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Kim Goldman has paid tribute to her brother on the 29th anniversary of his murder in Brentwood, California, calling him a “selfless hero” and her “best friend.”
Mr Goldman was killed along with OJ Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson. Mr Simpson was later tried and aquitted for their murders.
“29 years ago, my brother fought like hell to try and save his friend Nicole’s life and his own,” Kim Goldman wrote on Twitter. “Who he was that night, a selfless hero, is how I will always remember my best friend. My heart is not as full, but I feel him in my soul.”
Mr Goldman grew up near Chicago before moving with his family to Southern California when he was 18. He worked as a restaurant waiter in the Brentwood area and had met and befriended Ms Brown just weeks before they were both killed outside Ms Brown’s home. Mr Goldman was just 25 years old.
On Monday, his sister Ms Goldman took to social media to try to ensure that Mr Goldman is remembered as people reflect on the anniversary of the killings.
“His laugh, his hugs, the way he annoyed the crap out of me as big brothers do, the way he protected me – the way he loved me – keeps me company when the days are hard,” she wrote on Twitter. “The loss is profound, the love is deeper. I miss you, Ron, more than ever.”
Mr Simpson, who achieved fame as a star running back for USC and the Buffalo Bills, was charged with the murders of both his ex-wife and Mr Goldman but in 1995 was acquitted in one of the most-watched trials in American history. He was later found liable for the wrongful deaths of Mr Goldman and Ms Brown in a civil trial and ordered to pay the families $33.5m.
Interest in the trial and the circumstances around the murders has been resurgent in recent years. The five-part ESPN documentary OJ: Made in America won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature after premiering in 2016, whlie a dramatic adapation of the trial in the FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story won multiple Emmy awards.
Ms Goldman was critical of the FX series, which did not show the murders of Mr Goldman and Ms Brown and instead only depicted her brother’s dead body.
“What I think is unfortunately going to get lost in this is that my brother was doing a good deed,” Ms Goldman told E! News. “And [he] walked in on what we believe was a horrific crime and he didn’t run. They don’t show that in this and that really sucks. My brother could’ve run and saved his own life and he stayed to help his friend. I want people to remember my brother was a hero.”
