CRIME: O.J. Simpson: End of the Run

As America watched, O.J. Simpson was transformed from hero to suicidal fugitive to accused murderer

When asked how they could have let the most famous double-murder suspect in history slip away under their noses, the angry police commander and the tight- faced lawyer and the whole choir of commentators all said the same thing, without a trace of irony: "We never thought he would run."

In crisis, people condense into their essential selves. O.J. Simpson was, essentially, a very great runner. That was how a bowlegged kid with rickets had escaped the slums where he was born, how a football superstar had become a national icon, always outrunning his obstacles, finding daylight where there wasn't any....

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