From the Ashes of Tragedy

"From the Ashes of Tragedy" is the first episode of American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson. It was written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. It aired on February 2, 2016.

In the early morning of June 13, 1994, the slaughtered bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are found at the entrance of Brown's Brentwood condo. Suspicion falls on Brown's ex-husband, NFL superstar and actor O. J. Simpson. District attorney Marcia Clark immediately takes the case and discovers that Simpson had beaten his ex-wife multiple times in the past. Meanwhile, high-powered black defense attorney Johnnie Cochran challenges a fellow black attorney, Christopher Darden, for not standing up for his race in his work as a prosecutor. Simpson is questioned by police detectives and his responses are vague, unreliable, and do not establish a timeline for June 12, angering Clark who suspects that Simpson is guilty. Robert Kardashian talks Simpson into hiring celebrity lawyer Robert Shapiro as his new attorney. Simpson is found to be suicidal and has a gun, and Kardashian attempts to calm him down. Police officers then arrive to arrest Simpson for the double murder; however, he has disappeared. Kardashian, Shapiro, and the police search the house before Kardashian realizes that Simpson had disappeared with Al Cowlings in Simpson's white Ford Bronco.