The O.J. Simpson case is in full revival mode. In addition to a TV miniseries recounting the famous trial, a rusty buck knife found on Simpson's Brentwood estate was turned in 18 years after it was discovered.
Simpson is currently in jail, serving a 33-year sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center for a separate 2007 Las Vegas robbery crime. He is up for parole in 2017.
Jeffrey Felix, a retired prison guard, is the bridge to Simpson. Felix, who befriended Simpson at Lovelock, has a book, Guarding the Juice, hitting stores next Wednesday.
"He thinks it's a total joke," Felix told the New York Post. "O.J. is laughing about it. He's on top of his game. He's like Muhammad Ali.
"He says almost every construction worker carries one of those folding knives. Anyone could have dropped it."
Felix, who refers to himself as Simpson's confidant, once asked Simpson directly if he killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson did not give an answer.
As for evidence discovered after the fact, Felix is ready with an O.J.-ism.
"O.J. has a saying," Felix says. "'If the knife is rusted, I can't be busted.'"
Somewhere, even Johnnie Cochran is sighing.
While promoting his book for the past few months, Felix has depicted Simpson as a "model inmate." Felix says O.J. "treats everybody politely," but also is "allowed to cut in line -- nobody really cares."
Felix worked at Lovelock for seven years while Simpson was incarcerated. He says all inmates and guards have to wear ID cards, with the exception of Simpson.
"When O.J. was first in the system, two guards were fired for making an extra ID card and taking it home," Felix says.
As the New York Post's Richard Johnson jokes, "An official O.J. ID card is presumably valuable as a collectible."
But America should brace itself: Simpson could soon be making a return to the free world in 2017. Says Felix: "All he thinks about is parole."
-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.
