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The Murder of Bob Crane: Who Killed the Star of Hogan's Heroes?

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Somewhere in the middle of "The Murder of Bob Crane," author Robert Graysmith recalls a quotation by Paul Theroux along the lines of how murder halts the victim's life in mid-stride, revealing more about that person than they would want revealed. When death is anticipated, there is time to put things away, make one's peace, and write your obituary. But the murdered person leaves their life open to examination by all.

Not that Bob Crane was hiding all that much by the time he was found bludgeoned to death in a Scottsdale, Arizona, hotel room in 1978. His friends, co-workers and ex-wives knew of his passion for pornography, his relentless pursuit of women, and his interest in photography and videotape. He would brag of his conquests, and even casual visitors to his home may be shown his collection of Polaroid prints depicting he and sometimes his friends in numerous positions and acts.

But it took the death of the former "Hogan's Heroes" for his hobby to become known to the public, and Robert Graysmith is unrelenting in his quest for details about the case.

Unlike its more powerful brethren like "In Cold Blood" and "Fatal Vision," "The Murder of Bob Crane" will not become a classic. Graysmith's pursuit of detail is meticulous and overwhelming, and shows no sign of discrimination, down to informing us that the carpet at CBS's executive headquarters is blue. His prose is overwrought at times, as padded as a down jacket in others. He repeats facts, sometimes pages apart and usually using the same words, and the dialog has the scent of the make-believe. His characterizations are non-existent, leaving us to fill in the gaps. One gets the impression that large portions of the book were written by opening the notebook and dumping in its contents.

After describing Crane's activities in Scottsdale the month before his murder -- he was appearing in a dinner theater play ironically titled "Beginner's Luck" -- and the opening phases of the murder investigation, Graysmith jumps into a biography of Crane and particularly the creation and production of "Hogan's Heroes." While this material has little to do with the murder case, the 70 pages fills the book to a publishable 289 pages. Fans of the show -- and those who wonder just how in the hell a sit-com set in a German POW camp during World War II could be a ratings hit on American television -- will be fascinated by the tale.

"Hogan's Heroes" was the stepchild of "Sgt. Bilko," and the show's creator Bernard Fein, was trying to sell without success an offshoot set in a federal penitentiary. In fact, Fein had given up, and was at the airport about to leave Hollywood when he spied a fellow passenger reading "Von Ryan's Express," a novel in which POWs hijack a German train carrying stolen art. Inspiration struck, aided by the recent success of "Stalag 17," and the rest, as they say, is television history.

Three of "Hogan's" cast members, all Jews, were affected by the war in ways that makes one wonder why they would involve themselves in such a project. Robert Cleary, who played the Frenchman, LeBeau, spent the war in a concentration camp and nearly died at Buchenwald; the family of Werner Kemperer (who played the German commandant, Klink) fled Germany before the war; and John Banner, who was the bumbling but good-hearted Sgt. Schultz, was an Austrian whose family was killed by the Nazis in 1938. That Banner and Kemperer had spent most of their careers portraying Nazis is ironic in the extreme, but as Banner simply commented, "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?"

The book follows "Hogan's Heroes" through its cancellation after six seasons, and picks up Bob Crane's story, his failed marriages, his sputtering film career (including two movies at Disney), a second sit-com that was canceled, and his stage work. As portrayed by Graysmith, Bob Crane was not a happy man. He was a genial comic and a thoroughly professional actor of limited talent., but whose private life was marked by an urgent need not only to copulate, but to record it. He seemed singularly incapable of relating to anyone out of bed or off the stage, and the vignettes of the lonely Crane sitting by himself in restaurants and bars, drinking grapefruit juice (he did not drink often and never used drugs), are affecting. One wonders while reading this what would have happened if he had diverted just a quarter of his energy from seeking sex to growing his career.

Crane's life did not have a happy ending, and that curse was extended past his dying. The investigation into his murder was marred by conflicts among the investigating officers, the medical examiners, and the prosecutors, as well as the inexperience of the detectives (who, after all, worked in a city that averaged about one murder a year). It was 16 years before Crane's friend, John Henry Carpenter was arrested, tried and acquitted of the murder. Carpenter was with Crane in Scottsdale, a video expert who helped him set up his system (back when the top-of-the-line model video recorder was a black-and-white Betamax) and participated in Crane's nocturnal activities. Although found not guilty, examining the evidence (blood of the same type as Crane's was found in Carpenter's rental car, and Carpenter's behavior was suspicious the morning after the murder) leads one to think that a more honest verdict would have been, at least, not proven.'

"The Murder of Bob Crane" is a luridly compelling read about a sad man whose compulsions ultimately and unwittingly led to his death.

Graysmith weaves an intriguing narrative in this account of Hollywood's greatest unsolved mystery. The star of Hogan's Heroes is depicted as a an ensecure, nervous, washed-up womanizer depressed with life, his status as a has-been t.v. star and his failed marriage. Much time is spent on recounting Crane's month in Scottsdale leading up to his murder. Graysmith is obviously trying to raise the reader's suspicion of various suspects when he documents each of Crane's many sexual encounters with various women as well as Crane's obsession with pornography and videotaping his countless sexual trists. This is clearly not a book for the prudish. It sets a seedy, sinister and eerie tone. Yet, the author leaves the reader quite unsatisfied, ending the book just as the trial of Crane's accused killer, John Carpenter, is getting under way in 1993. There was much circumstantial evidence linking Carpenter to Crane on the night of the murder but yet Carpenter was acquited by the jury. We learn nothing about Carpenter's trial (an integral part of this entire story)because Graysmith and the publisher couldn't seem to wait until the trial was over, to send this book to the press.

While the case of the murder of Bob Crane has faded from the public conscience, the plausible and implausible theories have continued to grow particularly in the advent of the internet. Robert Graysmith, best known for his books on the Zodiac killer, also has a theory on Bob Crane's murder which is included in "The Murder of Bob Crane" or the repackaged version "Auto-Focus". It is unlikely that anybody will be convicted of the murder of Bob Crane nearly 30 years after the event. So if nothing else, Graysmith has outlined a collection of the facts in this book with his theory.

It is apparent in the mind of the reader who the author suspects the killer to be in this book. In the first publication, he made his case before John Carpenter ever went to trial. At times, Graysmith becomes cumbersome in his redundant recitation of the facts. The portrayal of the character of Bob Crane is thorough. Graysmith does not shy away from Graysmith's sexually promiscuous lifestyle. The background of other characters seems less clear. Little of John Carpenter is noted aside from his relationship with Crane and fellow Hogan's Heros co-star Richard Dawson. At times, Graysmith seems to suggest that Dawson may have been involved in the murder.

While this is an interesting read, the evidence is largely circumstantial and does not stack up. This may be why Graysmith chose to write such a thorough history of the show Hogan's Heros in the middle chapters. While I enjoyed Graysmith's work on "Zodiac", he seems to be writing this book with one intention. However, he failed to convict Carpenter in my mind.

This is a book I came across after watching the movie "AutoFocus" which I liked very much. I read the book hoping to get into greater detail surrounding the investigation of Bob Crane's murder. The book covers Crane's social exploits in detail. This part of the book is effective and conveys the casualness of the swinger lifestyle and Crane's cavalier attitude towards women and sex. It is also a look into the celebrity worship that is deeply embedded in our culture. When Crane is murdered the police immediately suspect his friend John Carpenter who was in the vicinity the night before. Most of their evidence is circumstantial and they do not indict Carpenter until the mid-90's. This part of the book is very interesting as Graysmith does a very good job of juggling the evidence and the personalities involved in the delayed indictment.
If there is a flaw it is that Graysmith obviously has some affection for Crane as an actor and coupled with the fact that all of his information comes from police sources the book is pretty one sided. It is obvious that Graysmith wants a conclusion to the case and he, like the officers, are quick to jump on John Carpenter as that conclusion. In the end though the evidence is flimsy, and without a solid motive, circumstantial evidence doesn't go very far. This is not a heavy criticism of Graysmith, his book is still an excellent work up of the case, and Carpenter most likely was the killer. There was reasonable doubt there and it could have been explored deeper. I recommend this book to anyone who likes good true crime, mystery, or Hollywood scandals.

I recently saw the movie "Auto Focus" and have just finished reading Robert Graysmith's book. This book is a real page turner!! I really enjoyed Graysmith's Zodiac books, too. He is a very good writer and he knows his facts. The disappointing part of this book is that the killer went unpunished. If there was DNA testing in 1978, there is no way John Carpenter would have gotten away with this. This is a real tragedy especially since Carpenter was acquitted. This is a very good and interesting book!! Bob Crane was such a good actor. It's ashame that this happened.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Autofocus. I bought the book after seeing the movie on cable. Graysmith, naturally, does a great job weaving all of the details into a fine crime novel. I have enjoyed most of his crime books and this one was no exception.

Others have criticised Graysmith for focusing too much on Carpenter but after reading the book and the statements being based on fact and supported by statements from the detectives, I have to say that Carpenter really does look guilty. In saying that, I think the police departments could have done a better investigation of the case and looked more into some of the suspects mentioned in the book. It is amazing that police departments were so careless.

The book doesn't go into great detail about sexual specifics and graphic sexual descriptions (this is not one of those fiction love novels!) but he gives you enough detail which leaves you shaking your head at Crane's exploits.

A typically good Graysmith book and definitely worth a read.

Book was a quick read, very well documented for a case that is over 20 years old Robert Graysmith thouroughly did his homework researching the death of Bob Crane. I would highly recommend.

He was the guy who played the lead role in history's strangest sitcom, a farce about Allied soldiers imprisoned by the Third Reich. A few years later, Bob Crane was a prisoner himself, of typecasting and a swinger's lifestyle that was not only miserable and unhealthy, but as Robert Goldsmith posits in his book "Auto Focus", ultimately fatal.

Crane was bludgeoned to death in a Scottsdale, Arizona bedroom one June morning in 1978. That brought into sharp focus the sordid way he lived, using the dregs of a once-flourishing career to latch on to as many willing women he could find. Suspicion quickly centered on John Carpenter, a video guy who trolled for sex with Crane, yet the case against him was circumstantial and the horizon of others with motives too vast.

"When you go out like he did, you put yourself in positions where there are very sick scenes," says Joy Claussen, an actress working with Crane at the time of his killing. "When you are that open sexually, you are that nondiscriminative in the way you pick people, you are liable to find some sick people."

Originally published in 1993 as "The Murder Of Bob Crane", which became the subtitle when adapted for the screen as "Auto Focus" in 2002, Graysmith's book is poorly constructed and occasionally repetitive, but oddly hypnotic in the way it draws you into Crane's drab yet compelling world. It's like the flip side of "Boogie Nights", showing you the sad and sordid underbelly of the hot-and-horny 1970s. Like "Auto Focus" the movie, "Auto Focus" the book is explicit in its details but hardly erotic. You might prefer a vow of celibacy than living like this guy did, even minus the brutal end.

KSG's earlier comment here about feeling the spores in the A/C was right on. Graysmith not only charts Crane's last days in hourly detail, but provides a 3-D floor plan of the apartment where he stayed and was murdered. What were Carpenter's swim trunks doing in Crane's place? What clue did the killer give to his identity by cutting a wire from an almost-inaccessible location to wrap around the already-dead Crane?

Some criticize Graysmith's unwillingness to entertain more than one suspect seriously. It's obvious he thinks Carpenter, feeling betrayed by Crane's apparent unwillingness to continue their relationship (Crane's son Bob Jr. suggests his dad was losing his taste for the "kicks" he got with Carpenter tagging along), had the motive, and it's hard to argue with the blood-smeared rental car Carpenter left as evidence. But Scottsdale police, unused to murders, left some loose ends, and there were other worthy suspects, like angry husbands, freaky girlfriends, and a future ex-wife who stood to inherit Crane's fortune.

Graysmith sucks up details like a Hoover, and doesn't synthesize well. He brings up episodes like an opening one involving a flat tire that seem to portend much but is left flapping in the breeze. Too often he seems to be paraphrasing the police report, with no commentary of his own. Yet his artless style has a certain validity in how it presents critical case facts interspersed with ephemera, leaving you to make the connections. Even his detours into the desert life of Maricopa County, and the series run of "Hogan's Heroes" years before Crane's murder, brings out aspects of the victim's life and lifestyle that resonate when you think about them.

"Detectives had enough leads for a dozen murders," Maricopa County Attorney Charles Hyder declares in deciding not to pursue a case against Carpenter. Crane left a great story behind, and a life not worth emulating. "Auto Focus" is an intriguing police procedural and a worthy morality tale.

This event happened quite some time ago, yet it remains unforgotten. Many of us remember the tv series "Hogan's Hero's" fondly but the murder of Bob Crane remains a 'cold case', very interesting!

Muddy, unfocused, speculative, meandering, repetitive and for the most part, boring. Of interest chiefly for the background on the making of "Hogan's Heroes." As is so often the case, Graysmith presumes to be a much better investigator and writer than he is. This book is not worth your time. No definitive conclusion on the case, thus, a waste of paper and ink. Graysmith should stick to cartooning, where facts don't matter.