Anatomy of a Plot

Waiting for them inside was Beardsley, a Glendale, Calif. movie memorabilia collector who'd also been a longtime collector of Simpson material. He'd surfaced earlier this year offering to sell the suit Simpson wore when he was acquitted of murder in 1995. He'd also been released in 2006 from a California prison where he was serving a two-year sentence for stalking a former girlfriend. Also in the room: Fromong, a dealer who had once worked as the sales and marketing director for Locker 32, a sports memorabilia company formed in the '90s to sell collectibles for Simpson and others. He testified in the Simpson civil trial in 1997 about conditions in the O.J. market (hot at the time of his arrest, overstocked and sluggish ever since, in his view.)

Simpson later claimed the meeting was a peaceful transaction. But that was shattered almost immediately, according to a secret audiotape Riccio admits making—and later selling to TMZ.com. ("I recorded it because I've had problems in the past and I just thought that this is a weird situation, and I want to record every bit of it.") A voice sounding like Simpson's began shouting. "Don't let nobody out of here. M——- f——-r, think you can steal my s—-?" Other men are heard ordering Fromong and Beardsley. "Backs to the wall … Walk your ass over there."

While Simpson ranted, police believe, two of the other men had guns. Beardsley saw one man with a gun, according to the police report; Fromong saw two. Beardsley and Riccio both told police that one of the armed men, pretending to be a cop, patted the men down. But if there were in fact guns in the room, it's still unclear who brought them. Stewart's attorney says he didn't have a weapon, and he had no idea anyone else did. And Galanter, Simpson's attorney, maintains that neither his client nor any of the other defendants were armed. But there was at least some concern that Fromong and Beardsley might be packing heat. Riccio told cops later that night that while the men were in the lobby "Charles" asked whether Fromong or Beardsley "were in the room and if they had a gun," according to the arrest report. Riccio's answer isn't recorded, but he quickly told officers that "he did not know [Simpson and his friends] were going to use guns."

The men packed the memorabilia that O.J. believed was hi in boxes and pillowcases, police believe. Riccio told cops that the men also took some of the Montana lithographs and the baseballs belonging to Fromong. On Riccio's tape, a man, presumably Fromong, can be heard complaining that, "They took the box of my Montana lithographs." (That could become legally significant; by taking his own property from the room Riccio invited him to enter, Simpson is less likely to have committed a crime. But if the men took collectibles that Fromong owned at gunpoint, the robbery charge might be easier to prove.)

Galanter, Simpson's attorney, insists that if Simpson's men took Fromong's property believing it was Simpson's, they should be in the clear. "If you have a good faith belief that the property you are retrieving is yours, it's still not a crime," Galanter told NEWSWEEK.

The men left in at least two different cars, O.J. told police. Stewart and Simpson were in the Navigator and they had most of the photos and memorabilia that Simpson thought were his, according to Lucherini, Stewart's lawyer. Stewart drove O.J. back to the Palms, but by the time they arrived, the Juice was nervous about taking his stuff inside, the lawyer says; he'd heard from Fromong that the police were involved. Simpson told Stewart to hang onto the stuff, Lucherini says. (Stewart later turned it over to police, the lawyer said.)