Former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman Dies at 74

Fuhrman was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He reported finding a bloody glove at Simpson’s home. His credibility came under attack during the trial as the defense raised the prospect of racial bias.

Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs over the previous 10 years. A recording made by an aspiring screenwriter showed he had done so repeatedly. The defense produced the tape after Fuhrman testified under oath he had never used the racial slur.

Soon after the trial, Fuhrman pleaded no contest to perjury charges and was placed on probation. He retired from the Los Angeles Police Department and moved to Sandpoint, Idaho. Fuhrman apologized publicly for using racial slurs in the past and insisted he did not try to frame Simpson with the bloody glove.

He went on to become a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the killings. ” He named Michael Skakel, a cousin to the Kennedy family, as Moxley’s likely murderer. Fuhrman’s discredited testimony at the Simpson trial came back to haunt him in 2024 when he was barred from law enforcement under a new California law directed at officers who act criminally.

Fuhrman was married and divorced three times and is survived by a son and a daughter.