Plaza Branch and Central Library will open late at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17 due to the Kansas City Marathon.
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details.
It was 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, 1941, when 24-year-old Leila Welsh arrived at the door of the Brookside bungalow she shared with her mother and older brother. She and boyfriend Richard Funk — who had walked her home — kissed goodnight.
Before lying down, Leila Welsh opened her bedroom’s east-facing window, which faced the backyard. Little did she know, but the yard’s shadows hid a man. Judging by the pile of cigarette butts he left on the ground, he’d been waiting for her for quite some time.
The vicious murder that followed shook Kansas City to its core and to this day, no one knows for certain who snuck into Leila Welsh’s bedroom and brutally murdered her that morning.
With this in mind, a reader wrote to What’s Your KCQ? wondering about the tragic story.
Read the rest of the story at KCHistory.org or on The Kansas City Star website. Plus, access The Kansas City Star articles, both past and present, on the Library website with a Library card.