Entertainment

Mike Gilbert Repeats A Big Claim In ESPN's Doc

O.J. Simpson's former agent Mike Gilbert is featured throughout ESPN's O.J.: Made in America, as he worked with Simpson for much of his career. Though Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and maintains his innocence, Gilbert makes an allegation in the docuseries that he has made before. So did O.J. Simpson really confess to Mike Gilbert? The agent claims that he heard what he believes to be an admission of guilt from Simpson one night and actually wrote about the claim in his 2008 book, How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret and Remorse.

In O.J.: Made in America, Gilbert again discusses the night he claimed to hear Simpson confess. Gilbert claims in the docuseries about Simpson, "He was looking around the backyard, reliving all the different events that had happened there. And I just ask him, 'What happened June 12?'" Gilbert then claims that Simpson asked him what he thought happened on that night and Gilbert claimed in response, "I have always thought you probably did it. I know what you told AC, you know that you went there, that you just went to see what was going on, but that didn’t you take a knife." Simpson's alleged response to this is what Gilbert claims to be the confession.

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"He said that if she wouldn’t have opened the door with a knife, she’d still be alive," Gilbert claims in the documentary series. "I believed that for the longest time, and then I … he went there to kill her. He went there to kill her because of how she made him feel, being rejected. That she didn’t need him." According to ESPN, Gilbert wrote in his book about that moment, claiming, "Nothing more needed to be said. O.J. had confessed to me. There's no doubt in my mind." Back in 2008, Simpson was unable to respond to the claim due to his robbery trial, but his lawyer Yale Galanter denied that this ever happened to ESPN. "I've talked to O.J. about it," Galanter said in 2008. "This stuff not only didn't occur but it's not factually supported by the evidence." Gilbert's former partner Bruce Fromong also told ESPN, "Mike makes up a lot of great stories."

In addition to Gilbert no longer working for Simpson, the two are no longer friends, the ESPN article reported. In an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, Gilbert said that the last time he spoke with Simpson was during Simpson's Las Vegas trial, when his former client gave his condolences when Gilbert's daughter was killed in by a drunk driver. "That was it and I told him thank you," Gilbert said.