Geometry.Net - Celebrities Books: St John Austin

In 1953, six-year-old Bobby Greenlease, the son of a wealthy Kansas City automobile dealer and his wife, was kidnapped from his Roman Catholic elementary school by a woman named Bonnie Heady, a well-scrubbed prostitute who was posing as one of his distant aunts. Her accomplice, Carl Austin Hall, a former playboy who had run through his inheritance and was just out of the Missouri State Penitentiary, was waiting in the getaway car with a gun, a length of rope and a plastic tarp. The two grifters thought they had a plan that would put them on the road to Easy Street; but, actually, they were on a fast-track to the gas chamber. Shortly after they snatched the little boy, the two demanded a ransom of $600,000.00 from the Greenlease family and it was paid; but, Bobby was already dead, shot in the head by Hall and buried in a flower garden behind the couple’s house, exactly where his body was found by police shortly thereafter. The Greenlease ransom was the highest ransom ever paid in the US to that date and the case held the US transfixed in the same way the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby had done decades earlier. In a bone-chilling account of kidnapping, murder and the dogged pursuit of a child’s killers, John Heidenry crafts a haunting narrative that involves mob boss Joe Costello, a cast of unsavory grifters, hardboiled detectives and a room at the legendary, but now razed, Coral Court Motel on Route 66. Heady and Hall were apprehended quickly, convicted and executed in a rare double execution in the State of Missouri’s gas chamber on a cold December night not long before Christmas. By that time, little Bobby Greenlease was stone cold in his grave and a fickle America had turned back to its Post-War boom. However, one question has never been solved: as Hall was being pursued around Kansas City and St. Louis, half of the ransom was lost and never recovered. Did it end up with the mob via Joe Costello? To this day, no one knows and dead mob bosses tell no tales. In a book that brings to mind films like “Chinatown” and “Double Indemnity”, John Heidenry has written a compelling work that blends true crime and American history to take a close look at one of the United States’ most notorious murders.

Heartland Darkness:Memoir of a Nightmare
Several reviewers have compared Jack Heidenry's harrowing recounting of the Greenlease kidnapping in Kansas City, Missouri, to writings about the Lindbergh case.As a friend of the author of Zero at the Bone, as well as a reviewer of Jim Fisher's definitive Lindbergh Case, I wanted to add a perspective on these very different books about very similar cases.

Readers should bear in mind that Zero at the Bone: The Playboy, the Prostitute, and the Murder of Bobby Greenlease isn't only a true-crimer about the first kidnapping of the television age.This horrific story is a living memory for the author, who knew the victim at school.The relentless momentum of Heidenry's book captures the rush of events he must have experienced as a schoolboy in 1953.Also, you have to believe the sordid aftermath of televised police corruption, betrayal, and coverup caused a devastating loss of innocence for the author - as it did in the country as a whole.

The Greenlease case was one of two sensational kidnappings that stand as bookends in mid-20th Century American society.The other was the Lindbergh kidnap-murder of 1932.Each crime reflected the America of its time - both pointed strongly to corruption and mystery behind the scenes.The Lindbergh case was a celebrity crime with a cast of elite, memorable and sometimes extremely sinister characters.It is full of tantalizing leads, evidence, and ignored testimony from a highly controlled investigation, all shielded by a coverup that is arguably enforced to this day.(My review: [...]

By contrast, the Greenlease kidnapping targeted trusting victims and was practically a crime of opportunity.Ill-considered and extraordinarily vicious, there is no ambiguity about it at all - the perpetrators were caught, their guilt established beyond question.But the case exposed a revolting world of institutional corruption (unlike the Lindbergh affair, where the controlling web was elite and well hidden).The investigating officers stole most of the ransom money, framed one of their criminal associates for the theft, and got away with it.Ironically, the Greenlease case ended with a complete prosecutorial success -- but its aftermath had a moral dimension that was public, televised, and highly corrosive.

So I recommend reading Heidenry's fast-moving and troubling memoir as a history of America's first "noir" crime.It's worth studying for that reason alone -- it's an archetype that was soon followed by others: the Starkweather-Fugate murders, the Clutter family murders recalled in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (hardcover) and the long list of other senseless crimes of greed and appetite.Zero at the Bone also captures both the innocence and hard-bitten ugliness of flyover country, like Kansas City Confidential (Enhanced) 1952 did at the time and In Cold Blood (DVD) and David Lynch's notorious Blue Velvet (DVD) did much later.

The Imbecile Chronicles
In ZERO AT THE BONE, author John Heidenry has produced a well researched and densely written account of a notorious crime, the September 1953 kidnapping and murder in Kansas City MO, of 6 year old Bobby Greenlease by a pair of morons named Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady. There is considerable background on both of the perps, particularly on Hall, so that the reader gets a feel for the kind of people they were. Both came from seemingly normal childhoods and neither was raised in poverty, but by the time of the kidnapping, Hall in his middle 30s and Heady her early 40s were severely alcoholic and stayed drunk all day every day, with Hall adding as well to his repertoire a little drug habit.

The immediate act of the kidnapping itself was actually reasonably well planned and effectuated, but due to a combination of stupidity and alcoholism, Hall and Heady had no real plans after the almost immediate murder of Bobby. What followed were a series of ludicrously incompetent attempts to the take delivery of the money. Hall would require that Greenlease's representatives go to various locations, but he'd get the addresses wrong. Or on several occasions he couldn't find drop-off locations he himself had selected .On one occasion he instructed the representatives by phone to make a call from a specific hotel pay phone. But while he had the pay phone's number for them, he couldn't remember the name of the hotel. If the situation weren't so tragic, it would have been funny, and one of the Greenlease representatives is finally quoted as telling Hall, "This idea of climbing the tree and looking in a bird's nest for a note, then climbing on your belly somewhere looking under a rock with a red, white, and blue ribbon around it - that's getting tiresome." But eventually and amazingly Hall got the money - $600,000, a fortune by 1953 standards, and, any semblance of forethought officially ended, randomly drove with Heady to St. Louis. There, after depositing a passed out Heady in a rented apartment, Hall spent two profligate days in the Coral Courts Motel with the money, a hooker, and an underworld-connected cabdriver. The cabbie, figuring that the befogged Hall would be an easy mark, contacted his boss, cab company owner and small time mobster, Joseph Costello. Costello in turn contacted his friend, corrupt St. Louis detective Louis Shoulders, and the robbery of the kidnapper was on.

Except for the background material on Hall, a man who didn't like to work and ludicrously considered himself smarter than the common man and to a lesser extent on the remarkably shallow Heady, ZATBcovers a 3-month period from September to December 1953. A large portion of the book relates in minute detail the movements of Hall in St. Louis over a three-day period. This was my favorite part of the book, partly due to the fact that I live in St. Louis and am familiar with the locations mentioned, but also because I found fascinating the presentation of the extreme and continuing stupidity of a not very bright man, who had somehow managedobtaina large amount of money,attempting to operate while in a drug and alcohol induced haze.

Heidenry writes very well, and while there are a few quotes that I think must have been made up, he has delivered a fast paced story that has a feel of immediacy throughout.
The book contains no filler, little repetition, and Heidenry is thankfully too good to have resorted to the all too frequent lame attempt at "creative writing." And he does a fine job of presenting the tenor of the Midwest in the early 1950s.
A reviewer on this site whom I respect, MJS, found fault with the book in that, "Hall and Heady are not criminal masterminds. They are monumentally stupid. They are not sympathetic."She is absolutely 100% right. But she then writes, "They are not even interesting."
And that's where my taste differs from hers. I find the behavior of impaired low-life idiots who try to implement extraordinary plans far in excess of their capabilities to be as interesting as it gets.
So to each his own, but I really enjoyed reading ZERO AT THE BONE

Thorough Story Of A Long Forgotten Crime And Its Aftermath
My first recollection of hearing about the child abduction and murder of Bobby Greenlease was about 12 years ago when I was visiting Kansas City. Considering the time we live in, I thought it strange that such a long forgotten crime was so notoriously remembered even in the city where it took place. Unfortunately, child abductions and murders have become far too commonplace.
This book revisits not only the crime, but thoroughly recreates the time in which it took place and the media frenzy it generated. It very deliberately looks at murderers and their blundering attempts to extort money and cover their tracks to divert detection and also looks at the involvement of organized crime and law enforcement in the obstruction of justice.
This book is true crime at its absolute best.

Arrived as promised and ahead of schedule!
Arrived as promised and ahead of schedule! As a Kansas City resident, this book was a good read.

Zero in the Brain
Once upon a time, the kidnapping of young Bobby Greenlease was second only to the Lindbergh case in terms of publicity and general outrage. The boy was murdered, as planned, before the first ransom demand was sent. The kidnappers, unlike Leopold and Loeb, got their ransom and left town, seemingly on their way to escaping without a trace. Instead epic inebriates Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady go off the deep end, lose the ransom and end up in an electric chair built for two.

This is dark material. John Heidenry does a good job of depicting the crime and the abysmal human beings who committed it. For my taste, he over does the details on the stealing of the ransom money. Certainly it takes a rare specimen to steal the proceeds from a child murder but other than being a proof point for utter corruption of the St Louis police I couldn't bring myself to care who had the money. It's return wouldn't bring the Greenleases' any comfort nor would it make Hall and Heady any less guilty.

There's something vaguely Coen Brothers about this case. From the French-speaking nuns in the Midwest to the motel with a national reputation for shady business to the moronic drunks to the "Who's Got the Ransom?" antics, the whole thing plays like a grimmer, entirely laugh-free version of Fargo at times. Hall and Heady are not criminal masterminds. They are monumentally stupid. They are not sympathetic. They aren't even interesting.

That may be the biggest obstacle for this book - other than telling the story, there isn't a whole lot to be gained from this exercise. Unlike the Lindbergh case the Greenlease case is not a microcosm of the times. It's the venal, depraved act of a couple of drunks. The end. Society's reaction to the crime and the criminals isn't especially illuminating either. Even as a tale of the dangers of demon alcohol it isn't much. If you're interested in the case then you likely won't be disappointed by this book. Otherwise this isn't a must-read. ... Read more

61. No Time Like the Present by John Asher Thompson Jr.
	Kindle Edition: Pages (2010-10-13) list price: US$0.99 Asin: B0047T7OLS Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description It's 1987 in Austin, Texas.Charlie's girlfriend has just broken his heart and his best friend has betrayed him.Twenty-three years later Charlie takes another shot at love only to learn that time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds. ... Read more

62. Sketches in His Own Key by Bob St. John
	Hardcover: Pages (1981) Asin: B002AYO8YI Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

63. A FEW HISTORIC RECORDS OF THE CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE OF TEXAS, During the Rebellion. Together with a Correspondence Between the Right Rev. Alexander Gregg & Rev. Charles Gillette, Rector. by Charles, Rector, St. David's, Austin, Texas. Gillette
	Pamphlet: Pages (1865-01-01) Asin: B002N6TFUA Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

64. Stan Lee Presents the Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of The Uncanny X-Men by Jim (editor), Wein, Len & Claremont, Chris (writers) Salicrup
	Mass Market Paperback: Pages (1982-01-01) -- used & new: US$14.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001NRPKZO Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

65. John Bell, Spiritual Detective (A classic mystery collection!) by L.T. Meade, Robert Eustace
	Kindle Edition: Pages (2009-07-04) list price: US$0.99 Asin: B002G9B3RC Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description NOTE: This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader or iPod e-book reader. Thrilling mystery stories featuring the adventures of ghost hunter and debunker, John Bell. Bell is a master of mysteries (some editions are titled A Master of Mysteries). From the introduction: "It so happened that the circumstances of fate allowed me to follow my own bent in the choice of a profession. From my earliest youth the weird, the mysterious had an irresistible fascination for me. "Having private means, I resolved to follow my unique inclinations, and I am now well known to all my friends as a professional exposer of ghosts, and one who can clear away the mysteries of most haunted houses. ... To explain, by the application of science, phenomena attributed to spiritual agencies has been the work of my life. "I have, naturally, gone through strange difficulties in accomplishing my mission. I propose in these pages to relate the histories of certain queer events, enveloped at first in mystery, and apparently dark with portent, but, nevertheless, when grappled with in the true spirit of science, capable of explanation." In this volume: Story 1: The Mystery of the Circular Chamber Story 2: The Warder of the Door Story 3: The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel Story 4: The Eight-Mile Lock Story 5: How Siva Spoke Story 6: To Prove an Alibi These are thrilling stories. A must-have for classic mystery fans! ... Read more

66. Mulberry Ridge by John F. Kulick
	Kindle Edition: 284 Pages (2006-07-06) list price: US$9.99 Asin: B000W9CMKK Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description Old folks with an attitude...full of sass and vinegar...cheating Father Time as they kick up their heels and enjoy life. ... Read more

67. Standish of Standish by Jane G. Austin
	Kindle Edition: Pages (2010-09-13) list price: US$3.99 Asin: B0043RS4L8 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description "It was Monday morning.It was also the twenty-third day of November in the year of our Lord 1620; but this latter fact was either unknown or matter of profound indifference to the two-and-twenty women who stood ready to make the day memorable in the world''s history, while the fact of Monday was to them one of paramount importance. " ... Read more

68. The American political science review, Volume 9 by John Archibald Fairlie, Frederic Austin Ogg, American Political Science Association Westel Woodbury Willoughby
	Kindle Edition: Pages (2009-10-13) list price: US$0.99 Asin: B002SSUV74 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description Quotes from the book: Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy's flag; 4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective ; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. A person has no property, no vested interest, in any rule of the common law. That is only one of .the forms of municipal law, and is no more sacred than any other. Rights of property which have been created by the common law cannot be taken away without due process; but the law itself, as a rule of conduct, may be changed at the will, or even at the whim, of the legislature, unless prevented by constitutional limitations. Indeed the great office of statutes is to remedy defects in the common law... ... Read more

69. Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction & Speculative Fact 1979 Vol. 1 # 5 October-December (SIGNED) by James (editor): Roger Zelazny, Frank Herbert, Jack C. Haldeman, Kevin O'Do Baen
	Mass Market Paperback: Pages (1979) Asin: B001NRWPOI Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

70. Standish of Standish by Jane G. Austin
	Kindle Edition: Pages (2010-02-06) list price: US$3.55 Asin: B0037HOJZK Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description It was Monday morning. It was also the twenty-third day of November in the year of our Lord 1620; but this latter fact was either unknown or matter of profound indifference to the two-and-twenty women who stood ready to make the day memorable in the world's history, while the fact of Monday was to them one of paramount importance. ... Read more

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Home - Celebrities - St John Austin (Books)

74. Eulogy on the Hon. John Hemphill and Gen. Hugh McLeod, delivered, in the Capitol, Austin, February 1st, 1862 by Alexander Gregg
	Unknown Binding: 17 Pages (1862) Asin: B0008AQG00 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

73. Tales of St Austin's by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
	Mass Market Paperback: Pages (1978) Asin: B001E3EDFU Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

76. John Eliot: A sketch, read at the dedication of the Eliot memorial window in Widford Church, Herts, May 21st, 1894 by J. Traviss Lockwood
	Unknown Binding: 20 Pages (1894) Asin: B00087V3LA Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

77. Nick Carter: The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories (Three pulp classics in one volume!) by Various Authors, Nick Carter, Frederic van Rensselaer Dey, R.F. Walsh, Edward L. Stratemeyer, George Charles Jenks, William Cadwalder Hudson, Frederick William Davis, E.C. Derby, John Russell Coryell
	Kindle Edition: Pages (2009-08-08) list price: US$0.99 Asin: B002KW4IFE Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description NOTE: This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader and your ipod e-book reader. Nick Carter is a private detective who's goal is to "aim for the right and for righting wrongs." Sometimes he gets paid, sometimes he just does it out of a desire to see justice. This volume has three exciting Nick Carter adventures: Story One: The Crime of the French Cafe Story Two: Nick Carter’s Ghost Story Story Three: The Mystery of St. Agnes’ Hospital Full of intrigue and adventure! Written in the tradition of A.J. Raffles and Sherlcok Holmes, this volume is a must for adventure-pulp literature fans! ... Read more

78. By John Stewart Walker & Co., Real Estate Auctioneers and Rental Brokers, 817 Main St., Lynchburg, Va: At auction! : By virtue of two deeds of trust ... ... 2 o'clock P.M., the following desirable farm by A. C Edmunds
	Unknown Binding: Pages (1896) Asin: B0008CES44 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

80. Queen of Angels
	Audio CD: Pages (1997) Asin: B0043S96QE Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description "Hymns in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary" performed by The Schola Cantorum & Gregorian Scholars at The Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Austin TX, John Balka Director.Total playing time 1:09:16.20 Tracks:1. Ave Maria - Chant, Mode I2. Ave Maria - Tomas Luis de Victoria3. Alma redemptoris Mater - Chant, Mode V4. Ave Maria Stella - Tomas Luis de Victoria5. Ave Maria - Robert Parsons6. The White Dove - J. Brahms arr. Walter Ehret7. A Spotless Rose - Herbert Howells8. I Sing a Maid - arr. Jeffrey M. Jones --- Missa de Beata Virgine ---9. Kyrie eleison - Chant, Mode I10. Gloria in excelsis Deo - Chant, Mode VII11. Sanctus - Chant, Mode V12. Agnus Dei - Chant, Mode V-------------------13. Ave Regina caelorum - Chant, Mode VI14. O vos omnes - Pablo Casals15. Stabat Mater dolorosa - G.P. da Palestrina16. Regina caeli - Chant, Mode VI17. Totus tuus - Gorecki18. Ave Maria - Bruckner19. Salve Regina - Chant, Mode I20.Ave Maria - Franz Biebl ... Read more