
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 1, 1994                   TAG: 9411010091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PHOENIX                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN ACQUITTED OF ACTOR'S 1978 MURDER

A pal of Bob Crane who shared willing young women with the ``Hogan's Heroes'' star was acquitted Monday of charges he bludgeoned the actor to death in 1978 for fear Crane was going to end the friendship.

The case turned on a photograph of a speck found on John Henry Carpenter's rental car door. Prosecutors said the speck, which was lost, was fat tissue from Crane's skull, but defense experts said that was impossible to prove.

Carpenter always was the prime suspect in the slaying. He had been with Crane the night before, and blood on his car door matched Crane's type. Recent DNA testing on the blood smear from the door was inconclusive.

- Associated Press

by CNB