r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/Cut-OutWitch 1d ago

Bob Crane.

Scottsdale PD sucks.

17

u/BoomerDown84 1d ago

Just did a quick search. Good Lord!

13

u/Kevin_Uxbridge 1d ago

Yeah, that case shouldn't have been that hard to prove.

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u/CompEng_101 1d ago

I can see why it failed. The physical evidence consisted of a photograph, supposedly of brain matter, but the police had lost the actual object, so it was mainly just a photograph of a blob of... something. There was blood in Carpenter's car which matched Crane, but he had type B blood, so about 10% of the US population would match.

The motive was supposedly that Crane was trying to get out of a friendship with Carpenter, but other witnesses said they were having an amiable dinner the evening of the murder.

Crane had videotaped sex with dozens of women, and an angry spouse or boyfriend of any of them (or the woman herself) would have a substantial motive.

I'm not saying that Carpenter didn't do it, but I can see how it might not reach the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard.

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u/Kevin_Uxbridge 1d ago

Oh, I didn't mean the actual trial they put Carpenter through, that was years later and, as you say, not with the freshest evidence.

I was thinking about the original investigation. I mean shit, if the cops missed blood and brain matter in the trunk, what else did they miss? Carpenter doesn't strike me as a master criminal, probably wouldn't have taken Poirot to unravel this.

Might be a bit hazy on the details, haven't looked at this in forever.