Goldman was born on July 2, 1968. He grew up in the community of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, near Chicago. His parents divorced in 1974 when he was six and, after spending a brief time in the custody of his mother, Sharon (Fohrman) Rufo, he was raised by his father, Fred Goldman, and lived with him and his younger sister, Kim Goldman.
When Goldman arrived at Brown's residence, at 875 South Bundy Drive, he was stabbed to death along with her, on the walkway leading to the condominium. He was just a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday. During a reconstruction of the events, the police came to believe he had arrived during or shortly after Nicole's murder. His family believes that he died trying to save her from her attacker and that he was the man who eyewitnesses heard shouting that night.
Goldman had also expressed aspirations to act and to be on a show, and he appeared as a contestant on the short-lived game show Studs in 1992.
On the evening of Sunday, June 12, 1994, Goldman was a waiter at Mezzaluna Trattoria, a restaurant located at 11750 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood. Brown had called there to report that her mother, Juditha Brown, had accidentally left her sunglasses on the table. After a quick search, they were discovered in the gutter outside the restaurant. Although he had not served her table, he agreed to take them to her home after work.
Simpson was tried for the murders of both Brown and Goldman. In October 1995, after a public trial that lasted nearly nine months, he was acquitted. In a 1997 civil trial, a jury found him liable for the wrongful death of Goldman and awarded $19.5 million in damages to his family. Simpson was subsequently jailed for an unrelated armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel in 2008.
They also acquired Simpson's name, likeness, life story, and right of publicity in connection with the book, according to court documents, ensuring he would not be able to profit from the book. After renaming the book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, the Goldman family published it in September 2007 through Beaufort Books.
