Criminology - Bob Crane

Episode Date: January 11, 2020

Bob Crane was a handsome and charming comedic actor. He rose to fame when he landed the leading role on the hit television comedy Hogan's Heroes. The show ran from 1965 to 1971. After it ended, Bob received income through its syndication but he struggled to find continued acting success. In June 1978, Bob was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the life and death of Bob Crane. Fans were shocked to find out that Crane wasn't exactly the same man that they saw on the television screen. He battled an obsession with sex and pornography throughout much of his life. Many people theorize that this addiction played a pivotal role in his murder. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 94 of criminology. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mike, how are you today? I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing great. I know we have a really good story lined up for everybody, so I'm excited about that. Yeah, this is one I've been interested in for a long time and to talk about it with you. It's going to be pretty cool.

Yeah, this is one of those stories that I think grabs a lot of people. Number one, because we're talking about a television personality. And I think more if it just seems like with people that are on television or celebrities in general, right, we kind of have this mystique about them. So when a television personality or a celebrity is murdered, it increases the level of fascination with the case. But before we jump in, let's give us a. our Patreon shoutouts. We had some new Patreon supporters. We had Jenny Say's, Aaron Teeteman,

Gina Gigi, Stacey Tice, Cheryl Montauer, Maley Romero, Charlie Brown, Stephanie Brutout, and Mariah Puccino. So big thanks to everyone who supported the show. And thanks a lot for all that amazing support every week when you read those names. It's just impressive how many people people are willing to help support the show. And if anyone out there listening would like to help support us on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. And don't forget about Stitcher Premium. All of our old episodes, anything older than six months is available on Stitcher Premium.

There's the whole Zodiac series, the Golden State Killer series, Ted Bundy. There's a lot of really great episodes out there. And they have that 30-day free trial. so you really have nothing to lose. And just a reminder, it's hard to believe, but we're only four months away from CrimeCon. That's in Orlando, Florida this May. We'll be on podcast row, and we hope that you'll join us there.

If you decide to go, go to crimecon.com to register and buy your pass. And be sure to use our promo code at checkout. That promo code is Criminology 2020, Criminology 20, and that will save you 10% on your standard badge. All right, buddy, we've got to jump right into this. episode. And we're talking about an infamous case, one that shocked Hollywood and remains unsolved to this day. In 1978, Hollywood actor Robert Bob Crane, who undoubtedly is best known for his role as Colonel Robert Hogan on the CBS TV show Hogan's Heroes was murdered in his apartment

in Scottsdale, Arizona. Bob Crane was just shy of turning 50 and was about ready to enter a new phase in his career when he was savagely and brutally bludgeoned to death. So the big question here, there's two, right, who murdered Bob Crane and why? The investigation into Bob's murder would reveal an obsessive, addictive, and perhaps dangerous part of Crane's life that may have ultimately been tied to his death. Robert Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on July 13, 1928 to Alfred and Rosemary Crane. He was the younger of two sons and grew up in Stanford, Connecticut. He and his brother were raised in a traditional Roman Catholic household.

Bob was of Irish and Russian descent. At the age of 11, Bob started playing drums, a hobby that later became a lifelong passion. While he was in junior high school, he organized local bugle and drum parades with friends from the neighborhood. He was inspired to play the drums by watching American jazz drummer Gene Krupa at the 1939 New York World's Fair. During high school, Bob was on the school's jazz and marching bands as well as the orchestra. He also played for the Connecticut and Norwalk Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from Stanford High School in 1946. After he graduated, he took jobs as a sales clerk and a watch repairman at a jewelry.

store in his hometown. He joined the U.S. Army National Guard in 1948 and served until 1950 when he was honorably discharged. Bob Crean married his high school sweetheart, Ann Terseon, on May 20, 1949. They had three children together, Robert, Debra, and Karen. Bob got his start in the entertainment business in 1950 by working for W.L.E.A. radio station in Hornel, New York. He later worked at stations in Bristol and Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1956, Bob landed his best job up to that point, when CBS offered him the morning time slot at K&X in Hollywood, California. He accepted the position after serious negotiations with the Engineers Union. His salary was $75,000 a year. Bob interviewed many prominent people at that time, including former President Ronald Reagan,

during Reagan's acting career, and actors Jack Lemon and Dick Van Dyke. Bob was a tantalue. Bob was a talented voice impersonator too. So much so that K&X took notice of his talent and dubbed him Radia's man of a thousand voices. So Bob Crane's career was really taking off and he decided to give acting a try in 1959 after he and his wife and watched the Doris Day comedy Tunnel of Love. Bob Crane wanted to become a top TV comedic actor and because of this, he turned down a number of really good jobs. He turned down Johnny Carson's old job on Who Do You Trust? He also rejected an offer to replace Jack Parr on the Tonight Show, as well as several other TV hosting jobs on daytime network shows. These were pretty big gigs that Bob turned down because had he taken any of them,

they definitely would have paid the bills, but they would have stood in the way of his dream of becoming this great comedic actor. Bob started performing in theater and landing small film and television roles. His first big break was on the Dick Van Dyke Show. That led to a recurring role on the Donna Reed Show in April 1963, where he played Dr. Dave Kelsey, Donna's next-door neighbor. This was an ideal role for him because his character worked his way through medical school as a drummer and a band. Bob signed a two-year contract with Screen Gems for a total of seven episodes,

through the fall of 1963. The contract stated that should the show star, Donna Reed, decide to continue for another season, Bob was to be in each and every episode. Bob still had the radio show during his time, so he really was keeping himself busy. The Donna Reed show was really a popular show, but Bob left it in 1965 when he landed the biggest role of his entire career. It was that year, 1965, when Bob was offered the role of Colonel Roy, Robert Hogan on the CBS series Hogan's Heroes.

Hogan's Heroes was a comedy set during World War II in a Nazi POW camp. Bob, being a veteran himself, was worried about how other veterans would react to the show. So before he accepted the role, he insisted that a group of veterans view a trailer of the show and those veterans approved of it. It was only then. that he accepted the role. And this role was perfect for Bob Crane. It called for a handsome, leading man who could be charming but funny, and Bob nailed it. Hogan's Heroes debuted on September 17, 1965, and became a top 10 show in its first season. It ran for a total of six seasons,

ending on April 4th, 1971. Bob was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, in a comedy series twice for his work on Hogan's Heroes, but lost out both times. He lost out to Dick Van Dyke in 1966 and Don Adams in 1967. So, Morph, we are going back a ways, right? When you start talking about shows of the 60s, I wasn't born until the 70s, but I remember watching Hogan's Heroes on reruns as a kid and thinking, this is a funny show. show. Now, it would never play right today. They would never make this show, not in a million years. When you think about the setup for the show, it is a comedy about Nazis and POWs. It just would never fly in today's world. I think along those lines, the show was intended

to be a way to poke fun at them as the Americans got over on them. They would constantly be escaping and sneaking back in and making fools of these Nazi prison guards at this camp. But you're right, the way it played on TV back then was a lot different than things today. But I don't know if you remember clearly, but I remember as a kid constantly watching this show in rerun format, but even then it was very popular. Yeah, it seemed like it played a lot. It was on a lot. I also remember that Richard Dawson was on the show, right?

Richard Dawson, who later gained fame as hosting the family feud. But I mentioned that Bob was perfect for this role. And I really think he was. When you look at Bob Crane, good-looking guy with some really good comedic chops. And I think he made that show. It was during the successful run on Hogan's Heroes that the crew, that the brain marriage began to fall apart. In April, 1969, Bob's wife Anne left him after she discovered he was having an affair with his Hogan's hero's co-star, Patricia Olson, whose stage name was Sigrid Valdas.

She played Colonel Klink's secretary, Hilda, during seasons two through six. Anne filed for divorce in June on grounds of mental cruelty. At the time she filed for divorce, their children ranged in age from nine to twenty, so this was really hard for their first. family. The divorce was finalized in early 1970. As part of the divorce settlement, Bob had to turn over his home in Tarzan, California, to Ann and the children. He also was ordered to pay $1,700 a month in alimony and $600 a month in child support. On October 16, 1970, Bob married his co-star Patricia Olson, and the two had one son together, Robert Scott Crane, who was born on June 4th, 1971. When Hogan's heroes ended, the show went into syndication and Bob continued receiving a paycheck.

But Bob had a hard time landing another significant role after Hogan's heroes. And you see that with a lot of stars of big shows, right? They sometimes get typecast into the role that they play and they have a hard time after that show ends latching on to the next big thing. In 1976, Bob directed, produced, and starred in a four-character play titled Beginners' Luck. Bob owned the play and toured the country performing at different dinner theaters. He only worked three months a year, but still managed to maintain a six-figure income. During his time off, Bob made guest appearances at events and on game shows. In February 1978, Bob Crane filmed the TV pilot called The Hawaii Experience.

On the show, he took viewers behind the scenes of Hawaii's major resorts. Things were still going well for Bob Crane. He was making good money from his various ventures and from Hogan's heroes, and was about to embark on a new job that would have had him hanging out in beautiful Hawaii. But not everything was perfect for the 49-year-old actor. He was battling a war of obsession and addiction, one that he wasn't winning. What the public didn't know about Bob Crane was that he had a secret side to his personal life, fueled by a sex addiction.

Bob's sex addiction started in the early 1950s. I mentioned it. Bob was a good looking guy. He engaged in consensual sex with a large number of women. He started taking pictures of his partners during sex. He became so addicted to it that he never hit it from partners. He didn't hide it from close friends. He was very upfront about it.

In 1966, Bob. Bob's Hogan's Heroes co-star Richard Dawson introduced him to John Henry Carpenter. Carpenter was a video equipment salesman. It was John who introduced Bob to the world of home video. Bob and John became good friends. They started hanging out a lot together. One of the things that they enjoyed doing together was going to to topless bars. So you have what appears to be somewhat of a strange pairing.

Bob and John. But they're both getting something from each other. John taught Bob the ends and outs of home video equipment, which today seems routine, right? You can go to Best Buy and buy whatever you want. Back then, it was really only available to the rich and famous. And because of Bob's looks and his popularity, his celebrity status, many women were drawn to him. And John benefited through this relationship by being able to meet a large number of women that, most likely more, frankly, he would not have been able to meet on his own. When Bob's career took a downward turn after Hogan's heroes ended, his sexual appetite and pornography addiction became more profound.

Although Bob wasn't much of a drinker, he met women in bars and in nightclubs, and sometimes through friends. He and John began filming and taking pulloids of their sexual trist with these women. the women always seemed to be willing participants, as evidenced in the videos. Bob filed the Polaroid pictures and photo albums. Some reports say the women had no idea they were being filmed, but all the women in these albums seemed to be posing and smiling for the camera. On Wednesday, June 28, 1978, Bob's play, Beginners Luck,

was in its final week at the Windmill Dinner Theater in Scottsdale, Arizona. Bob finished his Wednesday performance around 1030, p.m. But remained in the lobby for several minutes talking with fans, signing autographs. The crowd that night was small. Jack Swanson from the Arizona Republic wrote in a July 1978 newspaper article that, quote, the play had not drawn more than half a house. And the theater told Bob it was cutting his five-week run short by a week. But Bob apparently was not upset by the cancellation. He was looking forward to. to having the week off.

John Carpenter arrived in Scottsdale on business a few days before and was staying at the Sunburst Hotel, not far from Bob's apartment in the Winfield Apartments Complex at 7436 East Chaparral Road. The two friends met up at Bob's place. Bob received the phone call from his wife, Patricia. By this time, the couple was estranged. The conversation between Bob and Patricia turned into a heated argument,

loud enough to disturb the neighbors. After Bob hung up the phone, he and John went to an East Phoenix bar with a couple of women. At around midnight, Bob phoned a woman he had met several weeks prior and asked her to join him. They agreed to meet at the Safari Hotel Coffee Shop 45 minutes later. While they were at the bar, Bob and John met another woman, and Bob introduced John to her as his manager. This woman, Bob and John, left the club at around 1230 a.m. They briefly stopped by Bob's apartment before heading to the coffee shop to meet up with the woman Bob had arranged to meet. All four ate breakfast, and sometime around 2 a.m., they walked out to the parking lot where Bob talked with one of the women for about 20 minutes.

John took the other woman home. At 2.45 a.m., John called Bob at his apartment to tell him goodbye. He was flying back to California. John asked Bob if he was by himself, and Bob said that he was, and that his date had turned down his invitation to go home with him. John told Bob that he would call him once he was back in California. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer.

For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do but had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. John checked out of his hotel early Thursday morning on June 29. An employee later said that John seemed as though he was in a big hurry. He demanded a limousine take him to Sky Harbor International Airport. Around 2.15 p.m. that afternoon. Victoria Barry arrived at Bob Crane's apartment. Victoria was performing with Bob in the play Beginners' Luck. Victoria was performing with Bob in his play Beginners' luck.

The pair had been intimate with each other, but Victoria was not at the apartment for that. Bob was expecting Victoria's arrival because the two were going to do a voiceover of a scene from the play. Victoria knocked on the apartment door, but there was no answer. She noticed the morning newspaper outside Bob's front door and she picked it up. After knocking several times with no answer, Victoria went out to the parking lot to look for Bob's car and she saw that it was there. So she returned to his apartment and she knocked again. Still no answer. She tried the door and realized that it was unlocked. So she walked into Bob's apartment and called out for him but didn't get a response.

The lights in the apartment were off and the curtains were drawn, making it dark inside. But Victoria's eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness. She could see Bob's video camera and cables scattered around the living room as usual. She yelled out for him again as she made her way around. Victoria walked to the patio door that led to the swimming pool in the middle of the complex, thinking he might be out there. She pulled back the curtains to look out towards the pool, but Bob wasn't there. She made her way back to Bob's bedroom.

The door was slightly ajar. She pushed it open and walked in. Victoria saw someone lying on the bed, but she couldn't make out who the person was. At first, she thought it was a woman because she saw dark streaks that she mistook for hair. But as she looked closer, she realized that the dark streaks were not hair. They were blood. And the person lying in the bed was a man. Victoria didn't recognize the man laying in the bed.

There was just too much blood on the man's face. What she did notice was a cord wrapped around the man's neck. Victoria began screaming and sobbing. Her screams were so loud that they attracted one of Bob's neighbors, Mary Lou Hawkins. Victoria asked for Mary's help and told her there was a dead man in the apartment and thought it might be Bob. Mary walked in, saw the victim, and then dialed the operator, who connected Mary to the Scottsdale Police Department. Mary told police that there was a dead man in apartment 132A, Winfield Police. At the same time, police were alerted.

The theater employees grew concerned when Bob failed to keep an appointment to speak to a group of radio and television executives. At 2.30 p.m., John called the theater asking for Bob and was told by an employee that she didn't know where Bob was. This woman suggested to John that he called the theater's other office. another theater employee called Bob's apartment. And Victoria answered the phone. She told the employee that Bob was not there. When Victoria answered the phone, the police were already there. The phone rang several times after that and each time Victoria answered it.

And more if I think this is something that people point to as an error made by police thinking that they should never have allowed Victoria to answer the phone because she could have potentially contaminated evidence, especially in the way of fingerprints, this is just one of many errors that people have pointed out over the years that were made by the Scottsdale Police Department during this investigation. The official police account is that they found Bob Crane dead and lying in a fetal position on his right side with blood all around him and on the wall above the bed. he was wearing a watch on his left wrist and boxer shorts.

His glasses were on the nightstand next to his bed, and white pants containing his wallet hung over the living room sofa. Right away, it didn't seem like robbery was a motive, since Bob's wallet and expensive video equipment weren't taken. It was later to determine that the only thing missing was one tripod stand. As police went through the crime scene, they looked closely at Bob's video equipment, as well as through numerous photograph albums and home videos showing Bob engaged in sex with various women.

They found a number of other videotapes as well. They found some containing Saturday Night Live episodes. They found tapes of Bob's wife and son celebrating Father's Day. They also found tapes that contained recordings of the news. Crime scene photographers took pictures of the crime. scene and police officers filmed a black and white video of the crime scene. Bob had been hit on the head with a blunt force object. Two parallel one and a half inch lacerations were found behind his left ear and the killer

had wiped the blood from the murder weapon onto a corner of the bed sheet. The murder weapon was initially thought to be either a tire iron or a jack handle or something like that, but it was never recovered. When the Maricopa County Medical Examiner arrived at the apartment, he jumped right into the middle of the crime scene. He said he wanted to get a better look at the fatal wound to Bob's left temple. The medical examiner took out a straight razor and shaved a four-inch semicircle around Bob's left ear, saying that he wanted to get a better idea of what type of weapon was used. In the medical examiner's opinion, the two lacerations to Bob Crane's head appear to be

different from each other. This is something else that people often point to in the case as being a police error. The fact that the medical examiner was allowed to crawl around the crime scene examining Bob Crane's wounds. This medical examination compromised the crime scene. The autopsy on Bob Crane was conducted at 8 a.m. on June 30th, 1978. It was clear that Bob received two blows to the head that crushed his skull. The electrical cord found around his neck came from a video camera.

In his report, the medical record, the medical. Examiner listed the type of death as violent and the manner of death as by blunt instrument and court. But the cord, which was tied with a single knot around Bob's throat, had been applied near or after death. The medical examiner concluded that the blows to Bob's head were meant to kill. And the cord was used in a fit of rage or emotion, suggesting some type of passion killing. The report also noted a dry, flaky, white material on Bob's pubic hair, his right anterior thigh, and his right lower abdomen. It was theorized that this substance was most likely dried semen, but it was never tested. A Scottsdale police officer who was present at the

autopsy asked the examiner to collect a substance, but the examiner never did. If the substance had been collected and tested, authorities could have determined whether or not this substance was actually semen. But this was well before the days of DNA. They likely would not have been able to identify who the semen belonged to. Oddly enough, just 10 days before he was killed, Bob was in Dallas, Texas, and had lunch with a 29-year-old woman who read his palm and told him that he had a short lifeline. Bob responded by saying that he would be happy just to live until his 50th birthday. Unfortunately, when Bob died, he was two weeks short of that. In the days and weeks following the 49-year-old actor's murder,

the investigation to catch his killer pressed on. During the investigation, detectives discovered that one of Bob's photo albums containing pornographic Polaroids was missing. They searched for the album for months, but it was never found. investigators concluded that Bob Crane knew his killer and the killer was in the apartment with him prior to his murder. The door was unlocked and it was said that Bob always locked his door before going to bed. And after interviewing Bob's wife, authorities discovered that he never slept with his watch on. So they theorized that he may have taken a short nap while waiting for a guest to arrive,

possibly a woman or someone else close to him and therefore left the door unlocked. John Henry Carpenter immediately became the prime suspect in the investigation because he was the last person to see Bob Crane alive and he had quickly fled Scottsdale after seeing Bob. What really was powerful was a detectives found small amounts of dried blood in John's rented white 1978 Chrysler Cordova. Testing revealed the blood type was B and that matched Bob Crane's blood type. One investigator reason that John had splattered blood when he allegedly disposed of the murder weapon by tossing it out the car's passenger window. A maid at the sunburst hotel reported she found blood on a pillowcase and a hand towel in John's room, but she wasn't certain which day

she found it. The report never said how much blood was found. Police searched the room five days after John left, and by that time, the linens were gone. Despite knowing he was a suspect, John was always cooperated with the police and maintained his innocence. But police seemed convinced that John Carpenter was the killer and they locked in on him. Investigators were so focused on John as a suspect that they failed to search Scottsdale for leads and properly take evidence from Bob's apartment. The prosecutor at the time of the murder refused to issue a complaint against John due to lack of evidence or motive.

And years later, his successor refused. used to prosecute John Carpenter for the exact same reasons, that there were better suspects who had more motive than John did to kill Bob Crane. But if it wasn't John Carpenter that killed Bob Crane, then who was it? One theory floating around included a jealous boyfriend or ex-husband of a woman Bob had sex with. Bob had told a friend that a husband once had him followed. Another theory involved a professional hitman, but the authorities refused to let John Carpenter off of their radar. They believe that the motive for the murder was that Bob Crane was cutting John Carpenter out of his life and cutting him off from the nonstop party and sex they had grown accustomed to.

There was very little progress in Bob Crane's case for about 14 years. Then on June 1st, 1992. 14 years after the murder, authorities arrested John Carpenter in Carson, California, a suburb of Los Angeles on a charge of first degree murder. He was arrested on his drive-in to work. The prosecutor decided that they finally had enough to charge John Carpenter with the murder of Bob Crane. And it was said at the time that a renewed investigation into Bob Crane's murder revealed that, a camera tripod was likely the murder weapon, not a tire iron or jack handle as initially believed. And we talked about it. One of Bob's tripods was missing from his apartment. A criminologist for the Phoenix Police Department examined a pattern in the bloody bed sheet and determined that it was made from a tripod.

According to Brent Whiting of the Arizona Republic, the criminologist later used a tripod of similar size and struck a life-size-sized clay head, duplicating the wound found on the left side of Crane's head. The prosecutor also said three forensic experts in Albuquerque and San Antonio gave their opinions on blood and human tissue samples found in John Henry Carpenter's rental car. The experts linked the blood and human tissue found at the crime scene with what was found in John's car. The problem with the speck of human tissue found was that the police had not preserved it. Instead, they photographed it. John's attorney, Gary Flachman, was not impressed with the new evidence, and the photograph versus the real sample was almost laughable to him. He also questioned why

Scottsdale authorities did not use experts in Arizona. Authorities declined to discuss a possible motive for the murder, but did say they believed Bob Crane grew tired of his friendship with John. In November 1992, 64-year-old John Henry Carpenter pleaded guilty in court to an unrelated sexual battery charge. Months earlier, he was accused of molesting his girlfriend's 10-year-old daughter and her 12-year-old friend back in 1988. On December 4th, 1992, he was sentenced to three years probation. Once the molestation hearing was over, it cleared the way for John's extradition to Arizona. Just before Christmas, 1992, Maricopa County Judge Gregory Martin, Scheduled a preliminary hearing for January 4, 1993 to decide if there was enough evidence to try John Henry Carpenter on first-degree murder.

Judge Martin also set John's bond at $98,000. For unknown reasons, the preliminary hearing was later rescheduled to the middle of February, and it lasted three weeks. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything

from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. On Wednesday, March 10th, 1993, Judge Martin criticized the Scottsdale Police Department for sloppy work in their investigation of the Bob Crane murder. Martin said that he couldn't understand how the tissue and blood evidence didn't get taken and preserved properly. But even so, Judge Martin ruled that based on testimony given during the weeks long hearing,

there was probable cause that the crime of murder was committed by John Henry Carpenter. Martin also said in a three-page order that, quote, the only reasonable inference is that the blood is that of the victim and the tissue is body tissue of the victim transferred from the scene of the crime to the defendant's rental car. He set a trial date for May 26, 1993. But the trial of John Henry Carpenter didn't start until September 1994. and he faced 25 years to life in prison if found guilty. And more if we've talked several times in this episode about how people look back at the police investigation and they point out several instances where they believe police made errors, I don't think there's any doubt that the judge in the preliminary hearing

felt that way as well. I mean, definitely when you talk about the blood and the tissue that was reportedly found in Carpenter's rental car. Bob's Secret Life came out at trial, and the prosecution even used one of his black and white pornographic tapes as an exhibit. As Bob Crane's secret life was leaked to the media, Crane's fans that heard the news were shocked by the revelations. John Carpenter's trial attorney, as well as John's friend, Mark Dawson, the son of Hogan's hero's co-star Richard Dawson, insisted there were plenty of potential suspects that should have been looked at.

Around the time of Bob Crane's murder, a man named Lee Fetty, and another man, were loading furniture from a nearby apartment. Lee saw a man come out of Bob's apartment just hours before Victoria Berry discovered the body. He said that the same man later walked up to him, asked for a light for his cigarette, and complained that the moving van was blocking his white Cadillac. The man eventually drove off. Prior to trial, the defense attorney showed photographs of John Carpenter to Lee Fetty. Fetty said the man that he saw bore no resemblance to John Carpenter.

Police never pursued the lead, but Carpenter's defense attorney called Lee Fettie as a witness at trial. And Lee told the court that John Henry Carpenter was not the man he saw leaving Bob Crane's apartment or the man he lit the cigarette for. Former Sunburst Hotel Clerk Catherine Nugent testified that, John Carpenter called her around 7.30 a.m. on June 28th, 1978, to ask for a limo to the airport. John had misread his airplane ticket and needed to be at the airport earlier than planned. Catherine said she told John there were no limos available, but offered to call a cab for him instead. About 30 minutes later, he showed up in the hotel lobby to check out.

Catherine testified that John seemed very nervous and fidgety as if he was preoccupied. She said that John spent the next few minutes going back and forth between the hotel front desk and a nearby rental car desk in the hotel lobby to fill out paperwork. Prosecutors tried to show that John Carpenter had killed Bob Crane because he feared Bob would end their friendship and John's access to women. One of Bob's sons even testified to that, saying his father complained that John was becoming a nuisance and quote, a hanger on. The prosecution alleged that John bashed Bob's skull with a tripod. And the prosecution made this allegation despite the fact the murder weapon was never found. The trial lasted eight weeks.

On October 31st, 1994, John Henry Carpenter was acquitted in the 1978 murder of Bullitt. Bob Crane. Jurors deliberated for two and a half days and said that there just wasn't any proof that John killed Bob. The jurors weren't even sure the spec in the photograph was human tissue. The jury's foreman Marine Sergeant Michael Lake was quoted as saying, you can't prove someone guilty on speculation. But despite the acquittal, to this day, many people still believe it was John Henry Carpenter who killed Bob Crane. Or at the very least, he knew more about the murder than what he is told. On September 3rd, 1998, John passed away from a heart attack at the age of 70.

He maintained his innocence until the day he died. And more if we mentioned it up front, right? This is a case that a lot of people are very interested in. I mean, first off, Bob Crane was a celebrity. He was on television, had a hit show. And you have this friend of Bob's John Henry Carpenter who was charged and acquitted. Many people believe that he was somehow involved in Bob's murder, but you add in the police investigation and some of the missteps and things that we've talked about.

It does nothing but fuel the speculation. I think for me it's the what if. Or what ifs, I should say, when you talk about some of the crime scene contamination or possible crime scene contamination, probably the big thing is the missing evidence from John Carpenter's car. What if that never goes missing? It's real. They have it. How different is this case? In 2002, a biographical film titled Auto Focus was released and start Greg Neer's body. Crayne. It was directed by Paul Schrader. Bob Crane's son, Scotty, was unhappy with the film and said it didn't give an accurate depiction of his father. He also said Schrader never consulted him for the film. Did you ever see that movie, Mike? I did see that. Yeah. And I like Greg Kinnear as an actor. I think he's a very good actor. I actually liked the film. The issue that I have, and I know I've said this before, with these type of biographical films is that you're trying to, you're trying to. to squeeze someone's life into, let's say, an hour and a half, an hour and 45 minutes, I think it's very tough. It's, it's actually tougher to squeeze information into an hour and a half film than it is an

hour podcast. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then also, you have to wonder how accurate is that kind of film if they don't even consult the, the person's family that it's about. Well, and they also take some. liberties, right? To make a film that people want to watch and are going to be happy with, they have to make it interesting. And sometimes they take liberties, right? We know that. I'm not saying that happened in this case. I'm just saying that we know that happens with a lot of

films that deal with true events. But definitely the one thing that that film did was deal with the, I'll call it, I'll use the word seedier. I don't know if that's the best word. were to use, but the seedier parts of Bob's life. And for me, that was probably the first time that I really knew about that or found out about that. I just knew Bob Crane as the actor on Hogan's heroes. And it might have been the first time for a lot of people who were not familiar with the case.

I thought the movie was good. And I agree with you. I don't know how accurate everything is in that story, trying to get it into that time slot to run, but just if anybody wants to get a general idea of the life of Bob Crane, it's a movie that I'd recommend watching. In October 2002, Bob's widow Patricia gave her first interview regarding her husband and his violent death. She talked with ABC News and said that she always knew about Bob's affairs with women.

She said it never bothered her. They had a good marriage. they had a good sex life and she accepted his infidelities. Of his affairs, Patricia said, quote, they were using each other. Everybody was getting what they wanted out of this and it wasn't anyone's business but theirs. I knew he wouldn't stop. I knew that. He had this obsession.

He couldn't help it. There was nothing for me to be jealous of. Patricia never mentioned the reason for their separation. at the time of his murder. But because they were still married, when Bob was killed, she inherited his estate. Patricia passed away from lung cancer on October 14, 2007 in Anaheim, California. She is buried next to Bob in Los Angeles's Westwood Memorial Park. In 2016, Fox 10 Phoenix reporter John Hook was instrumental in having DNA samples tested that were found on John Henry Carpenter's car.

using new technology as part of his investigation into the murder. He was assisted by local law enforcement. On Monday, November 14, 2016, Hook revealed the results in front of a panel that included the case prosecutor, John Carpenter's defense attorney, and Bob Crane Jr. Hook said, quote, the DNA found on the door of John Carpenter's rental car is not from Bob Crane.

Hook went on to say, the test actually picked up two DNA profiles, A major contributor is from a man, his identity unknown. The second DNA profile is a partial profile too degraded to reach any conclusions. John Hook also wrote a book titled Who Killed Bob Crane? The book details his two-year investigation into the murder. The murder of actor Bob Crane remains popular among the true crime community. People are fascinated more by this case for many reasons.

One of those is the fact that it still remains one. of Hollywood's biggest mysteries. And according to John Hook, it consistently ranks as one of the great unsolved celebrity murders of all time. And we mentioned that up front, right? This is a case that fascinates many people. Anytime you add celebrity, Hollywood, television, and with a true crime mystery, it's going to add a level of fascination for people. And maybe more, if it's because there are not a lot of unsolved celebrity murders. There's a lot of celebrity deaths that are questioned, right? You can think of Marilyn Monroe, George Reeves, who played Superman.

I'm trying to think of others, but those are deaths that some people will question, right? As to the actual manner of death, there's no doubt that Bob Crane was murdered. The question is who did it? So I think most of the celebrity murders, murders of people like John Lennon, Sharon Tate, Rebecca Schaefer, those cases have been solved. So the fact that after all these years, this case remains unsolved, I think that's fascinating for people. Yeah, I mean, those cases that you just mentioned, they fascinate people, right, in the true crime community. But you don't have, let's say, probably the speculation that you do a lot of. around this case because people are still trying to figure out what happened.

And then you add on top of it the details of Bob's life. And especially the details around his obsession with sex and taking pictures and making videotapes and all of that. It just adds a level to the case that maybe some others don't have. People had this image of who Bob Crane was based on what they saw on TV. And in reality, he was a human being that had his issues that he dealt with. And people were shocked to find out that Bob Crane wasn't the person that he was on TV. But isn't that really the thing with all celebrities? I mean, I'm not saying that all celebrities are exactly

like Bob Crane, but what I'm saying is we see people on the small screen. We see people on the big screen and we think they're like their characters. Well, they're not. They're just human beings like you and I. They're doing things that we might approve of, we might not approve of, but they're not going to be the same person that they portrayed in these famous roles. And Bob Crane was a fascinating guy, no doubt. But I think the other character in this case, John Carpenter, is interesting in his own right. And in the relationship between Bob and John is interesting. You have a celebrity. You have a person that's not a celebrity that is providing something to Bob Crane and in return getting something back from Bob Crank. And you have the theory that it's the severing of this relationship that was the

impetus for murder. Now, it wasn't proven. It was alleged, but there are a lot of people today, right? that still believe it was John Carpenter who killed Bob Crane. I think it's important to remember, too, that the case against John Carpenter was just entirely circumstantial. There were no indications of any physical evidence linking the crime to him. The DNA testing that the reporter had done proved that the material found in John Carpenter's rental car didn't belong to Bob Crane. There were no witnesses that ever saw Bob Crane. There were no witnesses that ever saw Bob Cream threatened by John Carpenter or any other altercations. So I don't know that there's anything that would tie him or make one think that he was

the likely suspect in the case. But having said that, it doesn't stop people from speculating that he was still the killer. And you think about this guy really living with that for, you know, some time. If he didn't have anything to do with it, that is extremely rough to live with. to live with that cloud of suspicion hanging over your head. When we look back at all of the trist and sexual encounters that Bob Crane was known to have had, you have to wonder if somewhere along the way he made somebody angry, maybe an angry husband or a jealous boyfriend or possibly a woman that was jealous, and maybe the person

that murdered him falls into that group. Yeah, I think it's entirely possible. I mean, it's really tough to, and I don't know what the number is, but by all accounts, Bob Crane had a lot of sex with a lot of people. And it's pretty tough not to create some type of hostility along the way. So I think that theory is very valid. Thanks for writing and research assistants in this episode goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com. If you haven't done so yet and you love the show, go out, give us a five-star rating. That goes a long way and keep telling your friends about criminology. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod.

We're also on Facebook to search for Criminology Podcast. You can also join our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. All right, so that is it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with you next Saturday night with an all-new episode. So for Mike, we'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.