The murder of Bob Crane occurred on a hot June night in Scottsdale, Arizona. Crane was bludgeoned to death as he slept The year was 1978 and Crane’s career was on the decent after scandal and two failed marriages. There is a rule in homicide, you only hurt the one you love. The spouses and love interests of a murder victim are always the usual suspects. Crane’s murder is no different.
I have my own ideas after conducting an investigation before the trial of Bob Crane’s friend, John Carpenter who was arrested and tried for the murder two decades later.
I had several extensive conversations with both Carpenter and his lovely wife before he went to trial. When Carpenter posted bail in Phoenix, I drove him to the airport so he could go home to California and prepare for the fight for his life. Carpenter had no money left to pay for lawyers or investigators and his case was handled by the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office.
The investigation by Scottsdale Police had little to offer because in 1978 they had limited experience and lousy tools to handle a major homicide case like Crane’s.
My usual suspect was the jealous and angry ex-wife. Her real name was Sigrid Valdis (her professional stage name was Patricia Olson). Just before the murder, Valdis showed up unexpectedly in Scottsdale while Crane was performing at the Windmill Dinner Theater. She was very angry that Crane was not giving her enough money and as always bedding the bimbos. Valdis had the motive, means and opportunity to kill Crane. She became a prosecution witness against John Carpenter and I believe she had an agenda to convict him taking suspicion away from her.
A trial was held and Carpenter was rightly acquitted of the crime.
After Carpenter’s acquittal, Valdis had Crane’s body removed from his Chatsworth, CA cemetery and re-planted in Westwood Memorial Park where Marilyn Monroe is on ice. Crane had a simple headstone and that was replaced with a much more elaborate headstone with that Name Hogan on it and Bob Crane’s image with that trademark flyer cap.
Valdis has recently died from lung cancer. Now Crane and this ex-wife will share the same gravesite since she had her name and picture also put on the new fancy headstone. Valdis now has the ultimate control over Bob Crane knowing where he is through eternity…
Comments
nope she went to the smoking section. and i aint taken about the sweet armoma of cigar smoke. im talken the real smoken section.
Like George Reeves, there are many theories, but no killer.
Only suspects.
George Vreeland Hill
The question I have is, what legal right does an x-wife have to move a body to a new grave (As well as what right to be burried there too)? Did she persuade her children to be involved in the exhumation?
And as for the gravestone, I would have preferred the plain name one.
Thanks,
zeb
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