As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
For the background on this, Bob Crane was an American comedic actor, who starred in a series called Hogan's Heroes which became a classic and his performance in Disney's Super Dad was simply hilarious.
Behind the laughs was an actor though who was not liked by many people, and he was an addicted sex pervert who spent a great deal of time recording his own acts, and then in a rather warped and wry sense of humor would edit in other scenes like the Andy Griffith Show.
One tape starts with Crane having sex with a woman. The scene then suddenly shifts to an interview of the actor on Open House--a Phoenix talk show--then returns to the homemade porn. Crane again cuts in toward the end with a scene from The Andy Griffith Show.
For a simple background in the last day of Bob Crane's life, he picked up his friend, John Carpenter at the airport, and they went to the location where Crane was performing that night in Beginner's Luck.
Crane picked up Carpenter that day at Sky Harbor airport. On their way to Scottsdale, Carpenter says, the actor showed him a personal photo album of numerous naked women, including some he had met during his stint at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. Carpenter checked in at the Sunburst, a few blocks from Crane's apartment. The new additions to the photo album portended a wild time in the Valley, just what Carpenter was seeking.
The photo album is important in this as it was not located by authorities in the apartment, a ground floor, two bedroom unit, which opened to a pool. There were sex tapes which were confiscated, but this album was not in the evidence.
Police concluded that Carpenter stole it, brought it up, and used it to divert attention from himself in the murder. To the point in this, the police locked on Carpenter early, and ten years later indicted him, but a jury found him not guilty on lack of evidence. It is this reality that while the police still believe that Carpenter was the murderer, the Lame Cherry seeks to assemble forensic psychology which could point to perhaps other suspects, as there are hints in this of certain situations which point to someone other than Carpenter.
After the performance, Carpenter and Crane went to the apartment, where Crane had a heated phone call with his ex wife. Crane wanted to go out, to raise his spirits, and the duo met at a club with two sisters who were named Newell.
One of the Newell sisters left, but another woman joined the group in Carolyn Baare.
It is in this sequence that Newell and Carpenter left in one car, where Carpenter did not get lucky, and Crane and Baare left in another car, and Crane did not get lucky either.
Carpenter took Newell home about 3 a.m. That put him in the five-hour window of opportunity to kill Crane, who died between 3 and 8 a.m., according to a coroner's report, probably closer to 3.
But Carpenter insists he returned to his hotel and called Crane to see how things had fared with Carolyn Baare. Crane, he says, told him he also had struck out. The actor said he was standing in his undershorts editing the swear words out of Saturday Night Fever so his 6-year-old son could watch it.
In this version, Carpenter states that Crane at about 3:30 AM, which would allow for driving Newell home and his return to his motel room, was up and editing a movie.
The murder scene reveals that Crane was in bed, in the fetal position and a great deal of blood was present. In examining the photo, the pillow has a great deal of blood soak and there are two marks on the bedding. As the woman who found Crane, did not touch the body and no one else did, so this is the scene the murderer left.
What it appears is, Crane was bludgeoned by a blunt object behind the left ear. There is blood spray on the pillow indicating splatter from the blow. There are indications in this scene that the murderer upon striking Crane, that Crane hemorrhaged, but was still alive and in a "death movement" curled to the fetal position or perhaps Crane had assistance, with the blood draining down his face in a darker streaks.
The two marks on the bedding seem to indicate a panic pause by the murderer, laying the weapon down and bracing on the bed as another action is taken.
What is glaring in this though is that a cord was found tied around Crane's neck, and it was in a bow. There is not any evidence of strangulation, so this was either the murderer gift wrapping Bob Crane, or Crane had been involved in some sex act involving bondage.
It appears perhaps the latter, in Crane after being bludgeoned, was bleeding out on the pillow, that the murderer located the cord, which was electronic and probably associated with the recording equipment, and moved the body in pulling it to tie the cord around the neck.
The two marks on the lower bed point to perhaps the laying down of the murder weapon as the bow is tied. The taking of the photograph book of nudes with new acquisitions, while leaving the videotapes, points to a recent conquest in Arizona.
My first instincts were, I don't know why, but I thought it was John Carpenter. And the whole wall was covered from one end to the other with blood. And I just sort of stood there and I was numb. He was curled up in a fetus position, on his side, and he had a cord tied around his neck in a bow."
In examining the forensic psychology of this, as it is doubtful Crane went to sleep with an electrical cord around his neck, that the murderer chose a weapon of violence. It was theorized a golf club or tire iron, perhaps a camera stand, which points to an act of fury, as beating someone to death is an act of rage, in wanting to vent powerfully and intimately on the victim, and the bow points to a showmanship, a presentation, a present in wanting the world to find the deed and be appreciated for the act, as the murderer appears to point to satisfaction in what was accomplished in enjoying it.
Tying it all up in a "pretty bow" points to a generational group of the Crane age group. The probability is this is someone involved in the theatrical field
We return in this to an event earlier in the night, in which the police again suspected Carpenter in having tampered with Crane's tire, so it went flat. The police assumed that Carpenter wanted a flat tire so he could beat Crane to death with a tire iron, as "Crane was weary of Carpenter always being around."
The Lame Cherry considers though, what if someone had been stalking Bob Crane, and tampered with the valve in order to attack Crane or herd Crane into Carpenter's vehicle.
After the show on the evening of June 28--Carpenter's last scheduled night in town--the two men left the Windmill. Crane's car had a flat tire and the men drove it to a nearby gas station.
The attendant later noted that someone had apparently tampered with the valve stem on the tire.
The is important in the hypothesis, because blood was later found in Carpenter's car, after the evening. Carpenter told the police that the car was always locked and only Newell and Crane had been in the vehicle. This evidence has been botched, tested, retested and what finally was concluded it was basically inconclusive.
In November 2016, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office permitted Phoenix television reporter John Hook to submit the 1978 blood samples from Carpenter's rental car for retesting, using a more advanced DNA technique than the one used in 1990. Two sequences were identified, one from an unknown male, and the other too degraded to reach a conclusion.
There is a reality in this, that this was a violent attack upon Bob Crane, with a great deal of blood, and that John Carpenter was interviewed shortly after in California by Arizona police, with the police not noting that Carpenter's hands or body had any marks which would point to his bleeding or mingling blood with Crane's if it was found in the Carpenter car.
If Carpenter did not have any scabs or abrasions, then that would add to his being a victim and points to something else that the Lame Cherry will lay a scenario out for.
We know that many people loathed Bob Crane, as he was a manwhore, who seduced numbers of willing women.
The many husbands and boyfriends of women Crane had sexually seduced. An example: The ex-boyfriend of a woman Crane had slept with in Scottsdale taped a mutilated newspaper photograph of Crane to her back door after the man learned of their relationship.
Let us then construct this alternative murder sequence.
Bob Crane seduced a woman who was associated with someone who was close to him in the stage production, a wife or their own personal bed warmer.
This was a personal cuckold to the person, who discovered it and set about a murderous retaliation, as this person was aware of Crane's production actions, and took this personal.
Let us conjecture now, in it is 1978 and everyone has been watching Columbo on television, and the murderer does not want to be a suspect. So they know that John Carpenter is coming into town, and decide to pin it on him, because Carpenter is part of the Crane perversion.
The scenario is based on the intimate knowledge of Crane and Carpenter in partying all night and followed by no conquests. The tire valve is sabotaged, so that this will place Crane in Carpenter's car in one vehicle. In "what does not go according to plan does not go according to plan", the tire is fixed and two vehicles are then active.
The murderer goes to Crane's apartment complex and waits for Crane to return. Crane is up late editing video, but goes to bed. The murderer waits half an hour for Crane to fall asleep, as it is late, he has been drinking and slumber will be sound.
The murderer enters the apartment through the sliding glass door by the pool as it is open. There are scenarios in Crane could have had a female visitor, been out to the pool, had a stop over from this associate of his stage performance who unlocked the door, or Crane had left the door unlocked, or like sliding doors, perhaps it was jimmied.
This though appears to be the entrance, unless the murderer had a key to the door, which he might have obtained, as being part of the production, Crane would have been on stage and a key could have been duplicated. The end result is the murderer fled through the open front door as blood was found on the door, as the exit was in haste.
From position, Crane was on his right side, head on pillow, and the murderer struck behind the ear, knowing enough from police shows to knock the victim out with that blow, and the murder was engaged in, the act of intimacy in cording the body, and the killer left, but paused long enough to secure the book of conquests, which had been added to as Carpenter noted, in order to protect the murderer's trophy which Crane had taken.
Again this kind of blood smear should have had more blood in Carpenter's car, and this is where the haste took place, as the murderer had noted Carpenter's rental car, and went to it, to plant evidence. Indications are brain matter was included. That points to a frame up and while the police botched the securing of that matter, the blood was, and this indeed probably was Bob Crane's blood, but it was mixed with perhaps sweat or even blood of the murderer which had degraded and was therefore inconclusive.
Remember in this, this was 1978, when vehicles had no alarms, and a simple metal bar shoved down the window would jack open most car door locks. A murderer tampering with a valve stem, and tying bows on Bob Crane, is a murderer who would plant evidence as they has watched on Columbo.
The alibi would be secure, as the woman centered on this, would not come forward in wanting to be a "lady in red" and police would never find her, as the trophy book was gone, and that would mean the associate in the production of the stage play would not be linked to any of this, while all fingers pointed to Carpenter as was intended.
Someone had to murder Bob Crane, and even if police think they had the murderer in John Carpenter, the jury concluded otherwise. That leaves an alternative reality of an individual with extreme rage and a need to present this murder as a presentation to be pleased with, the crowning achievement of revenge on Bob Crane and framing his perverted associate, as the murderer smugly sat back and watched the real life production, they had gotten away with.
agtG
