Today the Brown family believes that O.J. not only beat Nicole, he murdered her. But in the weeks just after O.J.’s arrest, they contended that Nicole was not a battered woman. Richard Gelles, director of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of Rhode Island, attributes this apparent blind spot to what he calls “the Burning Bed phenomenon”—named for a 1984 TV movie about a battered wife. “To be recognized as a battered woman at risk,” he says, “you have to look the way Farrah Fawcett looked in that movie. You have to be covered with black-and-blue marks and be ferociously beaten. Nicole’s family and friends very seldom—and most of them never—saw strong physical evidence, as she apparently hid it very well with makeup.”

The all too common signs of physical domestic abuse are the black eye, bruises and broken bones although the more experienced partners tend to push, pull and tug so as not to leave the usual telltale bruises. I often ask myself why is it that one person, the abuser, can feel so powerless than he or she chooses — and it is a choice — to maim another individual.