Saturday, November 28, 2009

With Very Limited Appeal


Kansas Citians of a certain age will never forget the stories surrounding the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Greenlease. Although it occurred before my time, in the Kansas City of my youth, there was still a lingering curiosity surrounding the death of little Bobby.

Zero at the Bone, by John Heidenry provides an almost minute by minute account of the planning, kidnapping, murder, get away, ultimate capture and execution of the two culprits. The story is told in a stone cold, just the facts ma'am fashion. It's riveting. Names, addresses, phone numbers. It's all there.

The story fascinates on several levels. As a true crime novel its gruesome in its detailed account. As a mystery story, it closely follows the mystery of what happened to the stolen half of the ransom money. Something that the Saint Louis Police Department still won't talk about.

If it's your kinda thing, its worth the hour or two it takes to get through it.

Toad

3 comments:

Mrs. Blandings said...

Oh, I was wondering about this - I'll pick it up. Thanks for the review.

David said...

When I told my mom 4+ years ago we were moving to a new condo in the former Greenlease Cadillac building the first thing she said was "That was so awful what happened to Bobby Greenlease." We did a little reading about it online then, but I'll have to pick this up for the full story.

soodie :: said...

my dad once told me about this haunting story. apparently it has multiple levels to it and there were fingerprints of st. joe's finest found in the home bonnie heady (sp?) one of the kidnappers who entertained these men. i would like to read this book too, but not sure if i can stomach reading what happened to the poor little boy...