Mark Fuhrman Dead: LAPD Detective In O.J. Simpson Murder Trial Was 74

Mark Fuhrman, the former LAPD detective who discovered the bloody glove that became as pivotal to the O.J. Simpson murder trial as the epithet-spewing cop himself would be, died Tuesday, May 12, in Idaho, where he resided. He was 74.

The Kootenai County Coroner Office confirmed to Deadline on Monday that Furman died last week. The infamous LAPD detective had been suffering from cancer for “a while,” a well-placed source tells us.

Fuhrman, whose post-LAPD career included writing true crime books, as well as broadcasting stints on radio and television, including for Fox News, retired from the LAPD in August 1995.

His role in the Simpson trial, in which the accused murderer’s defense team portrayed Fuhrman as an avowed racist who frequently used the n-word, was pivotal in the jury’s decision to acquit the Hall of Fame football star-turned-actor. Fuhrman repeatedly denied the accusations.

Fuhrman’s discovery of a bloody glove on the property of the slaughtered Nicole Brown Simpson — and the claim that the glove belonged to O.J. Simpson — was meant to be a key piece of evidence in trial, but the defense suggestion that Fuhrman planted the evidence out of racism backfired for the prosecution. The glove became the focus of the trial in one of the most notorious televised moments from the entire proceeding when Simpson, already wearing rubber evidence gloves, struggled to put on the bloody glove.

“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” said defense attorney Johnnie Cochran in his closing statements.

Fuhrman was played by actor Steven Pasquale on the Fox limited series American Crime Story.

Simpson died in 2024.