Hard to believe, but it has been forty years to the day, June 29, 1978, that actor Bob Crane, best known for his role in the dreadful sixties sitcom Hogan's Heroes, was brutally bludgeoned to death in a Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment. So-called friend John Carpenter killed him. He befriended Crane after being introduced to him by Crane's HH co-star Richard Dawson. Carpenter, as everybody who followed this case knows, was big on video, and eventually Crane got into it to the point where he was filming pornographic videos of himself with scads of women. Crane was known as somebody who never smoked or drank, and a wingnut long before it became fashionable. Because of his straitlaced image, it shocked the world when reports said the actor had a secret life known only to a few. The rumor mill at the time had it he got killed by a jealous husband or boyfriend, but in truth, nobody but Carpenter had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill Crane.
Crane reportedly tired of the libertine lifestyle and had met someone he truly liked. He wanted to stop doing this garbage and focus on other things, but Carpenter didn't agree. Carpenter felt Crane pushed him aside. He wasn't going to let Crane do what he wanted, so he took a tripod and bludgeoned Crane to death while Crane lay sleeping in his bed. His body didn't get discovered until the following day.
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| John Carpenter with attorney |
The case became the classic example of how not to do a police investigation. Investigators botched this case from the very beginning. It took 15 or 16 years before Carpenter went to trial, but by that time, the forensic evidence had been so degraded, and there were no other witnesses to the crime, the jury had no choice but to acquit Carpenter. I don't think the D.A. should have even brought a case against Carpenter on such flimsy evidence. If I had been on that jury, I'd have voted for acquittal.
From the article:
He noted that jury believed Carpenter was the murderer, but they didn't believe the evidence.
Almost from the time Crane's body was discovered in his bedroom of the Winfield Place apartments (now condominiums) in Scottsdale, authorities made critical mistakes that later undermined their case.
For starters, Scottsdale police failed to adequately secure the crime scene. They allowed his co-star, Victoria Berry, into the apartment to answer the phone several times, potentially contaminating the crime scene. In addition, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner climbed over Crane's body and shaved his head to examine the fatal wound, Hook said.
And while evidence photos show a piece of what appears to be human tissue on the door of Carpenter's rental car, the crime lab at the state Department of Public Safety either lost that critical piece of evidence or never bothered to recover it in the first place.
Officials blew it with this case. It just wasn't right Crane's family got no justice at all.
Carpenter died a free, and very guilty, man.
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