniversary of the pair’s brutal slaughter in LA on June 12, those who knew 25-year-old Goldman argue the notorious Don Juan with a reputation for scoring with his pals’ girlfriends was boasting about his bedhopping and may have scored one time too many.
They say the enraged lover of one of his conquests could have killed him instead of Simpson – though skeptics stress the NFL star was still their real killer.
“Ron’s attitude and success with women upset a lot of guys, particularly some husbands of his lady friends,” a pal told us. “He might have pushed someone’s buttons one too many times. The killer could be a jealous husband or boyfriend.”
Close sources point to the violent way Goldman was stabbed to death while returning a pair of glasses to Nicole as added proof that his murderer was fueled by revenge.
Nicole was killed, they say, because she’d seen the killer.
Rivers of blood flowed around both their bodies, and a cop source said: “Their murders were an act of rage – plain and simple.”
The fact Nicole’s corpse was shoeless leads cops to believe the killer attacked Goldman first – then killed Nicole when she came rushing out of her condo without her shoes on to help the dying man.
Goldman never expected to end up dead when he moved to California with his family in 1987. He dreamed of stardom, but he crashed in Hollywood’s fast lane, said pals.
The last six months of the hunk’s life were spent as a waiter at Brentwood’s trendy Mezzaluna restaurant, modeling part-time and dating a beautiful woman.
“It didn’t matter that they were married or involved with other people,” said a former co-worker.
Goldman’s cocky attitude often teed people off, admitted the waiter’s workout partner, Steve Bickley.
“I can see some people who might have been upset or offended by him. He was typical of a kind of person who likes to live in Brentwood, flashy but not a lot to back it up.”
The notorious ladies’ man had a reputation for making enemies, even when he was a freshman at Illinois State University in 1986.
Sigma Nu fraternity brother Mark Wilson said: “Everybody just hated him. Everybody had a nickname.
Frat brother Pete Sacaluse added: “Goldman didn’t care who he hit on. He thought he was God’s gift to women and thought nothing of trying to score with other guys’ girlfriends.”
Despite the leads suggesting Goldman was the killer’s intended victim, the prosecutor’s office continued a close-minded pursuit of O.J. as their prime suspect.
But their case was weakened by repeated blunders.
First, they obtained the infamous bloody glove from O.J.’s property without a search warrant, and then the coroner was unable to pinpoint the time of death for Goldman and Nicole.
Simpson was arrested after a nationally televised, low-speed police chase in a white Ford Bronco after the bodies of Nicole and Ron were discovered.
In October 1995, following a heavily publicized eight-month trial, a jury acquitted him of the murders. But in a 1997 civil trial, a jury found Simpson liable for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman.
He was ordered to pay $33.5million in damages to their families, though a large portion of this debt remains largely unsatisfied.
In September 2007, Simpson led a group of men into a Las Vegas hotel room to steal sports memorabilia that he claimed was rightfully his.
He was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in 2008 and sentenced to up to 33 years in prison.
Simpson served nine years at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada before being granted parole in 2017.
He lived out his remaining years in Florida and Nevada before passing away.
To mark the 32nd anniversary of Nicole and Ron’s deaths on June 12, her family and advocacy groups are hosting candlelight vigils and memorializing the day.