Hogan’s Heroes killer of Bob Crane to be named

Bob Crane (l) with John Banner in scene from TV program 'Hogan's Heroes'. Picture: Supplied

Fox 10 Phoenix anchor John Hook began investigating the case in Arizona last year, and managed to convince the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to release enough blood samples from the murder weapon to conduct new DNA tests that were not available at the time.

Bob Crane of Hogan's Heroes was brutally murdered. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Hook says he knows who the murderer is and will reveal it live on air on Monday at 9pm (1am AEDT).

Crane, who played Colonel Hogan from 1965-1971 on the hit show Hogan’s Heroes, was found lying in a pool of blood inside his Scottsdale, Arizona apartment on June 29, 1978 at the age of 49.

He had been bludgeoned to death with a camera tripod and had an electric cord wrapped around his neck.

John Carpenter was acquitted of murdering Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Crane’s friend John Carpenter was charged with murder 14 years after the crime when new evidence came to light.

Crane’s son, Robert Crane, told the court that his father was about to end the friendship. Robert Crane, who later went on to be comedian John Candy’s assistant, said his father had called Carpenter that night to end it.

John Candy was good friends and the boss of Bob Crane’s son, Robert. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Corp Australia

Bob Crane and son, Robert Crane in August 1963. Picture: GettySource:Supplied

“My dad had told me that Carpenter was becoming “a pain in the a**”, and as part of his changes he was going to end his relationship with him. The police figured that Carpenter, who was bisexual, was perhaps in love with my dad and reacted to this information like a spurned lover,” Robert Crane wrote in his book. “With today’s forensics the case would likely have been solved in less than twenty-four hours, and it probably would have been ‘Turn out the lights, the party’s over’ for John Henry Carpenter”.

Videotapes revealed that Crane and Carpenter had at least once had sex with the same woman simultaneously.

Carpenter’s long-estranged son, John Merrill, described his father in court as having “had a violent problem in the past and he called it tunnel vision.” Mr Merrill told the courtroom that the “tunnel vision” would occur when his father got into inflamed arguments with other men. “He told me he took karate classes to gain self-control,” Mr Merrill said.

Carpenter was found not guilty. In 1998 he passed away.

Crane was married to Anne Terzian from 1949-1970 and had four children. He then married his Hogan’s Heroes co-star Sigrid Valdis, who played Hilda, in 1970 with whom he had a child.

Bob Crane, star of the television series Hogan's Heroes, poses with fellow cast member Sigrid Valdis after they were married on the studio set in Hollywood, October 16, 1970. Picture: APSource:AP