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From: Jasper
Date: 4/7/02
Time: 10:53:55 PM
Charlie,
As I indicated to Miss Marple, Fuhrman only makes himself look stupid and silly to people he doesn't care about. He made the same kinds of "stupid" mistakes in all three of his BEST SELLING books. That ought to tell you something
Using the movie mentality to start with, you can draw parallels to Fuhrman's act with all of the great detectives. Frank Columbo, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple (the other Miss. Marple) and Hercule Poirot all made false assumptions, followed wrong leads and, in general, screwed up now and then. They all had obvious flaws. Holmes was a cocaine addict. Poirot was incurably vain and Miss Marple was an ill-mannered, "been everywhere, done everything," insufferable old bat.
I see Holmes as Fuhrman's "stage persona" and Columbo as the mirror image of the character he patterned his real self after.
Columbo was absent-minded, graceless, tasteless and a bit of a slob who could never hope to impress anyone with his appearance (just the opposite of Fuhrman, except for the old car and the eye for details). In the pilot episode of the show Columbo matches wits with a killer psychiatrist who quickly sees through Columbo's act. Columbo really is what he appears to be, but he is highly intelligent and has learned to turn his liabilities into an asset. Instead of trying hid his faults, he exaggerates them to the point that his adversaries underestimate him and he can use his real strengths against him.
Fade to Fuhrman…
Fuhrman was really what he appeared to be. He was an impulsive glory hound, a compulsive liar, an inveterate braggart and a violence junky. These were aspects of himself that he didn't have complete control over. But if he boasted often enough about killing people and lied enough to get caught lying from time to time, he could afford to beat up people and even kill them with an established pattern he could fall back on to cover his tracks if the truth slipped out. If someone underestimated him, he could use his real strengths to his advantage.
I have often wondered about Fuhrman's destruction of the doorframe in the UNSOLVED murder case. Was it impulse or planning? How can we know for sure? --Jasper