Side by Side

Bonnie Emily Brown Heady covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a giggle as the bailiff, at court's opening, intoned: "God save the United States and this Honorable Court." She peered around the courtroom at the twelve men in the jury box, at old (79) Judge Albert L. Reeves rocking in his chair, at the spectators and the lawyers, and finally, with tender affection, at Carl Austin Hall. Plump Bonnie Heady smiled. Hall slumped down, his eyes turned toward the floor.

Mrs. Heady and Hall had already pleaded guilty to kidnaping six-year-old Bobby Greenlease (TIME, Nov. 16). The only issue before the jury in Kansas City, Mo. was that of prison or death. Burly U.S. Attorney Edward L. Scheufler demanded death, and started calling witnesses to spell out the crime in squalid detail. A nun's face was pale as she sat with her crucifix in her lap and told of being tricked into releasing Bobby Greenlease from school to go to his "sick mother." Who had fooled her? Sister Morand hesitated, looked around, half rose and pointed at Mrs. Heady. Bonnie Heady faced her accuser impersonally. Carl Hall studied his shoes.

Robert C. Greenlease, 71, Bobby's father, described the tortuous ransom negotiations with Hall. Mrs. Heady yawned.

The prosecutor read Bonnie Heady's confession, starting when she met Hall in St. Joseph, Mo. at the Pony Express Bar and took him home to live with her. When Hall told her his kidnaping plan, she agreed because "I was so infatuated." Last September, popping chlorophyll tablets into her mouth to kill the whisky smell, she went to Bobby's school and took the boy to Hall.

Dog Walker. They drove to a lonely spot in Kansas, and, said the confession, Bonnie Heady promised to get Bobby a hedge apple and took her boxer dog, Doc, for a stroll. Explained Mrs. Heady: "I did not want . . . to witness the actual murdering." Hall tried to strangle Bobby with a short piece of clothesline, failed, and then shot the child. Hall's face and hands were wet with blood when Mrs. Heady returned from her walk. She mopped him off with Kleenex. Then, with Bobby's body in the rear of her station wagon, they headed for St. Joseph. On the way, they stopped for drinks; Hall inspected the station wagon to "observe whether there was any blood dripping . . . on the ground." The rest of the week was a drunken dream. Said Mrs. Heady: "I wanted to stay drunk so that my conscience would not bother me."

Hurt Cur. Mrs. Heady last week showed no remorse at hearing her confession read in court. She lolled, squinted and smiled, scratched her nose, plucked at her shoulder straps. The next day she was less content. Hall's confession was read, and Bonnie reacted with a hurt-cur look to his frequent references to her being drunk and "again inebriated." Hall said that when he was arrested in St. Louis by Police Lieut. Shoulders and a patrolman, he still had about $592,000 of the $600,000 ransom money. Some $300,000 is still missing.

Said Judge Reeves to the jury before it retired: "They committed coldblooded, heartless . . . first-degree murder . . . I fail to find one line of mitigating . . . circumstances." The jury agreed. On Dec. 18, Carl Hall, wearing black shorts, and Bonnie Heady, in shorts and a halter, will enter the gas chamber at Jefferson City, Mo. and, seated side by side in metal chairs, will die.

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