Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective who became infamous as one of the lead officials investigating O.J. Simpson after the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman, has died. He was 74.
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Fuhrman’s death was confirmed Monday by Lynette Acebedo, the chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho.
“There will be no other information provided through this office,” Acebedo said in a brief statement.
Born Feb. 5, 1952, Fuhrman was an obscure homicide detective who became instantly famous after he found a bloody glove on Simpson’s property the night of the 1994 slayings.
But the testimony of Fuhrman, who was white, was called into question during the double murder trial when Simpson’s defense team raised the prospect of racial bias.
Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made racial slurs. But his credibility took a hit when the defense produced recordings of him making racist statements and using the N-word to describe suspects.
When Simpson was acquitted after a contentious trial that was closely followed by the public, Fuhrman was blamed in part for the verdict.
Simpson, a former NFL star and actor, was later found civilly liable for wrongful death in the double homicide case and ordered to pay $33 million to Goldman’s family — damages that were never paid in full before he died in 2024.
Soon after the trial, Fuhrman pleaded no contest to perjury charges and was placed on probation. He retired from the police department and moved to Sandpoint, Idaho.
But he did not disappear completely.
Fuhrman apologized publicly for using racial slurs in the past and insisted repeatedly that he didn’t 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.
Later, Fuhrman delved into another sensational murder, that of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, in his true crime book “Murder in Greenwich.” He named Michael Skakel, a cousin to the fabled Kennedy family, as Moxley’s likely murderer.
Skakel’s conviction for killing Moxley was overturned in 2013.
But 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, according to The New York Times.