Of several self-published books on the Greenlease case, The Kidnapping of Bobby Greenlease by Wayne Hancock is the best I encountered. More of an overview than Zero to the Bone and A Grave for Bobby, Hancock’s book runs only 106 pages (some of which covers other cases), but I found it a worthwhile read.

Difficult to find (and when you do it will be pricey) is the gloriously color-photo illustrated Coral Court Motel 1941-1995 (2000) by Shellee Graham, filled with factual mini-articles, rare photos, and reminiscences by guests of the greatest No-Tell Motel in American history. Graham also wrote a frank, detailed article largely focused on the mysterious John Carr, “A Stylish Lair,” for Route magazine, at this writing available online.

The Greenlease case is well explored in Don Whitehead’s The FBI Story (1956) with the expected emphasis on the federal response to the crimes. An insider’s experiences are shared in “Greenlease Kidnapping Case (GRENAP)” by Robert V. Harman in Society Of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1998), no author given. The Outfit: The Role of Chicago’s Underworld in the Shaping of America (2002) by Gus Russo has excellent Greenlease coverage in the context of organized crime. St. Louis Crime Chronicles: The First 200 Years—1764-1964 (2009) by Bill Lhotka includes a brief but solid chapter on the case as well as one on gangster Frank Wortman. The Frank “Buster” Wortman Story (2013) by Bill Nunes, a massive self-published volume, is a treasure trove of interviews, news clippings, documents and photographs pertaining to Wortman (and his moat house); not really a biography—it includes a novel by its retired teacher author—the eccentric volume is, like Coral Court Motel, an expensive out-of-print book to obtain.

The Big Bundle follows a trilogy of John F. Kennedy-related Heller novels (Bye Bye, Baby, 2011; Target Lancer, 2012; and Ask Not, 2013) and is the first of two projected Robert F. Kennedy-related novels (the second being the forthcoming Too Many Bullets). I won’t list my entire library of Kennedy brothers non-fiction books—or of James Hoffa ones—but will focus on the sources I leaned upon here.

Vendetta: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa (2015) by James Neff—whose Sam Sheppard book The Wrong Man (2001) was vital to the writing of the previous Heller novel, Do No Harm (2020)—was the key work in this area. Others consulted include Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Folk Hero (1986), Lester David and Irene David; Crime Without Punishment (1962), John L. McClellan; The Enemy Within (1960), Robert F. Kennedy; Harold Gibbons: St. Louis Teamsters Leader and Warrior Against Jim Crow (2018), Gordon Burnside; The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob (1978), Dan E. Moldea; In Hoffa’s Shadow (2019), Jack Goldsmith; and The Teamsters (1978), Steven Brill. Tentacles of Power: The Story of Jimmy Hoffa (1965) by Pulitzer Prize-winning Des Moines Register reporter Clark Mollenhoff was particularly helpful. As an Iowan, I was frankly pleasantly surprised to find my home state entering a narrative focused on more likely locales, i.e., Kansas City, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.