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Porn, Sex and Murder — Bob Crane's Fatal Focus 11/26/2002 "By 1965, I'd paid for eight abortions."
"Bob once told me that his earliest memory was when he was three, laying [sic] on the sidewalk trying to look up the skirt of a neighbor girl who was practicing tap dancing."
Auto Focus is a fitting title for the new film about the late actor, Bob Crane. Paul Schrader, screenwriter for Taxi Driver, directed the controversial film, which stars Greg Kinnear as Crane.
Crane is best known as the star of the popular '60s TV sitcom, Hogan's Heroes, which is still in syndication. As "Col. Hogan," Crane led a group of allied WWII POWs whose antics outsmarted their bumbling Nazi captors.
A camera with an auto-focus is essential for the photographer who wants to be in the photographs he takes. And Bob Crane took thousands of photos and videotapes of himself having sex with "scores of women."3
Crane was never without a camera — in life or in death. Somebody murdered the 48-year-old Crane in his Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment on June 29, 1978. Crane was in Scottsdale appearing in a local theater production of Beginner's Luck. Actress Victoria Berry discovered his body.
During a search of his apartment, police found "Crane's video equipment and tapes."4 An e-mail dated March 7, 2002, reportedly from Maricopa County prosecutor Bob Shutt to Crane's second wife, Patricia, lists as evidence returned to Mrs. Crane "two video tape recorders, three cameras, photos, negatives, film, all VCR and Beta tapes, audio cassettes, photographic developing equipment."5
Crane, who was found with an "electrical cord around his neck," died from "violent means" — a "head injury" caused by a "blunt instrument," according to an autopsy report by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner.6 Although no weapon was found at the scene, the blunt instrument is commonly believed to be a camera tripod.7
In an interview with Chris Connelly for ABC News, Crane's family revealed a family feud over how Crane is portrayed in Auto Focus. Bobby Crane, the eldest son from Crane's first marriage, who is a paid consultant and has a small role in the film, says the film "captures the essence of his Dad."8 Bobby's sister, Karen, refuses to see the film. Their half-brother, Scotty, and his mother call the film's suggestions that Crane had a penile implant, that he dabbled in rough sex and had a dark side, "outrageous."9 Despite their knowledge of Crane's pornographic and over-developed sex life, his four children and second wife describe him as a "wonderful" and "loving husband and father."10 Crane claimed that he didn't smoke or drink.
Crane reportedly carried a double-thick briefcase with thousands of slides "of all the women in his life."11 And he proudly displayed them to anybody, including his four-year-old son, Scotty.12
"Yes, he was this 'sex maniac'— but he's still a likable guy," according to Scotty, Crane's youngest son, who was seven years old when his father was murdered. Scotty says his dad was "very open and honest about it."13 Scotty Crane operates a Web site that sells sexually explicit photos and videos of his father with numerous women. His mother, Crane's second wife, Patricia, gave him the photos and videos. She says she feels "very good" about the Web site and "gave the tapes to Scott with my blessings."14
Patricia Olson Crane, whose stage name was Sigrid Valdis, co-starred on Hogan's Heroes as Col. Klink's secretary, Hilda, beginning in the show's second season. "He was always hitting on me from day one … but he would hit on any bimbo that would walk on that set. It didn't matter. I mean, that was just Bob."15 She married Crane after his divorce. Patricia claims that she knew and didn't mind "Bob's obsession with sex and multiple partners."16 She threatened to end their marriage, however, when she learned that Bob had shown explicit images to Scotty:
"I'm talking about triple-X, very hard core, very graphic," she says. "I discovered that it had been going on since [Scotty was] probably about 4. That's where I drew the line. I had to put a stop to that. No matter how much I loved him, my child came first. … Bob used these women. He said, 'I wish when I finished with them I could just push a button and they'd fall through the floor and disappear.' Now, how could I be jealous of something like that? He treated women like the rest of the world treats toilet paper. Who's going to be jealous of toilet paper?"17
A writer for The Crime Library agrees that Crane dehumanized his sexual partners.
Pornography was a major pastime. … He also liked to brag about how many women he bedded. The terms he used to describe them were often crude and showed a sad tendency to dehumanize his sexual partners. After the demise of Hogan's Heroes, that powerful sexual interest seemed to cross the line into outright sexual addiction. He was insatiable in his desire for as many different women as possible. Fond of group sex, he often left nightclubs with two or three women at a time. He was also into dominance and submission, visited a dominatrix, and financed the building of "dungeons" — rooms devoted to bondage and discipline — in the homes of some of his friends.18
Crane's murder remains unsolved after his friend, John Carpenter, was tried and acquitted. Actor Willem Dafoe plays the role of Carpenter in Auto Focus. Hogan's Heroes co-star Richard Dawson had introduced Carpenter to Crane. And Carpenter, who shared Crane's sex and porn obsessions, introduced Crane to video cameras. Carpenter was charged with Crane's murder after blood matching Crane's type was found in Carpenter's rental car and a photograph of the interior of the car revealed what the prosecution believed to be a small fragment of human flesh. In an article for Tongue magazine, writer Juan Morales suggests Carpenter's motive:
Although any number of irate husbands and boyfriends of Crane's conquests probably wanted him dead, Carpenter quickly became a prime suspect. According to one theory, he was angry and despondent because Crane wanted to end their association. Scotty Crane suggests that his father broke from Carpenter because his parents, who had separated and initiated divorce proceedings, were in the process of reconciling, and Crane had begun seeing a psychiatrist about his sexual obsession, and for showing Scotty pornographic pictures of himself from the time Scotty was a toddler.
"I started seeing a psychiatrist with him right before he was killed," says Scotty. "He was going to one privately, and I was going to one privately, and then we had this group one for just him and me, because he really wanted to get over this."
Although police discovered a small amount of blood matching Crane's blood type, found in only one in seven people, in Carpenter's rental car, analysis was inconclusive, and the video voyeur walked. Carpenter was finally tried in 1994, after cops and prosecutors came across a photograph of what appeared to be a tiny lump of human tissue, presumed to be Crane's, on the door of Carpenter's rental car. In the end, however, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence and charges of police misconduct. Carpenter, who had plenty of skeletons in his closet (in 1992 he was put on probation after pleading no contest to charges of fondling a 10-year-old girl), died of a heart attack in 1998, at age 70, effectively ensuring that Crane's murder will forever remain a mystery.19
THE MAKING OF A SEX ADDICT
In order to better understand the tragedy of Bob Crane and help others avoid or extricate themselves from a similar destructive lifestyle, I asked Christian therapist Rob Jackson20 to answer some questions about Bob Crane and his family. Rob treats sex and porn addicts and their families.
Q: Rob, have you treated patients with a condition as intense and out-of-control as Crane's, and how common is it?
A: Crane's condition may sound extreme to many people, but I've treated a few individuals who have videotaped themselves with others — with and without consent. It seems, however, that Crane was particularly compulsive given the quantity of his exploits.
In many ways, the typical sex addict who swaps photos of himself or herself on the Internet is demonstrating by degree some of Crane's pathology. Addiction has to begin somewhere, and what seems rather harmless today can become a full-blown addiction in the future.
With today's easier and more affordable technology, sex addicts are becoming involved in similar pursuits. Beyond the severe adult addict, adolescent girls are videotaping sexual encounters of themselves and selling the videos at school the next day. In other situations, adolescent males are tricking girls into sexual videos that are later uploaded for viewing on the Internet.
Q: Are there common characteristics that you've found among sex and porn "addicts"? What are they?
A: The nature of sex or porn addiction typically manifests at least four characteristics common to all addictions:
UNMANAGEABLE — The addict finds that he is unable to manage his pursuit of sex. Intrusive thoughts are projected into otherwise everyday situations, which become sexualized. An example would be when a man begins to take time at work in order to view porn online. When his addiction was still germinating, perhaps he could privatize or compartmentalize his habit away from work so that it didn't interfere with his income or career. As the addiction gets underway, however, he can no longer manage the addiction on his terms. Either his energy is spent pursuing the next "hit" of pornography or he replays in his fantasies what he has already experienced.
PROGRESSIVE — Unmanageability leads to the progressive nature of addiction, where the addict finds himself needing more and more of the same sexual stimulants to get his usual high. As the progressive nature of addiction kicks in, the man may pursue greater quantities and harder types of pornography. As with my example of the man at the office, he may begin to take greater risks pursuing pornography online during office hours while masturbating behind the closed door of his office.
DEGENERATIVE — Many addicts wind up crossing lines they said they would never cross. What was once repulsive or simply too far out becomes the next thing that is pursued. The boundaries of self or others may be violated as a result of the degenerative nature of sex addiction. Our man at the office has moved from using porn only at home, to using porn and masturbating at the office, to taking breaks in the middle of the work day to go to adult book stores.
DESTRUCTIVE — Crane is an example of how a gifted human being can get mixed up with pornography and experience the ultimate destruction – his physical death. Left untreated, sex addiction may very well have a tragic end where the addict commits destructive acts against other human beings and even himself. Returning to our man at the office, he may begin to stalk a coworker or commit other forms of sexual harassment. No longer inhibited, the addict "acts-out," often with little regard for consequences.
Q: When therapists label behavior an "addiction" that the Bible calls "sin," are they creating an excuse for it?
A: As a Christian therapist, I feel that the terms "addiction" and "sin" are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the term "addiction" often communicates that sin has become obsessive and the addict is in greater moral or spiritual trouble than before. Even within the secular community, it is generally accepted that the addict must take responsibility for his addiction and inappropriate behaviors. Therefore, the addition of the word "sin" within the Christian community merely strengthens our approach and understanding of what is happening to the addicted person. While there is no excuse for addiction, I feel that we have to meet the addicted person with greater compassion, for typically they were once "victims" before "addicts."
Q: The Bible says that "sin shall no longer be master over you." Shouldn't a person who has become a Christian be free of a sinful "addiction"? Why isn't that enough?
A: Sex addiction is somewhat like food addiction. God has wired human beings with appetites or drives for both food and sex. In this way, we can understand that sex addiction is often more difficult to overcome than an addiction to alcohol, drugs, or gambling, for we don't have inborn appetites for these issues. We must also ponder the deep connection that exists between sexuality and spirituality. Much of the Bible speaks of the consummation that will occur upon the Lord's return to earth. We also have the Song of Solomon that depicts a profound and satisfying sexuality between not just a man and a woman, but symbolically between Christ and the church. Then, there is the verse that has intrigued me for years, where the Bible states that sexual sin is the only sin committed against the body of the sinner. It would seem that today's neurology and psychology is proving that sexual sin that leads to addiction creates an addiction to one's self. The sex addict becomes a slave to himself and to his insatiable appetite. I believe the Bible allows for a "besetting sin" in the life of a believer, but I also think that the sanctification process each of us is to experience as a believer can be applied to the area of sex addiction and in Christ, the believer can in fact overcome the disorder.
Q: How probable is it that someone who views pornography can become obsessed with it?
A: It is generally accepted that any behavior changes brain chemistry and function and that through repetition, neural pathways are developed. With this backdrop in mind, the addictive power and neurological operations of sexual behaviors have been compared to crack cocaine. One rarely finds a sex addict who did not begin with the gateway of pornography – even soft-core pornography. The simple viewing of pornography today may very well become the primary building block of tomorrow's obsession.
It is also widely accepted that younger brains are more susceptible to neurological imprinting. Pornography, coupled with various forms of "acting out" behaviors like masturbation, increases the probability of obsession or addiction. As the quality and quantity of digital photography and other technologies improve and increase, I feel that more people will be at a higher risk for becoming obsessed and eventually addicted to pornography.
Q: Bob Crane is described as "dehumanizing his sex partners." Is that a common effect of pornography on those who become infatuated with it?
A: I appreciate your question. Pornography is dehumanizing because it diminishes authenticity, intimacy and commitment in favor of objectification of body parts, lewdness and free sex. We must never forget that addicts are, in fact, "users." They not only use pornography, but in time and without treatment, they come to use people in an effort to quench their insatiable thirst for more sex.
Q: In your professional opinion, is there any good use for pornography? If so, what?
A: In my professional opinion, pornography has no redeeming qualities for any purposes, whatsoever. It concerns me that many state-sponsored programs (and others) use pornography in various ways with sex addicts who are court-ordered into therapy. Others use pornography coupled with biofeedback to try to increase or redirect a sexual response.
Many couples have shared that they initially justified and used pornography as a sexual stimulant for their marital intimacy. In these marriages, however, porn addiction, infidelity and other negative outcomes are typical.
Q: How would you describe the impact of Crane's sex and porn obsessions on his second wife and son, Scotty? Is it typical for family members to compensate for, justify and facilitate such behavior?
A: It's important to remember that sex addiction happens within a family system. Often a spouse is "codependent" or enabling. In those cases it can be difficult for a spouse to accept that he or she has some culpability in what happens in their spouse's double life. As parents, like Crane, introduce porn early into a child's life, psychosexual boundaries cannot develop properly. Over time a child, like Scotty, can become implicitly connected and accepting of the family system's secret, or as in this case, lewd enterprise. It's not uncommon to see that addicts and co-addicts seemingly have equal portions of dysfunction; severe addicts marry severe co-addicts. Research by Pat Carnes has shown that approximately 80 percent of spouses of addicts were sexually exploited as children. When a father has severe addiction and the mother is somehow tolerant or even supportive, a child is at a higher risk for becoming a "Scotty."
Q: I've been told that therapists who treat sex and porn addictions are trying to persuade the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to include these addictions in the Association's newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. How important is that to the treatment of these problems?
A: The proper and systematic treatment of sex addiction is an incredibly important field. We need to have the APA and American Medical Association codify the signs and symptoms so that professionals can be adequately trained and clients can receive state of the art treatment as well as reimbursements from their health insurance policies. Not everyone has to be a "Crane" — especially if we can develop a protocol that first emphasizes prevention and secondly equips both healthcare professionals and society to practice early identification of sex addiction.
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