What did Jeffrey Toobin know, when did he know it, and how did he find out that O.J. Simpson's lawyers might play the race card?

 Several authors and trial participants, including Toobin himself, have recently weighed in with their versions of how Toobin became the first writer to publish an article mentioning the possibility that racist police framed O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman.

The article, "An Incendiary Defense," appeared in The New Yorker in July 1994, barely a month after the murders, and it had enormous impact. Maurie Perl, The New Yorker's chief publicist, computed that, based on Nielsen ratings, 170 million people heard a reference to it in the first two days after it was published.

 In the article, Toobin cited unnamed "leading members of Simpson's defense team" as "floating" the theory that Mark Fuhrman, a rogue cop, was an integral part of a police conspiracy. In his book, The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, Toobin discloses how he got that story. His version, however, is at odds with every other participant's recollection.

It is Rashomon all over again.

Version 1 --

 Jeffrey Toobin's Busy Day

In his book, Toobin described the genesis of his New Yorker story:

On Tuesday, July 12, 1994, Toobin hopped on an airplane for Los Angeles. He did not know what to expect. He did not know how to spell Mark Fuhrman's name, and he had not been able to get an appointment with Robert Shapiro, who at that time was running Simpson's defense. All he had was a tip from Alan Dershowitz, a defense team member, that Fuhrman was a liar. In a "brief" telephone conversation, Toobin writes, Dershowitz went on a "lengthy tirade" about the detective, comparing him to Oliver North: "He sounds like Oliver North, looks like Oliver North, and lies like Oliver North."

The next day, Wednesday, was a remarkably productive one for Toobin, a former prosecutor. First, following up on Dershowitz's tip, Toobin called a New Yorker fact-checker to find out how Fuhrman's name was spelled. He then went to the Los Angeles County Courthouse, where he discovered that Fuhrman once had sued the city. He walked across the street and found the case file, which showed Fuhrman to be, in Toobin's words, "the archetype of the bigoted, bullying L.A. cop."

After this reporting coup, Toobin drove to Shapiro's Century City office. He had no appointment, but circumvented security, sweet-talked Shapiro's secretary, and found himself with Shapiro, who confused TheNew Yorker with New York magazine. Toobin set him straight and within minutes Shapiro bared his strategic soul, telling Toobin of the defense claim that Fuhrman may have planted the incriminating bloody glove on Simpson's property.

Still on Wednesday, Toobin drove to Culver City, where he debated Mike Walker of the National Enquirer on the radio about an unrelated topic. Finally, he drove to The New Yorker's Los Angeles office, where he wrote up a draft of his 4,700-word article and faxed it to the editors in New York.

 Version 2 --

 Professor Scorns Ex-Student

In his book about the trial, Reasonable Doubts, Dershowitz mentions Toobin, his former law student, only once in passing. But in a withering letter to The New York Times Book Review, published October 20, 1996, Dershowitz protests: "Mr. Toobin did not receive a tip from me, as he now claims in his book. I received a tip from Mr. Toobin. I knew absolutely nothing about Mr. Fuhrman's racist past until Mr. Toobin told me about it."

Toobin concedes the last point: Dershowitz did not know of Fuhrman's

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