The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes

“COLONEL HOGAN’S” UNSOLVED MURDER by John Austin

Bob Crane was the handsome star of the 1960s TV series Hogan’s Heroes, set in a Second World War prison camp. The show was a hit and everyone was surprised when it was cancelled after its sixth season. Crane tried to revive his career by touring the dinner theatre circuit, and in 1978 he was starring at The Windmill Dinner Theatre in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was his last appearance. His body was found in the apartment where he was staying. Police also discovered video equipment and a library of videotapes showing Crane engaged in group sex with various women. The tapes also featured Crane’s long-standing friend John Carpenter (not the film director of the same name), who became the prime suspect in Crane’s murder. This account appeared in 1990, when the authorities were taking steps to reopen the case. Author John Austin (b. 1932) has written eight books on Hollywood as well as a biography of comedy actor George Jessel, and three books on Hollywood’s unsolved mysteries. From 1978 until 1982 he was Hollywood editor for Screen International, a film trade magazine based in London, and is a former International Editor of The Hollywood Reporter. He is also a frequent broadcaster on the Hollywood scene on radio stations in Australia and South Africa.

Bob Crane was on the verge of a reconciliation with his wife, at least on the surface, and of a dramatic television comeback. The star of television’s Hogan’s Heroes, the brash, wisecracking prisoner of war in Hitler’s Germany, had met with no success in seeking a new television show except for one which was cancelled after one season.

Crane also thought he was in a shaky financial position and this was the main reason he kept on working in dinner theatres across the country. In this way he could earn upwards of $200,000 per year for about 30 weeks a year.

The reconciliation with his wife, Patricia, and the new television show were not to be. And he was in a shaky financial condition-but not of his own doing. He did not live long enough to find out why. Before these things could be resolved or discovered, Crane was killed by two severe blows to the head, which caused massive skull fractures and brain damage. The blows were inflicted by a blunt instrument such as a tire iron, a lug wrench from an automobile, or a piece of iron pipe. For the coupdegrace the killer tied a length of cord from a video camera in the room around Crane’s neck to make sure the actor was dead.

The Maricopa County Medical Examiner, Dr Heinz Karnitschnig, said Crane was struck on the left side of the head as he slept, “and never knew what hit him.” His death was placed “in the early morning” of 29 June 1978. It occurred in the Winfield Apartment-Hotel in an apartment leased by the Windmill Theatre (where Crane was appearing) for visiting performers. Karnitschnig said he felt, on a cursory examination, that it was a well-planned murder and not a crime of passion.

The Medical Examiner added later that the killer was “probably a man and not a woman.” A track of blood spots on the ceiling was missing. According to Karnitschnig, the killer’s first blow laid open Crane’s scalp, covering the weapon in blood. The second blow was delivered with a short arc, slinging only a couple of droplets onto the ceiling and table lamp near the bed.

Investigators theorized that if the killer had been a woman, she would have had to swing the heavy weapon with a wider arc, which would have thrown more blood onto the ceiling. The wounds, according to the ME, were deep, and the skull was crushed, indicating a very strong person. The killer, the police felt at the time, was probably a man who knew Crane, and he took his time. There were no signs of haste or frenzy. He even took the time to wipe the blood off his weapon on the bed sheet and take it with him. Apart from the cord around his neck-which did not kill Crane-the weapon was never found, in spite of an exhaustive search around the Winfield.

According to Bob Crane’s biography, published by CBS-TV while he was starring in Hogan’sHeroes, he was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on 13 July 1937. While in high school, from which he dropped out, Crane’s ambition was to be a drummer in one of the big bands of the post-war era. Ultimately, he drummed his way to a seat with the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.

A relic of this phase of Crane’s career always sat on or near the set of the World War II comedy at the Desilu Studios in Hollywood-a set of drums which he had owned since his high school days.

In 1959, Crane put aside the sticks because he married his high school sweetheart, Ann Terzian. When they had one child, with another on the way, Crane felt that life on the road was no life for a married man with children. Instead, he turned to radio announcing and became a popular disc jockey. He started on WLEA in Hornell, New York, then WBIS in Bristol, Connecticut. Crane’s big break came when he signed on with WICC in Bridgeport and remained there for six years. Word of his brashness, acumen with a mike and quick wit, reached the ears of the program director of KNX, the CBS Radio owned and operated station in Los Angeles. When the station was searching for a strong entry for the morning drive time show to combat the popularity of Dick Whittinghill on the Gene Autry-owned KMPC down the street on Sunset Bouleyard, it reached into Bridgeport and signed Crane. Word of mouth had reached Los Angeles about his popularity-just what KNX needed. After one year, the gamble paid off in the ratings for KNX and Crane soon became the number one disc jockey in Los Angeles in morning drive-time listening.

It was his fast wit and timing at the mike that led him into television acting. Many of Crane’s guests who were interviewed by him-which was a shrewd and calculated move on his part-were so delighted at his comedy talent they made him acting offers. In time he felt he was ready and accepted the role of Donna Reed’s next-door neighbor, Dr Dave Kelsey, on TheDonnaReedShow. He managed, all the time he was appearing on the series, to continue his radio work on KNX from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. five days a week. He was earning over $150,000 per year.

Guest appearances on TheTonightShow followed, as well as YourFirstImpression, TheDickVanDykeShow and TheAlfredHitchcockHour. His motion picture credits included ReturntoPeytonPlace and ManTrap, all bit parts, but good experience for the tyro. When he landed the starring role on Hogan’sHeroes, it finally forced him to leave KNX and devote full-time to his acting.

Crane and Ann, who eventually had three children together-Robert, Deborah, and Karen – were divorced in 1970. The pressures of his work and the hours just were not conducive to a happy marriage for a housewife used to the routine of suburban Connecticut.

Following the cancellation of Hogan’sHeroes after six years-and it is still being shown in over 75 countries-network officials wanted to cash in on Crane’s well-known face and TVQ rating-the scale which advertisers and networks use to judge the popularity and recognizability of television personalities, even though the networks deny using it as a criteria.

Crane turned down a score of offers. Sarcastically he told us, in an interview over brunch at the rooftop restaurant of The Holiday Inn in Brentwood, California, “one series was for me to be head of stewardess training for a swinging airline. I read the script and said, ‘This is Robert Cummings, circa 1953.’ ”

Another script he rejected was about a sheriff in a small country town. “Andy Griffith had already done it,” he told the producers through his agent. “Then,” he said, “there was one about a bachelor who runs a babysitting service. Who would believe a forty-year-old running a babysitting service? Bob Denver, maybe,” referring to the popular star of Gilligan’sIsland.

Finally Crane accepted a series which would not last very long.

Actress Victoria Berry, who was appearing with Crane at The Windmill, wondered why the actor had not appeared for a cast luncheon for their farce, Beginner’sLuck. Berry also had an appointment with Crane at 2:30 p.m. that day to re-tape the soundtrack on a videotape of a scene from their play. Crane, she said, was helping her with the videotape so that her agent could submit it to casting directors to get her future work in Hollywood.

Berry entered the apartment through the unlocked door. This was strange to her, because she knew Crane always double-locked it when he was in the apartment alone or sleeping. She was also surprised to see that it was so dark inside. The curtains were drawn. She also noticed a half-empty bottle of Scotch and a bottle of vodka on a table. To Berry this was also strange. She knew Crane drank very little, and that when he did, he drank only one vodka and orange juice, generally in the evening.

When Berry entered the bedroom after receiving no answer to her calls to Crane, she saw the blood but didn’t recognize the figure hunched up on the bed because of the misshapen features. At first she thought it was a woman whose hair was standing on end. She again shouted Crane’s name, then she realized it was Crane; she recognized his wristwatch, and then screamed. This alerted neighbors, who called the authorities.

Though upset, Victoria Berry noticed other details. Crane, a methodical man accustomed to “living on the road,” had hung his trousers neatly over a chair in the living room and his shirt on a hanger. His keys and his billfold were on the kitchen table. The apartment key of bright blue metal was still on the key ring. Sometimes he would remove the key from the ring and give it to Berry so that she could use the swimming pool at the Winfield during the sweltering 115 degree heat of a Scottsdale summer.

Then there was the “Little Black Bag!” Berry described it as “an ‘equipment bag’ with several zippers.” When found, she said, it was almost empty and on the bed beside Crane. Police confirmed that it wasn’t completely empty but contained “miscellaneous personal effects” about which they would not be more specific.

Since Crane’s door key was on the key ring and he usually locked the door, police theorized that he knew his killer and let them in the apartment before he went to bed. But this theory didn’t hold water. Crane would hardly go to sleep with a guest in the house. The theory which holds the most water is that Crane DID have a visitor who eventually left. When leaving he or she could have made sure the door was unlocked and waited for Crane to go to sleep and re-entered; or else while they were in the apartment, they could have slipped a lock on a window-the apartment was on the ground floor-and then climbed back in and killed him as soon as he went to sleep.

One of the problems with the investigation, police said at the time-an investigation which was eventually called “very inept” by other law enforcement officials, and by the neighboring Phoenix Police Department-was the victim himself.

Bob Crane, they said, had “a great many girlfriends, or acquaintances, in and out of the apartment.” The police said there were literally close to fifty videotapes of a sexual nature with Crane in various sex acts with many different females.

In the bathroom, he had an elaborate photographic lab including an enlarger. Police said they found a strip of negatives in the enlarger showing a woman clothed, then nude. As the negatives were in the enlarger, it is possible the killer took some black and white prints from the area, overlooking the negatives.

However, Crane, friends said, never forced his photographic “interests” on his women friends. His models consented to be photographed in various stages of undress and in sexual activity.

Following his death, people who knew Bob Crane well talked a little about the strange offscreen life of the talented, witty actor. To the public at large, he was a funny, likable professional who performed brilliantly, whether in his long-running television series or on the stage at dinner theatres. He once told us that he could earn a great deal of money in these gigs-up to $250,000 a year-but got sick and tired of the travelling and living out of a suitcase.

Behind the scenes, they said, there was a complex, difficult to understand, and often bitter personality. The bitterness seemed to come through the several times we talked to and interviewed him over the years.

When his second wife, Patricia, filed her divorce action in West Los Angeles six months before his death, she alleged that:

Crane had harassed and slapped her, and had screamed obscenities at her;

He threw open the windows of their West Los Angeles home and yelled that she was “crazy”;

He refused to take their six-year-old son, Scott, to the hospital after Scott had broken his arm;

He often tried to show “adult” films to Scott, and she was sick of his pornographic collection.

A week before his death, however, Patricia Olson Crane visited him in Scottsdale so that Crane could visit with their young son before she left for Seattle to appear in a stage play. She was taking Scott with her for his summer vacation treat.

“They seemed amicable when they were together, and Bob was even talking about a reconciliation. But I doubt that would have happened,” one member of the cast told the media following Crane’s death.

“Patti had made some pretty hardhitting allegations in her divorce petition and Bob never really got over them,” said another.

Until just a few weeks before his death, Crane, who was very popular with millions of fans through Hogan’sHeroes, and who liked to visit and talk to fans in a coffee shop early each morning after his theatre performance, was a tormented man. He did his heartbreak with a smile-like all clowns-and Bob Crane was, in reality, a clown, always seeking a laugh with a wisecrack, a bon mot, a smile, a wink.

After the breakup of his marriage with Patti, who had appeared with him in Hogan’sHeroes as the Fräulein love interest, he was very morbid, according to Victoria Berry. His wife had actually kicked him out of the house and he had spent hours rationalizing about the breakup of his second go-round.

In the divorce petition, Patti also alleged that he owned a “large collection of pornographic films, including one with (Respondent) in it.”

The charge of negligence toward his son, Scott, hurt the most, according to those around him at The Windmill. In the days before his death, Crane was trying hard to be a better father. Said Faye Wilson of the Windmill Theatre staff: “He talked about how he had been seeing a psychiatrist because of his wife’s complaint that he wasn’t fit to be a father! He was seeing him so that he could be a better father.”

If Bob Crane was trying to learn how to be a better father, why did he insist on pursuing his “hobby” of taking porno videotapes and still pictures of himself engaged in sex acts with his multitude of women friends?

An album of what were supposed to be “pornographic” stills in an album could have led police to the killer-if it had been located. Detectives searched for the album, described by Victoria Berry as “very graphic,” for several months following Crane’s murder.

“Apparently, the album was taken from his apartment,” said Scottsdale Chief of Police Walter Nemetz. “The album was full of porno stills,” he said, according to witnesses who had been questioned, and by those who had seen it. Dozens of videotapes, however, were found in the apartment showing Crane with women in various stages of undress and in various sexual positions with and without Crane. All were explicit.

“There [were] lots of motives for the murder,” said Nemetz. “Mr Crane developed a lot of strange acquaintances because of his… er… er… hobby, or what appeared to be a hobby. His very peculiar activities off stage could lead to many motives among his friends and acquaintances.”

“These,” continued the chief, “could include cuckolded husbands who heard about them and, possibly, one of them went to the apartment in an attempt to retrieve a tape or tapes with [his] wife or [girlfriend] in starring roles.”

Crane’s life-long friend from Connecticut, John Carpenter, who had since migrated to the West Coast, was out with Crane until about 2:30 a.m. the day of the murder.

Carpenter told the Scottsdale police that he last saw his friend outside a Scottsdale coffee shop. The Safari, part of the hotel of the same name on Scottsdale Road. Before leaving for the Safari, Crane had stopped by his apartment to drop off a few things from the theatre. While he and Carpenter were in the apartment, Crane received a telephone call from Patti from Seattle. According to Carpenter, this eventually developed into a shouting match between them. “The sweetness and light visit of a week or so before…” certainly had fallen apart by that time.

Instead, said Carpenter, Crane made the decision not to reconcile with Patti because of a newly formed relationship with a Phoenix woman described as young, blonde and pretty. Most of Crane’s friends tended to be a little wacky, according to Carpenter. “But this one is a little different,” Crane told him. “He said he had dated her three or four times and said he really liked her.”

When we last interviewed Crane about two years before his death, he was still downhearted over the failure of TheBob Crane Show-which had begun network life as Second Chance. Bob said he had held high hopes for the show when it began. “It was a fun show,” he said, “and I like the character I played. The idea was to present a nice, warm human comedy about a middle-aged guy who throws away a successful business career to go to medical school to become a doctor.

“But I was apprehensive about the changes they kept making in it, worrying because it then sounded too much like The Donna Reed Show all over again. But, there you are-that’s what the network wanted, and they were proven wrong. I did all I could to have the changes cancelled and if we had, I really believe we had a chance of making it a success. I was happy to get the name changed to TheBob Crane Show. Second Chance worried me,” he said. “I wondered at the time if it wasn’t ‘The Last Chance!’

“So, we got bumped off the air. It was over, practically, before it had begun. I felt good doing it. I had recently had success with a Disney movie, A Son-in-Law For Charlie MacCready. [10]

“I felt good about it and getting back to a regular series. I thought at the time I could do both-make films and do TV, and everything seemed to be going along fine. Then, the balloon burst and it ended.’

“What,” he asked thoughtfully, “keeps us moving back? Is it habit or money or what? Well, for some of us it’s just that we get kinda homesick for the sets, the smell of the sound stages, the order to cut and for action by a director. Of course, the money is another reason. I’m not that rich, so I can do with whatever money I can get.”

Crane explained that “it” for him was a combination of being eager to keep working and being just as eager to make money at it. He said he was the type who has to keep doing “something!” When other actors rested up during a break, Crane said he couldn’t. “The first day I’m up pacing around the house. To be idle drives me up a wall!”

But hadn’t he been idle during the demise of each of his television series and SuperDad?

“No,” he replied. “I had an extremely hectic time. I was all over the place. I did some specials, I hosted some local TV shows. I was master of ceremonies for top events, like beauty pageants, and picked up good money doing it. I flew to New Zealand for a convention of prisoners of war because of the other series. I taped radio shows and took part in sports events. I did some stage work and came back to Hollywood to do some pilot shows for series that never made it to air.”

There were some rumors at the time of SuperDad that the Disney Studios had some misgivings after signing him for the film because of Crane’s un-Disneylike offscreen image.

“Yeah, yeah,” he replied in a brush-off sort of way, “I read about that, too. But nobody at the studio really said anything. I mean, not officially. They didn’t know about my hobby of playing the drums in topless – bottomless bars around town!”

Very un-Disneylike behavior, to say the least.

“But,” he continued, “what was wrong with that? I loved sitting in with small groups to play the drums and naturally I like looking at those naked ladies. I’m a normal, red-blooded guy and I was only looking,” he emphasized, “at those ladies. I wasn’t doing anything with them. It happened that they were at the places where I could play drums.”

A month following the murder, law enforcement officials in other agencies expressed private concern about the Scottsdale Police Department and its ability to handle the high-profile and complex murder investigation of such a prominent person. The city, it should be pointed out because of its size, did not have a “central” homicide bureau, or detective squad. The same detectives who investigated burglaries, robberies and other crimes, also investigated the few murders that were committed in the retirement city.

One private investigator voiced an opinion that Crane’s killing could have been a “murder for hire” by a cuckolded husband. Because noise was a factor, as in the Vicki Morgan killing, a bludgeon-type weapon was used. But the PI could not come up with a motive with the exception of the “cuckold syndrome” which a lot of people had come up with when the news of the videotapes and still pictures came out.

The Scottsdale police were bombarded with “theories” but came no closer to solving the murder of Bob Crane. A man of Crane’s prominence, involved as he was with sex and porno films, invited conjecture about jealous husbands and lovers.

Such stuff, said the police, was the grist for tabloids; not serious police work. Theories were also advanced from Hollywood that the husband or boyfriend of one of Crane’s paramours who possibly “starred” on one of the tapes, “ordered” the hit and then managed to have it hushed up in the Arizona city. The oligarchy tentacles had been known to reach that far-and farther.

Crane’s lifelong friend, John Carpenter was, for a time, the number one suspect in the killing. While the Maricopa County District Attorney would not confirm-at least for the record-that the Los Angeles businessman was the “prime suspect,” other sources confirmed at the time that he was.

When Carpenter was reached at his Los Angeles office, he was speechless when told the news by a reporter. “I’m shocked. Completely shocked,” he said. Carpenter declined any further comment until he had consulted with a lawyer.

Carpenter had volunteered the information to the police that he was probably the last person to see the actor alive or talk to him the day (or early morning) he was killed.

Crane, said Carpenter, finished his Wednesday evening performance, as usual, around 10:30 p.m. As was his custom, he hung around the lobby for several minutes chatting with fans, something he liked to do, and signing autographs.

Friends say he was tired. Very tired. It wasn’t a large crowd that night. In fact, the play, which was owned by Crane, had not drawn more than half a house for three weeks. The theatre management told Crane that it was cutting his five-week run short by a week.

This did not upset Crane, and he was looking forward to a week off. His friend, Carpenter, had flown in a few days earlier on business, and to visit Crane. He was staying at the Sunburst Hotel, not far from the Winfield Apartments.

When he left the theatre Wednesday night, Crane told a theatre employee he was going to go home, even though a woman and her girlfriend were at the performance that night at Crane’s invitation.

Carpenter said that Crane did return to the Winfield and received a call from his wife. As the conversation was rancorous and loud, neighbors in the apartment complex heard the ruckus and parts of the conversation.

Crane and Carpenter then went to an East Phoenix bar with the two women whom they had arranged to meet (after stopping off at Crane’s apartment). At 2 a.m. all went to the Safari, where Carpenter said he had last seen his friend around 2:30 a.m. before leaving for his hotel to pack and catch an early morning flight to Los Angeles. Carpenter said he also telephoned Crane when he got back to the hotel. The subject of the call was not disclosed, except that the major reason was to say goodbye.

Carpenter checked out of the Sunburst Hotel “very hurriedly” early the next morning, said a hotel employee. He seemed nervous and demanded a limousine to take him to the Sky Valley Airport in Phoenix. None was available so the desk called him a cab.

About 2:30 p.m. from Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, Carpenter called the theatre and asked for Crane. An employee told Carpenter she didn’t know where Crane was and suggested he call the theatre’s other office. The girl said as the call was long distance, she would check for him. Carpenter held on and in a few minutes was told Crane was not there. The employee then checked with the Winfield and learned the news from Victoria Berry who told her what had happened. The employee relayed this information to Carpenter who hung up aghast at the news.

The police investigation stumbled along at The Windmill. Employees said the police were not even aware of the theatre’s “second office” referred to in Carpenter’s call to the theatre. They were never even told of Carpenter’s inquiries until much later in the investigation.

Also, the police only made a cursory inspection of Crane’s dressing room at the Windmill and one of the employees was entrusted to pick up Crane’s personal belongings.

On Thursday evening, Crane’s eldest son, Robert, and Lloyd Vaughan, Crane’s business manager, the man who handled all of Crane’s business and financial affairs, arrived in Scottsdale and talked to the police about the situation. Vaughan, the police said, appeared to be very nervous and preoccupied and just going through the motions of tending to business. He put it down to being very upset over his client’s death.

According to Vaughan, the next day police took them to Crane’s living quarters at the Winfield. They gave Vaughan and Robert a bottle of wine and some beer from the refrigerator which, to anyone’s knowledge, were never checked for fingerprints. (At least no one noticed any “dusting powder” on the bottles). They allowed the two men to pack all of Crane’s belongings in suitcases that were already in the apartment.

Sources both inside and outside the Scottsdale Police Department say none of the items were checked for fingerprints and the murder weapon was never found. This could not be confirmed and the police may be withholding information on prints in case the murderer is ever caught. The trunks of rental cars at the airport should have been checked for missing or bloody lug wrenches. One rental car was checked at the Phoenix airport but the results were never made known. We understand that they did lead to a suspect, however, who did not hold up.

All in all, everyone connected with the case agreed that the police bungled it and conducted a very inept investigation. Most outsiders feel a suspect should have been arrested within forty-eight hours of the murder.

None of the following questions have ever been satisfactorily answered:

How did the murderer gain entrance to the apartment? There were many keys given out over the years to various performers. Was a window left unlatched, a door unlocked from an earlier visitor? Crane always double-locked the door when he went to bed;

Why did the police not try to track down the bottle of Scotch found in the apartment? Why was it not “dusted” for fingerprints. (If it was “dusted,” then the police are not saying what they found);

It was a well-known fact that Crane never kept any spirits in the apartment. He seldom drank anything except an occasional beer and orange juice and vodka. If this is the case, who brought the Scotch to the Winfield? Did the police check the drinking preferences of Crane’s close friends-or visitors?

Were all the “players” in the videotapes showing Crane having sex with many different women ever checked out AND their husbands and/or boyfriends for possible motives?

What was in Crane’s “Little Black Bag” with all the zippers that was so important to the murderer that he took it out of the closet where it was always kept and rummaged through it on the bed next to Crane’s lifeless body?

All the Scottsdale Police would say about the “black bag” was that when they found it on the bed, all it contained was “a few personal items.” Otherwise, it was almost empty.

On 11 June 1981, officials of the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and the Scottsdale Police confirmed what the unseated County Attorney, Charles Hyder, had maintained all along:

“There was simply not enough evidence to charge anyone with the crime!”

As part of his successful campaign platform to unseat Hyder at the previous November election, County Attorney Tom Collins promised Scottsdale that he would take another look at “the Bob Crane murder case.”

Some Scottsdale Police officers who investigated the 1978 homicide were disgruntled and threw their election support to Collins because of this campaign pledge. They were disgruntled because charges were not filed by Hyder and his staff against a man they suspected in the killing.

A County Attorney’s investigator and the Police completed “another look” at Crane’s killing on 11 June 1981.

Major Dave Townsend of the Scottsdale Police Department said that the review added another “key suspect” to the case, a woman. He would not reveal her identity.

“However,” said Townsend, “both offices [Police and County Attorney] agree there is not enough evidence to file any charges. I am,” he concluded, “very satisfied with the present County Attorney’s attempts to help in this investigation.”

Townsend concluded his remarks that the investigation will never be closed until someone is charged with Crane’s murder. It would appear at this late date that it will be a cold summer day in Scottsdale before this occurs.

Today, the killer of Bob Crane still walks free-probably on the streets of Beverly Hills or Los Angeles. Crane is, many believe, the victim of a husband or boyfriend of a wife or a girlfriend who was “featured” in one of the sex tapes discovered in the apartment-and that a particular tape was stashed in the little black bag.

Or…

“The killer will never be free from the guilt of that act,” said Gary Maschner of the Scottsdale Police Department. And Maschner hopes that “someday that guilt will one day break open the murder case,” he said in June, 1984, the sixth anniversary.

“The killer has got to live with it,” said Maschner. “Knowing what I do about random murderers or first time killers-it preys on his mind every time he thinks about it.”

Maschner also says he thinks the killer has tried to contend with the guilt by confessing to somebody. “People like to talk; people need to talk.”

But until the Scottsdale Police get some new information, their investigation of the case will remain stymied.

“As for now,” said County Attorney Collins, “there’s nothing new.”

Collins said that new “leads” come in every week, but none of them lead anywhere but to a dead end. “Just a couple of weeks ago,” he laughed, “someone ‘confessed’ to the murder, but we later proved they couldn’t be the murderer because of some evidence we have held back from the press and public,” he said.

What the police do know to date is this-and it is all the information they will release:

Crane was last seen alive on the morning of 29 June 1978, at 2:45 a.m. by patrons in the Safari Coffee Shop in Scottsdale, and by John Carpenter.

Crane’s body was found at 2:20 p.m. the following afternoon in the Winfield Apartments, which are now the Winfield Place Condominiums at 740 East Chaparral Road, Scottsdale.

There was no sign of a forced entry and the front door was unlocked when Victoria Berry arrived at 2:20 p.m. There were no signs of a struggle.

The police have always been drawn to one suspect in Crane’s murder, and they still lean towards that suspect, the last known person to see Crane alive and talk to him.

The police have never had enough conclusive evidence to convince the County Attorney’s office that the suspect should be indicted.

The Scottsdale Police probably did bungle the investigation at the start as many people and outside law enforcement agencies say.

But there is also the possibility that Bob Crane “entertained” the wife or girlfriend of some powerful figure in the oligarchy. Many in Scottsdale believe this may be the case and, therefore, the police department AND the County Attorney have “backed off” filing any charges.

On the other hand, Scottsdale, Arizona, is a very close-knit retirement community in the Arizona desert. It is a wealthy area and it is highly possible that Crane could have also “entertained,” and featured in living color on a videotape, the wife and/or girlfriend of one of Scottsdale’s leading citizens, with access to many sources of information and the seat of power in Scottsdale.

Nevertheless, it would appear that now, over ten years after his murder, the killer of Bob Crane will never be brought to justice-unless the killer confesses, or gives himself absolution on his deathbed by confessing to the crime. Either of the latter two options seems highly unlikely.

But as the American theologian Tyron Edwards wrote in the 19th Century:

Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them in the end.

It may well have been “poisoned bread and forbidden pleasures” that were the catalysts which precipitated the murder of Bob Crane.

But Hollywood and television are the losers for the loss of the witty, brash and personable high school dropout from Waterbury, Connecticut. His murder, and who did it, might always be considered another of Hollywood’s unsolved mysteries.

Editor’s Postscript

John Carpenter was arrested in 1992, fourteen years after the murder of Bob Crane. Cold-case investigators had concluded that fragments of tissue from Crane’s brain, found in the car Carpenter had rented on the murder night, matched those found at the murder scene. But the evidence had not improved with age: the tissue existed only in photographs. After a two-month trial, John Carpenter was found not guilty and he died in 1998 aged seventy, leaving Bob Crane’s murder unsolved.