Greenlease Family History & Genealogy

He was attending Notre Dame de Sion, a private elementary school at 3823 Locust Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. At approximately 11:00am, Bonnie Heady came to the school and told a nun there she was Bobby's aunt, and that Bobby's mother had suffered a heart attack while shopping on the Country Club Plaza. The nun released the boy to Heady; together they left the school in a Toedman Cab; went to the Katz Drug store at 40th and Main and they got into Bonnie's 1951 Plymouth station wagon, which driven by her boyfriend Carl Hall. He drove west into Kansas to a remote field, where Carl Hall attempted to strangle the boy with a short piece of rope. The rope was too short in fact to accomplish this task. The boy was struggling, so Hall struck him in the head and face area several times, and then aimed a gun at Bobby's head and fired once, missing, and firing a second time. The second shot struck Bobby in the head, killing him. At approximately 11:30am, a nun from the Notre Dame de Sion school called the Greenlease house to inquire about Mrs. Virginia Greenlease, Bobby's mother. His mother was horrified to learn that her son had been taken. After the shooting, the couple drove to St Joseph to the house of Bonnie Heady at 1201 South 38th Street. There they buried the boy's body in the backyard with a dozen Chrysanthemums planted on the grave to disguise it as a flower bed. The couple returned to Kansas City, staying at the El Rancho Motel on 40 Highway while negotiating with the Greenlease family for a $600,000 ransom. The boy's father was a multi-millionaire Cadillac dealer, whose worth was estimated at $24,000,000 at the time. Robert Greenlease Sr contacted Arthur B. Eisenhower, Executive Vice President of the Commerce Trust Company, one of Kansas City's largest banks to arrange for the ransom money. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president at the time, and was the brother of Arthur B. Eisenhower. The ransom money was paid, without knowing that the boy had already been killed. Hall and Heady collected the money on October 04, 1953, and fled to St. Louis. Hall was arrested on Tuesday October 06, 1953 in St. Louis, and ultimately gave police Bonnie's name and location, and she too was arrested. Police found the body of Bobby Greenlease on October 07, 1953, and it was taken to the Meierhoffer-Fleeman Funeral Home in St Joseph, where it was identified by the Greenlease family dentist, Dr. Hubert Eversull of Kansas City. Police recovered the two bullets fired by Hall at the boy, in the 1951 Plymouth station wagon of Bonnie Heady. On October 30, 1953 Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady were indicted by the grand jury, and four days after their indictment, the couple entered guilty pleas before 80-year-old U.S. District Court Judge Albert L. Reeves. On November 16, 1953 they were tried and found guilty, receiving the death sentence. December 18, 1953, 81 days after the kidnapping and murder, Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Emily Heady, maiden name Brown, were executed sitting side by side in the gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City Missouri.

Paul Greenlease was born on January 31, 1917, and died at age 47 years old in March 1964. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Paul Greenlease.

Robert Greenlease of Prairie Village, Johnson County, Kansas was born on August 25, 1882, and died at age 87 years old in September 1969.

Virginia P Greenlease of Kansas City, Jackson County, MO was born on November 8, 1909, and died at age 91 years old on September 24, 2001.