Crane frequently videotaped and photographed his own sexual escapades.
[15] During the run of
Hogan's Heroes, Dawson introduced him to
John Henry Carpenter, a regional sales manager for
Sony Electronics who often helped famous clients with their video equipment.
[16] The two men struck up a friendship and began going to bars together. Crane attracted many women due to his celebrity status, and he introduced Carpenter to them as his manager. Crane and Carpenter would videotape their joint sexual encounters.
[17] Crane's son Robert later insisted that all of the women were aware of the videotaping and consented to it, but some had no idea that they had been recorded until they were informed by Scottsdale police after Crane's murder.
[18] Carpenter later became national sales manager at
Akai, and he arranged his business trips to coincide with Crane's dinner-theater touring schedule so that the two could continue videotaping their sexual encounters with women.
[19]
n June 1978, Crane was living in the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale during a run of
Beginner's Luck at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. On the afternoon of June 29, his co-star Victoria Ann Berry entered his apartment after he failed to show up for a lunch meeting and discovered his body.
[20] Crane had been bludgeoned with a weapon that was never identified, though investigators believed it to be a camera tripod. An electrical cord had been tied around his neck.
[21]
