For someone whose name was, in the mid-1990s, probably one of the top five most recognized names in America, coverage of the recent passing of former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman was almost anticlimactic.
Mark Fuhrman served on the LAPD from 1975-1995 and became famous for finding the glove that contained the blood of football legend O.J. Simpson and the two murder victims, O.J.’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. The glove(s) and Fuhrman became, in the public mind, a tremendous part of the presumed guilt or innocence in two ways. The first was “if it (the gloves) doesn't fit, then you must acquit,” and the second was the insinuation from the defense that Mark Fuhrman planted the glove as part of a frame-up against O.J. Simpson. This insinuation came from the fact that Fuhrman said he had not used the “N word” in the last ten years before 1995, when he had.
Like most conspiracy theories, the Fuhrman theory is ludicrous and would require coordination beyond what is possible even in the most exceptional circumstances. It also does not pass the vibe check.
Perhaps first and foremost, O.J. Simpson is the last person a racist LAPD would have wanted to frame. There may have been no black celebrity in America who forgot his upbringing more than O.J. Simpson. O.J. was friendly with the police, married a white woman, played golf at country clubs that had a not-too-long-before policy of segregation, and stayed in the whitest of neighborhoods.
Paraphrasing Vincent Bugliosi, the former LAPD prosecutor who tried Charles Manson, O.J. would have needed a road map to find his way back to the hood.
Also, in such a prominent case, such as that of the ex-wife of O.J. Simpson, if O.J. had been framed, surely the chance of the real killer’s identity becoming known would have been strong.
Second, framing Simpson could have resulted in Fuhrman’s execution. In California in 1994, framing someone for murder, in a death penalty case, made the person liable for that death as if they had committed the murder. The LAPD has had a history of excessive force, but straight-up framing someone is a rarity, and most especially for murder. The punishment for framing someone is the reason why.
Third was the DNA evidence, i.e., O.J.’s blood and the victims', found all over the place. DNA can't be fabricated into another person’s DNA. It is impossible. Only the DNA of two victims, Ron and Nicole, as well as that of O.J., was ever found. The gloves were an extremely rare pair that O.J. denied ever having — a denial later proven false during his later civil trial.
For the allegations against Mark Fuhrman, namely that he planted evidence (and by insinuation the other LAPD officers) it would require several conspiracies working in tandem, with different LAPD teams across Simpson’s estate and Nicole’s. In the pre-mainstream cell phone days, they would have had to have concocted the most fantastic scheme in history. We can imagine it now:
“Hey guys, we haven’t done this before, but let’s do it now. We haven’t worked together for the most part but let’s do it now. And with a murder case, not a drug one. And a famous person at that. And even better, the police friendly O.J. Simpson. That’ll really show 'em.
Simpson has even agreed to help us by acting like the guiltiest person on earth, agreeing to sweat profusely, being late for his limo pickup and later fleeing with a disguise purchased a few weeks prior to the murders. He had over $8k in cash, and his passport which he said he always keeps in his Ford Bronco (even though he fled in the Bronco of his buddy) and more. He will not even ask how his wife died when we call him about it.”
While there was plenty of criticism of Mark Fuhrman during and in the aftermath of the O.J. Simpson case, none of the criticism came from the scores of people arrested by Fuhrman over the course of a 20-year LAPD career. Not a single person he arrested said that he or she were framed by the former LAPD detective, especially in the immediate, and very litigious (and very lucrative) atmosphere in the trial and post-trial days.
Mark Fuhrman went on to have a career as a commentator and author of best-selling true crime books. His subjects extended to the JFK Assassination, the Martha Moxley murder, and other cases. Fuhrman also hosted a radio show. While his legacy is understandably mixed, Mark Fuhrman was the last person in the world who would have wanted to plant evidence on O.J. Simpson.
Views expressed are those of the author and not any government agency.