Bobby Greenlease

Bobby Greenlease

Robert C. "Bobby" Greenlease (1947-1953) was the son of millionaire car dealer Robert Cosgrove Greenlease, Sr. The elder Greenlease had made his fortune helping to introduce General Motors vehicles to the Great Plains in the early decades of the 20th Century. He owned dealerships from Texas to the Dakotas.

In September 1953, six-year-old Bobby Greenlease was kidnapped from an exclusive Kansas City prep school and brutally murdered across the state line in Johnson County, Kansas. The kidnappers were Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Emily Brown Heady, two drug addicted alcoholics cohabitating in St. Joseph, Missouri. In the early 1930's, Hall had attended Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri with Paul Robert Greenlease, Bobby's adopted older brother, and Hall had planned to victimize his old classmate's wealthy family for some time.

The Lindbergh kidnapping-type case so scandalized the nation that it led to federal indictments, trials, and subsequent executions for both Hall and Heady, who died together in the Missouri gas chamber in December 1953. Heady was one of only two women since 1865 to be executed by federal authorities.

Herbert Brownell, Dwight Eisenhower's Attorney General, followed the case intensely, as undoubtedly did the president. Eisenhower's own brother was the bank president at Commerce Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, where the Greenleases kept their money, which was used in the ransom dropoff.

The ransom amount was $600,000, the largest paid up to that point in US history. Only about half the money was recovered. It was alleged the remainder was stolen by two corrupt police officers in St. Louis, where Hall and Heady were captured fleeing authorities.

External links

* [http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/greenlease/greenleasenew.htm Federal Bureau of Investigation's case on Greenlease kidnapping]
* [http://www.geocities.com/mike_donnelly_umkc/042801greenlease.html Blood Money and the Death of a Child — The United States v. Hall and Heady]
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/bobby_greenelease/index.html Crime Library Article on Greenlease]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Rockhurst High School — Infobox Private School background = #f0f6fa border = #ccd2d9 name = Rockhurst High School © [http://www.rockhursths.edu Rockhurst High School] motto = Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam established = 1753 type = Private, male only religion = Roman Catholic,… …   Wikipedia

  • Notre Dame de Sion — NDS logo </gallery> Educating Minds, Expanding Hearts, Empowering Lives Address 10631 Wornall Road Kansas City …   Wikipedia

  • Edward Cudahy, Jr. — Infobox Person name = Edward Aloysius Cudahy, Jr. image size = caption = birth date = 1884 birth place = Omaha, Nebraska death date = 1966 death place = Phoenix, Arizona other names = Eddie Cudahy known for = Kidnapping, business education =… …   Wikipedia

  • List of kidnappings — This is a list of kidnappings.Famous kidnappings*Cynthia Ann Parker a nine year old white child taken in 1836 from her family by Comanches raiding their home at Fort Parker, Texas, in which she would live 24 years among the Comanche and marry war …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”