Ex-LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, key figure in OJ Simpson trial, dies at 74
Former Los Angeles Police Department detective Mark Fuhrman, a central figure in the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died at age 74.
The Kootenai County Coroner’s Office confirmed to NBC4 Investigates that Fuhrman died in the last week. NBCLA has reached out to family members for comment.
Details about a cause of death were not immediately available. TMZ, which was first to report Fuhrman’s death, reported he died from an aggressive form of cancer.
Fuhrman, who more recently authored true crime books and hosted a talk radio program, testified in 1995 about evidence, including the infamous bloody glove, during the trial of Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson’s defense team questioned Fuhrman’s credibility and presented recordings — excerpts from an interview with a screenwriter — of Fuhrman using racist language, something he had earlier denied at the trial.
Simpson, who died in April 2024, was acquitted.
His defense team suggested evidence in the case was planted by Fuhrman, an accusation the detective denied. The glove found at Simpson’s Rockingham residence, determined to be a mate of one found at the murder scene in Brentwood, was a key part of the prosecution’s case — DNA tests showed it was soaked in the victims’ blood.
When Simpson was asked to put on the gloves in a courtroom demonstration, he appeared to struggle to pull them over his hands.
Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department in August 1995 as the trial was ongoing.
In a 1996 interview with ABC-TV, Fuhrman said, “There was never a shred, never a hint, never a possibility, not a remote, not a million-, not a billion-to-one possibility I could have planted anything. Nor would I have a reason to.”
In his 1997 book “Murder in Brentwood,” Fuhrman again apologized for the racist remarks and offered his perspective on the Simpson murder investigation.
Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in 1995. In 1996, he pleaded no contest of a felony count of perjury stemming from his use of the racial epithets.
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