The grand jury listened intently to the testimony of Jennifer Peace, also known as Devon Shire, a 23 year-old porn star. Peace, whose carnal exploits were featured in Housewives Who Kill, Madam X and Frenzy, said that Simpson was driven by blind rage the night he murdered his ex-wife and Mezzaluna waiter Ron Goldman. And OJ had an accomplice, his friend Al Cowlings, who, she said, was present with OJ, witnessed it all and disposed of the bloody knife. She testified that her “friend” Al told her everything;
Ms. Peace stepped up after meeting with Marcia Clark and Bill Hodgeman to relay Cowlings’ account of the murders. Grand juries are generally sequestered away from the press, but she generously shared her testimony with mass media news outlets before making her appearance.
So Time magazine could report that Cowlings told the porn actress “Simpson was guilty of both murders. The murder weapon ‘sleeps with the fishes.'”
She said Cowlings told her that OJ loathed Goldman “with a passion,” and stalked him the Friday before the murder. Cowlings also confided that when O.J. arrived at the condo, “he didn’t go there to kill Nicole,” but “had the knife on him and he got so angry he went into a rage and almost blacked out over what happened.”
Time: “Peace also says Cowlings talked to her about what went on in the white Bronco five days later, during what the press dubbed — correctly she says — Simpson’s ‘escape attempt.’ ‘They weren’t going to no grave site,’ she says. ‘They weren’t clear on anything. But then they saw 40 cops and 15 choppers, and they said, hmmm, maybe escaping isn’t such a good idea.” The plan to “escape to Mexico” was aborted, and OJ was forever associated with a slapstick freeway debacle in the Ford Bronco driven by Cowlings.
Simpson attempted suicide with a handgun in the car, It misfired, the world turned and he lived on in infamy.
After Jennifer wrapped upher testimony, prosecutors appeared “satisfied with the actress’s truthfulness. Others will need more convincing. As further information about the erstwhile porn star leaked out — that she had tried to sell her story to the supermarket tabloid The Star; that she had claimed to be pregnant by baseball star Barry Bonds — it seemed possible that Cowlings’ and Simpson’s lawyers, both of whom have called her story ludicrous, might be able to impeach her as a reliable source.”
The porn actress’s timing happened to coincide with the public relations crisis of a local private investigator known far and wide as “The Hollywood Fixer.”
It so happened that the PI knew Jennifer Peace. On September, 9th, the Los Angeles Times reported, “In a day of bizarre twists and turns in the O.J. Simpson murder case, a private investigator called a news conference to say he has no information about the killings, and a witness who says she does have information was accused of fabricating her account.” The injustice of it all.
Anthony Pellicano filled a sidebar to Simpson coverage when a “mysterious witness” announced that the investigator had Simpson’s house under surveillance the night of the murders,
“I can’t even get angry about this because it’s so ridiculous,” he told reporters. “I have no information about these murders. Had I, I would have brought it to the attention of law enforcement immediately.”
Jennifer’s attorney Elliot Abelson stood by his client. “I think she sheds light on some aspects of the case,” he said.
Abelsom was a legal counselor to the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. (His office was located at 820 South Gretna Green Way, about a half-mile from Nicole Brown Simpson’s previous residence.) But in 2022, he agreed to represent a member who left church and turned on David Miscavige, its ecclesiastical leader. The Org countered with a statement declaring, “Scientology attorney Elliot Abelson is not eligible to practice law in the State of California, this per the California State Bar website.”
Shortly thereafter, Abelson left the church and took down his shingle.
The testimony of the day from the provocative witness took the heat off Pellicano. Questions about the alleged stake-out at Simpson’s house on Rockingham subsided. Debt collector John Dunton, his accuser, also maintained that Pellicano had Nicole’s condo surveilled the night of the murders. But why? Prosecutors seemed to have a strong case. The traditional resumption of innocence was a dead issue. Talk show hosts and shock jocks cast a guilty verdict. Talk of fixers and curbside stake-outs didn’t trump a porn queen and a bloody knife that slept with the fishes.
Pellicano was forgotten and the tabloid world moved on.
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