Bob Crane of Hogan’s Heroes: Sex, Lies, Videotape, and Murder

On the surface, the star of one of the most popular television series of the 1960s was a squeaky-clean symbol of America’s innocence. But Hogan’s Heroes’ Bob Crane lived a secret double life that very few people knew about. His custom-built pornographic paradises were hidden behind the closed doors of his dressing room and apartment. He was obsessed with extra-marital sexual exploits, and he documented them with cutting-edge technology. The joy he received from making people smile was matched only by his need to fulfill his darkest desires…a need that would end in murder.

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Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Zeth Lundy, good doctor here at Double

Speaker 1: Elvis and co host of the Hollywood Lamb Podcast. Welcome

Speaker 1: once again as we wind the reels back for another

Speaker 1: story from our archive, this one on Bob Crane. If

Speaker 1: you watch three runs of old TV sitcoms on Nicket

Speaker 1: Night back in the nineteen nineties, then you probably remember

Speaker 1: Bob Crane from his role in Hogan's Heroes, the show

Speaker 1: set in a pow camp in Nazi Germany during World

Speaker 1: War Two. Before that, Crane had hosted the most popular

Speaker 1: radio show in Los Angeles, but his career never really

Speaker 1: reached those same heights again, and in nineteen seventy eight,

Speaker 1: at the age of forty nine, Bob Crane was found

Speaker 1: beaten to death in his Arizona apartment. What unfolded next

Speaker 1: wasn't just a who'd done it, but a mystery about

Speaker 1: who exactly Bob Crane was, and that person turned out

Speaker 1: to be the opposite of the person that the television

Speaker 1: watching public thought that they knew. I hope you dig

Speaker 1: our episode on Bob Crane, and then I hope you

Speaker 1: join me here again on Wednesday for the Rap Party,

Speaker 1: where I'll answer your calls text and emails, and then

Speaker 1: again on Friday in the screening Room, where I'll take

Speaker 1: a deep dive into the nineteen eighty nine film Sex,

Speaker 1: Lies and Videotape.

Speaker 2: Hollywood Land is a production of Double Elvis.

Speaker 3: I'm Thin Bandasiless, Olhati and haale I Live on an

Speaker 3: Island on the back of a Whale, The Mons, Marginal Extra,

Speaker 3: Larry Bell, The Salem.

Speaker 2: The stories about Bob Crane are insane. He lived a

Speaker 2: double life, hiding his unrelenting addiction to sex and pornography

Speaker 2: behind the facade of a squeaky clean radio and TV star.

Speaker 2: That addiction led not only to frequent affairs with co

Speaker 2: stars on one of the most popular television series of

Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties, but to custom build personal pornographic paradises

Speaker 2: in both his dressing room and his apartment. He was

Speaker 2: obsessed with photography and extramarital sexual exploits, obsessions that may

Speaker 2: have led to the end of his professional career and

Speaker 2: his life, and those addictions may have dragged him to

Speaker 2: the abyss. Bob Crane was a born entertainer. The joy

Speaker 2: he received from making people smile was matched only by

Speaker 2: his need to fulfill his darkest desires, and he made

Speaker 2: great films, television shows, and radio programs. Unlike that clip

Speaker 2: I played for you at the top of the show.

Speaker 2: That wasn't a clip from a great film. That was

Speaker 2: a fair youth sample from the Library of Congress of

Speaker 2: Popeye the Sailor Meet Sindbad the Sailor from nineteen thirty six.

Speaker 2: I played you that clip because I can't afford the

Speaker 2: rights to a clip from Randall Kleiser's Grease. And why

Speaker 2: would I play you that specific slice of automatic systematic

Speaker 2: hydramatic cheese. Could I afford it? Because that was the

Speaker 2: number one movie in America on June twenty ninth, nineteen

Speaker 2: seventy eight, And that was the day that Bob Crane

Speaker 2: was found brutally murdered in his apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona,

Speaker 2: surrounded by countless examples of his kernel fascinations. On this episode,

Speaker 2: a double life pornographic paradis is a brutal murder in

Speaker 2: Bob Crane. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Hollywood Land.

Speaker 2: Marilyn Monroe was exhausted, also a consummate professional, so even

Speaker 2: though she was dead tired from the daily grind of

Speaker 2: the world's most in demand actress. She pretended like she

Speaker 2: wanted to be sitting inside the KNX radio studio for

Speaker 2: an interview, whether she actually did or not. It was

Speaker 2: nineteen sixty Marilyn Monroe had a movie to promote, George Q.

Speaker 2: Coore Is, scandalously titled Let's Make Love. Marilyn wasn't just

Speaker 2: a star, she was capital M megawatt, an unprecedented sex symbol.

Speaker 2: Her star power, combined with a care free attitude towards

Speaker 2: all things taboo, flipped the nineteen fifty stuffy conservatism on

Speaker 2: its head. She was the woman all other women wanted

Speaker 2: to be, and that every man wanted to be with

Speaker 2: men like this radio host sitting opposite her inside this

Speaker 2: Los Angeles studio. She knew he was trying to be discreet,

Speaker 2: but it was obvious couldn't stop stealing glances at her

Speaker 2: tight salmon colored slacks and her light pink midriff sweater.

Speaker 2: But no matter where his eyes wandered, the radio host's

Speaker 2: focus remained on the job at hand, a polite and

Speaker 2: respectful interview. Because, just like Marilyn Monroe, KNX host Bob

Speaker 2: Crane was also a consummate professional. Bob was used to

Speaker 2: stars of Marilyn Monroe's caliber. He wasn't just the morning

Speaker 2: radio host for the CBS station in LA He was

Speaker 2: the most sought after early morning radio host in the country.

Speaker 2: He interviewed everyone, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, even

Speaker 2: one of his personal heroes, Jack Lemon, Marilyn's co star

Speaker 2: in Some Like It Hot. Marilyn watched as Bob spun

Speaker 2: in his chair, sliding records in and out of their sleeves.

Speaker 2: One was a new song that had just been released,

Speaker 2: One was a three second sound effect, another was a

Speaker 2: perfectly cue up punchline from a comedy album. He spun

Speaker 2: back to the microphone and cracked a joke before polishing

Speaker 2: off his riff with that pre recorded punchline and the

Speaker 2: sound effect, and then he dropped a needle on another record.

Speaker 2: Marilyn had a hand it to him. The guy was good.

Speaker 2: She looked around the room, turntables, records, a drum set,

Speaker 2: mixing table, a microphone. Bob Crane was more like an

Speaker 2: alchemist than a radio host. He was a well oiled machine.

Speaker 2: He adjusted a few levels, arranged another set of records,

Speaker 2: and gave his producer in the next room a thumbs up.

Speaker 2: Then he turned to Marilyn and smiled as the record

Speaker 2: spawn on the turntable, pumping out a light and easy

Speaker 2: tune to the hundreds of thousands of Angelinos engaged in

Speaker 2: their morning commute. Bob Crane was their morning commute. That

Speaker 2: commanding yet agreeable voice, wit as sharp as attack, happy,

Speaker 2: go lucky persona. He was everyone's best friend, a guy

Speaker 2: you could trust. Even Marilyn found him trustworthy even as

Speaker 2: his eyes traced her curves from top to bottom. You

Speaker 2: watched Bob watching her, and Marilyn was used to it,

Speaker 2: the way men looked at her, fond over her, lost

Speaker 2: their minds at the sight of her. But this was different.

Speaker 2: Bob was in some tongue tied gawker. He fired off

Speaker 2: questions in an inviting, playful manner. Did she like working

Speaker 2: with Jack and Tony Randall? What does she think about

Speaker 2: men whistling at her when she walked by? And Marilyn laughed.

Speaker 2: She took the question as a compliment, but she couldn't

Speaker 2: help but feel like each sentence that came out of

Speaker 2: his mouth was performing a balancing act. He was a professional,

Speaker 2: but it was also a flirt. It was like he

Speaker 2: was two people at once. Bob grinned, his eyes glimmered.

Speaker 2: He was comfortable in this radio studio, but he wanted more.

Speaker 2: He wanted to be Jack lemon or Tony Randall. He

Speaker 2: wanted to act opposite Marilyn Monroe. Acting was, after all,

Speaker 2: the natural progression for a man with his level of talent,

Speaker 2: and Bob's talent was obvious from an early age, as

Speaker 2: was his popularity in his small Cookie Cutter, Connecticut hometown.

Speaker 2: He excelled in both athletics and music. He had a

Speaker 2: voice for radio. He made mock broadcast for his high

Speaker 2: school sweetheart, and after graduation, he made and his wife.

Speaker 2: Bob didn't drink, Bob didn't smoke, and not one person

Speaker 2: in town had a bad word to say about Bob.

Speaker 2: Bob was as wholesome as wholesomer can get, but wholesome

Speaker 2: gets boring. Bob wanted something more, something beyond the conventional

Speaker 2: conservative New England life he'd been born into, not a

Speaker 2: life on Main Street, USA approving loan applications at the

Speaker 2: local bank. For the next forty years, he was an entertainer.

Speaker 2: He sent his demo tape to some local stations and

Speaker 2: eventually landed a gig behind a mic. He bounced from

Speaker 2: job to job over the next few years, Connecticut, New York,

Speaker 2: New Jersey, climbing the corporate radio ladder as his abilities

Speaker 2: continued to land him bigger and better offers. He was

Speaker 2: a light years beyond anyone else in the broadcasting booth,

Speaker 2: and the hard work paid off when Bob landed the

Speaker 2: Primo kN X gig, he packed up his family and

Speaker 2: moved across the country to the land of seventy five

Speaker 2: degree days in zero humidity. At first, Bob was a

Speaker 2: nobody in Los Angeles, just a drop of water and

Speaker 2: an ocean of talented and cutthroat entertainment industry types. So

Speaker 2: Bob did what he did best. He sold himself. He

Speaker 2: grinded it out, He entertained the morning commuters, flashed his

Speaker 2: smile at dozens of promotional events each month, Work, Schmooze, Network, Repeat.

Speaker 2: Soon you heard Bob Graine's voice on the radio and

Speaker 2: you could picture his face, that nice guy persona. It

Speaker 2: didn't seem like an act. Bob rarely drank at all

Speaker 2: the notoriously boozed laden parties, and when a social event ended,

Speaker 2: Bob returned to his three bedroom home with the white

Speaker 2: picket fence and the nice family out there in San

Speaker 2: Fernando Valley Saturdays where for littlely Sundays were for church. Still,

Speaker 2: something deep within him craved more more than just becoming

Speaker 2: the next Jack Lemon, more than having the perfect suburban

Speaker 2: wife on his arm, family at home, more than the

Speaker 2: ability to entertain. Bob's work ethic was maniacal. He was

Speaker 2: always on to the next thing, the bigger, the better.

Speaker 2: His professional desires were insatiable, and so were his desires

Speaker 2: of another kind. Bob and Marilyn shook hands as the

Speaker 2: interview ended. Bob complimented her recent performance one last time

Speaker 2: and mentioned he'd treasured the opportunity to work with her.

Speaker 2: And then, as he did with all his guests, Bob

Speaker 2: and Marilyn post for a photo. Bob felt the urge

Speaker 2: deep in his gut and deep in his mind. He

Speaker 2: let his left hand slide down Marilyn's lower back, and

Speaker 2: the sensation of skin on skin, and the proximity to

Speaker 2: a beautiful woman, one whose salacious celluloid success had implanted

Speaker 2: her image deep within the consciousness of every red blooded

Speaker 2: male in the United States. She was so close to

Speaker 2: him right now. Bob was calm and collected on the outside,

Speaker 2: but on the inside he was losing his goddamn mind.

Speaker 2: Everything fell away. He couldn't think of anything but her, Marilyn, Marylyn,

Speaker 2: those slacks, that sweater, and more importantly, what lay beneath them.

Speaker 2: He wouldn't get the chance to see for himself. The

Speaker 2: camera flashed and then it was all over. Marilyn was

Speaker 2: out the door for her next engagement. Bob jumped in

Speaker 2: his car for a quick commute home on the one

Speaker 2: oh one. He pulled into the driveway of his perfect house,

Speaker 2: perfectly manicured lawn, deep green, lush. The sunlight shimmered off

Speaker 2: at the front windows. He had built a family in

Speaker 2: a career, three thousand miles from where he started. He

Speaker 2: had made himself and it made him immensely proud. But

Speaker 2: Bob was ready to take the next step. With that

Speaker 2: next step, however, came further temptations, deep seated urges, libidinous desires,

Speaker 2: just waiting to slowly bubble to the surface, and when

Speaker 2: they did, nothing would ever be the same again. Patricia

Speaker 2: Olsen was used to sound stages in studio lots like

Speaker 2: Desilu Studios in Culver City. Well, technically it went by

Speaker 2: a Cinema General Studios these days, but everyone still called

Speaker 2: it Desilu, the house that Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball built.

Speaker 2: And then there was Arkao forty acres back lot. Not

Speaker 2: to mention all those stages and lots that made Hollywood

Speaker 2: the town that it was so many of the damn

Speaker 2: things that you sometimes lost track of which one you

Speaker 2: were standing on that day. Patricia stood on those sound

Speaker 2: stages day after day as Hilda, secretary to a Nazi colonel,

Speaker 2: and the acclaimed camp Be World War II television sitcom

Speaker 2: Hogan's Heroes. She'd been here hundreds of times before, but

Speaker 2: this time was different. It was nineteen seventy. There was

Speaker 2: no live studio audience sitting in the seats, she wasn't

Speaker 2: in costume, the cameras weren't rolling, and though the setting

Speaker 2: was lacking its usual hustle and bustle, Patricia wasn't alone.

Speaker 2: Patricia wasn't the first actress to play Hilda. That would

Speaker 2: be Cynthia Limb. But Cynthia was caught having an affair

Speaker 2: with her co star and her husband went ballistic. He

Speaker 2: gave her an ultimatum their marriage or the show. Cynthia

Speaker 2: chose her marriage, which meant the show's producers needed to

Speaker 2: choose another one well in doubt blonde actress to fill

Speaker 2: the void. Cynthia left Patricia Olsen under her gnome to

Speaker 2: TV Sigarette Valdiz filled that void, and not just as

Speaker 2: the secretary to Colonel Clink. She also took Cynthia Lynn's

Speaker 2: place in the torrid extramarital affair with her male co star.

Speaker 2: The man standing to her right right now on this soundstage,

Speaker 2: the man who played an American Colonel Robert Hogan, the Hogan

Speaker 2: of Hogan's heroes, Bob Crane. It started slowly, so casual

Speaker 2: flirting on set, and that wasn't all that surprising. Bob

Speaker 2: Crane flirted with just about every woman to walk by,

Speaker 2: and not in a creepy way. He was a smooth

Speaker 2: talker with a radiant smile. You're a basic nice guy.

Speaker 2: It was all good, clean fun. But as the relationship

Speaker 2: between Bob and Patricia's on screen characters developed, so did

Speaker 2: their off screen relationship. I'm not talking about two cast

Speaker 2: members sharing a male They stole off at every chance,

Speaker 2: secluded meetings behind closed doors, they left little doubt as

Speaker 2: to what was going on, and now standing together on stage,

Speaker 2: Bob put his hand on Patricia's hand that he looked

Speaker 2: deep into her eyes, smiling that thousand watts smiled, and

Speaker 2: they recited marriage voles. But this was no rehearsal. Those

Speaker 2: vows were real and binding. The onset marriage of Bob

Speaker 2: Crane and Patricia Olsen was the culmination of many years

Speaker 2: of blurred lines, and by nineteen seventy every line in

Speaker 2: Bob Crane's personal and professional life had been blurred multiple times.

Speaker 2: Over ten years earlier, Bob was carving out his kingdom

Speaker 2: on the Los Angeles airwaves. Millions invited him into their

Speaker 2: cars and homes every morning, and Bob won them over

Speaker 2: day after day, week after week. It wasn't dirty or rude.

Speaker 2: He was just funny, and Bob did what he believed

Speaker 2: he had been put on earth to do. Entertained people,

Speaker 2: and when the show was over, he shifted gears quickly

Speaker 2: retreated into his private life. His very private life. Bob

Speaker 2: kept his family life separate from his career. His wife

Speaker 2: didn't accompany him to meetings. He rarely spoke of his

Speaker 2: family to co workers, and he kept the door to

Speaker 2: his office at the cann X studio closed tight. When

Speaker 2: Bob went home to Tarzana, a small bedroom community in

Speaker 2: the valley, he was an adoring father two kids in

Speaker 2: another on the way. His home office was full of

Speaker 2: the things he liked and took pride in stacks of LPs,

Speaker 2: a drum set, audio recordings of his own shows, newspaper

Speaker 2: clippings of his career, accolades, journals, and a growing assortment

Speaker 2: of photography equipment, which was quickly becoming his favorite hobby.

Speaker 2: He developed his photos in a private dark room where

Speaker 2: he could document his family's major milestones and accomplishments. But

Speaker 2: to leave it to Beaver Suburbia facade wasn't quite what

Speaker 2: it seemed. Bob's first marriage to Anne, while externally a

Speaker 2: masterclass in marital bliss, had already been through the ringer.

Speaker 2: Back in nineteen fifty, the couple first year of marriage,

Speaker 2: Bob carried out an affair with a woman while on

Speaker 2: assignment for his very first radio gig in Western New York,

Speaker 2: three hundred miles away from his wife and everyone that

Speaker 2: he knew. It made him restless, anxious, agitated. He needed something,

Speaker 2: something to make him feel better. He needed to release,

Speaker 2: and he found it. Sex. Sex felt good. It filled

Speaker 2: that void that opened up as soon as he stepped

Speaker 2: away from his picture perfect home life, which he often did,

Speaker 2: and the more he did it, the more he couldn't

Speaker 2: wait to do it again. He needed it, craved it,

Speaker 2: and Los Angeles was where that temptation began to get

Speaker 2: the best of them. La wasn't Upstate New York or

Speaker 2: his humdrum hometown of Connecticut. La wasn't even a city. Really,

Speaker 2: It was a whole other world, a world of women, blondes, brunettes,

Speaker 2: tall and short, willing and able. They came from all

Speaker 2: over the country and landed here in the city of angels,

Speaker 2: and Bob didn't care if the women themselves were angels,

Speaker 2: and better for him if they were devils. Bob's middling

Speaker 2: celebrity status, mixed with his traditionally handsome, good looks and

Speaker 2: million dollars smile, landed him plenty of opportunities to feed

Speaker 2: his impulses. His undeniable urges led to encounters in bars

Speaker 2: and clubs, not to mention from his professional orbit. Bob

Speaker 2: always ensured that sex was consensual in the same way

Speaker 2: he carefully documented his professional and personal life. He documented

Speaker 2: his sexual adventures. Nude photos of his partners were a must.

Speaker 2: He wanted them to look just like the Playboy centerfolds

Speaker 2: he'd studied in detail. Behind closed doors, he was diligent,

Speaker 2: delicate with his equipment and with the process. The photos

Speaker 2: were carefully processed and added to a collection that grew

Speaker 2: with time, a collection of his infidelities. Each shot a

Speaker 2: reminder that there was something out there that could soothe

Speaker 2: his anxieties. It was a collection that was for Bob's

Speaker 2: eyes only, and Bob was able to keep his personal

Speaker 2: activity behind closed doors in La separate from his family

Speaker 2: life ten miles northwest in the Ventura Highway, at least

Speaker 2: for a while, because as his star continued to rise,

Speaker 2: Bob Crane was becoming impossible to ignore. Although the so

Speaker 2: called radio King wasn't technically number one in the ratings,

Speaker 2: he endeared himself to the major players in film and

Speaker 2: television who joined him in his studio. Those players brought

Speaker 2: him opportunities, first as the voice of a radio announcer

Speaker 2: on an episode of the Twilight Zone, then small roles

Speaker 2: in the films. Returned to Peyton Place and Mantrap and

Speaker 2: guest appearances on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Dick

Speaker 2: Van Diis Show. By nineteen sixty three, he was spending

Speaker 2: his mornings hosting his show on kN X, in his

Speaker 2: afternoons and evenings portraying doctor Dave Kelcey on The Donna

Speaker 2: Reed Show, one of the most popular TV shows in

Speaker 2: the country. He brought a comedic edge to the role

Speaker 2: that was both suggestive and brazen. Bob was a bona

Speaker 2: fide celebrity, and that meant more exposure, more influence, more opportunity.

Speaker 2: Tunity knocked whenever there was downtime between his gigs, more

Speaker 2: than the radio show, more than Donna Reid. That in

Speaker 2: between time was the time Bob cherished. That was the

Speaker 2: time that Bob did what Bob wanted to do. He

Speaker 2: documented every encounter, every tryst. After two years in sixty

Speaker 2: three episodes of The Donna Reid Show, Bob had a

Speaker 2: collection of photos that could easily fill a small room.

Speaker 2: The notorious conservatism of the nineteen fifties kept Bob's addiction

Speaker 2: swept under the rug. CBS was none the wiser when

Speaker 2: they tossed a pilot script for Hogan's heroes on his desk.

Speaker 2: The hell was this only twenty years since the end

Speaker 2: of World War Two and they're making a sitcom with

Speaker 2: bumbling Nazis in a laugh track. It sounded like a

Speaker 2: bad joke, A kind of joke Bob didn't make. He'd

Speaker 2: seen what an insensitive jokes could do to a person.

Speaker 2: He didn't want to offend anyone. A show like this

Speaker 2: could sink his career just as it was getting started.

Speaker 2: But on the other hand, look at the pros. It

Speaker 2: was a leading role in what would be a nationally

Speaker 2: broadcast primetime show. Bob wouldn't be a supporting character anymore.

Speaker 2: He would be the title character. At all reservations aside,

Speaker 2: he had to admit that script was funny. With Hogan's Heroes,

Speaker 2: Bob reached an even larger audience. Not just the millions

Speaker 2: of families who welcomed them into their living rooms on

Speaker 2: a weekly basis. Bob was more interested in the countless

Speaker 2: women he could welcome into his dressing room. As soon

Speaker 2: as Hogan's Heroes became a phenomenon, Bob wasn't just getting noticed.

Speaker 2: He was getting pursued, approached in public. While eating with

Speaker 2: his family, visited at home by crazed fans. Being that

Speaker 2: famous had its perks. It made picking up women effortless,

Speaker 2: and the ease of access, combined with Bob's proclivity, made

Speaker 2: it impossible to continue concealing the separate life he was

Speaker 2: leading away from his family. But once again the lines

Speaker 2: were blurring. There seemed to be no limit to the

Speaker 2: popularity of Hogan's heroes and no limit to the influence

Speaker 2: Bob wielded, but there was only so much he could handle.

Speaker 2: His addiction was like a boiling pot of water in

Speaker 2: the top. It's about to blow off. We'll be right

Speaker 2: back after this.

Speaker 3: We're we're where.

Speaker 2: The room was dark except for a flickering light coming

Speaker 2: from the projector. The real clicked as it spooled the machine.

Speaker 2: Thrown onto the wall were scenes featuring two men and

Speaker 2: multiple women coming in and out a frame and their

Speaker 2: clothes had long since been tossed aside, and in the silence,

Speaker 2: they engaged in compromising positions, flesh pressed on flesh for

Speaker 2: long stretches of time. It was hard to tell where

Speaker 2: one body ended and another began. Bob Crane, ever, the

Speaker 2: entertainer for others, sat in the darkness and was entertained

Speaker 2: by his own image on the wall. If only they

Speaker 2: knew his fans it watched him on primetime, saw his

Speaker 2: face and advertisements carried his likeness around on the front

Speaker 2: of novelty lunchboxes. They'd never seen him like this. This

Speaker 2: was a private show performed for just himself, Bob Crane

Speaker 2: and the man sitting next to him. The wealth and

Speaker 2: connections Bob had obtained from starring in one of the

Speaker 2: most popular television series in the country not only increased

Speaker 2: his extramarital offerings. It also meant introductions to industry insiders

Speaker 2: of all types, including a guy named John Carpenter. Not

Speaker 2: the John Carpenter who helped Snake Pliskin get the fuck

Speaker 2: out in New York, but another John Carpenter, a regional

Speaker 2: sales manager for Sony. John introduced Bob to something that

Speaker 2: would revolutionize the way he curated his private collection of

Speaker 2: stripped down snapshots, video recording. John Carpenter wasn't just Bob

Speaker 2: Crane's connection for video equipment. He was Bob's partner in debauchery.

Speaker 2: John would meet him on the road, where they'd use

Speaker 2: Bob's star power to pick up willing participants in bars

Speaker 2: and clubs. They returned back to their palace of choice

Speaker 2: for the union apartment and motel room, and they'd flipped

Speaker 2: the camera on and record themselves and their guests. They

Speaker 2: shot on real film and developed celluloid on their own,

Speaker 2: using a bathroom as a dark room. But when the

Speaker 2: film was ready, they'd review it, you know, good, clean,

Speaker 2: fun or whatever. The new technology took Bob's addictive tendencies

Speaker 2: to the next level. He was no longer capturing static images.

Speaker 2: These were living, breathing entries into his index of infidelity.

Speaker 2: And as he watched, his eyes darted over the bent

Speaker 2: and twisted bodies, the movements, the contortions, the pleasures and

Speaker 2: kinks laid as bare. His fascination had reached it, seen it,

Speaker 2: and by nineteen seventy seven, Bob Crane and John Carpenter

Speaker 2: had been sharing sexual encounters with women in this way

Speaker 2: for the better part of a decade. But something was changing.

Speaker 2: Bob was growing weary. The conquest didn't arouse him in

Speaker 2: the way that they had in the past, back when

Speaker 2: part of the thrill was how wrong it was what

Speaker 2: He let his imagination run wild, thinking about what was underneath.

Speaker 2: Marilyn Monroe's sweater. Now it all felt so routine, just

Speaker 2: another hookup, just another fuck. And to make matters worse,

Speaker 2: his addiction now had him in the throes of what

Speaker 2: would undoubtedly become his second divorce. Thinking about divorce always

Speaker 2: brought Cynthia Lynn back to mind the full blown affair

Speaker 2: he had with his Hogan's Heroes co star that forced

Speaker 2: her exodus for the show, and then the divorce from

Speaker 2: his first wife, Ann and the onset marriage to his

Speaker 2: current wife, Patricia. Scattered throughout the mall where bars and

Speaker 2: strip clubs, escorts, the photos, the videos, so many fucking videos,

Speaker 2: the Robert Edward Crane Presidential Library of Videos. He was

Speaker 2: always sensitive to the feelings of others, sensitive to his

Speaker 2: own image, but somewhere along the way he got reckless.

Speaker 2: His private dressing room on the set of Hogan's Heroes

Speaker 2: solely became a storage for his collection of nude photos

Speaker 2: on display for all the sea. He didn't even try

Speaker 2: to hide them. He showed them to his fellow cast members.

Speaker 2: He figured, surely they'd enjoyed them just the way he did.

Speaker 2: Spoiler alert they did not. And when Hogan's Heroes came

Speaker 2: to an end, so did a squeaky clean image tainted

Speaker 2: by divorce an affair. He was once seen as a

Speaker 2: Karen father, devoted husband in a hardworking, sober, church going man.

Speaker 2: But now in the eyes of the public, Bob Crane

Speaker 2: had gone from an all American success story to just

Speaker 2: another Hollywood side show. It didn't seem to matter to Bob.

Speaker 2: He kept growing his collection and kept showing off, like

Speaker 2: on the set of Disney's nineteen seventy three live action

Speaker 2: feature Superdad. His co stars were understandably concerned, and the

Speaker 2: smoke from the rumors about Bob caught fire, nixing any

Speaker 2: chance he had of becoming a mainstay with the Mouse.

Speaker 2: The gigs dried up in the nineteen seventy five sitcom

Speaker 2: he created, The Bob Crane Show flamed out after only

Speaker 2: fourteen episode. His second marriage was squarely on the rocks,

Speaker 2: and Bob was now reduced to performing in dinner theater

Speaker 2: shows up and down the West Coast just to score

Speaker 2: a steady paycheck. His anxieties grew with his new status

Speaker 2: as part time pariah. The one thing he loved doing,

Speaker 2: entertaining people, was becoming harder and harder to do in

Speaker 2: any meaningful way, Bob once again filled the void with sex,

Speaker 2: but even that grew tiresome. Didn't matter. He couldn't stop

Speaker 2: doing it, just like he couldn't stop the thoughts that

Speaker 2: ate at him from the back of his brain, those

Speaker 2: nagging suspicions that somewhere, somehow, a husband, a boyfriend, or

Speaker 2: a lover was going to lose his lady because of Bob.

Speaker 2: How many times had that happened? How many more times

Speaker 2: would it happen? Did those guys know where Bob lived?

Speaker 2: They come after him? Bob couldn't shake the questions from

Speaker 2: his head as the reel and the tape ran out

Speaker 2: and flapped against the projector like a flailing fish out

Speaker 2: of water. The pornographic images on the wall were now

Speaker 2: replaced with a blank white frame, and Bob Bob stared

Speaker 2: into the nothingness of them all. He turned to John,

Speaker 2: his most intimate confidant, didn't understand the way that Bob felt.

Speaker 2: How could he. He didn't have a career that was

Speaker 2: slowly dissolving in the same way. Bob needed to do

Speaker 2: something different. His fame had given him carb blanche to

Speaker 2: fill any carnal desire he dreamed of, But it was

Speaker 2: time to wake up from that dream. He would turn

Speaker 2: fifty soon. He needed to make a change, revive his

Speaker 2: career before it was too far gone, and that didn't

Speaker 2: suit John Carpenter in the least. It was bad enough

Speaker 2: that Bob's fall from the upper echelon of the Hollywood

Speaker 2: A List meant they weren't scoring as many girls as

Speaker 2: they used to. If Bob wasn't getting tailed, then John

Speaker 2: wasn't getting tailed, but quitting altogether, not doing this anymore.

Speaker 2: John took it personally. He was getting tossed aside, like

Speaker 2: he was no longer in the frame. Because Bob wasn't

Speaker 2: going to just refocus the lens he was seeing life through.

Speaker 2: He was going to change out the lens altogether. It

Speaker 2: would have been the renaissance Bob crame, if only it

Speaker 2: wasn't already too late. June twenty ninth, nineteen seventy eight,

Speaker 2: Victoria Barry pulled into the parking lot of Winfield Apartments

Speaker 2: in Scottsdale. She exited the car only to be greeted

Speaker 2: by the punishing midday sun. Arizona could be fucking unbearable.

Speaker 2: She knew that, unlike her car, Bob Crane's place would

Speaker 2: be air conditioned, her co star and the local dinner

Speaker 2: theater production of Beginner's Luck was staying here in this

Speaker 2: desert oasis. She made her way to Unit one thirty

Speaker 2: two A and knocked. Nothing. The heat rose from the

Speaker 2: scalding pavement like steam from a skillet bored down from above.

Speaker 2: It was well over a hundred degrees. Victoria knocked again,

Speaker 2: and the hell was taking so on. Still nothing. She

Speaker 2: placed her hand on the door handle. She knew Bob

Speaker 2: wouldn't mind if she just let herself in. As the

Speaker 2: door slowly creaked open, and Victoria was met by a

Speaker 2: room devoid of light. The thick shades draped over the

Speaker 2: windows created a stark contrast to the blazing sun outside.

Speaker 2: She stepped in and closed the door. The darkness consumed

Speaker 2: her immediately. She called out for Bob silence, and as

Speaker 2: she stepped into the living room, her eyes began to adjust,

Speaker 2: and there was a television, some tripods, camera equipment, a

Speaker 2: coffee table full of mail, newspapers, paperwork. She called out

Speaker 2: for Bob again, and maybe he'd left and had forgotten

Speaker 2: to lock the door, and there was no way he

Speaker 2: was still sleeping. The man had no time for sleep.

Speaker 2: Still may as well check. Victoria approached the bedroom door.

Speaker 2: She gave a polite and eye, and then slowly pushed

Speaker 2: the door open. She saw the blood first, dark, fresh,

Speaker 2: splattered all over the walls. The ceiling was everywhere and

Speaker 2: covered the bed the face of the man laying there.

Speaker 2: That face had been beaten and bludgeoned. An electrical cord

Speaker 2: was wrapped tight around his neck. He was shirtless. His

Speaker 2: body was nearly unrecognizable, but Victoria knew who it was.

Speaker 2: It was Bob Crane, or at least it had been.

Speaker 2: Victoria's screamed. She ran to Bob's neighbors for help, and

Speaker 2: the crime scene became a circus. It lacked any sense

Speaker 2: of proper security. Items used and removed. The Maricopa County

Speaker 2: Medical Examiner crawled over Bob's body so that he could

Speaker 2: shave his head to further examine the wounds. Precious evidence

Speaker 2: may have been lost in the shuffle, including a specific

Speaker 2: selection of sex tapes, and there was no sign of

Speaker 2: forced entry into Bob's apartment, which led police to believe

Speaker 2: that he knew his killer. But who would commit such

Speaker 2: a brutal murder? A slighted lover, an enraged husband, someone

Speaker 2: who happened to be on one of those missing tapes,

Speaker 2: or maybe it was someone even closer to Bob than

Speaker 2: a one night's stand, maybe someone who was with him

Speaker 2: on all of those one night stands. Detectives found blood

Speaker 2: on the door of a rental car that was being

Speaker 2: used by John Carpenter, the sales manager for Sony who

Speaker 2: turned Bob onto video recording and for a while was

Speaker 2: as close as confidant. It was a match for Bob

Speaker 2: Crane's blood type. In addition, the eyewitness reports of an

Speaker 2: argument between Bob and John at a Scottsdale nightclub the

Speaker 2: night before Bob's body was discovered, John's motives seemed clear

Speaker 2: Bob wanted out of their salacious lifestyle and John did not.

Speaker 2: But there was no murder weapon, no hard evidence to

Speaker 2: connect John Carpenter to his friend's death, so no charges

Speaker 2: were brought. For twelve years, Bob Crane's remained unsolved, but

Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety a Scottsdale detective found a previously overlooked photograph,

Speaker 2: not one of the dirty pictures stashed in Unit one

Speaker 2: thirty two A the Winfield apartments. This was an evidence

Speaker 2: photo that seemed to show brain tissue in John Carpenter's

Speaker 2: rental car. John was subsequently arrested and officially charged, but

Speaker 2: DNA testing of old samples went nowhere, and John's testimony

Speaker 2: shifted the focus back to the boyfriends and husbands of

Speaker 2: the many women Bob had illicit affairs with. John Carpenter

Speaker 2: was acquitted in nineteen ninety four. He died in nineteen

Speaker 2: ninety eight. Nearly twenty years later, in twenty sixteen, a

Speaker 2: Fox News reporter and Phoenix retested the DNA samples found

Speaker 2: on John Carpenter's car using new technology. He revealed the

Speaker 2: results of the test live on TV. Finally, it seemed

Speaker 2: like there would be answers, but maybe the future would

Speaker 2: reach back into the past and deliver the truth once

Speaker 2: and for all, and the reporter went live on that

Speaker 2: night's broadcast and revealed to the world that the DNA

Speaker 2: found on John Carpenter's car door was not Bob Crane's.

Speaker 2: Bob Crane left behind so many documents of his conquests,

Speaker 2: his obsessions, of the things he was addicted to, but

Speaker 2: any documents pointed to what happened to him on the

Speaker 2: night of June twenty ninth, nineteen seventy eight vanish quicker

Speaker 2: than contrast, vanishes in an overexposed photograph. That's a mystery

Speaker 2: that ought to be in pictures. I'm Jake Brennan and

Speaker 2: this is Badlands. Hollywood Land was created by Years Truly

Speaker 2: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.

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