Carter Roy (0:06)

This is Crime House. We all have secrets. Things we prefer to keep hidden from the rest of the world. Whether we're embarrassed by them or simply protecting ourselves. It's only human to keep some things private. But if we're not careful, those secrets can eat away at us, consuming us us from the inside out. Like a disease. The only cure is coming clean and getting it out in the open. But before we do that, it's important to make sure the person we're sharing with is trustworthy. When sitcom star Bob Crane tried to get his secret off his chest, the results were deadlier than he ever imagined. And the person he thought he could trust the most may have ended up putting the final nail in his coffin. People's lives are like stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But sometimes the final chapter comes far too soon. And we don't always get to know the real ending. Hi, I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original. Thank you to our Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow True Crime Stories to show your support and to enhance your listening experience with ad free early access to each two part series plus bonus content. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. New episodes come out every Tuesday. And if you're interested in more true crime stories from this week in history, check out Crime the Show. Each episode covers multiple cases unified by the same theme. So every week you get something a little different. This is the second of two episodes on the murder of 49 year old Bob Crane, a Hollywood sitcom actor who was murdered in 1978. Last time, I explained how Bob rose from humble beginnings to become a TV star turned theater actor. But Bob also had a dark secret. A passion for making his own pornography. That secret started to unravel just before Bob was found dead in his Scottsdale, Arizona apartment. Today I'll walk you through the winding investigation. As detectives narrowed in on a suspect, it would take over a decade to finally make an arrest. But just when the authorities thought they had their guy, their entire case started to crumble. Decades later, we're still wondering what really happened to Bob Crane. All that and more coming up. Okay, let's talk summer goals. Mint Mobile has the right idea. Forget chasing that summer bod. This year we're chasing savings. And honestly, I'm here for it. Instead of sweating over gym memberships or crazy phone bills, Mint Mobile lets you save big with premium wireless plans starting at just 15 bucks a month. No joke, I switched. And my only regret is not doing it sooner. The coverage is great. The speeds are solid and I'm spending a fraction of what I used to all plans come with high speed data, unlimited talk and text, and they're on the nation's largest 5G network. Keep your phone, keep your number, just drop the overpriced nonsense. So if you're looking for the easiest way to feel good this summer, start with your wireless bill. This year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get your summer savings and shop premium Wireless plans@mintmobile.com MTCs that's mintmobile.com Upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month New customer offer for their first 3 months only then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. By the mid-1960s, Bob Crane was a bonafide celebrity for his role on the hit sitcom Hogan's Heroes. But when the show was canceled in 1971, Bob struggled to find the same level of success. Part of the issue was Bob's other passion. Because while Bob pretended to be a devoted family man on tv, the reality was very different. It was an open secret in Hollywood that Bob was really into amateur pornography. And eventually many of the directors in town decided they didn't want Bob or his reputation anywhere near their movies. So in an effort to pay the bills and keep performing, Bob had turned to the theater circuit. That's how he ended up in Scottsdale, Arizona in the summer of 1978. His play Beginner's Luck had a great run. But before they could wrap and move on to the next city, Bob's life took a tragic turn. At around 2pm on June 29, an actress in Bob's play arrived at the apartment he was renting. Bob had promised to help 28 year old Victoria Berry run lines, but when she walked inside, she found blood everywhere. 49 year old Bob Crane had been murdered in his bed. Victoria called for help and soon the Scottsdale police arrived at the scene. Detective Barry Vassall and Police Lt. Ron Dean looked around the apartment and tried to absorb every detail. There was no sign of forced entry and it didn't seem like anything had been stolen. Bob lay shirtless in bed as if he'd been asleep when the murder happened. He also had two huge gashes above his left ear. It looked like someone had hit him on the head with a blunt object. And Bob also had an electrical cord tied around his neck. Initially, Detective Vassall guessed that was how he died. Strangulation. But later the medical examiner would call that theory into question. According to them, Bob was already dead by the time the cord was wrapped around his neck. Which left police wondering why bother with the cord at all? Was the murderer doubling down just to be safe or were they trying to send a message? But for the moment, Vassal and Dean were still conducting their initial investigation of the crime scene. And at some point that day, the phone in Bob's apartment rang. It was Bob's friend, 50 year old John Carpenter. Lt. Dean answered and told John they were in the middle of investigating an incident at Bob's apartment. John didn't ask any follow up questions and he didn't ask if his friend was okay. Instead, he launched into a detailed account of his last 24 hours. Even though Lieutenant Dean hadn't asked, John told him he was with Bob the previous evening, June 28, and they last spoke at 1am John said he'd caught a flight out of Scottsdale that morning and was now back in Los Angeles. Dean let John talk. He didn't jump to any conclusions. But he did think John's behavior was strange. After all, if someone said they were investigating an incident involving your best friend and you'd probably ask what happened, unless you already knew because you were the one responsible. And John was about to make himself look even worse. Because while he was staying out in California, Bob's other friends and family were rushing to Arizona to help. Back in Los Angeles, Bob's manager, Lloyd Vaughn and his lawyer Bill Goldstein heard a rumor that Bob had been injured. But they didn't know what had happened or if he'd survived. They called Bob's son from his first marriage, Bobby Jr. And the three of them got on the first flight to Arizona. When they landed in Scottsdale that afternoon, Detective Vassell was waiting for them at the airport. He told them the bad news. Bob had been attacked and it was fatal. After the shock wore off, all three men piled into the detective's car and headed to Bob's apartment. During the drive, Vassell asked them question after question about Bob, anything that might lead to his killer. By this point, Vassall had two theories and they both hinged on the fact that there was no sign of forced entry. He believed that either the killer had been hanging out with Bob inside the apartment when Bob fell asleep, or Bob had given his killer a key. Whichever theory was correct, they both led Vassall to the same conclusion. Bob's assailant was likely someone he had known and trusted. Someone like John Carpenter. It was a good start. Now Vassall just needed proof. But in his rush to gather more evidence, the detective made a big mistake. One that would haunt the investigation for decades to come. He invited Bob Jr, Bill and Lloyd into the crime scene, which was still being documented. As the three men walked through Bob's apartment, they searched for anything that seemed out of place. They picked things up and left their fingerprints everywhere. None of them stopped to consider that they might be contaminating the crime scene. Later, Vassell admitted he should have shut down the crime scene completely and prevented anyone from going in or out. But he also insisted they didn't damage the investigation. And in some ways, it seemed like Vassell was right. Because they did realize something the police wouldn't have noticed. Bob's black briefcase was missing. But this wasn't just any briefcase. It was where he kept all the nude photos of the women he slept with. He never went anywhere without it. Which led the authorities to wonder, was someone willing to kill Bob just to get their hands on Those photos? In June 1978, 49 year old Bob Crane was murdered in his Scottsdale apartment. After a day of investigating, Detective Barry Vassall and Police Lt. Ron Dean had learned some key details. They knew there was no sign of forced entry, that Bob had probably been killed by blunt force trauma, and most importantly, that the briefcase containing his X rated photographs was missing. But beyond that, the crime scene hadn't yielded many clues. Although there was blood spattered across Bob's bedroom, there weren't any fingerprints and there was no murder weapon in sight. Without any concrete evidence to go on, Dean and Vassell turned to the next phase of their investigation. Gathering circumstantial evidence, they started looking into Bob's closest connections. They needed to know if any of his friends or family were angry with Bob. And if they were, had they been in Scottsdale the night of the murder. Almost everyone they spoke to gave the same name. John Henry Carpenter. According to Bob's son, Bobby Jr. His dad had called him the evening before he died. Apparently, Bob said he planned to cut John out of his life that night. When the detectives heard that, the pieces started to fall into place. They theorized that maybe Bob had broken the news to John and he didn't take it well. Feeling scorned and betrayed, he'd murdered Bob in retaliation. If that was the case, it would explain why John had called. While they investigated the crime scene, with all signs pointing to John, Detective Vassell decided it was time to learn more about his time in Scottsdale. So that same day, Vasso went down to the local car rental spot. He Asked to see the vehicle John had rented while he was in town. Luckily for the detective, the shop hadn't washed it yet. And when Vassell took a look, he immediately noticed traces of blood in the interior. He sent the blood for testing, and it didn't take long for the results to come in. It was all type B. After asking John to submit a blood sample, Vassell learned he didn't have type B blood. But someone else did. Bob Crane. If John was guilty, it was possible he'd accidentally trailed Bob's blood into the car after killing him. And just like that, John Carpenter became the top suspect in his best friend's murder. But there was just one problem. While the results were suspicious, they weren't concrete proof. At the time, there was no way to definitively confirm if the blood in the rental car was in fact, Bob's. For all the police knew, it could have come from anyone with type B blood. Unfortunately, Scottsdale police were having trouble getting more evidence to corroborate their suspicions. Detective Vassell and his team spoke to everyone who'd come into contact with John. Waitresses who'd seen him at dinner with Bob, employees at the hotel John had been staying at. However, those interviews made it more difficult for Vassell to come to a conclusion. One waitress said the men looked like they were fighting. But a bartender at the same restaurant said everything seemed fine. According to the hotel's front desk, John appeared to be nervous when he was checking out. They said he was in a rush to leave. Even then, none of the other employees could back up those claims. But more than any of those contradictory accounts, there was one thing Vassell just couldn't get past. John was in some of Bob's sex tapes. And none of those were missing from Bob's apartment. Just the pictures, which John wasn't in. If he'd killed Bob to keep those videos private, surely he would have destroyed or taken the tapes. With his investigation at a standstill, Vassell decided it was time to let John speak for himself. At some point in early July, a week or two after Bob was murdered, Scottsdale detectives flew to LA to question John. And he was cooperative. He answered all their questions and gave up the names of other people he thought the detectives should talk to. But when it came to his own involvement, he insisted he had nothing to do with Bob's murder. As for the blood in his rental car, he said he had no idea how it got there. Detective Vassell and Lieutenant Dean weren't convinced, but he wasn't the only person on their radar. Bob's son, Bobby Jr. Told the team he was suspicious of Patty, Bob's wife. According to Bobby, his dad hadn't just planned to cut things off with John. He also wanted to divorce Patty. Then, just days after confessing his plans to his son, he was murdered. Which meant Patty was still the beneficiary of Bob's will. He hadn't had time to change it, and every cent was left to her. None of Bob's kids got anything. When detectives heard this, it sounded like a promising lead. After all, Patty had certainly profited from Bob's death. But there were some big holes in this theory. Namely, that she hadn't been in Scottsdale at the time of the murder. And when detectives questioned her, she had an airtight alibi. It was enough to convince Vassell and Dean to rule Patty out as a suspect. Which just left one more person of interest. The young woman who found Bob's body. 28 year old Victoria Berry. When detectives first spoke to Victoria, she insisted she was just another actor in Bob's play. But after some prodding, she admitted the truth. They'd slept together twice, which was a problem because Victoria was also married. It's not clear if her husband knew or what his reaction was, but investigators had a theory. Given Bob's track record, he probably took some photos or videos of Victoria. Maybe she regretted it and tried getting rid of the evidence. Only things didn't go as planned, and Bob tried to stop her in a fit of rage. Perhaps Victoria killed him. Or maybe her husband had taken matters into his own hands. It's possible he found out about the affair and went to confront Bob, but ended up killing him. Then, before leaving, he took the briefcase with all the photos so no one else would learn what his wife had done. Given the strength it would have required to beat Bob to death, detectives thought Victoria's husband was the likelier suspect. But all of this was nothing more than a theory. There wasn't a shred of evidence to tie either of them to the murder. While Vassell and Dean searched for more suspects and new evidence, Bob Crane was laid to rest in Los Angeles on July 5, 1978. Around 150 people attended his funeral, including some of his old Hogan's Heroes castmates. But it was difficult to honor Bob when his entire life was being called into question. A few years ago, Bob's X rated hobbies were just rumors only published in tabloids. But after his death, legitimate publications began reporting on his sexual exploits. And the public was hooked he hadn't even been gone a month, and Bob's legacy was already in the gutter. Not only was it embarrassing for Bob's family, but it was also disappointing. Now all they could do was hope to close this painful chapter and bring his killer to justice. Back in Arizona, Detective Vassall and Lt. Dean still believed John Carpenter was their likeliest suspect. But they couldn't prove it, and prosecutors refused to bring the case to trial without more concrete evidence. So while John remained a free man, Dean and Vassell searched for the missing pieces. But soon weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, and they still didn't have anything else on John. At some point, John must have felt that he was truly in the clear. That is, until 12 years later in 1990, when a new county attorney in Scottsdale decided to reopen Bob's file. And he wasn't going to rest until John had his day in court. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a US Based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting lifelock.com podcast Terms apply. Ladies. You'll end up shopping for your guys deodorant, right? So try Degree's original Cool Rush. You see, last year Degree changed the formula and men were mad. One guy even started a petition so Degree admitted they messed up and brought the original Cool Rush scent back. It's clean, crisp and actually smells like someone you want to cuddle. And it's in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under $4. So toss one in your cart and find out why it's the best selling men's antiperspirant for the last decade. Degree Cool Rush is back and it smells like victory. Dateline True Crime Weekly. Andrea Canning and the Dateline team cover breaking crime news around the country. And now a special series with daily updates from the trial of Sean Combs. I'll be talking to NBC News correspondent Chloe Meloss every day after court about what she seeing inside the witnesses, the evidence, and what it all means. DATELINE True Crime Weekly. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. In 1990, 12 years after Bob Crane's murder, a new county attorney reopened Bob's case. He encouraged the Scottsdale Police Department to take another look at the files and see if the original investigators had missed anything. It turned out they had. When Detective Jim Raines poured over the dusty files, he noticed a photograph of John Carpenter's rental car. It looked like there was a speck of body tissue on the door panel, just about 1 16th of an inch. Raine sent the photo to a team of experts to examine more closely. To them, it looked like a piece of fat tissue or brain matter. Based on that, Rains came up with a theory. He thought maybe John had bludgeoned Bob with some sort of tire iron. Once Bob was dead, he left the apartment, murder weapon in hand, and got into his car. But he hadn't realized there was still body to shoot on the weapon and it had come off inside the vehicle. Flipping through the other reports, Detective Rains learned that traces of body tissue had also been found around Bob's bed. Unfortunately, those were the only samples that had been preserved. The ones photographed in John's car had either been lost or simply never collected. So there was no way to match the non existent car sample to the ones found in the apartment. That didn't stop Detective Rains from going back to the county attorney with his new find. This time the prosecutors agreed. With the photos of the tissue and the blood they'd initially found in the rental car, There was just enough evidence to finally prosecute. In 1992, authorities arrested 64 year old John Carpenter and charged him with murder. Bob's family members were cautiously hopeful. Many of them believed John was guilty and they were eager to finally get closure. During the trial that summer, the prosecution painted John's friendship with Bob as toxic. They argued that John fed off of Bob's energy and fame and used him to access women. They theorized that maybe Bob really had threatened to cut John out of his life that night. Even though John denied that conversation happened. Then John lost it and bludgeoned Bob to death. But that wasn't the prosecutor's only theory. He also accused John of actually being in love with Bob. Several people who knew John claimed he was bisexual and they thought he might have had a crush on Bob. So the thinking went, maybe John had tried to come on to Bob. And when Bob rejected him, it sent John into a rage. To bolster the idea that the two might have had some sexual tension, the prosecutor even played one of Bob's pornographic videos. It was from 1976, two years before Bob's murder. It showed Bob, John and a woman engaged in a threesome. John's attorneys disputed the accusation. They argued that the prosecution was grasping at straws because they had no physical evidence tying John to the crime. Yes, the blood that had been tested in John's rental car was the same blood type as Bob's. But that didn't mean it was was Bob's. And there was no way to prove that the tissue seen in the vehicle was Bob's either, or even tissue at all. The defense argued it was far more likely that Bob had been attacked by an angry husband or boyfriend. The missing black briefcase indicated that whoever had murdered him was after those incriminating photos. Plus there was also also a strand of blonde hair that had been found in Bob's bedroom. It had never been identified, but maybe that was the clue detectives had been looking for all along. In the defense's opinion, the case was open and shut. The jury should acquit John. The trial stretched on for two years until 1994. When the jury finally came to a decision. In the matter of Bob Crane's murder, 66 year old John Carpenter was found not guilty. There wasn't enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that John had murdered Bob. It was a blow to the prosecution, the detectives and Bob's family. After 16 years, they believed they would finally get closure. Instead, they were back to square one. Either they had to accept that John really wasn't the killer, or they had to live with the fact that Bob's murderer had gotten away with it. Double jeopardy laws in the US Meant that John could never be retried for Bob's murder. So even if a damning piece of evidence surfaced later on, John was a free man. And that's how he lived for the next four years. Until 1998 when 70 year old John died from a heart attack. Even then, Bob's son Bobby Jr. Couldn't seem to move on. Not only did he think John had killed his dad, but he still had suspicions about his stepmom Patty. On top of inheriting all of Bob's money, she and her son Scott set up a memorial website for Bob in 2001. But they weren't just honoring Bob's life. They were also selling some of Bob's amateur porn films. Eventually, Scott said he regretted the decision. He took down the site and destroyed the remaining videos and Polaroids. But the story wasn't over. In 2016, a Fox News reporter out of Phoenix named John Hook took it upon himself to look into the case. It had been 38 years since the sitcom star's death and Hook wanted answers. So he convinced the DA in Scottsdale to give him access to the old blood samples found in John Carpenter's rental car. He wanted to send them to a lab for modern DNA testing. Remarkably, the DA agreed. Hook sent the blood to the same firm that worked on the JonBenet Ramsey and O.J. simpson cases. But when it came time for the results, Hook had to admit defeat. Apparently, the blood in the rental car was not Bob Crane's. It was actually made up of two different profiles. One was from an unknown male, and the other was too degraded to reach any conclusions. It was yet another infuriating dead end. To this day, Bob's murder remains unsolved. In cases like these, it can be difficult to accept that we may never get the full story. Especially because it seems like the truth was just out of reach. If only there'd been one more piece of evidence or one more witness who came forward, maybe things would be different today. But perhaps that's Bob Crane's true legacy. The same way his life was shrouded in mystery, so was his death. And decades later, we're still trying to put the pieces together. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of a new murder and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original Powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media rimehouse. Don't forget to rate, review and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two part series, you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Tuesday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Alex Burns, Beth Johnson and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. If you work as a manufacturing facilities engineer, installing a new piece of equipment can be as complex as the machinery itself. From prep work to alignment and testing, it's your team's job to put it all together. Thanks. That's why it's good to have Granger on your side. With industrial grade products and next day delivery, Granger helps ensure you have everything you need close at hand. Through every step of the installation. Call 1-800-granger. 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