The autopsies where done on June 14, Nicole at 7:30 am and Ron Goldman at 10:30 am, with Detectives Vannater and Lange present, roughly 36 hours after the murders. Dr. Irwin Golden conducted both. He was not called to testify by the prosecution. His supervisor did that.
Before I try to describe any of the wounds the victims received, I need to clarify two things, the shapes of the stab wounds and the difference between a bruise and an abrasion.
The latter is easy in that abrasions have a break in the skin such as a scrape and a bruise does not. I will deal with them in my next posting. For this one, I will focus on the stab wounds.
The stab wound shapes are much more subtle. For example, a standard kitchen knife having a six inch blade has a stabbing shape of a long, narrow triangle. One end of the stab is tapered and the other end had a flat edge about one sixteenth of an inch wide. A sword or its dagger-sized cousin the stiletto leaves a stab wound that has two tapered edges and no flat edges.
Dr. Golden identified stab wounds of at least three kinds: stiletto, standard blade with 1/32 inch flat edge, and standard blade with 1/16 inch flat edge.
When Detective Fuhrman tried to reconcile the three different shapes of stab wounds, he suggested a field knife that was tapered from the point to two inches in where the flat edge began relatively thin and widened as it got farther from the point. Below, let me address the stab wounds each received under the three shapes Dr. Golden identified with each victim. First will be the length of the wound, then the size of the edge, and finally the depth of the wound which he was able to determine by using a probe into the wound.
Nicole Brown Simpson's stab wounds:
To the left side of the neck:
(1) 5/8" wide, 1/32" edge, 1-1/2" deep
(2) 1/2" wide, 1/32" edge, 2" deep
(3) 7/8" wide, 1/32" edge, 1" deep
To the left hand:
(1) 1/4" wide, 1/16" edge, 1/4" deep
(2) 1/2" wide, 1/16" edge, 1/4" deep
To the scalp:
3/16" wide. tapered edges, 1/8" deep
This kind of detail suggests that there were at least three different knives (or even two or more attackers with the same kind of knife) involved since the respective depths preclude the kind of knife Fuhrman envisioned.
How about what the autopsy reports about Ronald Goldman?
To the left side of neck:
6" wide, 1/16" edge, 2" deep
To the right side of the neck:
5/8th" wide, 1/16" edge, 2" deep (additional tapered stab mark was there too)
To the right ear:
1-1/4" wide, 1/16" edge, 1/4" deep
To the right cheek:
5/8" wide, 1/32" edge, 1/4" deep
To the scalp:
(1) 5/8" wide, 1/16" edge, 3/8" deep
(2) 1/4" wide, 1/16" edge, 1/4" deep
To the chest:
(1) Right side, 5/8" wide, 1/32" edge, 4" deep
(2) Right side, 1-1/2" wide, 1/32" edge, 2" deep
(3) Right side below ribs, 3/8" wide, tapered edges, 1" deep
(4) Left abdomen, 3/4" wide, 1/16" edge, 5-1/2" deep
To left thigh:
2-1/8" wide, 1/32" edge, 3-1/2" deep
To the right clavicle border:
1/2" wide, 1/16" edge, 1/4" deep
To the hands:
(1) Right hand, 3/4" wide, tapered edge, 1/2" deep
(2) Right hand, 1/2" wide, 1/16" edge, 1/4" deep
(3) Left hand thumb web, tapered edge, 1/4" deep
Note that all but one of the major wounds is a stab wound and not a slash.
Again, it has to be concluded that there were at least three different knives. Given the amount of time it took for the two victims to bleed to death (I have chosen not to add all of the knife-related injuries nor have I indicated which were fatal). Each victim was left unconscious. Ron's wounds led to fatal internal bleeding as well as some external while Nicole's were external. It is highly unlikely that OJ would have carried three knives and took turns using them. Look at the stab wounds to Ron's chest. All three kinds of blades are indicated and they went into Ron from different directions.
Freed and Briggs, in their book, report that witnesses saw four men fleeing the scene.
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