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Debra Newell says that O.J. Simpson once tried to date her.
Newell, one of “Dirty John” Meehan’s victims, says the football star and accused murderer was interested in her.
Newell’s upcoming memoir Surviving Dirty John tells how she met Simpson through Marcus Allen who was dating her sister Cindi Vickers. Vickers would later be murdered by her soon-to-be ex-husband Billy Vickers in 1984.
The interior designer said Simpson was “charming and easygoing,” adding he was “one of the most likable and popular celebrities on the planet.”
“I’m sure I was one of thousands of women,” Newell told Page Six. “I’ll be honest with you: I saw right through him. I saw someone with a big ego and somebody that was fairly arrogant and a salesman.”
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Simpson was later tried and acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Looking back at Simpson’s Bronco car chase, Newell said she remembered thinking, “‘Oh, my gosh, that could have possibly been me.’ I thought, ‘How do I let these men charm their way into my life?’”
Adding, “Luckily, I didn’t let O.J., but I did let John.”
Newell met con-man Dirty John on an internet dating site two days after he was released from jail for violating a restraining order. He also served time for felony drug theft after stealing surgical anesthetic drugs. The two would marry after eight weeks despite warnings from her daughters.
Eventually, Newell’s nephew looked into Meehan and brought it to her. She privately started looking into his documents and found a history of him conning and harassing women.
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The two split, but she forgave him and they moved back in together. Newell would go on to file to annul the marriage but Meehan started to threaten her and demand money.
The ordeal ended when he tried to abduct one of her daughters who managed to kick the knife out his hand and stabbed him in self-defence. Four days later, Meehan died in hospital.
“There are women that are probably scared to death to leave,” Newell told Fox5 of why she is writing her story. “[They] don’t see any other way of getting out of the relationship and I want to have a voice for them.”
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