February 4, 1997: Open Lines
The evening takes an unexpected turn when Art puts his mother, Jane Bell, on the air for an extended segment. Listeners quiz Ma Bell about her son's childhood mischief, including his habit of electrifying doorknobs, blowing things up with fireworks, and once escaping his crib to wander the neighborhood naked at age two. She reveals that Art's fascination with the unknown runs in the family and traces his radio career back to ham radio at age twelve.
Between family stories and Simpson commentary, Art shares a bizarre report from Wilmington, California, where UFO sightings were allegedly followed by a 1950s vintage automobile falling from the sky. He also replays a revealing 30-minute interview with presidential candidate Steve Forbes on flat tax reform and the future of Social Security.
Key Moments
O.J. Simpson civil verdict announced - $8.5M compensatory: Art opens with the news of the night: 16 months after Simpson's criminal acquittal, a unanimous civil jury found him liable for the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman and ordered $8.5 million in compensatory damages, with punitive damages to be set Thursday. Cheers in the courtroom, boos and cheers outside.
Art's verdict: monetary award is not justice: Art puts the question to the audience and answers it himself: a money judgment, especially against assets that may sit offshore, may mitigate the injustice of the criminal acquittal but does not constitute justice for two lives taken.
Civil verdict isn't double jeopardy - but the LAPD federal retrial was: Responding to a caller's double-jeopardy concern, Art draws a sharp line: civil and criminal proceedings can coexist, so Simpson's case is not double jeopardy. But he points to the federal civil-rights retrial of the Rodney King officers after their state acquittal as the real example of double jeopardy.
Eyewitness from the courthouse: boos as O.J. arrived, civil dispersal: Caller Jeff from Los Angeles, who was on the front lines at the courthouse, reports a lot of booing as Simpson drove up in his Suburban with his bodyguard, and a strikingly civil, non-celebratory atmosphere after the verdict - a sharp contrast to the criminal-trial reaction.