Bob Crane was an American icon, reruns of his 1960’s TV sitcom, Hogan’s Heroes, seem to run perpetually in syndication.  Bob Crane also had a secret life as a sex addict, as recently portrayed in the movie Auto Focus.  After the Hogan’s Heroes run, Bob Crane’s career took a downturn, as his sex addiction took an upturn for the worse as he got involved in videotaping his exploits.  Ultimately, Bob Crane was mysteriously murdered and the crime has never been solved. 

Overall, the horoscope of Bob Crane shows and individual who was charming, romantic, and sensual; who was quite adventuristic in his ways sometimes; and was very driven.  Bob Crane’s chart also shows one who had problems in the psychology of his relationships; he was probably confused or deluded about his mother and women in his life; and had very obsessive qualities to his personality.  

Bob initially had an intense interest in music; he played the drums and had a successful disc jockey career; the astrology of which appears as his chart ruler, Venus [1], in Cancer in the third house of music.  Venus in Cancer also gives one a strong dreaminess, or a romantic life strongly influenced by fantasies and strong feelings.  The Moon and Venus connected to each other by mutual reception[2], strengthens Bob’s sensuality, preoccupation with women, but also his great charm and popularity.  Sensuality is also a trait of Bob’s Taurus Ascendant.  

Many TV and movie stars have a prominent Neptune in their charts, to help them convey effective illusions and to be able to capture the hopes and dreams of their audience.  In Bob’s case, Neptune is strongly placed in the fourth house[3]. 

Neptune in the fourth house also indicates an early home life with weak or “missing” parents, or parents who struggled with addictions, especially of the chemical variety.  The tight square of Neptune to the Moon compounds possible addictive behavior on Bob’s part, nor does it help in his relationships with women. 

Bob could have had continual delusions and subsequent disappointments with his mother, and then later the same with various women in his life.  It is such disclarity of mind over women in Bob’s life that could have pushed him to perpetually searching for the “perfect woman”, never to be truly satisfied. 

The sexual-deviant side to his personality comes out in his powerful but potentially very problematical Mars/Jupiter conjunction in his twelfth house.  The twelfth house indicates areas of one’s life that are secretive and where one can be very vulnerable.  According to Vedic astrology the twelfth house also denotes sexual activity in general because it is something that couples do in a very private setting. 

Mars and Jupiter in the twelfth showed that Bob was very adventuristic in his persona, but also in his sexual escapades, pushing the envelope even with the (at the time) new technology of portable video taping equipment.  Mars is a full-fledged malefic in Bob’s chart with it rulership of the twelfth house, but also it rulership of his death-giving seventh house[4]. The twelfth house element also indicates Bob could have been the victim of behind-the-scenes forces.  

Jupiter, normally a benefic, in Bob’s chart has malefic qualities with its rulership of his eighth house of death and destruction; his sexual escapades certainly had a self-destructive nature to them.  In fact Bob’s murder could have been caused by his sexual involvements. 

Bob was also a family man, with a genuine love of his children (and even his wife, who knew about his sexual escapades reportedly).  Astrologically, his preoccupation with family is shown by a conjunction of 3 planets (including Mercury in its rulership) in his second house.  The second house, showing the material assets in one’s life, by Vedic astrology also shows one’s family because one’s family is one our main assets in life. 

But Bob’s family life, while seeming innocent on the surface, hid more complex and pathological elements beneath: Bob’s Sun in the second is in close proximity to obsessive Pluto.  The Sun conjunct Pluto can give one great drive to succeed in the world, it can also give one compulsive and obsessive traits, such as sexual deviancy.  Family life, for Bob couldn’t have been very “normal” after all. 

Bob was a Gemini (Sun in Gemini) and his life certainly reflected that dual nature of the twins that Gemini  [5] is the symbol of; on the one hand he was the charming TV star and family man, on the other he was the "sex-swinger" by night.  

The last point to cover in this brief overview of Bob Crane’s chart is his Saturn.  In many ways Saturn acts like a second Pluto in the chart, focusing and crystallizing issues of pathological psychology; anxiety-driven behavior, and the real problems in one’s life.  (Saturn’s virtue in comparison to Pluto is that it actually has virtue, and Pluto next to none; Saturn ultimately in one’s chart creates the sense of control and power). 

Bob’s Saturn in Scorpio conjunct the South Node, or Ketu, in the seventh house; is triply hard-pressed to overcome obsessive behavior, especially in the realm of marriage and relationships.  Perhaps in a perfect world, Saturn in Scorpio learns to overcome its intense fears of the unknown and the mysterious (Scorpio) and becomes a master psychologist, or possibly a major mover in the financial industry (which is also Scorpio ruled).  In Bob’s chart Saturn has the added burden of its dispositor; the seventh house ruler, Mars; being a full-fledged malefic in the karmic twelfth house. 

The soul of Bob Crane apparently was in the grip of forces almost beyond control.  We can have enlightened pity on him, as I am sure God in Heaven did; and as he passed on in his untimely death, even with the carnage he wrought; Bob’s soul must have learned hard lessons on intimacy and not losing one’s sense of self in deep and powerful situations such as sex.