THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Kook Factor and TV Find a Need for Each Other

The crowds and television cameras outside the Criminal Courts Building add up to an explosive combination.

More than 300 people were in front of the courthouse at one point on Friday, drawn there by TV shots of previous days’ crowds, plus the prospect of seeing the lawyers and other celebrities from the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Those with the biggest mouths could even become TV stars if their shouting attracted the attention of the dozen-plus camera crews.

Many held signs: “Guilty or Not, We Love O.J.,” “Support the Jury,” “Hitler Is Dead.” The latter appeared as if it were the headline on the front page of a World War II-era newspaper and referred to chief defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. comparing Mark Fuhrman to Hitler.

What might not have been clear to viewers watching from their homes and businesses Friday was that a good number of the crowd were kooks.

Watching this on television, as most people do, you might think the town was coming apart. This was especially true when Cochran arrived Friday morning, surrounded by eight tall Nation of Islam bodyguards, hurrying along as if he were a presidential candidate in a hostile and dangerous crowd.

The Nation of Islam bodyguards are there to protect him from death threats, and he’s smart to have them. But Cochran can use another, safer, entrance. Cmdr. Tim McBride of the Los Angeles Police Department said he could drive into the secured Criminal Courts Building basement. “He has a choice of how to enter the building,” McBride said.

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The Cochran entrance makes high drama out of what is, in person, theater of the absurd or, in some cases, theater of the insane.

This crowd of screamers, gawkers, celebrity freaks and idlers was as unrepresentative of the 7 million residents of Los Angeles County as extras in a television movie of the week. Nor should their behavior be interpreted as a gauge of community sentiment about the Simpson trial.

Take for example the High Noon fight Friday between Rudi Krause of Anaheim and Morris (Big Money Griff) Griffin.

I had interviewed Krause moments before hostilities broke out while roaming the crowd trying to get a fix on its mood.

Krause was a pale-faced, neatly groomed man in a white shirt, tie, conservative gray suit coat, black slacks and white sneakers. He was holding a montage featuring a large picture of Simpson with a bloody knife. The montage, he said, was his work. Krause said he was an expert on the Simpson case and had discussed it on the tabloid television show “A Current Affair.”

I moved on to other interviews, but soon heard shouting in front of the courthouse steps. Krause had gotten into a scuffle with Big Money Griff, a tall African American man who is a Criminal Courts Building sidewalk regular. Big Money was wearing a glove, and a lady who saw the beginning of the battle said Krause had tried to pull it off.

He couldn’t do it. The glove was too tight.

At least 10 television cameras recorded the scuffle and caught the screams exchanged by Big Money and Krause. They got several minutes of tape before the cops led the combatants away and booked them for disturbing the peace. Later, the incident was shown on television as if were a serious confrontation instead of the farce it really was.

Another star of the Criminal Courts Building is Melrose Larry Green, whom I met when he was running for mayor of Los Angeles and have tried to avoid ever since.

He was hard to ignore Friday. Green, who is Jewish, wore a prayer shawl and skullcap, apparently to protest attorney Cochran comparing Mark Fuhrman to Hitler. He screamed “Guilty!” over and over again.

Green was furious because the cameras had focused on three pro-O.J. demonstrators, Monique Smith, her daughter May Haylock, and her granddaughter Donna Haylock.

“I’ve been on E! network,” he said. “I’ve met Howard Stern. Why don’t you shoot me? You’re shooting some woman and her daughter. That’s a news story? I’ve run for mayor and I’m a graduate of Cornell.”

Not everyone was hustling a television appearance or spoiling for a fight. “We just came down to see the world and laugh at it,” said Jake Ellis of Fountain Valley. The day before, he had seen former Gen. Colin Powell’s appearance at the Fountain Valley Price Club.

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Yet the play doesn’t come out funny on television.

What is funny on the streets becomes scary on TV, with its tight shots of kooks and the shouting crowds in the background.

Unfortunately, the crowds are increasing as the trial nears an end. So is the television coverage of the people outside the courthouse. One feeds upon the other. With the jury hidden away in deliberations, TV crews from around the world, hungry for action, will seize upon the kooks and some will no doubt file reports of a city on the verge of explosion.

Hopefully, the pictures will not constitute a self-fulfilling prophecy.