Bobby Greenlease
Six-year-old Bobby Greenlease was kidnapped from his school and killed by Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Brown Heady in Kansas City. A ransom of $600,000 was paid — the largest at that time. Hall and Heady were arrested, tried, and executed in less than three months. Half the ransom was never recovered.
Bobby Greenlease is documented in the ColdCaseIndex database as a homicide case in Kansas City, Missouri. The events are dated to September 28, 1953. The victim is recorded as 6 years old and male. The last known information on record places the case at September 28, 1953, Notre Dame de Sion School, Kansas City, MO.
Within the ColdCaseIndex taxonomy, Bobby Greenlease is filed under Homicide with a status of Conviction. A homicide entry documents a killing in which the perpetrator has not been identified, has not been convicted, or where the case is otherwise historically notable. The record is cross-referenced under the themes kidnapping, homicide, historical, conviction, execution, Missouri, which connect it to related cases across the database.
The Bobby Greenlease case ended in a criminal conviction. It is retained in this index as a historically significant case — one whose investigation, prosecution, or aftermath shaped forensic practice, criminal law, or the public understanding of violent crime.
Primary jurisdiction for the Bobby Greenlease case rests with local law enforcement in Kansas City, supported by Missouri state investigative authorities. The case sits within a wider national picture: the U.S. homicide clearance rate has fallen from roughly 90% in the 1960s to about 54% today, and more than 346,000 homicides recorded since 1965 remain unsolved. ColdCaseIndex documents individual cases like this one to keep them publicly visible and searchable.
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Have Information About This Case?
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- FBI Tips (tips.fbi.gov) — submit a tip online to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- FBI Tip Line: 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324)
- The local police department or sheriff's office in Missouri, or the state bureau of investigation
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