Legacy of Deception: An Investigation of Mark Fuhrman and Racism in the L. A. P. D.

by Stephen Singular

Contends that the racist history of the Los Angeles Police Department supports the probability that the blood evidence presented by the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson murder trial was planted by Detective Mark Fuhrman.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

Audio Cassette

Published December 1, 1995

About the author

Stephen Singular is the author or co-author of 22 non-fiction books, many of them about high-profile criminal cases. He’s also written sports and business biographies and social commentary. Two of the books have been “New York Times” bestsellers.

His first book, Talked to Death, set the tone for his journalistic career. Published in 1987, it chronicled the assassination of a Denver Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg, by a group of neo-Nazis known as The Order. The book was nominated for a national award — the Edgar for true crime — and became the basis for the 1989 Oliver Stone film, “Talk Radio.” Talked to Death was translated into several languages and explored the timeless American themes of racism, class, violence, and religious intolerance.

Reviews

[Qelilah]

I listened to this all the way through in 1 day. It is very interesting. I want to interject a thought since the thought of Rodney King was interjected by the author. Before Rodney King's trial, there was a young girl who was going to buy something in a Korean store. The girl got angry, put the item on the counter, turned and walked away and was shot in the back. The Korean lady was acquitted. So it was not that Mr. King did not get justice, it was the culmination of injustices in cases that seemed to be slam dunks, but turned out to be jaw dropping miscarriages of justice. Thus, my favorite person in the book is the informer. Excellent.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book 3 times. It's impossible to put down. It reads like a mystery novel even though it's non-fiction and we all know how it ends. Extremely well written. If you think you know what happened with the famous double murder and trial of O.J. Simpson, if you haven't read this book, you don't really don't know anything. Not just the best true crime book ever written, but one of the best books period ever written.

[Fred · Rating 3 out of 5]

This boils down to a series of frustrating interactions between Singular, his source and also Singular and the defense and even Chris Darden from the prosecution. It seems like some of the evidence about Fuhrman tampering with evidence was in the trial and then promptly dropped. At the end, Singular is left wondering why the defense only hinted at evidence tampering even though the thrust of the case was race.