The 1953 abduction and murder of 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease stands as one of Kansas City’s most notorious crimes. Bobby, the son of wealthy Cadillac dealer Robert Greenlease, was taken from Notre Dame De Sion School by two grifters, Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Heady, in a cold-blooded kidnap-for-ransom plot. 

On the morning of September 28, 1953, Heady posed as Bobby’s aunt claiming his mother had fallen gravely ill and needed him at the hospital. Trusting her story, the school staff allowed Heady to leave with the boy. 

The kidnappers demanded $600,000 — just over $7 million in today’s dollars and the largest ransom in U.S. history at the time — but had no intention of sparing the boy, whom they killed shortly after taking him. More than half the ransom money later disappeared, adding to the crime’s infamy. 

Read the rest of the story at KCHistory.org.