|
Tombstone Epitaph The case that Mark Fuhrman makes against himself in Murder in Brentwood can’t be fully appreciated until you track the cinematic elements of the case he makes against O.J. Simpson. They are “unreal, appearances only. They are shadows, illusions, nothing but ghosts of reality. They are lies...” If the words above sound familiar, it is most likely because you are a fan of Star Trek with William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelley as McCoy and James Doohan as Scotty. In the third season "Spectre of theGun" episode, Spock uses those words in a Vulcan “mind meld” to protect Kirk, McCoy and Scotty from illusions so real that any trace of belief that they are real could kill them.
George Takei as Sulu is the helmsman of the 24th century Star Ship Enterprise. Sulu is Fuhrman’s direct link to Star Trek. Although Sulu did not appear in “Spectre of the Gun,” he was established as a collector of “ancient guns” in the “Shore Leave” episode of the series where he finds a police special on an uncharted planet. In Murder in Brentwood, Fuhrman establishes himself as a collector of guns from the Old West. In his Murder in Greenwich movie, the actor playing Tommy Skakel in the driving lesson scene jokingly calls Martha Moxley (the "helmsman" of his father's Lincoln) “Sulu.”
The Mothers poem photo in Murder in Brentwood says as much about where Fuhrman got the imagery to convey his thoughts as he did with words in any chapter of the book. It was almost as though he needed them to organize those thoughts as stepping stones to his major goals.
I have to admit that the photo creeped me out. It reminded me of a novel I read about a sociopathic serial killer who imitated socially sensitive emotions but didn’t quite have the hang of showing them. If you saw the first few episodes of Dexter, you know what I mean. Even his strict “code” against killing innocent people is to protect himself from getting tripped up by his murderous impulses.
You can’t write a book or screenplay about a sociopath without that “narcissistic, self-indulgent” trait because it is the defining characteristic of a sociopathic personality. Mark Fuhrman’s LAPD Pension Board flagged it as his defining personality trait.
Murderous characters like Rhoda in The Bad Seed (’56) and Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt (’43) share this sociopathic characteristic. This is also how Fuhrman presented himself on the Laura Hart McKinny tapes. He explained in Murder in Brentwood that he was playing the part of a composite character he created for their screenplay project. He actually said that he modeled his "character" on movies and TV characters. He even named some of them. But when you track them down you find that the actor playing the character or someone else in the movie takes you to more movies and more TV shows with more actors and scenes uniquely significant to him.
That’s where the creepiness in the Mothers poem photo slithers into movies and TV shows. I can only guess that the bent knee, the flowers, the doll and the words on the paper were supposed to convey feelings of sorrow and loss for Nicole. But how could they, arranged as they were so mechanically, on a walkway marred with her dried blood? It was more a tribute to the visual composition skill of the person who set up the shot than the slain mother of two small children.
The remnants of blood in and overflowing the grout had to be from the gruesome slash in Nicole Simpson’s throat. What about the mystery of whether the photo was taken inside or outside of the gate? Why only one flower at the base of the paper and something matching its size and color painted on the paper between the first two lines of the poem? These were unnecessary mysteries like why the tiny rag doll was in the picture and why the knee wasn’t cropped out. They could not have appeared in one photo by chance with no caption by the author of the book they appeared in to explain them.
None of that, however, was as unsettling to me as the propped up paper that the Mothers poem was written on. It looked too much like a tombstone. The Mothers poem looked too much like an epitaph.
I could never shake the idea that the paper with the Mothers poem on it was intended to symbolize a tombstone with the tile at its base symbolizing the earth over a grave. When you isolate those elements, notice how little you have to do with them to make a tombstone marking the head of a grave explicit. You don’t need much imagination because you don’t have to “create” anything. A little stretching here (to the edge of Fuhrman’s page), some line extending and filling there (on the paper), and you’ve got it.
An ordinary sheet of paper used to symbolic a tombstone makes it relatively straight on top. Because it doesn’t sit precisely on the grout line at its base, it leans a little to the left. The first Twilight Zone link I found to Fuhrman was Barbara Nichols as Elizabeth Powell in “Twenty Two.” Another brief visit to The Twilight Zone will take you to a late 19th century Arizona cemetery in “Mr. Garrity and the Graves” with a tombstone that leans a little to the left and only a slight crown on top. Rotate the viewing angle of that tombstone to the right, take the light color from the one behind it, and you’re back on Bundy with the Mothers poem.
You didn’t have to create anything here. You just took the elements that were in the Twilight Zone screenshot and adjusted them a tad for the Mothers poem on Bundy.
This is the pattern in Fuhrman’s stories about O.J., Nicole and himself that made him a best-selling author, media personality and expert commentator for Fox News. Following those stories where he takes them with his departures from what the other detectives did on Bundy and Rockingham, what the evidence didn’t show that he said it did, or where it appears to be staged, invariably takes you to Movie or TV Land. A little stretching here (to make the movie fit the crime scenes), some line (dialogue) extending there (to other characters) and filling (with compatible elements in other screenplays), and you’ve got it.
We’re not that from Star Trek. Just remember that the Mothers poem photo in Murder in Brentwood is where it starts and the tombstone path is what takes you there. It branches off into The Twilight Zone with George Takei, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan all appearing in different episodes of the series and with Back to the Future II ‘s tombstone of Emit Brown (Nicole’s maiden name). That’s the branch in the path that leads to the 1881 town of Tombstone, Arizona in “Spectre of the Gun.” DeForrest Kelley is Morgan Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (’57) with Bert Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday.
The signpost to Star Trek that I missed with the pizza link to tombstones in Back to the Future II was Nicole’s 1994 birthday party on Rockingham celebrating her final birthday. It was a pizza party – a party that Fuhrman wasn’t supposed to know about when he wrote “pizza menu” twice in his Bundy notes.
I already knew how important birthdays were to Fuhrman when he wrote about them in Murder in Brentwood. He used five examples of unnecessary question that Vannatter and Lange asked O.J., more examples than were necessary to make the point. The only birthday question was about O.J.’s “wife.” It stands out because O.J. was not married at the time of his second ex-wife’s murder and the way it combines her birthday with her death day. Nicole’s identity was, instead, implied by the context in which he used it. He used Sydney’s 9th birthday to compare O.J. unfavorably to himself. It stands out because it was gratuitous in a narcissistic, self-indulgent way.
The most important birthday to a “narcissistic, self-indulgent” personality is his. Mark Fuhrman wasn’t writing about Nicole or Sydney. He was just using their birthdays to write about himself. Mark Fuhrman’s birthday is February 5. To read the last signpost from his Mother’s poem photo to “Spectre of the Gun” it has to be noted that his mother Billie’s birthday is March 28. Everyone dies eventually, so neither his birthday nor his mother’s associated with a tombstone has to imply anything other than an epitaph when the inevitable occurs.
The name of the Tombstone_Territory newspaper in 1881 was the Tombstone Epitaph. The editor of the Epitaph was Harris Claiborne. The Epitaph is where the first account of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the immediate events leading up to it were printed.
“Spectre of the Gun” begins with the Starship Enterprise on its way to an unexplored planet. The officers on the bridge are confronted by a hostile intelligent life form with the power to make five of them believe that they have been sent back in time and space to Tombstone, Arizona on the day of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Although they are dressed in their Star Fleet uniforms, their 24th century weapons have been replaced by single action Colts and everyone they encounter see them as members of the Clanton Gang. They soon see that they are on a countdown to death with the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday as their executioners. One of them is gunned down ahead of time by Morgan Earp – the Enterprise officer in the role of Billy Claiborne who survived the historical gunfight. Spock is Billy Clanton, who was killed in the fight.
Spock realizes that the death of their fellow officer means that the rest of them might
What the star ship officers believe proves to be the difference for them between life and
Consider Mark Fuhrman’s reference to The Doors (Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors and Doc Holliday in Tombstone) and collecting single action Colts in Murder in Brentwood. Consider what he wrote in Death and Justice about Wyatt Earp and his Tombstone poster. Think of the Mothers poem as an epitaph on a tombstone. All of those things considered, which path to actors in “Spectre of the Gun” would you follow to see if there was a personal connection to Mark Fuhrman?
I chose Sam Gilman, the actor playing Doc Holliday, and Ron Soble who plays Wyatt Earp. I found, as I anticipated I would, that Gilman’s birthday is February 5, the same as Mark Fuhrman’s. I didn’t know what to expect with Ron Soble. I found that his birthday is March 28, the birthday of Mark Fuhrman’s mother Billie. But that’s not all. He appeared in the 1987 made-for-television movie Convicted: A Mother’s Story Ann Jillian, another Twilight Zone alumnus, is Elizabeth (Billy) Nickerson. --Jasper
|
survive because the events leading them to death in their historical roles can be changed. The show itself takes
liberties with history, presumably because the characters and event were taken form Kirk’s incomplete and sometimes inaccurate knowledge of them. Wyatt Earp was not the town
Marshal. His brother Vergil was. Ike Clanton (Kirk) was not killed. Morgan, who Kirk calls “the man who kills on sight,” was the only member of the Earp faction who never killed anyone
before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But in Kirk’s mind, Morgan is the worst of the bunch and Ike is fated to die in the gunfight.
death. Thus, they get the Vulcan mind-meld to remove any doubt of their invulnerability. It works. The hot lead from
Doc Holiday’s