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From: Jasper
Date: 2/2/01
Time: 9:07:42 PM
Charlie,
Very good points. I hadn't thought of him lying to his shrinks for the reasons that you pointed out, although I should have. He tailored what he said to the psychiatrist to fit the profile of the condition he was pretending to be suffering from. He made one big mistake in that the symptoms he described and the ones he displayed didn't match.
The psychiatrics were particularly struck by his stories of high levels of stress from the job resulting in violent dreams and violent behavior toward black and Hispanic suspects. Yet, he told them that he enjoyed beating people up and breaking bones. He described his sex life with his girlfriend as very good and a life off the job of daily exercise and quiet relaxation that didn't fit the profile at all. He told them he was a machinegunner in Vietnam and that he had fond recollections of killing people. They also noticed physiological responses that didn't correspond to what he was saying so they knew for sure that he was lying about something. The last thing he wanted was a true insight into what was wrong with him and telling the truth about his mother would have been a bad way for him to go if he wanted to fool them.
The police psychiatrists knew that whatever problems he had were there before he joined the LAPD. They knew he had excessively violent tendencies and recommended that he not be allowed to carry a gun. It's my guess that they wondered how he got hired as a cop in the first place but didn't have to guts to admit that there was a flaw that big in the screening process, which could have gotten their fellow shrinks in trouble.
Your point about Fuhrman not denying the tabloid stories about his mother is also a good one in light of the trouble he went through to deny the other tabloid stories, especially about the racial harassment of Dan and Darrel Blue. Still, it would be good to have a better source. -Jasper