If true murder mysteries are your thing, this book may well become one of your favorites. I literally had to read the entire book the very day I purchased it, trying more than once to put it down. Having lived within 20 miles of the actual murder scene while attending college in the late 90's, I was drawn into the mystery like none other. Worth every penny!

The next time you encounter someone running off verbally or in print about OJ literally getting away with murder, ask or find out if that person has ever read (or perhaps even heard of) Dear's book. If the answer is no (most likely), you can immediately discount anything being said on the subject as at best uninformed.

Dear's study is the definitive analysis of the OJ case, and changed this writer's views 180 degrees. Even if you are only marginally interested in the case, you should read this book. Dear, a considerably credentialed private investigator of 35 years, carefully lays out his six years spent investigating why OJ did not commit and could not have committed the murders, but for very good reasons was at the scene of the crime shortly thereafter. Had OJ been the murderer, copious quantities of blood would have soaked him, his clothes and his car; and there would have been traces of such blood throughout his vehicle and his Rockingham residence plumbing, carpeting, and grounds.

But there were only tiny amounts of dried blood (no more than could fit collectively on a fingernail!) in such areas, which are readily explained by OJ's after-the-fact presence. Dear investigates alibis and destroys them when they are bogus. He demonstrates who the principal suspect(s) should have been and why, and shows how such suspect(s) was (were) NEVER ONCE CONSIDERED as such in the criminal investigation. He shows how crucial evidence was ignored or overlooked. In the process, Dear manages to severely damage the credibility of the LAPD's and DA's conduct in this case, exposing the slipshod investigations, bungled contamination of evidence, sloppy forensics, the DA's rush-to-judgement tunnel vision, and even possible (self-righteously inspired or inadvertent) planting of evidence. One gets to read about not only Mr. Dear's investigation, but also the opinions of world-class specialists in such areas as criminal and medical psychology, contamination of evidence, forensics, handwriting analysis, knives and knife wounds, karate tactics, and the like: At various stages of his investigation, Dear enlists these highly credentialed experts' inspection of his data for their unbiased third-party assessments and criticisms.

Dear's analyses are not remote ivory tower posturing and postulating. His six years spent off and on in the field (interrupted by major back surgery and other cases he was working on) were at the various murder and proximate sites and around the country (even London) doing real grunt work, tracking down one report or lead after another, one set of records after another, one expert after another, all on his own nickel. As a private investigator and lacking the powers of subpoena and to compel testimony, he had to be highly inventive to gain access to such information as police reports, medical records, key persons of unknown whereabouts, and evidence not introduced at trial.

The result is this relentlessly progressing well-paced, well-organized book which is a thrilling, harrowing, can't-put-it-down read. At times, the reader feels the tension and the almost hair-raising prospective dangers this investigator puts himself in to get at key evidence. To undertake this sort of task, one has to be not only very well organized with good powers of observation, but also an impetuous risk-taker and dare-devil with a mental attitude akin to that of somewhat who specializes in defusing unexploded bombs.

But with the LAPD having gone from one scandal to another in recent years, and with tunnel vision besetting the DA's office, with the media barrage of OJ jokes, the uninformed and sensationalistic media hyping, and the populations' greater interest in entertainment and scandal than in truth, is it any surprise that in the twenty months since first reading this book (yes, it's that good!), this writer has seen NOTHING in the way of re-opened investigations? And who would gain? Nichole Brown and Ron Goldman are dead; nothing will change that. If you believe this book, OJ salvaged everything he possibly could out of a bad situation not of his doing: an acquittal and protection of his concerns, at the cost of a good deal of money and some unavoidable damage to his standing. His defense lawyers certainly got everything they wanted. The true suspect isn't craving visibility. What more could beneficiaries of the civil lawsuit gain; one can imagine the ensuing chaos to various such settlements if OJ were formally proved innocent in a court of law? The investigative and prosecutorial powers wouldn't want a re-opening that would only reiterate their prior incompetence. So despite analyses like this one, this writer predicts that, unfortunately, nothing will change. But read the book! It's a great study of how a really good private investigator can operate. What has happened on this case subsequent to the book's publication (nothing?) certainly does not reflect on its' thesis. Indeed this book is a classic case study of ...and justice for none.

Shame on the law enforcement in California for failing to investigate obvious other scenario's in the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Mr. Dear takes an in depth and logical look at the obvious other suspects in this interesting and informative book. I too was certain there was only one suspect based on the press coverage of this case. However, there is much more to learn and discover about the case. A must read for those who want to learn the killers identity and hopefully bring justice to the families of those murdered in this case.

From the moment that I picked up "OJ is Guilty but not of Murder" I really couldn't put it down. William Dear has assembled an impressive array of evidence to show that OJ almost certainly did not commit the murders, but he probably knows who did. A lot of very thorough and painstaking research has resulted in Dear being left with a single suspect, who may well have committed the murders on Bundy Drive. Even if you think you know all there is to know about the Simpson case, you are sure to find something that you didn't know in this book. Truly an excellent read.