The Bizarre Murder of Bob Crane

Bob Crane, likely circa 1969.

Robert Crane was a beloved television actor whose real life had a seedy side and whose death baffled his friends, fans and the police. He played the title role of Colonel Hogan in the '60s sitcom "Hogan's Heroes." He played the role from 1965 until 1971, when the series was cancelled. During that time, he left his wife of more than 20 years for his co-star Sigrid Valdis. He also catered to a taste for promiscuous sex and filming it. After the show, he never found the same success he had with "Hogan's Heroes." He instead took up small roles, acted on stage and continued making amateur pornography. He was on tour with a play when he was murdered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Before becoming a television star, Bob Crane was a popular radio D.J. in L.A. He worked with ultra-famous people like Marilyn Monroe before he himself became famous. Because of this, he was a lady magnet. He was never without a woman willing to sleep with him or have group sex with him and his friends. Whether they were all willing to be videotaped is not clear. Many of them later said that they had no idea he was filming or taking photographs. It was this ability to pick up women and his love of documenting it that led to his friendship with John Henry Carpenter.

John Henry Carpenter was an electronics whiz with the same sexual appetite as Bob Crane. Together, they would pick up women and take them back to hotels, their homes and other people's homes, where they would engage in sexual acts and document it. There is no evidence that they were homosexual, but there were rumors that John wanted more from Bob than he was willing to give. Rumor has it that Bob told John he did not want to continue the friendship a few days before his murder. Carpenter denied it.

On June 28, 1978, Bob Crane was killed in the early hours of the morning. Someone came into his room at the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, Arizona and beat him to death while he slept. He was hit in the head with a blunt object at least once, most likely twice. He never even had a chance to leave the bed. The killer also wrapped an electrical cord around his neck and tied it there. Some believe this was a message regarding Crane's love of videotaping sex. Another interesting find was a bottle of scotch in the room. According to those who knew him, Crane did not drink scotch. There was no sign of a struggle and no sign of forced entry.

Given the clues at the scene, police believed that Bob Crane knew his killer. It is possible that he let the killer in or that he left the door open for the killer. He may have even fallen asleep with the killer in the room. At the time, Bob Crane was divorcing his wife Sigrid. He also may have had countless enemies in the form of jilted lovers, jealous husbands/boyfriends and angry women who did not know they were videotaped by the star. The list of suspects could have been very long. However, there was no evidence that one of his lovers had anything to do with it. His wife also had an alibi. Sure, she could have hired someone, but someone he knew?

This left police with John Henry Carpenter. He and Bob Crane were inextricably linked in this sordid tale. John got a stream of lovers through his friendship with Bob. He had a lifestyle to lose if Bob were to sever their friendship. The problem with that is there is no evidence they had a falling out--or very little. Police found it suspicious that John called the apartment several times while they were there and never asked why the police were in his friend's apartment. That could be explained by John not wanting to implicate himself if it had something to do with their pornography. Much more difficult to explain is blood found in John's rental car that matched the blood type of Bob Crane. The problem with that is there was no way to test the DNA at the time.

Over the years, John Carpenter was the main suspect in the case, but there was never enough to arrest him. Prosecutors decided to go with a picture of what could have been brain matter in Carpenter's rental car. The picture did not hold up in court and he was acquitted. To this day, he is the go to in this whodunit. There is no single other person who draws so much suspicion in this case, but that could be because the possible list is simply too long and varied to pick one out of the myriad of people with motive.

Sources

Wilonsky, Robert, Klinky Sex, retrieved 11/26/11, sfweekly.com/2001-07-18/Cultural/Klinky-sex

Bob's Cranium, retrieved 11/26/11, findadeath.com/Deceased/c/Bob%20Crane/bob_cranium.htm

The London Monster

The story of the London Monster is a similar story to that of our recent post on that of the Halifax Slasher. It is the story of an alleged attacker who stalked women at night and attacked them with sharp objects. On top of that, the stories are similar in that the attackers were never caught, may not have existed or may have only been responsible for very few of the crimes to which they were attributed. However, in the case of the London Monster, it is also very possible that an attacker existed and very few of the alleged attacks were hoaxes. Given the early attacks and the extent of some of the victims' injuries, it is fair to say that something nefarious was afoot in London between 1788 and 1790.

The London Monster's M.O. was reportedly to sneak up on women at night and stab them in their derrieres whilst swearing at them. Of course, descriptions of individual attacks differ. However, the bottom line was assaulting good-looking women with knives. This in and of itself is not suspicious in the sense that it seems made up. This is well within the known realm of criminal activity. In fact, the very act described has its own name -- piquerism. Therefore, there is some likelihood that there was a piquerist in London around the time of the London Monster attacks. Nonetheless, things did get suspicious over time.

As expected, there was something of a panic in London. Innocent men took great pains not to appear shady, as there was some hysteria that had the potential to turn violent. Then, there were the women who faked attacks. It does not get much more bizarre than taking what was a frightening situation and turning it into a bid for attention. Because at least one woman later admitted to faking an attack, the entire situation is hardly taken seriously in modern times. Unlike Jack the Ripper, the London Monster has something of a reputation as a hoax. His crimes were not as severe, but it is possible that he stabbed innocent women in the street. That is serious enough to warrant investigation. However, the investigation itself was botched by the hysteria.

A man by the name of Rhynwick Williams was found guilty of three attacks and given six years in prison, despite the fact that most of the evidence was ridiculous, he had alibis for confirmed attacks and one of the witnesses admitted to lying. Oh, and there was also the monetary reward motivation on the part of his accused. Williams was able to get a retrial but it did not work out in his favor. The hysteria won out. More attacks occurred while he was in prison but it is unknown whether it was the real attacker or more hoaxes.

Bizarre Crimes: Craigslist Diaper Man Gets His Diaper Changed

Man in diaper by ShinyFan

When it comes to bizarre, criminals are at the top of the heap. Some of them do the oddest things to get what they want and let's face it, what some of them want is bizarre in and of itself. Obviously demented and violent crimes aside, because That is Bizarre would turn into a crime site if we included the multitude of abhorrent crimes that humans have committed, there are some crimes that make you want to chuckle in a "What the hell is wrong with the world?" sort of way. The following crime is just such a crime. One can only guess the intention and feel relieved at the outcome.

One day in New Hampshire, a presumably helpful and kind nurse was looking for a job on Craigslist when she came across one that looked promising. The ad was from an elderly man who said he needed someone to take care of his son. His son was an adult who had been in a car crash. He needed too much care for the elderly man to handle. This kind nurse thought the job was right up her alley.

The nurse arrived at the home for an interview, only to find the man who had taken out the ad was not there. Someone else was, though -- a 23-year-old man whose diaper needed changing. Rather than leave him sitting there, she changed his diaper for him and left without an interview or meeting the man who had taken out the ad. She thought for sure that she would get a return phone call. One would think that her show of compassion was enough to get her the job. However, no one called and she started to feel weird about the situation, so she called the police.

The police went to the Craigslist diaper man's house only to find a perfectly healthy 23-year-old named Eric Carrier. Eric, for reasons one can only guess, had put out the ad himself, donned a diaper, soiled it and waited for a nice female nurse to come along and wipe his bum. Now that is one bizarre fetish and one inventive way to cater to it.

In an odd way, the story is rather funny. The problem is that the outcome could have been very different. Eric had that woman at his mercy. Her guard was down because she thought she was working with an invalid. We can chuckle because of how it turned out, but he really did abuse her kind nature and it could have turned out much worse. It really makes you think twice about doing anything kind for strangers. Then again, who among us would change the diaper of a total stranger we met on Craigslist? Perhaps our kind nurse needs to watch the news more often.