EXCLUSIVE

The man who viciously murdered Bob Crane, the star of the iconic TV show “Hogan’s Heroes,” may be exposed on TV after a 38 year unsolved mystery.

Crane was bludgeoned to death with a camera tripod in his Scottsdale apartment back in 1978. He and his good friend, John Carpenter, were deep into kinky sex … secretly filming various sexual configurations involving numerous women.

Carpenter’s rent-a-car was seized by cops just days after Crane’s murder, and they found blood inside. Carpenter was tried for murder, but there was a problem. DNA was not perfected then, and the jury found him not guilty because there wasn’t conclusive proof it was Crane’s blood.

Enter Phoenix Fox 10 anchor John Hook. More than a year ago, Hook started working with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and convinced prosecutors to release enough blood so state-of-the-art DNA tests could be conducted.

The DNA results are in. Hook is mum, but he will reveal the results Monday on the 9 PM news.

If the blood is a match with the blood found in Carpenter’s car, it’s close to a slam dunk he was the killer, but he can’t be prosecuted for 2 reasons … double jeopardy, and he’s dead.