The Greenlease Kidnapping
The
Crime | Authorities Break
The Case | The
Judgement
The
Crime
At
approximately 10:55 a.m. on September 28, 1953, Sister
Morand of the French Institute of Notre Dame De Sion,
a school for small children in Kansas City, Missouri,
answered the door and was confronted by a woman who
said she was the aunt of Bobby Greenlease. Robert
Cosgrove Greenlease, Jr., known as Bobby, was six
years old and the son of Robert Cosgrove Greenlease,
Sr., a wealthy automobile dealer who resided in Mission
Hills, Kansas City, Missouri. The woman informed
Sister Morand that Bobby's mother had just suffered
a heart attack and had been taken to St. Mary's Hospital.
The woman appeared visibly upset and apologized to
Sister Morand for her condition. Upon getting Bobby,
Sister Morand told him that an aunt had called at
the school for him, but she did not tell Bobby that
his mother had suffered a heart attack.
Sister
Morand recalled that Bobby walked directly to the
woman without hesitation and there was nothing in
his action or behavior to indicate doubt on his part
that this woman was his aunt. As the woman left the
school, she had an arm around Bobby's shoulder and
was holding his hand. Sister Morand last saw them
as they entered a taxicab.
At
approximately 11:30 a.m. that day, Sister Marthanna
of the school called the Greenlease home to inquire
about Mrs. Greenlease's condition, spoke to Mrs.
Greenlease and at that time learned that the story
told by the woman who called for Bobby was false.
Mrs. Greenlease immediately called her husband who
rushed home and, after hearing the story of what
happened, notified the chief of police in Kansas
City, who in turn reported the matter to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Willard Pearson Creech, cab driver for the Toedman Cab Company in Kansas City,
told authorities that shortly before 11:00 a.m., on September 28, 1953, a woman,
whose description fit that of the woman who had called at the school, entered
the cab and requested him to drive her to the school of Notre Dame De Sion.
Upon arriving at the school she told Creech to wait for her because she desired
to be driven to the Katz Drug Store at Westport and Main Streets in Kansas
City. In approximately six minutes, the woman reentered the cab accompanied
by a small boy fitting the description of Bobby Greenlease. When Creech last
saw them, they had stopped behind a blue 1952 or 1953 Ford Sedan bearing Kansas
license plates.
A
few hours after the kidnapping, the Greenleases received
the first ransom letter concerning the return of
their son. The first letter, mailed special delivery
and postmarked 6:00 p.m.on September 28, 1953, demanded
$600,000 in 20-dollar and 10-dollar bills which was
to be placed in a duffle bag. The kidnappers promised
Bobby's safe return in 24 hours and as long as there
were no tricks in delivering the money.
The second ransom letter was postmarked 9:30 p.m. on September 29, 1953. Inside
the envelope in which this letter was mailed was the Jerusalem medal which
had been worn by Bobby Greenlease. The letter again contained demands for $600,000
and stated that Bobby was okay but homesick. Overall, the Greenleases received
over a half dozen ransom notes and 15 telephone calls.
The
final communication between the Greenleases and the
kidnappers was a telephone call received at 1:00
a.m. on October 5, 1953, at the Greenlease residence.
The kidnappers stated that they had received the
$600,000 ransom money and assured the Greenleases
that their son was alive and that he would be returned
in 24 hours.
Unknown
to the family, the kidnappers, Carl Hall and Bonnie
Heady, had killed the boy soon after the abduction
and buried the body near Heady's house in St. Joseph,
Missouri. Then the two murderers took the ransom
money and traveled approximately 380 miles to St.
Louis, Missouri.
On
October 5, 1953, Hall purchased two metal suitcases
and transferred the ransom money from the duffle
bag to these suitcases, leaving the duffle bag in
an ash pit in south St. Louis. Carl Hall took Bonnie
Heady, who was drunk, to an apartment he rented on
Arsenal Street, also in St. Louis. Heady immediately
went to sleep and Hall deserted her there leaving
only $2,000 of the $600,000 ransom money in her purse.
On
October 6, 1953, Hall purchased two large garbage
cans and a shovel, placed them in a rented car and
drove to Meramec River in St. Louis County where
he intended to bury the ransom money; however, he
could not find a suitable place. He left the cans
in a deserted club house and drove back to the Coral
Courts Motel where he was staying. Hall became suspicious
of persons in the vicinity of the motel during the
afternoon of October 6, 1953, and moved to an apartment
at the Townhouse Hotel in St. Louis.
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Authorities
Break The Case
A
telephone call was received at the 11th District,
St. Louis Police Department, about 3:30 p.m. on October
6, 1953, from John Oliver Hager, a driver for the
Ace Cab Company in St. Louis. His information led
to the arrest of Carl Austin Hall (who identified
himself as John James Byrne) by officers of the St.
Louis Police Department at the Townhouse Hotel in
St. Louis during the evening of October 6, 1953.
Later that night, he led the officers to an apartment
on Arsenal Street in St. Louis where Hall's girlfriend,
Bonnie Emily Heady, was taken into custody.
Hall
was interrogated by FBI Agents and other law enforcement
agencies several times after his arrest and emphatically
insisted that practically all of the $600,000 ransom
money was in his possession at the time he was arrested
by the St. Louis Police Department. Hall admitted
to FBI Agents the planning of the kidnapping, the
actual abduction of the victim, and to burying the
body in the yard of Mrs. Heady's residence. He also
admitted picking up the ransom money, but denied
that he killed the victim.
At
this time he implicated Tom Marsh, stating he had
turned the victim over to Marsh. Hall later admitted
Marsh was a fictitious individual and the only persons
involved in the kidnapping were Bonnie Heady and
himself. It was not until October 11, 1953, that
Hall admitted he and Bonnie Heady transported the
victim from Kansas City, Missouri, to a point just
outside of Kansas City, in Overland Park, Kansas
where Hall shot the victim to death. He then transported
the body approximately 45 miles back to St. Joseph,
Missouri, where he buried it in Bonnie Heady's yard
and planted flowers on the grave. Bonnie Heady admitted
assisting Hall in the preparation of the ransom letters
and notes of instructions to the Greenlease family
concerning the pay-off of the ransom as well as going
to the school and obtaining custody of the victim
using the ruse that his mother was ill.
The boy's body was found by FBI Agents at 8:40 a.m., October 7, 1953, buried
near the porch of the Heady residence at 1201 South 38th Street, St. Joseph,
Missouri. The body had been wrapped in a plastic bag and a large quantity of
lime had been poured over this bag. The Greenlease family dentist identified
the body as that of Bobby Greenlease at 1:05 p.m. on October 7, 1953. Blood
stains were found on the basement floor and steps in the Heady residence, and
on a nylon blouse and fiber rug. Some .38 caliber shell casings were also found
in the house. These shell casings were examined by the FBI Laboratory and it
was found that they had been fired from a .38 caliber snub nose Smith & Wesson
revolver in Hall's possession at the time of his arrest. The FBI Laboratory
also ascertained that a lead bullet recovered from a rubber floor mat in the
Plymouth station wagon owned by Bonnie Heady was also fired from Hall's .38
caliber revolver.
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The
Judgement
On
October 30, 1953, Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady appeared
before Judge Albert L. Reeves in Federal Court in
Kansas City, Missouri, at which time they entered
pleas of guilty to the indictment. On November 19,
1953, after hearing the evidence, a jury in the Federal
Court in Kansas City, Missouri, recommended the death
penalty after only an hour and eight minutes of deliberations.
Fifteen minutes after the verdict was announced,
Judge Reeves sentenced both of them to be executed
on December 18, 1953.
Judge
Reeves said, "I think the verdict fits the evidence.
It is the most coldblooded, brutal murder I have
ever tried."
Carl
Austin Hall and Bonnie Emily Heady were executed
together in Missouri's lethal gas chamber at the
State Penitentiary, Jefferson City, Missouri, on
December 18, 1953. Hall was pronounced dead at 12:12
a.m. and Bonnie Heady was pronounced dead twenty
seconds later.
Over
half of the $600,000 was never found. FBI investigation
established that the two suitcases which reportedly
contained the ransom money, and which were in Hall's
possession at the time of his arrest, were not brought
to the 11th District Precinct Station as testified
by the arresting officers, Lieutenant Louis Ira Shoulders
and Patrolman Elmer Dolan. Both officers were subsequently
federally indicted for perjury. Lieutenant Shoulders
was convicted on April 15, 1954, and sentenced to
three years in prison, and patrolman Dolan was convicted
on March 31, 1954, and sentenced to two years. After
they were released from prison, both returned to
the St. Louis area. Shoulders died on May 12, 1962.
Dolan received a full pardon from President Johnson
on July 21, 1965.
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