Sixteen years after the death of "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane, a prosecutor says enough circumstantial evidence remains to convict the actor's best friend of murder.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Bob Shutts said John Henry Carpenter killed Crane, because he was afraid of losing the supply of women the skirt-chasing actor shared with him.Crane's sidekick "fed off the energy and fame of the actor," Shutts said. "Bob Crane became a source of women that he could never obtain for himself."
But defense lawyer Stephen Avilla said the prosecution's witnesses are unreliable, and the evidence against Carpenter is slim.
"You will find the loss of evidence incredible," he told the jury.
Crane's body was found in 1978 in an apartment in suburban Scottsdale, where he was staying while performing in a dinner theater production of "Beginner's Luck."
An electrical cord was wrapped around Crane's neck, but investigators said he was killed by a blow to his skull. No murder weapon was found; investigators theorize it was a camera tripod.
The evidence is expected to include a home video of Carpenter and Crane simultaneously having sex with the same woman. The key physical evidence apparently is a photograph of a speck of what's alleged to be body tissue on an inside door panel of Carpenter's rental car.
Experts said the spot was probably brain fat. Similar specks were found on and around Crane's bloody bed, but the speck in the photo was either not collected or was misplaced, Shutts said.
Avilla said two police investigators had dismissed the speck in the photo as debris and that another evidence expert would testify he didn't complete his job properly because he was overworked.
Crane starred as the wisecracking Col. Robert Hogan, who outwitted his bumbling Nazi captors and even engaged in a bit of romance while a prisoner of war. "Hogan's Heroes" ran on CBS from 1965 to 1971.
By the time he was killed, Crane was 49 and long out of TV, but he continued to trade on his fame in the late-1970s singles scene.
Carpenter had been visiting Crane in Scottsdale at the time of the slaying and left the morning the body was found.