Bobby Greenlease Kidnapping FBI Files, Court Documents & Newspaper Reporting

Bobby Greenlease Kidnapping FBI Files, Court Documents & Newspaper Reporting

704 pages of FBI Files, Court Documents & Newspaper Reporting.

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.

Considered at the time to be one of the more tragic and fascinating crimes of the century, the kidnaping and murder of 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease, the son of a wealthy businessman, captured the public's attention in 1953 to a degree near that of the Lindbergh Kidnaping. The Greenleases paid $600,000 in ransom, the highest ransom paid in American history at that time, most of it was never recovered.

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 school’s door and was confronted by a woman who said she was the aunt of Bobby Greenlease.  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 sister returned with Bobby, and handed him over to the woman, Bobby went along with her.

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 were be placed in a duffle bag. The kidnappers promised Bobby's safe return in 24 hours, 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 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 had killed Bobby soon after the abduction and buried his body near a house in St. Joseph, Missouri.

The investigation of the crime led to Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady.  Hall and Heady were executed together in Missouri's gas chamber at the State Penitentiary, Jefferson City, Missouri, on December 18, 1953, 81 days after the kidnaping. Hall was pronounced dead at 12:12 a.m. and Heady was pronounced dead twenty seconds later.

Bobby Greenlease Kidnapping FBI Summary Report

231 pages of files copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., covering the Greenlease Kidnaping.

The FBI investigated the September 28, 1953, abduction of Robert Cosgrove Greenlease, Jr.  On October 5, 1953, and October 7, 1953, respectively, Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady were apprehended for the kidnaping and murder of Bobby Greenlease.

FBI Documents summarize case information including the apprehension of Hall and Heady, statements of Hall and Heady, chronology of events, elimination of suspects, reports of corroborating and physical evidence.

Hall was interrogated by FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies several times after his arrest, and he emphatically insisted that practically all of the $600,000 of ransom money was in his possession at the time he was arrested by the St. Louis Police Department. Over half of the $600,000 was never found.

The 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.

United States of America v. Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Emily Brown Ready Court Documents

235 pages of court documents from the records of district courts of the United States, U.S. District Court for the Western (Kansas City) Division of the Western District of Missouri, covering the case United States of America v. Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Emily Brown Ready.

Includes a copy of the indictment, transcripts of proceedings, and documents recording the judgement and sentence.

Newspaper Reporting

238 Full-Sheet American newspaper pages covering the Greenlease Kidnapping, the search for and apprehension of Hall and Heady, the criminal proceedings, and the search for missing ransom money.

Most coverage is from The Evening Star of Washington, D.C, and The Daily Record of Dunn, NC. The collection also includes front-page coverage from newspapers across the county, from the Nome Alaska Nugget to Key West Florida's Citizen.