Murder in Brentwood

by Mark Fuhrman, Vincent Bugliosi (Foreword by)

Overview

For audiences of the popular FX television series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, based on Jeffrey Toobin's The Run of His Life and starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, and Courtney B. Vance. Named on Vogue Magazine's "American Crime Story Reading List" as one of the "eight definitive books on the trial of the century."

Twenty years ago, America was captivated by the awful drama of the O.J. Simpson trial. The Simpson "Dream Team" legal defense had a seemingly impossible task: convincing a jury that their client was innocent of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In order for O.J. Simpson to get away with murder, the defense attorneys had to destroy the reputation of Mark Fuhrman, a brilliant Los Angeles detective who was the lead on the murder scene and had collected overwhelming physical evidence against Simpson. Now Fuhrman tells his side of the story in the #1 New York Times bestseller Murder in Brentwood, a damning exposé that reveals why and how Simpson's prosecution was bungled. Fuhrman offers a sincere mea culpa for allowing his personal mistakes to become a focal point of the defense's strategy but also stands by the evidence he collected, writing: "One thing I will not apologize for is my policework on the O.J. Simpson case."

With Fuhrman's own hand-drawn maps of the crime scene, his reconstruction of the murders, and interrogation transcripts, Murder in Brentwood is the book that sets the record straight about what really happened on June 12, 1994—and reveals why the O.J. Simpson trial was such a catastrophe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621573210
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	10/27/2014
Series:	American Crime Stories Series
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	162,223
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mark Fuhrman is a former LAPD detective, true crime writer, and talk radio host. He is primarily known for his part in the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and for his subsequent felony conviction for perjury.

Read an Excerpt

From Chapter 2:

The phone rang at 1:05 the morning of June 13, 1994. I woke up and went into the kitchen to answer it, knowing full well it probably wasn’t a social call. I immediately recognized the voice of Ron Phillips, my good friend and boss in West LA Homicide.

“We’ve got a double homicide,” he said. “One of the victims might be the wife of O.J. Simpson.”
I wasn’t on call to handle a homicide that weekend, but I knew that if Ron called me, he needed the extra help. We agreed to meet at the station, gather our gear, and get a car.

On the drive over, I went through a mental checklist, as I often do. What would I need at the scene? What particular problems does a double homicide present? By anticipating certain challenges, I thought I would be better prepared to meet them. But there was no way to prepare for the case I was about to get involved in.

Ron and I met at the station shortly before 2:00 a.m. We got our briefcases, flashlights, and other gear, then drove to the crime scene at 875 South Bundy Drive, arriving at 2:10. Two black and white police vehicles were parked in the middle of the street. My friend Sergeant Marty Coon was standing nearby with Sergeant Dave Rossi, the West LA watch commander.

Officer Robert Riske had been the first on the scene. I knew Riske only casually from previous arrests, but my impression was that he was quiet, professional, and competent. His performance at this crime scene did not disappoint me. He did an outstanding job under the circumstances.

Riske told us how he had discovered the victims’ bodies, where he had been, and what he had seen. Even without Riske’s direction, it was easy to see the blood-stained sidewalk and large canine paw prints in red leading away from the residence.

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE	xxi
PART ONE: The Investigation
CHAPTER 1 Nolo Contendere	3
CHAPTER 2 Murder in Brentwood	11
CHAPTER 3 The Rockingham Estate	25
CHAPTER 4 Costly Errors	45
CHAPTER 5 The Interrogation	59
CHAPTER 6 Slow-Speed Pursuit	77
CHAPTER 7 The Scheme Team	87
CHAPTER 8 Witness for the People	93
CHAPTER 9 The Defense Card	105
CHAPTER 10 The Allegations and the Facts	119
CHAPTER 11 Living in a Fishbowl	133
CHAPTER 12 The Judge and His Wife	141
CHAPTER 13 The Evidence	155
PART TWO: The Trial
CHAPTER 14 The Prosecution's Case	171
CHAPTER 15 The Murder Weapon	193
CHAPTER 16 Hypothesis of a Murder	207
CHAPTER 17 Marcia's Case	217
CHAPTER 18 Darden for theDefense	227
CHAPTER 19 Taking the Stand	235
CHAPTER 20 Crossing the Line	243
CHAPTER 21 Center Stage	255
CHAPTER 22 Defending the Indefensible	263
CHAPTER 23 The Tapes	269
CHAPTER 24 Taking the Fifth	285
CHAPTER 25 Closing Arguments	293
CHAPTER 26 Verdict	301
CHAPTER 27 Aftermath	313
APPENDIX A Interrogation Text	327
APPENDIX B Search Warrants	353
INDEX	381

Editorial Reviews

"This pivotal witness in the most dramatic murder trial of the decade now speaks for himself—his anger, his apologies, and his regrets."
— Diane Sawyer

From the Publisher