After gripping the nation with a mix of soap opera and social issue, the trial of O.J. Simpson reached its end with the same mix of suspense, drama and touch of the absurd with which it began 15 months ago.
Up to the very end, the case exerted a mesmerizing influence over the American experience.In Atlanta, Sen. Sam Nunn postponed Tuesday's announcement about his political future to avoid a conflict with the verdict. In Los Angeles, a reunion of the original Mouseketeers was canceled. So was the debut of the Los Angeles Zoo's tapir and the announcement of who would be grand marshal of the Rose Bowl parade.
Jack Levin, a Northeastern University sociologist and author of books on media and racial issues, said the case held public attention hostage "because it had everything."
"There was celebrity, blood and gore, a marriage gone bad, an interracial relationship gone sour," he said. "You put it all together it might as well be `Days Of Our Lives.' "
Most of all, it was there. All the time.
It became a fixture on CNN, Court TV and ABC's "Nightline." It proved the lifeblood of tabloid TV from "A Current Affair" to "Hard Copy."
"It was part of the American lifestyle," Levin said. "It was like baseball. Every day you could turn on the set and predictably watch the game."
The trial of O.J. Simpson eclipsed and, in some cases, outlasted events of real national, global and even interplanetary significance.
The peace accord between Israel and Jordan; the baseball strike; the war in Chechnya; the carnage of Rwanda; American troops in Haiti; the bombardment of Jupiter by the Shoemaker-Levy comet; the Republican revolution in Congress; the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
All came - and most went - through the public's awareness as we watched and debated the trial, assuming a first-name familiarity with Marcia and Bob, Nicole and F. Lee.
In the midst of the Republican takeover of Congress, a national poll testing name recognition found more Americans knew the principal players in the Simpson case than could name the new speaker of the U.S. House.
The case became a high-profile metaphor for a string of social issues. Advocates against domestic violence used O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson's stormy marriage to bring attention to their cause.
Those who wondered about a runaway media had a strong illustration of what happens when a sensationalized case comes to life in the tube and on the front page.
Protesters against racism and police excess got a new poster boy in detective Mark Fuhrman.
The issue of race became central to the case. Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. urged the jury to make its verdict a message against the racism that he claimed was behind a conspiracy to convict his client.
Polls showed the case had divided the country along racial lines; most whites thought Simpson was guilty; most blacks thought he was innocent.
For Kevin Starr, an urban history professor at the University of Southern California and the state's official librarian, the critical question will be if all Americans - black and white - accept the verdict.
"It's really a test case on the whole question of race in America no matter what verdict," he said. "The question is do we have a culture in common that includes all of us Americans? If we don't, we're going to have a divided culture that will make Yugoslavia look like a festival."
Still, the end of the trial was marked by the same odd images with which it began on that long-ago June night.
Late Monday, hawkers of T-shirts and O.J. watches stood outside the courthouse, trying to sell their wares in the glow of the television lights. And at the Bundy Drive murder scene, many still stopped to gawk.