Site of Simpson case murders still magnet for tourists, the curious

A stretch of Bundy Drive in Brentwood where Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered has never fully recovered from the notoriety.

The area became a magnet for tourists, the curious and the media after the slayings, which occurred 20 years ago today. The same has been true for Rockingham Avenue, where Simpson lived during the case.

In a 1997 Times article, one resident said: “Brentwood is always going to have this ghost hanging over it — the place of the O.J. murders. ... I’ll tell you one thing: When I jog on San Vicente and tourists with cameras ask where Rockingham and Bundy are, I give them the wrong directions. I usually give them directions to Beverly Hills.”

The situation has improved now. But Bundy Drive still gets tourists.

On Thursday, Eileen Kawas, 56, walked her Boston terrier along the intersection of Dorothy Street and Bundy Drive.

Four years ago, she moved three houses down from the murder scene.

Since, she said the murder location remains hot spot for media seeking neighbors to talk about reflecting on the killings, and tourists who peek out of their car windows to get a better view of the alley attached to the killings.

Tour buses carrying foreign tourists move up and down Bundy Drive giving passengers a better view of the site.

“It is a tourist location. We try downplaying it. We try not to draw attention to ourselves,” she said.

“We’d like to move on and have a quiet neighborhood,” she said. “I’ve come outside at 10 or 11 p.m. at night to walk my dog and there are people taking pictures. It’s not a good feeling.”

In the wake of the killings, some frustrated residents moved out to get away from the attention.

“It was too much attention,” Kawas said. “How would you like living in the media glare?”