Analyzing the photos of the Bruno Magli shoes in the O.J. Simpson civil case

By the mid-1990s I had done the essential R&D on the digital technology for imaging and was working on converting images from film to computers and from computers onto film for the movie industry. I working with all the companies making film stocks and doing the R&D for a new film stock for this with Kodak and Laseraphics and Polaroid fim recorders.

A mutual friend contacted me and said that Dan Petrocelli, the lead lawyer in the civil suit against O.J. Simpson for the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, needed a more scientific analysis of the images of O.J. Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes, which left prints in blood at the scene of the murder.

Simpson claimed he would never own such ugly shoes. The first photographs of him wearing Bruno Magli shoes appeared in Enquirer Magazine so the defense could credibly say the photos were faked.

An FBI man using traditional analysis had said these photos were not retouched, but his was an opinion, not scientific proof which needed the new forensic technology I that I then used on the strip of film that came later.

I analyzed the photos at the grain level and showed using computer imaging that the photos were totally unretouched.

I told Petrocelli that I absolutely would not have any part in that media circus at our Santa Monica courthouse, but when he gave my report to the defense, they no longwe alleged the photos were faked.

The footprints in blood, which it was now proved could be made by shoes Simpson had denied ever wearing, was, according to the jury, the significant factor in making them confident in reaching the unanimous decision that Simpson was responsible for the murders.

I later did the work for the FBI that led to the capture of their Most Wanted Whitey Bulger .
"Whitey Bulger Captured" Design for an On-Line Treasure Hunt for the Reward for the Mose Wanted .

CNN etc:

"The jurors said the most compelling evidence was the blood and photos showing Simpson wearing the same type of Bruno Magli shoes that left bloody prints near the victims' bodies.

"Robert Groden was put on the stand by Simpson attorney Bob Baker to testify that a photo of Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes could have been forged."
"In the photograph, which Groden denounced as "a fake," Simpson is seen wearing Bruno Magli shoes, which he says he has never owned. The expensive and uncommon shoes left their distinctive print in blood by the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

In his deposition, taken earlier this year, Groden said he couldn't be sure it was faked; now, he says he is sure, although he cannot say exactly how the photo was faked, and had difficulty even showing jurors the portion he said was faked.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs are expected to call their own expert, a former FBI agent, later in the trial to say the photo is genuine..
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