Who Killed TV Director Barry Crane? Why It Took 36 Years to Solve

Despite its glitz and glamour, Los Angeles remains a city of mystery. Since 1980, the Los Angeles Police Department has handled over 11,000 homicides—4,000 of which remain cold. Unsurprisingly, some of these crimes involve celebrities.

Early director and actor William Desmond Taylor was killed in his apartment in the middle of the night in 1922. The mysterious 1978 murder of Hogan’s Heroes lead actor Bob Crane in Scottsdale, Ariz., sent reverberations worldwide. Yet the homicide of Barry Crane—no relation to Bob—was resolved after 36 years.

Crane—originally Barry Cohen of Detroit—moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s to work in the television industry. By the 1970s, he was a prolific producer and director on the most popular series of the day, with titles ranging from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Incredible Hulk to CHiPs and Dallas.

He was also renowned for his talents offscreen as an accomplished bridge player. Over four decades, Crane won 15 North American championships and was dubbed “the top matchpoint player of all time.”

Yet on July 5, 1985, at age 57, Crane’s successful life was cut short when his housekeeper discovered him murdered in the garage of his Studio City townhouse.

“When you look at the crime scene, it was pretty rageful,” Beth Silverman, a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and the prosecutor who handled Crane’s case, explains to A&E Crime + Investigation. “[The perpetrator] used not only some type of statue, but also a vase. Then he tied a phone cord around Mr. Crane's neck, strangled him to death and dragged his body down the stairs and into the garage.”

Silverman says the culprit then stole Crane’s Cadillac and left the naked body wrapped in bedsheets.

Police looked for any suspects who could have committed such a vicious crime. Silverman explains a report was made “about the layout of the crime scene, what kind of credit cards the victim carried, the fact he played [bridge] for large amounts of money, the celebrity status of his involvement in the TV industry.”

There was one twist that shed light on Crane’s private life, possibly providing motive for the crime scene looking like a “lover’s quarrel.” “[Authorities] got information—I think from the housekeeper—that he was actually gay,” Silverman claims. “Back in the days when he was working, people that were homosexual or gay—that was something that would destroy your career.”

Among the 100 people who gave statements related to the homicide, Silverman explains police did question a couple individuals who were known to be Crane’s lovers. But all leads proved to be dead ends.

There was some hope when Crane’s car was located five days after the murder. Silverman says authorities processed it immediately: “They collected various types of evidence. There was a fingerprint on the window driver's door window [and] some cigarette butts in the ashtray.”

It would take 34 years for the evidence to prove useful.

LAPD periodically ran the evidence through the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System and Combined DNA Index System. In July 2018, they got a match to the fingerprint: 52-year-old Edwin Jerry Hiatt. A DNA match from the cigarette butts furthered the case against Hiatt, who Silverman explains “showed a match because he had an arrest in Utah and a couple other places.”

One detective who’d been on the case since 1985, Thomas Townsend, took charge pursuing Hiatt as a suspect. “Tom went out to North Carolina [in 2019] and interviewed him,” Silverman says.

Hiatt—whom co-workers called “peaceful”—claimed he didn’t recall killing Crane due to the amount of drugs he’d been taking at the time. Silverman says the interview took many hours before Townsend got useful information.

“[Hiatt] came out with this story that he was really acting in self-defense,” she explains. “It appeared that Hiatt was somebody who [Crane] saw on the street, and he offered to buy him a meal, brought him home and let him shower. At some point during that night, Hiatt claimed he didn't realize this was going to involve some type of sexual activity, and he flew into a rage and murdered Barry Crane.”

There was enough forensic evidence to lead to Hiatt’s arrest and extradition to California in May 2019.

Hiatt didn’t face a trial. Instead, Silverman says, his lawyer had him evaluated so that the defense and prosecution could work out a plea bargain: “We looked at what [Hiatt] had said during his interview and compared it to what the defense came up with, that he was abused when he was a kid and that he was using drugs for years and at the time of this [crime].”

On October 7, 2021, Hiatt pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison. Silverman says—considering how long Crane’s case remained unresolved, especially with no witnesses—it was a fairly quick resolution: “As I've said in many closing arguments over the last 20 years, DNA has been the biggest game changer in terms of solving cold cases.”

And while Hiatt serves time in Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, Silverman admits the details of Crane’s private life, and what happened between him and Hiatt, remain a mystery.

“[Crane] had this very successful career, and then probably for good reason was hiding his personal life,” she says. “If it was that he really did have empathy for somebody that was clearly struggling and needed a meal and some money and a place to sleep—or if there was something else in the initial agreement between the two of them when [Hiatt] got into Crane's Cadillac that night—I guess we'll never know.”