A new true crime podcast is exploring the brutal murder of a legendary television actor whose road to stardom began in the Maple City.
The “APB Cold Case” audio podcast “Unscripted: Who Killed Bob Crane?” looks for answers behind the June 1978 bludgeoning death of “Hogan’s Heroes” star Bob Crane in Scottsdale, Ariz.
A sitcom set in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, “Hogan’s Heroes” ran for six seasons on CBS, from 1965 to 1971, with Crane’s portrayal of the wise-cracking American Colonel Robert E. Hogan making the actor a household name.
But Crane’s grisly murder on June 29, 1978, in a Scottsdale condo shocked fans and shattered the image of the seemingly all-American actor whose time in Hornell was short but memorable.
Bob Crane got 'chance of a lifetime' in Hornell
Crane spent nine months at WLEA in Hornell, from March until December of 1950. He originally was hired by the radio station as a janitor, but he quickly became an on-air favorite and he was promoted to WLEA program director within weeks.
"He really wanted to learn radio, and Hornell gave him his start,” Carol M. Ford, the author of "Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography,” told The Evening Tribune in 2015.
“Had it not been for WLEA, he never would have progressed onward in his career. WLEA was the chance of a lifetime."
According to Ford’s book, Crane performed three nights a week as a drummer at the Elks Club. He was also regularly in attendance at St. Ann's Catholic Church.
From WLEA, Crane made stops in Bristol, Conn. and Bridgeport, Conn. before landing in Los Angeles and hosting a show at KNX Radio where he became known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices" because of his ability to do impersonations.
New podcast explores Crane's murder, a 'major whodunit'
Hosted by Mark Spawn, a retired police chief from Upstate New York, “Who Killed Bob Crane” recounts Crane’s messy personal life and apparently insatiable sexual appetite, the events leading to his death, the bloody crime scene and the aftermath.
Crane's friend John Henry Carpenter was tried for the murder in 1994 but was acquitted, and the case remains unsolved.
"Unscripted" calls Crane’s slaying a “major whodunit.” According to promotional materials, the podcast examines theories on motive that range from “jealousy, to vengeance, to the recovery of a ‘black bag’ that (Crane) reportedly kept with him containing compromising photographs, some allegedly including prominent people.”
The podcast includes interviews with Ford and another Crane biographer, Linda Groundwater.
"Unscripted: Who Killed Bob Crane" is available in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube and other major podcast platforms.
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