Documents the sobering account of the 1953 kidnapping and murder of a wealthy automobile dealer's son, describing how former inmate Carl Austin Hal and prostitute Bonnie Heady successfully collected a lucrative ransom that was subsequently stolen by mobster Joe Costello. Reprint.
This haunting true crime tale brings to life the infamous 1953 kidnapping and murder of Bobby Green-lease. The son of a wealthy Kansas City automobile dealer, Bobby was just six years old when a pair of grifters, Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Heady, snatched him away---and set what was then the country's highest ransom ever paid. Six hundred thousand dollars later, Bobby was killed anyway, setting off a chain of events that would culminate in notorious mobster Joe Costello stealing half the ransom and Hall and Heady's eventual double execution. Told by acclaimed journalist John Heidenry in bone-chilling detail, and featuring a cast of characters ranging from underground crime bosses and hard-boiled detectives to the victim's family and the murderers themselves, this is the story of one of the most complex and least understood crimes in American history.
"This true crime caper...carries a solid punch... Heidenry neatly tells this harrowing tale and its impact on all involved."---Publishers Weekly
"Heidenry delivers a lean, mean account...Harsh, chilling, lurid, and gripping."---Kirkus Reviews
In this haunting true crime tale, John Heidenry brings to life the 1953 kidnapping and murder of Bobby Greenlease by two grifters with bone-chilling precision. Bobby’s killers, Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Heady, met in the seedy underbelly of the Missouri crime world. Hall lost a $200,000 inheritance and ended up in the State pen for holding up taxicabs. Heady—whom he met on his release—was the former wife of wealthy livestock breeder now turned prostitute. Bobby, the son of a wealthy automobile dealer, was but six-years-old when he turned up dead in a geranium patch right after a $600,000 ransom was paid. With the ransom in hand, Hall panicked and set off a chain of events that ended when mobster Joe Costello arranged to steal half the ransom. It was never recovered. After their arrest and quick conviction, Hall and Heady died manacled side by side in a rare double execution in the Missouri gas chamber.
