Fuhrman’s New Beginning Former L.A. Cop Finds Support Among Sandpoint Residents

What a difference a best seller makes.

In the course of just a few months, the man whom many blamed for O.J. Simpson’s acquittal has gone from virtual recluse to a smiling public figure.

“People thought I would go to Idaho and hide,” Mark Fuhrman said. “That’s the problem with not knowing me. They don’t know what I’m made of, that I’m not going to quit fighting because that round is over.”

The retired L.A. detective has been reborn thanks to his memoir “Murder in Brentwood,” the latest of the 60-some books already written about the Simpson murder case.

Fuhrman sat behind a desk with a pen Saturday as a huge crowd gathered at Sandpoint’s Vanderford’s Bookstore. He cheerfully signed copies of his book in his impeccable longhand.

Dan Fairchild of Spokane had arrived a couple of hours before the store opened to be one of the first in line. “I would love to sit down and have dinner with him,” Fairchild said. “I feel like he has gotten a raw deal.”

That sentiment was echoed by many. Esther McClellan, of Sandpoint, said Fuhrman “got screwed.”

“I hope he makes a million bucks off this book,” she said.

One group traveled from Oregon for the signing and 31 people flew up from Boise. But it was largely a show of local support.

Gail Shamp of Sandpoint said, “Fortunately we live in a part of the country where people are open-minded.”

Fuhrman has lived in North Idaho for about two years now, moving his family to this region not to flee a murder trial gone bad, he said, but to escape the rat race and the oppressive heat of Southern California.

“What a lot of people don’t understand is that I planned to move to Sandpoint long before things started going sideways in the trial,” Fuhrman, 45, said during a recent interview at the town’s Whistle Stop Cafe.

In person, Fuhrman’s hard-edged on-camera demeanor softens. He looks relaxed sipping lemonade with his arm draped over the back of a chair.

The last time Fuhrman talked to The Spokesman-Review wasn’t so congenial, and culminated in an altercation with a photographer. (For details, check out page 135 of the book.)

During this nearly three-hour interview, Fuhrman talked with a quiet intensity about how the so-called trial of the century forever changed his life, about the relief that has come with telling his side of the story in the book, and about his life in North Idaho.

When Fuhrman speaks of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, it’s as if the heinous crime happened just yesterday.

“It’s been two years and eight months, and I haven’t forgotten it for one day,” he said. “Even when I’m out hunting or fishing and it’s quiet out there, it creeps in, like water under the door. You think about the what-ifs.”

What if key evidence had been collected? What if detectives had conducted a more thorough interrogation of Simpson? What if race had not become a pivotal issue in the trial? What if Fuhrman himself hadn’t lied on the stand?

In the book, which was penned with the help of a ghostwriter, Fuhrman lays out his view of how the investigation was bungled. He says evidence seen by him and his partner, Brad Roberts, was never collected because the detectives who took over the case failed to read Fuhrman’s notes. That incriminating list includes a bloody fingerprint at the murder scene and an empty Swiss Army knife box, a bloody fingerprint in the maid’s bathroom and dark sweats in the washing machine, all at O.J. Simpson’s estate.

“Why it wasn’t collected, I will never understand,” he said. “You’ll never see this much evidence again.”

When “Murder in Brentwood” hit the shelves, the detectives Fuhrman lambasted fired back with a 15-page statement.

“Mark Fuhrman’s book … is a desperate, cynical and cowardly attempt to redeem himself at our expense,” wrote Tom Lange and Philip Vannatter.

Fuhrman countered: “I feel sorry for those guys, if the only way they can defend themselves is by calling me a liar and a coward.”

As for his role in the trial, Fuhrman will never live down those tapes that recorded him using the N-word, not once but more than 40 times, during a brainstorming session with an aspiring screenwriter in 1988.

For many people, it confirmed the image of big-city policemen persecuting minorities.

But Fuhrman contends he was only “acting” the part of a tough-talking cop when he spoke to the screenwriter.

He dedicates the book’s prologue to expressing his remorse.

“An apology for the racial unrest I caused seems painfully inadequate,” he wrote. “My immature, irresponsible ramblings with a screenwriter were never intended to be heard by anyone but the two of us. … People I never met, saw or heard of were affected by my cruel words. These words echoed in my mind daily and I am ashamed.”

Still, some never will be convinced. Geraldo Rivera asked Fuhrman repeatedly if he was a racist during a recent broadcast.

“How do you defend yourself from that charge? If I say I have friends who happen to be black, that sounds like a cliche. I’m not trying to downplay what was said. I’m trying to bring it into perspective,” Fuhrman said.

“The one thing that bothered me most about all this attention is that we didn’t deal with the issues. Two people are dead.”

Writing the book proved therapeutic for Fuhrman. “Can you imagine sitting on this stuff for two years, knowing what I know and not being able to defend myself? But I’m glad I kept my mouth shut.”

He waited to release his book until the civil case had ended and because “a year ago, nobody would have listened to me,” he said.

They’re listening now.

Fuhrman has been on nearly every talk show and news program listed in TV Guide. “Murder in Brentwood” is No. 2 on The New York Times best-seller list. He’s done dozens of radio shows. He’s been featured in People magazine and Vanity Fair.

One of Fuhrman’s close friends, Jeff Free, is another California transplant who moved to Sandpoint for the fishing and hunting. He said he has noticed a change in Fuhrman since the book came out.

“He can even smile and laugh a little now,” said Free, who thinks of Fuhrman like a brother. “He was under incredible stress for two years, but he kept it to himself. I couldn’t have done that. I would have popped.”

And people who have read the book have been incredibly supportive.

“I’ve met so many nice, compassionate people who say they feel terrible about what has been done to me,” Fuhrman said. “People have told me they thought he (Simpson) was innocent or had doubts until they read the book.”

Unlike the other books on the trial, Fuhrman’s account is light on personal details. “That would have been a yawn,” he said.

In an illuminating profile in the January issue of Vanity Fair, Fuhrman describes his less-than-ideal childhood growing up in Eatonville, a tiny town in southwestern Washington.

Abandoned by his father when he was 7, Fuhrman often cared for his younger brother while his mother worked.

“You know, most of my life was come home, mom’s at work, I got to do the dishes, take care of my younger brother, clean the house,” he said.

The family also moved frequently, leaving Fuhrman feeling unsettled.

Later, he embraced the structure and stability of the Marines, then the Los Angeles Police Department.

“It probably sounds a little vain, but I had a knack for it,” he said. “I drove a lot of partners crazy, but I enjoyed wasting 30 hours on a crime scene. Just sitting and staring, taking it all in.”

He doesn’t miss L.A., but he misses his friends there and he misses being a cop.

The Fuhrmans - Mark, his wife, Caroline, and their daughter and son, who will turn 6 and 4 this month - moved to Sandpoint two years ago for the good private schools, the hunting and fishing and the welcoming townspeople.

“The people of Sandpoint do not have an agenda. They did not pre-judge me,” he wrote in his book. “Instead they gave me a chance to show who I really am, and many have embraced me.”

When the media camped out in front of his house during the trial, neighbors chased reporters away or created diversions so Fuhrman could slip out to his job as an apprentice with a local electrician.

In Sandpoint, Fuhrman can be “just Mark.” He can get his fill of hunting and fishing, and take advantage of the cultural opportunities the town has to offer.

“Sandpoint is like a miniature Aspen or Sun Valley,” he said. “There are great restaurants and bars with all kinds of music. How many towns of 5,000 have their own community theater? There’s something going on here every week.”

Last year, the Fuhrmans moved to a 20-acre farm, where they raise chickens, goats, sheep and llamas. His wife, who Fuhrman said really should have been a vet, has horses.

“I can turn my kids loose out the back door, tell them to stay out of the horse corral and not to tease the sheep and not worry about something happening to them. It’s a great place to have kids,” he said.

The money he’s made from the book - his advance is reported to be in the six figures - helped build a barn and a wood fence at his place. He’s going to splurge on a new engine and paint job for his 1970 Ford pickup.

The rest will go toward a college fund for his children, but aside from that Fuhrman said his life won’t change dramatically.

“It’s my children’s life who will be different. They will reap the financial benefits,” he said.

Fuhrman does look forward to the day when he can put this all behind him - when he can play pick-up basketball at City Beach or go hunting with his buddies without thinking about O.J. Simpson.

For now, though, he seems comfortable in the role of best-selling author.

All this attention, though, has taken its toll on his wife, he said.

“She didn’t marry a celebrity. She didn’t marry an enigma. She doesn’t like special treatment. It’s disarming. It bothers her,” he said.

In the book, Caroline comes across as a rock of support for her beleaguered husband of nine years.

Her friend, Darla Free, said she has long admired the woman’s strength.

“Caroline’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met,” she said. “She’s stood by her husband while trying to maintain a normal life for her family. She’s done a great job keeping her kids out of the public eye.”

Chances are Fuhrman will remain in the public eye for some time.

There’s already some interest in turning “Murder in Brentwood” into a movie. And he’s been asked to write another nonfiction book about another crime.

Who would he like to portray him if his story ever made it to the big screen?

“Tom Berenger. He looks a little old, a little beat-up. Like someone who’s got some integrity,” he said.

What would make Fuhrman’s transformation complete is a pardon from his perjury conviction from the governor of California, though it’s only wishful thinking at this point.

“I’m not done yet. I’m not ready to let this go. They thought I would go and hide in Idaho, but they don’t know me,” he said. “If they won’t pardon me, then maybe we’d better investigate about five other people for perjury.”

The perjury charge was strictly a political ploy, he said. And in the prologue of his own book about the Simpson-Goldman murders, noted attorney Vincent Bugliosi wrote, “Fuhrman’s alleged lie about not using a racial slur within the previous 10 years was not, in my judgment, perjury, since it had nothing to do with whether or not Simpson was guilty or not guilty of these murders.”

At Saturday’s book signing, that appeared to be the last thing on Fuhrman’s mind. As people stepped up to the table where he was signing, he shook their hands, posed for pictures, talked trucks and thanked everyone for their support.

“He couldn’t have been nicer,” said McClellan.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)