Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, St. Louis: seasons, houses, neighborhood)

[CatHerder]

Missed it, darn it -- though I only remembered that it was on around 10 CST. I did a search on this thread but failed to find where exactly the lover's lane was located on Phelps. Between 40 Hwy & 39th?

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

It was on Phelps Road just south of 39th Street. The only lovers lane I was ever really familiar with was on Crackerneck Road, chuckle. Never went there either, though.

Above is from post #4655

We had a good discussion in that thread, which would be on Page 465, for anyone interested

[WCHS'59]

After it was determined that the .22 caliber pistol Sharon Kinne used to kill the Mexican was the same pistol that killed Patricia Jones, I kept waiting for the narrator to say where the pistol had been all this time, but that information was not provided.





The Mexican murder victim was actually a Mexican-American radio announcer from Chicago visiting his homeland.

The .22 caliber pistol involved with the James Kinne murder, was kept by the sheriff’s department. The sheriff ran the investigation because the house on E 26th Terrace was not at the time within the city limits of Independence.

With the help of John Boldizs, Sharon obtained another .22 caliber pistol and used that weapon to kill Patricia Jones. On the program, Boldizs told the police that he had purchased a pistol for her but when questioned Sharon said it was lost and then she could not remember what had happened to it. Then it popped up with her in Mexico.

Sharon had hidden the murder weapon in her grandmother’s house. While she was at the Tipton correctional facility after being found guilty of the murder of James Kinne, Sharon wrote a letter to her husband. In this case, the husband was a woman named Margaret and she asked her to retrieve a package and hold on to it until she got out of prison. The two women had been married in a sham ceremony while they were both in the Jackson County jail. During Sharon’s stay at the jail, these two ruled the roost by force in their tank.

Margaret was now out and the letter instructed her to go to Sharon’s grandmother’s house and look inside a wall next to the fire place for the package. Margaret found the package, opened it, and discovered a pistol that had some corrosion on one side.

It seems that Margaret put the package back for the time being and then sometime later when she returned to get it, it was gone. Subsequently, she believed Sharon’s brother, Eugene, took the package containing the pistol. (No word on where grandma was during these times)

While visiting Sharon at Tipton, Margaret spied Sharon kissing a new girlfriend just prior to entering the glassed in reception room. Their relation was on the rocks by this time and this activity highly miffed Margaret. She subsequently went to the sheriff’s department telling them Sharon’s gun was in the grandmother’s house. The department obtained a warrant and literally tore the house apart but could not find anything. Problem was Sharon’s grandmother had moved and they had torn up the wrong house. Repairs to the house apparently put a dent in the county budget.

Eugene, the brother, picked Sharon up from Tipton after she had been freed by court order pending a new trial. He might have given her the gun at that time.

Before leaving for Mexico, Sharon needed some money, so she wrote a number of bad checks all within a few days for $45.00 each at the Safeway store at 23rd and Sterling. She had also been able to get almost $1,000 from a fund set up for her children. With that money, she bought her children some small Christmas gifts and kept the rest.

This info comes from “’I’m just an ordinary girl’: The Sharon Kinne Story,” second edition, by James C Hays, who I believe now lives in Oak Grove and was an employee at Bendix when he originally wrote the book.

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Before leaving for Mexico, Sharon needed some money, so she wrote a number of bad checks all within a few days for $45.00 each at the Safeway store at 23rd and Sterling.

What year and month would that have been? I worked at that Safeway from about February 1963 to December 1963.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

What year and month would that have been? I worked at that Safeway from about February 1963 to December 1963.

September 12, 1964 was day one of the $45 checks, which totaled five. A store manager named Bradley accepted all the checks.

She left for Mexico with a man she met in the unemployment line. The guy did his part by stealing some credit cards from an automobile.

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

September 12, 1964 was day one of the $45 checks, which totaled five. A store manager named Bradley accepted all the checks.

She left for Mexico with a man she met in the unemployment line. The guy did his part by stealing some credit cards from an automobile.

By September of 1964, I was in Germany. Blaine Bradley was the manager when I was there. Blaine must have been mesmerized by Sharon. Later he owned or managed a United Supers on 291 in Lee's Summit. Later he built and owned a large store east of Blue Ridge on Longview Road. He was a nice gentleman.

[CaseyMO]

Whoa! Blaine died this last June. Wow!

BLAINE BRADLEY Obituary - Kansas City, MO | Kansas City Star

[WCHS'59]

From the Examiner fifty years ago


"From his Independence home, outfielder Roger Maris indicated he would not discuss the trade sending him from the New York Yankees to the St. Louis Cardinals – until after the first of the year. Maris, who smashed 61 homers in 1961 to set an all-time Major League season record, had been traded by the Kansas City A's to New York in 1960."


I think he lived in Manor Oaks. The most money this North Dakotan ever made at Kansas City was $15,000 per year during his last year in '59. The Yankees gave him a boost to $18,000 in '60. By the time he finished with the Cardinals in '68 he was making $75,000.

I dont know when he moved from Independence but he died in Houston at age 51 and is buried in North Dakota.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Who is this guy?

He was born in Kentucky in the same year a very unfortunate individual was inaugurated as President of the United States. Just before he was ten, he arrived in Independence with his parents.

He eventually became a private school teacher but then decided to relocate within Missouri moving east to a county named for a nationally, and perhaps internationally, famous Missourian. He remained there for a dozen years serving as the president of a local college.

He returned to Independence and headed a college for almost twenty years. Then he changed positions again, and barely missed handing Harry S. Truman and Bess Wallace their high school diplomas. He had to resign a few years later and was replaced by a man from Mexico.

Both he and the first mayor of Independence have been similarly honored.

Sharon Kinne killed off the discussion on this fellow. I'm betting it's Prof. Bryant, namesake of Bryant Elementary, which was built about the same time and in the same style as McCoy Elementary.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Yeah, I wondered why the show was over when I sat down to watch @ 10 PM Eastern lol.....but fortunately I tape all the episodes so it was already to go

The Kinne Case is one of the first "news" events I remember. Seems like it was on TV ALOT, and I guess it was with all that happened and over the course of years. Alex Peebles must have been some character, as he was also the lawyer for the Michael Cline kid who bolted while the cops were coming for him in the Summer of 1970 at Lake . . Lotawana? Tapawingo? Escapes me for the moment. The suspicion is that Cline too wound up in a foreign country, and Peebles had a ranch somewhere in Mexico or Central America.

I had never heard of the term "lovers lane" until the TV reports. It was only since we discussed here some time ago I even knew where the lovers lane was.

Did anyone notice the coroner who testified was Dr Charles Wheeler, who later became Mayor of KC? Was he also the botcher of the evidence re Patricia's body?

Lastly, one of the theories re her whereabouts was the family of the murdered Mexican arranged for her escape so they could exact revenge by killing her

Interesting case indeed and appropriate for the historical nature and time setting for that series. WCHS the Greenlease episode is repeated occasionally.

PS Also the Liberty & 24 meetup place was also a new fact to me. Just looked up the intersection on Streetview.

I did not get to watch the program. Did they name any of the IPD officers involved?