Detective Mark Fuhrman, whose frequent use of the N-word was the basis of O.J. Simpson’s successful defense in his double murder case, is providing commentary for Fox News as the former football star seeks parole for his robbery sentence. Let’s learn more about the ex-cop whose racial slurs helped Simpson go free.
1. Before the Simpson case, Furhman took part in taped interviews with a screenwriter in which he used the N-word 41 times. Judge Lance Ito determined that in all uses, Furhman was using the word in “a disparaging manner.”
At one point he said, “all these n—ers in L.A. City government … should be lined up against a wall and fucking shot.” But don’t take our word for it; here’s a court transcript.
2. Fuhrman later explained the tapes, which were filled with sexist and racist accounts, and tales of police abuses, by writing in his book, “Murder in Brentwood”: “Throughout the interviews, I was creating fictional situations, sometimes based loosely on the true incidents … I can see the misguided, get-rich-quick mentality I had then. Hearing my ugly words and not knowing the context, the public was understandably outraged.”
3. The defense almost immediately focused on Fuhrman as a weak point in the case against Simpson. In July 1994, a month after Simpson’s arrest, New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin published evidence that in the ’80s Fuhrman was either “dangerously unbalanced” or had faked mental problems to win a pension.
In that story, Fuhrman denied planting a bloody glove on Simpson’s property to frame him for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
4. Defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran tried to warn prosecutor Chris Darden about Fuhrman. Darden writes in his book “In Contempt” that Cochran told him: “This shouldn’t be your issue. Let these white people get up there and argue about Fuhrman. OK?”
5. Darden says Fuhrman confessed to him that he collected Nazi medals. He wrote that Fuhrman told him: “I like to collect World War II memorabilia … Don’t take this the wrong way, but I collect German medals.”
If you made it this far, you might also enjoy our list of 9 Bizarre Details ‘The People v OJ Simpson’ Didn’t Include…
And our look at OJ Simpson’s Evolution From Football Star to Prisoner.