Ron Goldman's Autopsy Report Has Some Disturbing Details
On June 12, 1994, 25-year-old Ron Goldman, a waiter at the Mezzaluna restaurant in Brentwood, was tragically murdered alongside Nicole Brown, the ex-wife of NFL star O.J. Simpson. Now, details from his autopsy are shedding disturbing light on the case.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Goldman and Brown had become friends only six weeks before their deaths. The restaurant waiter reportedly borrowed Brown's Ferrari, once driving it to have lunch with his friend Craig Clark. "He said they were friends," Clark recounted to The Los Angeles Times, referring to Simpson and Goldman's relationship. Though it is unclear if the two visited each other at home, Goldman and Goldman regularly met up for dinner and coffee during their weeks-long friendship.
It is, therefore, no surprise that after watching her daughter Sydney's dance recital on June 12, Brown took her family to dinner at Mezzaluna — the same restaurant where Goldman worked. Upon discovering that the family had left behind a pair of glasses, Goldman offered to drop them off at Brown's house but sadly never made it back. In the early hours of June 13, Goldman and Brown were found dead at Brown's Brentwood home. While Brown's ex-husband, OJ Simpson, was initially named as the prime suspect in the murders, he was eventually acquitted of all charges. Although no one has been convicted of the crime, Goldman's autopsy has clarified the exact cause of his death.
Ron Goldman died of multiple wounds
With no witnesses to the murders, there is still a lot unknown about the events leading to Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson's deaths. However, authorities have been able to determine the cause of death. In an autopsy performed by a Los Angeles coroner, Goldman was reported to have suffered "multiple stab wounds of chest, abdomen, and left thigh." The restaurant waiter also had "sharp force" wounds on the neck and left side with severe damage to his left internal jugular vein. "This sharp force injury of the neck is fatal, associated with transection of the left internal jugular vein," the autopsy report read.
In addition to these, Goldman also had defense injuries, presumably sustained while trying to fight off his assailant. "On the palmar surface of the right hand, at the base of the index finger, there is a cutting or incised wound, 3/4 inch length and 1/2 inch deep involving the skin and subcutaneous tissue with hemorrhage in the margins," another section of the autopsy revealed.
During the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial, which spanned 11 months from November 1994 to October 1995, Los Angeles County coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran testified that Goldman might have been trapped in a tight space right before he was killed. "If Mr. Goldman was confronted by the assailant in this confined area, he has no means to escape," the coroner said in his testimony, as reported by The New York Times. They added that Goldman presumably suffered all his knife wounds in less than one minute.
Ron Goldman's family still struggle with the gruesome murder
Many years have passed since Ron Goldman's tragic death, and yet the pain remains just as fresh for his family. In a 2004 interview with NBC News, Ron's father, Fred Goldman, and sister, Kim Goldman, opened up about their grief, admitting that time had done little to heal their wounds. "Ron was a wonderful young man, a caring, loving sensitive young man. His legacy is that he'll always be remembered," Fred told the outlet.
Despite OJ Simpson's acquittal in 1995, the Goldman family filed a civil lawsuit against the NFL star the following year. After a trial, Simpson was found liable for both Goldman and Brown's death and subsequently ordered to pay $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. While Simpson never paid the full sum, the Goldman family says it was never about money for them. "It was never about the money, but at this point, for me, it kind of has become that in the sense that, that's all I can take from him. And not that I care about the dollars, but for me, it's like, you know, I want to paralyze him, you know?" Fred Goldman explained in his interview with NBC News.
And with OJ Simpson's death on April 10, 2024, Fred Goldman and Kim Goldman believe all hope for accountability and justice has been lost. "The news of Ron's killer passing away is a mixed bag of complicated emotions and reminds us that the journey through grief is not linear," the family wrote in a statement shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.