Al Cowlings remembers the day of the infamous highway chase in the white Ford Bronco as the day he struggled to save best friend O.J. Simpson from suicide.
"He was checking out," Cowlings told The Associated Press, speaking publicly for the first time about what happened. "There was no question about it."There's no way O.J. and I were trying to escape," Cowlings said. "I was trying to save a friend. I'd lost one great friend in Nicole and I didn't want to lose another one."
On the morning of June 17, 1994, police were hunting Simpson on charges he slashed to death his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, five days earlier.
Simpson friend and lawyer Robert Kardashian read a letter he received that sounded to many like a suicide note. Police believed Simpson was making a run for it.
When they took off in Cowlings' Bronco and drove down a freeway followed by helicopter news cameras and a fleet of police cars, Cowlings said there was only one thing on his mind - keeping Simpson alive.
Up to now, Cowlings has refused to talk about what went on between him and O.J. during their ride. He invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege during Simpson's trial and did the same during depositions in the wrongful-death lawsuit brought against Simpson by Goldman's family.
But that changed Thursday night in the opulent dining room of Simpson's Rockingham Avenue mansion, once lovingly decorated by Nicole. As Simpson was summoned outside again and again to entertain guests while raising money against gang violence, Cowlings talked.
"If I knew what I had to say could have brought some sanity to this, I would have talked a long time ago," Cowlings said.
"People have just pounded and pounded on him," he said, complaining that talk shows and tabloids continue to capitalize on Simpson's grief. "There's no decency left," he said, shaking his head. "No one has any feelings for anybody."
The day of the chase, Cowlings said he was worried his friend would take his life in the wake of his ex-wife's murder. There was no talk of an escape when they climbed in the Bronco, he said.
"How could two black guys be heading to Mexico in a white Bronco driving through Orange County?" he said sarcastically.
At one point, he said, they were stopped by rush-hour traffic on the freeway. "We were at a standstill. If we were trying to escape, why didn't we just get off the freeway?"
Yes, there was a lot of Simpson's money in the Bronco, Cowlings confirmed. Why?
"He was checking out," he said. "There was no question about it. . . . There was money I had that O.J. had given me at home. I had his driver's license, his credit cards, all his personal items. . . . The money and checks were for his grown chil-dren."
In the Bronco, Simpson asked to call his mother and a few other people he wanted to bid goodbye, he said.
Cowlings didn't talk about the gun Simpson held to his head during the chase.
Reflecting on how the ordeal changed his life, Cowlings said, "It will always be with me. This was my family. Whatever they say about O.J. and Nicole, they loved each other dearly."