With this book, Stephen Singular’s career began to evolve, his role shifting from that of a journalistic observer to being a direct participant in the “Case of the Century.”

In the early hours of June 13, 1994, while investigating the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, LAPD Homicide Detective Mark Fuhrman uncovered evidence destined to become the cornerstone of the prosecution’s case in the trial of O.J. Simpson. As the legal epic unfolded, Fuhrman himself — his character, professional conduct, and racial attitudes — took center stage. What emerged from Fuhrman in the trial was an appalling LAPD history of manufactured evidence, beating up suspects, and vicious bigotry acted out from behind the safety of a badge. The very same neo-Nazibehavior Singular had written about in Talked to Death now emerged as a dark underbelly of the LAPD. White supremacist attitudes and actions had moved from outside the legal system to being alive and at work inside a major metropolitan police force. But that was just the start of this story.

In August 1994, Singular was contacted by a source within LA’s law enforcement community who not only told him about these disturbing police factions but gave him information about four critical pieces of evidence in the Simpson case — pieces unknown to both the prosecution and defense. Singular himself investigated this evidence and infiltrated the LAPD crime lab in search of the truth. What he discovered earned him a critical role on the defense team and was documented in a book proposal, which became the basis for Legacy of Deception. The proposal was leaked to the office of L.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti and then subpoenaed by Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden. In his 1996 “New York Times” bestseller about the case, In Contempt, Darden wrote had this to say about the proposal, “I was basically looking at a blueprint of O.J. Simpson’s defense, months before it became operational. Clearly, this guy [Singular] had spent more than a brief moment with [Simpson attorneys] Cochran and Douglas. Singular was writing about information that hadn’t been made public at the time he wrote his treatment…Later, I would wonder how much Simpson had paid for a defense that really came from a true crime writer.”

Running through Legacy of Deception was the central and growing theme of Singular’s work: the dangerous mentality he’d begun writing about in Talked to Death a decade earlier was entering the mainstream — through the media, the legal system, and the culture at large. No longer just a fringe issue, it was becoming an increasing part of American life. Instead of investigating our reality, in the best tradition of journalism, we’d begun taking things at face value and jumping to conclusions.

What did this mean for our society as a whole? This question would arise again and again in future books.