On this day, June 29, 1978, “Hogan’s Heroes” star Bob Crane was bludgeoned to death at his rented apartment in Arizona.
Crane, 49, who was in Scottsdale to perform dinner theater, was found with a crushed skull and an electrical cord tied around his neck.
Police discovered that Crane was an avid collector of pornography and sometimes filmed his own sexual encounters with women, but they did not make an arrest until 13 years later. Police said John Henry Carpenter, who photographed some of Crane’s sexual escapades, savagely beat the TV star after Crane told him that they could no longer be friends.
Carpenter was acquitted. He maintained his innocence until his death in 1998, and the murder remains officially unsolved.
-Scott McCabe
