Popular.com

Kansas City, Missouri, September 29th, 1953.

Hours of agonized waiting dragged by today, without any word from the kidnappers of six-year-old Bobby Greenlease, son of a millionaire

automobile distributor. 24 hours after the child was taken from the fashionable Notre Dame school

by a ruse, the parents of the boy waited hopefully for some contact with the kidnapper.

Police, meanwhile, said they were doing nothing in an effort to avoid frightening the kidnappers

and give them an opportunity to make contact with the family.

They and the family hoped such action or lack of action would hurry the child home unharmed.

Said Bernard Brannon, chief of police,

We're treading lightly.

We're just waiting to hear if the family is contacted.

He gave no idea how long the waiting period would last.

Greenlease, 71, is a distributor for Cadillac. He said, quote, I don't know why anybody would do anything like this. There are so many reasons why anybody would be foolish to take such a

risk. It just doesn't make sense. Unquote. Greenlease said he believed the kidnapping was the work of

professionals. That, he said, made him hopeful the

perpetrators would make contact soon with a ransom demand. This, he felt, would make it more likely

that the child would be released unharmed as the professionals would be interested primarily in the money. Greenlease, active and

civic affairs, has been in the automobile distributing business for 45 years. He married Mrs. Greenlease,

who was in her mid-40s in 1939 after divorcing his first wife.

Mrs. Greenlease collapsed from strain and was under care of a physician.

The Greenleases also have an 11-year-old daughter.

The boy was taken from the school yesterday morning. The woman gained admittance to the school

...