The O.J. Trial Ends
Zip Dobyns
The official legal trial of Orenthal James Simpson ended in early October 1995, but as one writer put it, his life sentence has just begun. Dominick Dunne covered O.J.’s trial for the magazine Vanity Fair, and his summary appears in its December 1995 issue. Dunne was astonished at the verdict. One of the pictures in his article shows him with his jaw literally hanging open in response to the verdict. Dunne describes the victory party in O.J.’s home after his acquittal. Extra police units were needed for crowd control outside the mansion as O.J.’s family and friends celebrated with 40 crates of champagne. But the euphoria did not last long. As Dunne pointed out, O.J. is now finding that his old world does not want him back. He is unwanted in Brentwood, at his talent agency, his country club, and on pay TV where he had hoped to recoup the fortune he spent on lawyers. Also, he now has to face a civil suit by the relatives of Nicole and Ron Goldman. In a civil suit, he will have to testify personally and a decision by the jury need not be unanimous. Ron’s father is particularly bitter and hopes to take O.J. for as much money as he can. Papers have been served already on O.J. and the civil trial could start as early as April 1996, though the lawyers for either side could request a delay.
Timed events provide opportunities to test astrology, and a crucial one was the time the criminal trial ended and went to the jury. After summations by both prosecution and defense lawyers and a brief statement by Judge Ito, the case went to the jury on September 29, 1995 at 16:08 (4:08 P.M.) PDT in Los Angeles. Since that was late on Friday afternoon, they were scheduled to begin deliberating at 9 A.M. on Monday morning. According to news reports, they actually began at 9:40 A.M. and had reached the decision to acquit O.J. of all charges by lunch time, in less than three hours. Reportedly, they signed their decision at 2:30 P.M. and reported it to the officials at 2:52 P.M. Since few expected a quick decision, some of the lawyers had left the courthouse and the decision was sealed until the next day. Word went out that it would be read at 10 A.M. the next morning. On October 3, the news went out by TV and radio to a huge spellbound audience at 6 to 8 minutes after 10 and set off a shock wave as most whites and blacks reacted in opposite ways; the blacks rejoicing and the whites dismayed and/or angry. If this “trial of the century” did nothing else, it forced the U.S. to face the enormous racial divide which exists between the different experiences and conclusions of the two groups.
The Internet astrology group with which I have been exchanging information and ideas for months had naturally been discussing the case. I ran the chart for the time it went to the jury, and posted my conclusion Saturday morning that it looked like an acquittal. It is mainly in event and other mundane charts that I have been testing the asteroids and they came through! Saturn, our key to the Law, was in 20 Pisces 11 sextile James in 20 Capricorn 24 and trine Simpson in 19 Scorpio 58. Simpson was in the 9th house which rules the court and judgment and James was in the 12th house which fits his year plus that he had spent in jail. The Ascendant was opposite Aletheia (truth) and square Themis (divine justice) which seems appropriate for the jury’s action that many considered a defeat for truth and justice. Pluto was on the MC within one degree and Philosophia opposed it on the IC. If O.J. was guilty, as the evidence certainly suggested, the Pluto-MC could signify the triumph of murder or the murderer and the death of philosophical reason. Mary, which seemed to work for Marcia Clark, the head prosecutor, was on Uranus and square the lunar nodes for her upset. Maria, the other asteroid I was using for Marcia, was in 14 Virgo square the Moon. I am testing Angelina (little angel) as a key to Los Angeles, and its conjunction with the south lunar node in Aries seems very appropriate. The case was certainly a lesson for the L.A. police and their previous use of power. I have not worked with legal charts in the past and would not have been sure how to interpret this one without the personal name asteroids. Apparently, the first house does describe the jury which took control of the case at this time. The two auxiliary Ascendants were in the first house along with Saturn. The East Point was sextile Juno, a Scorpio asteroid, in the 11th house. This would fit a sense of friendship or partnership with O.J. and support for his freedom. The Antivertex was in 8 Pisces conjunct Eleutheria, the goddess of freedom.
The traditional planets were also there, and appropriate once we accept the first house as the jury. A stellium of factors in Libra were trine the Ascendant from the 8th house, and Jupiter and Moon were sextile the Ascendant and most of the Libra factors. It would be hard for the coming civil trial to match the criminal one for media overkill, but we will be doing charts on it whenever we can get accurate data. In O.J.’s own chart, his P Moon will oppose his N Sun in the spring of 1996, and his P angles will continue to conjunct Neptune for several years, so he will either grow spiritually or suffer. P Vesta and P Mars will continue to move together and to square Neptune, so he will have to be realistic about his personal power and rights (Mars), some kind of productive work (Vesta) and finances (Neptune in the 2nd house and ruling the 8th house). If the civil trial is dragged out as the criminal one was, O.J.’s P Sun could reach the square to N Mars and opposition to P Brown (Nicole’s parents who are suing along with the Goldmans). We will be watching.
P.S. We have discussed the charts of most of the major players in the O.J. drama in past issues of The Mutable Dilemma or Asteroid-World, but if any of our readers are not fed up with it and want to explore more, I have the dates but not the times of Al Cowlings, Robert Kardashian, and Mark Fuhrman. Al Cowlings is O.J.’s lifelong friend who was driving the car during the famous “freeway chase” when O.J. was apparently trying to get away to Mexico with his passport and about $8,000. Al was born in San Francisco, CA on June 16, 1947. Robert Kardashian was O.J.’s lawyer and friend who took away his golf bag on the night of the murder. Many people wondered whether that was how the bloody clothes and knife disappeared. When Kardashian brought back the bag to the police it was empty. He was born on February 22, 1944, I think in Los Angeles. Mark Fuhrman was the detective who supposedly found the bloody glove in O.J.’s back yard which matched the glove at the murder scene. When his racial prejudices were revealed, he was accused of “planting” the glove and other evidence. He is currently being investigated for past falsehoods and abuse of blacks. He was born in Eatonville, WA on February 5, 1952.