O.J. Simpson Said He 'Had Dreams of Killing' Slain Wife Nicole Brown Simpson, Friend Claims

O.J. Simpson Said He 'Had Dreams of Killing' Slain Wife Nicole Brown Simpson, Friend Claims

Ron Shipp, a longtime friend of O.J. Simpson who is featured in the new ABC/ESPN multi-part documentary series about the former football star, tells PEOPLE Simpson told him he "had dreams of killing" ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson.

The alleged conversation took place on June 13, 1994, the day after Nicole and Ronald Goldman were murdered. On that day, the former NFL star and rental car pitchman, whose life is chronicled in the series O.J.: Made in America, the second installment of which aired Tuesday, met with friends who had come to his house to mourn the death of his ex-wife. (In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of their murders.)

According to Shipp, who has known Simpson since he was 16, "We walked to the driveway and O.J. said, 'Ron, I need to talk to you.'"

Climbing the sweeping staircase in Simpson's sprawling estate at 360 N. Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood, less than two miles from where Brown and Goldman were stabbed to death, Shipp followed his longtime friend into his master bedroom suite for a private discussion.

"He said, 'You know, they tried to get me to take a lie detector test,'" recounts Shipp.

When Shipp asked him if he took it, he says Simpson allegedly replied, "'Well, no, Shipp,' and he jokingly laughed and said, 'I've had dreams of killing her.'" (Shipp, a witness for the prosecution, testified to this conversation at Simpson's criminal trial.)

Shipp says there were other "red flags" stemming from the conversation.

"The first red flag for me was when I saw the cut, when I saw his hand all bandaged up, especially since it's the day after your ex-wife was found dead," says Shipp, whose memoir, The Heart Behind the Badge, debuted May 1.

Shipp, a former LAPD officer, says, "I've been on calls where people repeatedly stabbed each other and they always seem to cut themselves. I asked the coroner once, 'Why do they cut themselves?' And he said, 'Because the knife slips in their hand and they are hitting bone and there's blood.'"

Shipp was bothered that Simpson allegedly "changed his story about the cut three different times."

Shipp says he was further unnerved when Simpson began asking him how soon results from DNA testing of blood and evidence found at the crime scene and at his house would be completed.

Says Shipp, "He takes me up to his room and starts asking me questions that in my mind only a guilty person would ask."

"He's got this cut finger and scratches all over his other hand and I thought, 'Why would you ask me a question about how long does it take DNA to come back?'"

'I'm in the Room with a Double Murderer'

Recounting Simpson's alleged statement about his dreams of killing Nicole, Shipp says, "When he said that, I wanted to get the hell out of that room. I said to myself, 'He did it. I'm in the room with a double murderer.'"

Nicole had told him about the beatings she allegedly suffered at the hands of Simpson, who, Shipp says, admitted to him that he had physically abused her.

"I got in the car and called my wife and I was crying like a baby. I said, 'Honey, he did it.'"

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The documentary draws from rare footage and more than 70 interviews with Simpson's friends, family, colleagues, and key figures in the so-called Trial of the Century. Peabody and Emmy-award winning director Ezra Edelman tells the story of the NFL star's rise to fame and his steep fall, including details of the Las Vegas heist that landed him behind bars for up to 33 years.

The documentary also details the history of the explosive racial tension in Los Angeles between African Americans, the LAPD and the criminal justice system, which came to a head during and after his trial.