Lawrence Schiller, the forever man

Reflecting on my brush with history and the man who captured many of the most indelible moments of the 20th century

Hello, friends. This week has been an interesting inflection point in my life. One of my google alerts sent word that the real-life Zelig, Lawrence Schiller, had published an article in The Daily Beast titled “The Last Time I Spoke With O.J. Simpson.”

Schiller’s involvement in the O.J. Simpson case is a perfect example of how Schiller operated as a hidden hand on the levers of history. Schiller manuevered his way into Simpson’s inner circle during the trial by putting together the book I Want to Tell You, which was a book O.J. published while awaiting trial where he responded to letters from jail. The money from this book deal helped a great deal in funding Simpson’s defense.

Schiller also was the person who unlocked the potential of the Fuhrman tapes by systematically editing and indexing the contents of many, many hours of conversations that Mark Fuhrman had with a movie producer where Fuhrman made many vile, racist comments.

After the fact, Schiller wrote, with a collaborator, the book American Tragedy and Schiller has gone on to produce and direct many of the subsequent film and television projects based on the Simpson case. Schiller has done similar work in many other venues. He wrote the definitive account of the JonBenet Ramsey case, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town. He collaborated with Norman Mailer on Oswald’s Tale and The Executioner’s Song. He photographed RFK, JFK, Nixon, Marilyn Monroe and many, many others.

Lawrence Schiller is someone I have been utterly fascinated with for years. Schiller began his career as a photographer and he was lucky enough to be born in 1936 in California. Back in 2018, I interviewed Schiller, and he told me about his beginnings capturing images. This was one of the real connections I felt with Mr. Schiller as I also grew up with a father who was a photographer. In fact, Schiller’s father owned a photography and general store-type business and my father also owned a photography store when I was growing up half a century later and halfway across the country.

This is probably too revealing about my self, but I had always thought of this interview with Mr. Schiller as a failure or not very good. In re-listening to a chunk of the interview yesterday, though, the time and distance actually made me feel like it is a compelling conversation worth sharing.

Here’s a link to the unlisted video on my YouTube channel:

The audio isn’t great, I think it recorded in mono for some reason, and my breathing is really alarming as I listen to myself. I was a heavy smoker back then and I think I had a cold, I always had a cold, when I spoke with Schiller. But if you can make it past that, this is a window into one of history’s best-kept secrets.

I spoke with Mr. Schiller on the phone yesterday and I hope to link up with him again if the cosmos allows it. He is 87 years old and I think of him like some sort of immortal, forever man. I know that eventually he will return to the soil, but he remains an invisible leviathan, only visible to those of us who hazard to explore the benthic layers of history.