Hogan's Heroes Star Meets Grisly End -The Disturbing Bob Crane Case

This article delves into the shocking, still unsolved 1978 bludgeoning murder of beloved sitcom star Bob Crane, best known as the wisecracking lead on the 1960s TV show "Hogan's Heroes." It explores the bizarre crime scene, violent nature of Crane's death, key suspects, and the troubling double life centered around addiction and compulsion that the actor led away from the public eye. Over 40 years later, theories still swirl regarding who killed Crane and why, with some implicating a jealous friend while others point to the dark underworld of Hollywood itself. The twists of the case continue to confound investigators and true crime fans alike.

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Episode Transcript

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Welcome true crime officionados, Hollywood historyfans, and those fascinated by the dark
underbelly lurking beneath fame and celebrity.I'm your host name, and I invite
you to join me as we delveinto one of the most notorious unsolved murder
mysteries from Tinseltown's shadowy past, thebrutal killing of sitcom star Bob Crane in

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nineteen seventy eight. Even if you'venever watched an episode of Crane's hit sixties
show Hogan's Heroes, you likely knowhis name in conjunction with the shocking bludgeoning
death that befell this TV icon ina sleepy Arizona apartment complex at the age
of forty nine. The creepy crimescene, violence involved, and tawdry's secrets

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about Crane's private life exposed after hismurder have cemented his case as one of
Hollywood's legendary true stories. I'll walkyou through the peculiar circumstances, an array
of bizarre theories still debated in regardsto Crane's violent demise after more than four
decades. We'll peel back the wholesome, cheerful Colonel Hogan persona Crane crafted to

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become a prime time star, andreveal the much darker compulsions that came to
define the final years of his career, fade out and tragic end. So
join me on this journey exploring theunsettling intersection where beloved celebrity collides with savage
murder. As we examine evidence andpersonality flaws which raise the central question who

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wanted TV's wisecracking golden boy Hogan dead? And why? Frequency Radio presents the
strange case of celebrity overkill, unravelingthe Bob Crane murder mystery. The brutal
murder of a beloved TV star.In the early morning hours of June twenty
ninth, nineteen seventy eight, fortynine year old actor and entertainment legend Bob

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Crane, known to American TV audiencesas the wise, cracking Colonel Robert E.
Hogan on the smash CBS sitcom Hogan'sHeroes, was discovered brutally bludgeoned to
death in his Scottsdale, Arizona,apartment rental. The shocking murder of this

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beloved primetime TV star not only cutshort the late career revival, Crane had
fought hard to rekindle, but alsopulled back the curtain on the much darker
sides of success and fame in Hollywood. Crane had been in Scottsdale for several
weeks, performing in a stage productionof Beginner's Luck at the Windmill Dinner Theater

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along with his frequent co star andlongtime friend, Victoria Anne Barry. After
finishing his evening performance on June twentyeighth, Crane reportedly hit up the bars
before bringing a woman named Sherri Curthe had met that night back to his
apartment. The next morning, Barryentered the apartment and discovered a horrific scene.

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Crane's lifeless, bloodied body sprawled facedown across the bed with an electrical
cord knotted tightly around his neck.An ominous, blood stained camera tripod lay
on the floor near by, implyingthe weapon used to brutally beat the actor
to death. Barry immediately called nineone one, but first responders confirmed Crane

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had likely died instantly from the brutalblows hours before between three five a m.
Crane's recent move back to Arizona fromLos Angeles had been prompted by both
his struggling career and messy personal life. The mid sized city north of Phoenix
was familiar to Crane. He hadpreviously relocated there after the cancelation of Hogan's

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Heroes in nineteen seventy one, beforemoving back to Hollywood in nineteen seventy five.
Crane's return to Scottsdale in early nineteenseventy eight came shortly after ending his
short lived second marriage to actress andco star Sigrid Waldis. He purchased a
ground floor apartment in the Winfield Placecomplex that May, and dove into touring

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the Southwest dinner theater circuit once againin an attempt to reignite his stalled acting
career. Tragically, Crane's comeback bidended after only a few months when an
unknown assailant brought it all violently toan end. That morning in June,
Prime suspect the Carpenter friend. Scottsdalepolice immediately zeroed in on Prime suspect John

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Henry Carpenter, Crane's friend and confidant, who had flown in from Los Angeles
for an overnight visit with Crane.Carpenter fifty, was a regional sales manager
at Sony Electronics Corporation, who hadfirst befriended Crane year's earlier. While working
as an equipment sales rep. Hefrequently furnished Crane with videotaping equipment that allegedly

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helped the actor secretly record his countlesssexual exploits. Investigators theorized that Carpenter may
have flown into a sudden jealous ragesparked by arriving at Crane's apartment early on
June twenty ninth to find him unconsciousand entangled nude with another woman on the

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bed. Carpenter freely admitted to policethat he had been present at Crane's apartment
the evening before the murder. Heclaimed he had gotten into town around four
p m. On June twenty eighth, and then he and Crane drove around
together, running errands before meeting friendsand cruising for women, eventually taking Crane's

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date, Sherri Cercy, back tohis apartment. Carpenter stated that he left
some time before five a m.As Crane walked him out to his rental
car. However, investigators noticed odddried blood smears in Carpenter's rented vehicle,
along with other inconsistencies in his accountof events. An exhaustive search of Carpenter's

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belongings, vehicle, and home inLA turned up no additional incriminating evidence.
With no witnesses or definitive proof,Police were forced to release Carpenter shortly after
due to lack of concrete evidence.Despite suspicions of his involvement, Carpenter staunchly
maintained his innocence while under intense publicscrutiny, claiming he had nothing to do

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with his best friend's horrific murder.Investigators, however, had painted him as
dangerously obsessed with Crane, often flyinginto jealous rages whenever Crane became close with
women or other Hollywood associates. Policetheorized that a drunken Carpenter lost control when
faced with physical evidence of Crane's promiscuityin the form of an unknown sleeping woman.

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They believe he savagely attacked Crane withany weapons at hand, in this
case, the camera tripod. Thesheer frenzied overkill involved in bludgeoning someone to
death pointed to an explosion of longsimmering rage and jealousy in spite of the
circumstantial evidence, However, prosecutors feltthey lacked sufficient basis for indictment. John

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Carpenter was never charged with Bob Crane'smurder, and the case against him soon
ran cold due to lack of witnessesor solid proofs. The lurid rumors alone
were enough to end Carpenter's career aspirationsin entertainment industry publicity. He became somewhat
of a hermit before dying in relativeanonymity in nineteen ninety eight. Forty plus

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years later, the well publicized Carpentermurder theory still maintains traction with investigators as
the most plausible scenario an air Forcevet turns promising TV star. Robert Edward
Crane had been born in Waterbury,Connecticut, on July thirteenth, nineteen twenty

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eight, into a working class IrishCatholic family. His father was an electronics
technician, and Crane picked up drummingas a hobby early on. After short
stints broadcasting local sports on the Connecticutradio waves following high school, Crane soon
set his sights westward towards the brightlights of Hollywood. Like countless young men

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seeking fame and fortune during the earlynineteen fifties. Crane received his discharge from
the Connecticut National Guard in nineteen fiftyand made his way across country, arriving
in Los Angeles to pursue his dreamof being a big radio personality. His
persistence paid off quickly. Within afew years, the charismatic, handsome young

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Crane went from part time La AreaDJ to landing the highly coveted morning drive
show spot on CBS owned kN Xten seventy a m. It was there
Crane fully embraced the on air personaof wisecracking ladies man Bob Crane, and
his quick wit made him an instanthit with SoCal audiences. By nineteen fifty

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six, he had become one ofthe most popular radio personalities in the market.
Crane took advantage of his newfound celebritystatus relentlessly self promoting himself all over
the greater La night life scene.His trademark smile, infectious humor, and
smooth drumming skills made him an indemand regular at the era's plentiful cocktail parties

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and club circuit. It was duringthis period Crane met his first wife,
Anne Tercienne, marrying her in nineteenforty nine. Back home before relocating to
pursue his career. Over the nextdecade, Crane's increasingly hectic career in philandering
put strain on the relationship. Theyhad three children, Robert Junior, Deborah,

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and Karen, prior to Anne filingfor divorce in nineteen fifty nine due
to Crane's repeated infidelities. Crane's talentsproved well suited for the rapid expansion of
television during the early nineteen sixties.Guest appearances and bit parts on various TV
shows led to his breakthrough role innineteen sixty five as the quick witted Colonel

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Robert Hogan on the new wartime sitcomHogan's Heroes. Set in a German prisoner
of war camp, the show followeda motley crew of Allied soldiers secretly assigned
to sabotage the German war effort,right under their clueless commandant, Colonel Klink's
nose. The combination of Crane's impeccablecomedic timing and all American charm made the

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show an instant rating smash for CBS. Hogan's Heroes soon shot past rivals in
the time slot to become a topten show that at its peak, averaged
thirty million viewers per week. Practicallyover night, Bob Crane had become a
household name and bonafide television star.Sadly, Crane's long, simmering personal demons

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and addictive, darker nature could notbe contained even at the height of his
fame. He divorced Anne for goodin nineteen seventy after over twenty years of
marriage, and married his Hogan's Hero'sco star Sigrid Valdez later that same year
while show was still on the air. However, the good times would not

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last the downward spiral. Despite seeminglyhaving the world on a string during his
mid nineteen sixties prime, Crane possesseda jeckle and hide personality. His wholesome,
cheerful public persona masked a severely troubledprivate life consumed by addiction, risky
sexual pursuits, and the emerging technologyof the day that enabled them both.

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Crane's compulsions can be traced back tothe nineteen fifties, when his first wife,
Anne, began noticing he always neededa stash of explicit magazines featuring nudity
and graphic sexual imagery. As amateurhome video equipment emerged later on, Crane
incorporated it into documenting his escapades,constantly collecting smutty images and videos. By

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the early seventies, friends like JohnCarpenter were furnishing Crane with the latest cameras
and video recorders, allowing him toexpand recording his numerous one night stands and
orgies in between traveling for his dinnertheater work. Police later uncovered huge collections

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of polaroids, film videotapes, andaudio recordings Crane had amassed, prominently featuring
himself engaged in countless lewde sex actswith various women. It appeared this addiction
fueled hobby had practically consumed the middleaged former TV star's life in the years
before his death. This increasingly unhingedpreoccupation also directly fueled the swift downfall of

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Crane's acting career. Reruns kept Hogan'sheroes popular on syndicated channels, but networks
and film studios were wary of workingwith someone carrying so much personal baggage.
Aside from a handful of Disney filmcameos, Crane found himself typecast and unable

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to book meaningful roles. After Hogan'scancelation in nineteen seventy one. By nineteen
seventy five, he had separated fromhis second wife and fled back to familiar
stomping grounds in Scottsdale in an attemptto start over both personally and professionally on
the regional theater circuit. Sadly,just four years later, Crane's comeback bid

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was cut short in the most violentway possible. But the tawdry revelations surrounding
his private life that emerged during themurder investigation only reinforced Crane's diminished show business
prospects that later years. His sordidtale serves as another cautionary example of the

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dark underbelly that often lurks just belowthe shiny surface of fame and celebrity,
even back in the supposedly more wholesomeera of classic Hollywood investigation and theories more
mystery than answers. Due to thelack of witnesses or physical evidence definitively tying

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Carpenter or another party directly to BobCrane's brutal murder, Scottsdale police were stuck
at a dead end. Even afteryears of intense public scrutiny and national press
coverage. As Crane's celebrity status andthe salacious aspects of the case faded over
time, the vague mystery behind whokilled the beloved primetime television father lingers as

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a cold case over forty years later. Several theories behind who murdered Crane and
why continue to be debated amongst investigators, journalists, and crime enthusiasts, keeping
the late actors legacy alive. Themost popular involves a drunken confrontation between Crane
and best friend John Carpenter, resultingin a probable jealous rage. Critics of

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this theory point out that the extremeforce used to batter Crane's skull and face
implied an emotional personal motive beyond meredrunkenness. Other theorists have speculated the binder
camera tripod chordknotted around Crane's neck ashe slept had a ritualistic symbolic meaning that
hinted at the dark underworld of seventiesHollywood having a role in Crane's death.

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Crane's son, Robert Junior, latercame forward with his own belief that his
father's compulsion to film sexual encounters withouthis partner's consent may have led to blackmail
or retaliation by someone finally seeking violentretribution. Some also point to Crane's penchant
for borrowing money or making gambling debtswith shady underworld characters as perhaps a motive.

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Others reckon a transient simply broke inattempting to rob Crane, but violently
panicked at some point. Four decadeslater, investigators are no closer to conclusively
solving the case and bringing Bob Crane'smurderer to justice. The lurid circumstances surrounding
Crane's private life that emerged after hishorrific life demise leave that questions that compel

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crime buffs, who would want tokill the former television icon known for his
harmless humor, and what might havebeen discovered on the missing film footage leading
to his targeted slaying. Like otherinfamous, unsolved celebrity deaths before it,
the Bob Crane murder case continues tolive on primarily as a grim Hollywood legend,

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reminding us of darker eras gone by, and that winds up our dive
into the twisting trail of clues surroundingthe violent demise of Bob Crane, the
beloved comedy actor who reached great heightson Hogan's Heroes, only to meet a
gruesome still unsolved end less than adecade later. I'd like to thank you

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all for joining me on this journeyexploring one of Hollywood's most perplexing unsolved murder
cases. I hope you enjoyed thisglimpse into the glitzy, gritty world of
Tinseltown's dark side and listening to mytake on who might have wanted one of
America's most charming prime time personalities deadand why they were willing to brutally bludgeon

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him to get that result. Ifthis case piqued your interest in the further
mysteries swirling around fame, fortune,and murderous motives, please subscribe to this
Quiet Please podcast network. We aimto provide intriguing explorations of notorious celebrity crimes

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where shobiz extraversion collided fatally with theintroverted psychosis of a killer. We will
unravel more of these fascinating tales oftragedy striking the stars in future episodes.
For now, thanks again and seeyou next time. This has been another
gripping true crime profile brought to youby Quiet Please