Long ago on independence square (Joplin, Liberty: crime, hotel, houses)

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Herbert Hoover, a Republican, was responsible for the 1949 erection of the fence around the Truman home.

The fence was needed to stop souvenir seekers from taking hunks of trim off of the house.

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Truman needed money just for his family but he turned down a sales manager job at $100,000 year (no actual work involved), and $800,000 for a one hour a day job. He also turned down having his name put on a brand of soap.

Truman felt strongly that former presidents should not be "for sale" as it cheapened the office and showed a lack of respect for the presidency.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

I have just finished reading “Zero to the Bone: The Playboy, the Prostitute, and the Murder of Bobby Greenlease.”

I was in the seventh grade at Independence Junior High School when the kidnapping and murder of six-year old Bobby Greenlease took place. We kids, along with everyone else in the metro area, were mesmerized and saddened about what had happened. Miss Smith, our music teacher, brought a portable radio in to class and we would listen to the newscasts.

Bobby was the son of a Kansas City multi-millionaire automobile dealer. The female prostitute involved went to his private school in a taxi cab and managed to get him out of school. She used the excuse that his mother had been hurt in an automobile accident and needed to immediately see her children.

The female took him to a Katz drug store at 40th and Main where the male playboy was waiting nearby. From there they drove to a secluded spot on the Kansas side, shot Bobby in the head, and then went to St Joseph where they buried the body in the female’s back yard.

Then they concocted a scheme to get $600,000 ($5.2 million today) from the older Greenlease promising to return the boy once the ransom was received.

The ransom was dropped beneath the Lee’s Summit Road Little Blue River bridge a little over a mile south of US 40. The two picked the drop up then hit US 40 and drove to St Louis. That ransom was the largest amount in the US up to that time that had ever been paid for a kidnapping.

In St Louis, the female drank herself into a stupor and slept most of the time. The male started looking for other company and began bragging of having money and flashing bills. He immediately attracted a cab driver’s attention. The cabbie had connections to the mob and to shady police officers and alerted both.


The end result was that the two were arrested but half the money was lifted by two policemen during an “unofficial arrest” in which a high ranking mobster was also present. The money was then laundered through mob channels. Only a few thousand dollars of that missing money was ever found.

The murder took place on September 28. The arrest in St Louis took place on October 6. The two were convicted after eight minutes of jury deliberation on November 19. The two were executed side by side in the gas chamber on December 18.

I've been reading about the famous Bobby Greenlease kidnap/murder from late 1953 and also caught a documentary by chance this week.

I located a source about the dropoff point and then realized we had discussed that in this thread back in 2014 and 2012. The spot where Lees Summit Rd crosses the Little Blue River. The map tells me this is also about where Phelps Rd ends.

I was wondering if our friend MAD would be kind enough to post the 1957 photos of that area. Although that would be 3 1/2 years later, I doubt that area changed much (maybe the bridge was replaced, etc) Just would like to get an aerial view of the purported dropoff point. As well as maybe stimulate some discussion with some of the newer posters.

For those of you not aware of the case, it is both fascinating and infuriating. The FBI files are also posted online.



MAD, TIA

[MRG Dallas]

Truman felt strongly that former presidents should not be "for sale" as it cheapened the office and showed a lack of respect for the presidency.

That sure ain't the case today, is it

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Truman felt strongly that former presidents should not be "for sale" as it cheapened the office and showed a lack of respect for the presidency.

That sure ain't the case today, is it

I posted this the other day and the information was good at that time.



“Retirement pension is $203,700 annually plus $20,000 a year for the spouse if she has no other statutory retirement and Secret Service protection. Additionally, $150,000 per year is provided for a staff. The ex-president receives medical care from the military but must provide his own medical insurance to pay the military for that care.”


But, just this week Obama was supposed to have signed new legislation:

In addition to a pension, ex-presidents now will get an annual allowance of $200,000 a year for travel, staff and office costs.

If the ex-president makes money through books, speaking fees and other ventures, the allowance is reduced for every dollar in outside income in excess of $400,000.

The new legislation also sets presidential pensions at $200,000 a year, nearly the same as the current amount. The difference being that the now former $203,700 per year was pegged to Department Level active salary (IRS, etc.) and was subject to a COLA increase every year. The new law freezes the presidential pension at $200,000 at least until Congress decides sometime in the future it should be more.
This is also new: Each surviving spouse will be allotted a $100,000 annual survivor benefit.

I think it is still too much. These guys are really milking their retirement status.

I say in view of their earning power as a retired president, let them pay their own expenses and if someone, like Truman comes along retirement assistance would be on a case by case basis.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

I've been reading about the famous Bobby Greenlease kidnap/murder from late 1953 and also caught a documentary by chance this week.

I located a source about the dropoff point and then realized we had discussed that in this thread back in 2014 and 2012. The spot where Lees Summit Rd crosses the Little Blue River. The map tells me this is also about where Phelps Rd ends.

I was wondering if our friend MAD would be kind enough to post the 1957 photos of that area. Although that would be 3 1/2 years later, I doubt that area changed much (maybe the bridge was replaced, etc) Just would like to get an aerial view of the purported dropoff point. As well as maybe stimulate some discussion with some of the newer posters.

For those of you not aware of the case, it is both fascinating and infuriating. The FBI files are also posted online.



MAD, TIA

Ask and ye shall receive! Here is the 1957 view-



The current view shows how the river was straightened, and both old and new alignments of the road. I drove this section Tuesday, the old bridge is now gone.

[WCHS'59]

Truman sold his memoirs to Doubleday for $600,000 in late 1953.

The income tax rate was 67 percent (top rate was 91 percent in those days)

And he had to pay researchers, stenographers, and ghostwriters. Truman claimed he netted $37,000 from his memoirs.

Truman received a new car from Haines motors at Main and Walnut but did not buy it from them. He received the car from Chrysler through Haines.

Chrysler wanted to provide Truman with an Imperial—equivalent to the Cadillac and Lincoln in those days.

Truman thought it might be too opulent so he settled on a New Yorker, which was no slouch at a cost of $4,000.

The “payment” for the New Yorker was kept secret but was probably $1 per a current day Chrysler exec.

Truman claimed the car had so many gadgets on it that he would have to go to engineering school to be able to drive it. And, Chrysler did send an engineer from their headquarters to help him drive.

Truman’s New Yorker is, today, in an undisclosed barn somewhere in northeast Kansas.


Truman told a story that the only thing he could have been sent to jail for during his political career was the appearance of the Andrew Jackson statue outside the KC courthouse. This was in 1933/4 and there was $10,000 left from the courthouse budget so without authorization he commissioned the statue.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

I've been reading about the famous Bobby Greenlease kidnap/murder from late 1953 and also caught a documentary by chance this week.

I located a source about the dropoff point and then realized we had discussed that in this thread back in 2014 and 2012. The spot where Lees Summit Rd crosses the Little Blue River. The map tells me this is also about where Phelps Rd ends.

I was wondering if our friend MAD would be kind enough to post the 1957 photos of that area. Although that would be 3 1/2 years later, I doubt that area changed much (maybe the bridge was replaced, etc) Just would like to get an aerial view of the purported dropoff point. As well as maybe stimulate some discussion with some of the newer posters.

For those of you not aware of the case, it is both fascinating and infuriating. The FBI files are also posted online.



MAD, TIA

Can you advise what cable channel the documentary was on?

[WCHS'59]

Here is a grainy photo of Maple street looking east from Liberty.

For one reason, the picture can be dated as no earlier than 1948.

The picture also shows how narrow the sidewalks once were around the courthouse. With the tires hitting the curb from the parked autos, there was barely room for one person to squeeze through.

The bus is pulling away from the bus stop where the sidewalk has been made wider to hold a few people.

The bus stopped on each corner of the square.

S.S. Kresgee, Isis Shoes, and Woolworth are in the left center.

[WCHS'59]

Might have done this one before.....

MRG might be able to relate. Too bad there is not a picture of the old one.

According to Google the front of this place is 338 feet from the front of the old one. From back to back the two appear to be about 150 feet from each other.

[WCHS'59]

Here is photo of somewhere in Independence taken from Bing Images of Independence, Missouri. Where is it?

Don't scratch your head and say "I don't believe that is Independence", because it is.