The series about the Simpson case has shown the kind of self-centeredness of Detective Fuhrman that makes him an unlikeable character. Narcissism is not just a problem for OJ.
Fuhrman talks a lot about the case in his book MURDER IN BRENTWOOD. His book is so full of himself it is almost laughable. His arrogance and lack of professionalism are obvious in his description of what he did that early morning. First, he makes himself at home on the couch in the Bundy condo after he has toured the crime scene. Second, his critique of Vannatter and Lange for their failures to do their duties is gratuitous, because third, Fuhrman’s description of his own actions which show he was as inept as they had been when he was left in charge for periods of time at Rockingham and Bundy.
He is just the kind of person who would find a way to become the center of attention in any circumstance. So he was in his element when the call came that the ex-wife of OJ Simpson had just been murdered.
The moment he learned that he was being replaced as lead detective, he looked for a way to be so important to the case that he would be in the middle of it anyway. Here is what I think he did, based on his own book, which Jeffery Toobin accepted as fact for THE RUN OF HIS LIFE.
The following was also how the defense understood Detective Fuhrman’s role. We may see that in Episode Nine or Ten of AMERICAN CRIME STORY.
I am following the LAPD timeline from the previous blog posting, put together in the order gleaned from the series writers of the TV show and the specific times provided from the book KILLING TIME by Freed and Briggs.
Because Rockingham and Bundy were five minutes apart, Fuhrman would be able to leave and return with hardly anyone noticing. With so many officers around, he would not be missed, especially if he usually operated in seclusion, like the inside of the condo to make notes. He figured that by taking one of the pieces of evidence from Bundy and depositing it somewhere else, and then being the one to find it, he could take back the attention he enjoyed. Before joining his partner and his captain on the corner, he picked up one of the gloves and put it into an evidence bag. The glove would still be wet with blood two or three hours after the likely time of death. He figured that OJ would be the prime suspect. Significant others, even divorced ones like OJ, usually did it.
As they stood there waiting for Vannatter and Lange, about 3:30 or so, he probably excused himself to go to the bathroom, climbed into his car and drove over to Rockingham. He may even have taken his partner. Chachi, the watchdog, would be no bother. He and the dog were buddies from many previous visits. Parking further down Rockingham, walking up to the estate, and then climbing the wall, he would check out likely spots to put the glove. The foot traffic around these mansions at 3:30 in the morning would be less than around the Bundy site with all its condos. According to his book, Fuhrman went along the unused walkway next to the garage. He ran into a problem, he wrote: cobwebs. He turned that into a verbal drama in his book, making it scary because he could not see that far in front of him, and making it brave, because he soldiered through it with his gun at the ready and the flashlight showing the way. He went the length of the walkway and got no brilliant ideas about where to plant the glove.
When he returned to where a street light shown on Rockingham, he realized his jacket was full of cobwebs and that he’d have a devil of a time explaining them. Still hanging on to the evidence bag with the glove in it, he knew he had to somehow get back to Rockingham and see if anyone there could say something that would give him an idea where to plant it.
Rosa Lopez testified to hearing a loud argument somewhere around 3 am and it could have been Fuhrman and his partner arguing over the cobwebs on the jacket, not leaving the evidence, and how to get back to drop it later.
Fuhrman could also have had along his dog-handling friend who still had blood on his uniform from the dog at Bundy. He might have had him climb into the Bronco at this point. Or the friend may have been among the officers who followed the four detectives when they came to Rockingham around sunrise.
Upon returning to Bundy by 4 am, Fuhrman left the jacket in the car and rejoined the captain at the corner to wait for the detectives from downtown. Vannatter showed up just after that and Lange arrived about 4:30. It is unlikely Fuhrman told them of his plan. Really all he had to do was have his partner tell them that he was familiar with OJ’s home and they’d likely let him lead them there. To show his humility, he pretended to need to be reminded and got directions from another officer. He and his partner then led the way, arriving a little after 5 am. The two lead detectives, like Fuhrman, believed in the theory about estranged partners usually being the killers so they were ready to presume OJ was guilty and would be looking for any sign that pointed in his direction.
When they arrived at the estate, Fuhrman struck gold. Kato Kaelin had this weird story about bumps on his back wall at about 10:40 or so. That left Fuhrman with the problem of how to get the glove back there. He decided to see if anyone was awake next door, since it was daylight. The housekeeper, Rosa Lopez, talked about hearing the argument around 3 am. He asked if he could check the back yard that abutted the Simpson estate and got permission. In his book, he spoke about going into the yard to have a look.
I think it was then that he took the still wet glove from the plastic evidence bad and slipped it over the fence just below Kaelin’s air conditioner.
He then was in a position to get the other detectives and lead them to the glove.
That confirmed Vannatter’s belief that OJ was the culprit. But he knew it would take more evidence than just that so he got extra blood from OJ when he interviewed him that afternoon. Vannatter would have had plenty of time to leaves drops of OJ's blood at the Bundy crime scene before returning to Rockingham by 4 pm. And he probably did take samples of blood from the autopsies of Nicole and Ron, which he and Lange witnessed the next morning. With the three vials of blood, Vannatter was in a position to spread it wherever it would do the investigation the most good, mainly the Bronco and the back gate at Bundy which were not examined until weeks after the crime.
Fuhrman wasn’t finished. While Vannatter and Lange were interviewing OJ downtown, Fuhrman was in charge at Rockingham. He had plenty of time to hunt up something innocuous like socks. So he drives back to Bundy, looks around as if he is “detecting,” dips the two socks into a bloody spot and returns to Rockingham, plants the socks on the floor of OJ’s bedroom where the photographer later photographs them.
This narrative of how things could have happened explains how it is that the glove got where it did, how the socks were not in the first photo of OJ’s bedroom and were there on the floor late that afternoon when another photo was taken, and how the socks had parallel blood spots, as if they had been side-by-side and flat when the blood soaked into them. The press would not have understood any of Fuhrman’s coming and going, if he were even noticed, as part of the framing of OJ.
After all, it was not the press who noticed Lange’s keeping OJ’s shoes overnight nor Vannatter’s ignorance of the street lingo surrounding the Colombian cartel. It was the defense’s investigators.
Please understand that this telling does not prove OJ was innocent. It just shows how the LAPD could have easily “enhanced” their case against their chief suspect. We have yet to explore OJ’s alibi and the actual murders themselves.
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