In 1978, Bob Crane was still known to millions as the quick-witted Colonel Hogan of Hogan’s Heroes. But behind the familiar television persona was a far more complicated private life and a friendship that was beginning to unravel.

On the morning of June 29, Crane was found brutally murdered inside his Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment. There was no forced entry, nothing appeared to have been stolen, and the murder weapon was never recovered. Investigators soon focused their attention on John Henry Carpenter, Crane’s longtime friend and video-equipment salesman, but it would take sixteen years before the case finally reached a courtroom.

In this episode of Hollywood Horrors, we examine Bob Crane’s rise to television stardom, the secretive world surrounding his private life, his complicated relationship with Carpenter, the evidence that shaped the investigation, and the controversial trial that followed.

Nearly five decades later, the murder of Bob Crane remains officially unsolved. It is a story of fame, obsession, friendship, and a Hollywood mystery that never truly went away.

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