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Narcissism
Opportunism
Selfishness
Greed
Arrogance
Insensitivity
  These character traits seem to be shared by O.J. Simpson (left) and Michael Schiavo.
Of course the difference is that O.J. Simpson was criminally charged and Michael Schiavo (right) to date has not been.
Is O.J. really so insensitive and arrogant that he wants to flagrantly taunt and tease the Brown and Goldman families that he got away with murder or is his conscience starting to bother him---is he having flashbacks about the horror and graphic nature of the crime? He clearly knows that he can't be tried twice for the same crime. Is he so secure with that fact that he seeks to capitalize even more, reportedly receiving $3.5 million for the supposedly fictionalized and graphic account of the murders in 'If I Did It'.
What's the IF all about?
The character traits exhibited  by Simpson seem to explain some of the reasons why he wants to peddle a book and do greatly hyped upcoming interviews on Fox-TV espousing his detailed but supposedly fictional account of how he would have carried out the June 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown (left) her friend, Ron Goldman (right), IF he had been the one responsible for the crime.
And then to add to the outrage, and to further attempt to fill his pockets, he  and his publisher, Judith Regan, go a step further with their bizarre act and offer a two-part interview for Fox-TV, his "confession" Regan calls it but Simpson continues to insist he didn't do it. Others view it as just more hype and an attempt to even further capitalize on what was billed as the "Trial of the Century" which ultimately resulted in O.J. being acquitted. Of course Regan stands to benefit greatly financially from all the grandstanding.
While Simpson's trial may have been the trial of the 20th Century, any trial of Michael Schiavo would likely be the "Trial of the 21st Century".
 Let's not forget media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who stands to gain handsomely from all the hype as owner of Harper Collins, publisher of Simpson's book, and of Fox-TV. What perfect timing for the TV interviews to coincide with the release of the book at the peak of the November sweeps. Wanna tell us that wasn't planned?
"There's one important thing you should know about Murdoch", political commentator and radio host Al Franken says. "He's evil. I defer to the…..Columbia Journalism Review. 'Murdoch uses his diverse holdings…to promote his own financial interests at the expense of real news gathering, legal and regulatory rules, and journalistic ethics. He wields his media as instruments of influence with politicians who can aid him, and savages his competitors in his news columns. If ever someone demonstrated the dangers of mass power being concentrated in few hands, it would be Murdoch".
 Sounds like Michael Schiavo's kind of man. Fits in with George Felos, the one who hears voices from the stomachs of dying individuals and can command airplanes to crash, decide when children are to be conceived. Wonder if there's been a conference call yet between Murdoch and Michael Schiavo.
Is there a new Schiavo book, "Why I Killed Terri", hypothetical of course, in the works for the spring sweeps?
Why, after Schiavo's new book and movie, no doubt there may be a whole new line of products which will be endorsed by Schiavo's new company, Mijolini LLC.
Certainly Terri would have wished for these things too because she'd no doubt want Michael to make as much money from her disability as possible. That could include a line of Venetian blinds to keep your wife in the dark, away from the hustle and bustle of the human race and human interaction, a new line of medical support called food and water. How about a line of broken wheelchairs to discourage the handicapped from moving around too much, and crematoriums for cats. Let's not forget a public service announcement or two for Hospice of Florida Suncoast.
Schiavo could always justify the exploitation saying that it would have been Terri's wish for him to make $10 million by killing her and then exploiting her tragedy for his own personal and political gain.
He could relate how   Terri (right) told him that if she became disabled that she would never want to eat or drink again, that she would want Judge George Greer (left) to issue an order that not only removed her feeding tube but that insured that she not be given food or water orally so that she would die in front of the entire world.
That would make for great sequel to "Love Story", how Terri told Michael to maximize the suffering, to insure that she died in the most cruel and barbaric way that he could arrange for, dehydration over 13 days and to be sure that the whole world watched and waited for her to do so because after all, she had a right to privacy and expected him to protect it.
Let's see:
Man meets woman.
They fall in love and marry.
After woman reveals to her brother and friends that she's in an abusive relationship and is contemplating divorce, overnight she inexplicably becomes handicapped.
Woman is institutionalized.
Man gains financially by filing false insurance claims.
Man has multiple affairs.
After he gets money from phony malpractice claims, he tries to withhold medical treatment from his wife to intentionally and with premeditation cause her death.
When that doesn't work, he hires an attorney with her trust money to get court approval to kill her.
He buys a house with her money, shacks up with another woman and has two kids.
He tries to keep his wife's family from seeing her and denies them the right to take care of her, even claiming that they tried to harm her.
He claims he's protecting her right to die and her right to privacy but then appears with his spiritual practicing attorney on the Larry King Live show to discuss her gynecological condition for a national TV audience.
He insists that she die by dehydration and starvation, declaring that it was her wish.
He refuses her parents presence at her funeral and burial.
He then capitalizes on her death and the assault on disabled rights in America by profiting from a book, selling movie rights and embarking on a political career.
What a love story!!
His brother, Scott and sister-in-law, Joan Schiavo could suddenly have their memories jarred and relate how they remembered Terri watching a movie about Karen Quinlan, saying that if that ever happened to her that she would want Michael to sell the book and movie rights to Rupert Murdoch or the highest bidder so that Michael could live in luxury with his girlfriend and have as many kids as they wanted, jet around the country, give inane interviews, play his "woe is me' violin and jockey for what he thinks is his future career in politics.
Schiavo could relate how Terri told him not to settle for any made-for-TV movie, to go for the gold, the Oscar, foreign distribution rights so it could be auditioned for the Cannes Movie Festival, that he was doing it all because it's what Terri would have wanted, that it was Terri's wish.
Regan says she did it for victims of domestic abuse. She claims that she signed no contract with Simpson who was tried and acquitted of the double murders yet the word is that Simpson stands to realize $3.5 million from the deal. Regan, formerly a reporter for the National Enquirer stands to profit handsomely from this deal and were she sincere about her motives which she tries to detail in a rambling four page press release, then she would donate her entire profit from the deal to organizations formed to combat domestic violence, to assist battered women and crime victims. After hearing that O.J. supposedly raked in $3.5 million for this allegedly fictional account if his wife's murder, no doubt Michael Schiavo is salivating and anxiously trying to reach Regan to tell her he's ready to do another book.
  Why Regan could have a whole series of books, showcased by Schiavo's and Simpson's. Michael Jackson could solve some of his money woes with his title of "If I Molested Kids". Charles Manson could relate "If I Stabbed Sharon Tate" and she could follow up with Scott Peterson's "If I Took Laci Fishing". (left and right, respectively)
The public is disgusted with the Simpson pandering and lack of couth. Thousands are calling for a boycott of both the book and of the Fox interviews. Some Fox stations have already vowed not to air it and lots of advertisers have said they won't buy time for their ads to appear during the Simpson interviews.
Simpson owes the families of the victims $33.5 million plus interest as the result of a civil suit in which he was found civilly liable for the murders, money which they haven't been able to collect because he took steps to lock his assets away, moving to Florida and taking advantage of the state's property protection plans, keeping his $300,000 annual football pension out of their grasp and spending most of his time playing golf and claiming that he's looking for the real killer. Guess he thinks the murderer might be lurking in one of the sand traps on the back nine.
 Simpson was acquitted at a jury trial, held over nine months which made members of his "dream team" of defense attorneys media stars as well as Marcia Clark and others on the prosecution's team.
This wasn't a circumstantial case as a DNA analysis of the blood found in, on  and around Simpson's white Bronco detected traces of blood from Simpson, his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. DNA analysis of the bloody socks found in Simpson's bedroom proved that the blood was Nicole's. Even though Simpson claimed that he hadn't been at Nicole's residence and that he had never met Ron Goldman, Simpson's hair was found on Goldman's shirt and DNA analysis of the blood on the infamous gloves showed that it was a mixture of Simpson's, Nicole's and Goldman's. Particles of Goldman's hair and carpet fibers from Simpson's Bronco were also found on the gloves.
And let's not forget that Simpson had been previously charged and convicted of beating his former wife, sentenced to three years of community service, establishing a propensity for violence towards Nicole. But even after seeing photos of the injuries that he had inflicted on Nicole, the jury acquitted him of her and Goldman's murder.
After Schiavo was successful in obtaining a judicial decree to kill his wife, he then capitalized even further, realizing an undisclosed amount, for parading a book which he claimed was the "truth" about his 15-year ordeal to keep her parents and siblings away from her and to kill her.
 And then, as expected, he sold the movie rights to the book for even more money to producers including actor Mike Farrell and Lawrence Bender. But after it was revealed that much of the book was recklessly and maliciously untrue, defaming the Schindler family and even presenting altered testimony from the trial, there was no further word about any forthcoming movie.
According to an announcement in Variety last April, the Schiavo movie producers said they didn't plan to hire a writer until they sold the project to a TV network or film studio. Their goal was to tell the Schiavo story "from the beginning of their romance".
One of the producers, Marvin Minoff was trying to pass it off as a Romeo and Juliet type story---but don't forget, Shakespeare wrote fiction-there was no truth to his theatrics. Theatrics----a fitting word for Michael Schiavo.
How's Simpson's book going to be categorized---fiction or non-fiction?
In defending Simpson's book and her interview with him for Fox-TV, Regan claims that there is "historical value in such work; there is value for law enforcement, for students of psychology, for anyone who wants to gain insight into the mind of a sociopath". She said that Simpson's decision to write the book stemmed from a "disturbed mind of a sociopath" and a "disturbed need for attention".
Some might say Michael Schiavo exhibits the same traits and he claims that he loved Terri although he had multiple girlfriends after her collapse, exhibited abusive tendencies according to Trudy Capone and Cyndi Shook. Love means shacking up with multiple woman and refusing to divorce your wife in name only because you stand to gain in her death?
Simpson has played this game before, speculating in Esquire magazine in 1998 that he was the killer, saying "Let's say I committed this crime. Even I did do this, it would have to be have been because I loved her very much, right".
Love means never having to say you're sorry for murdering your wife?
11-19-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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