(Scypre.com) – New genetic evidence has recently emerged, uncovering a remarkable story about a teenager from Nebraska in the 1950s. This young man, named Leslie Arnold, tragically shot and killed his parents during a heated argument over the use of the family car. Astonishingly, he managed to conceal the murders and maintain a normal appearance at school for over a week. However, suspicions began to arise, leading Arnold to eventually confess to the gruesome double homicide. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
Approximately ten years later, Arnold executed a daring escape from the Nebraska State Penitentiary, leaving law enforcement authorities puzzled and determined to bring him to justice. Under a new identity, John Damon, he successfully built a prosperous life in Australia as a respected businessman, devoted husband, and loving father. Only after Arnold’s demise did his family uncover the dark truth that he had concealed throughout his lifetime.
The motive behind the murders stemmed from a dispute between Arnold and his mother, Opal Arnold, who withdrew her offer to allow him to take his girlfriend, Crystal, in the family car to a drive-in movie. The tension escalated due to his mother’s disapproval of the relationship, as she referred to Crystal as “White trash.” On September 27, 1958, Arnold, filled with rage, retrieved a rifle from his parents’ room and confronted his mother. Dismissively, she laughed, asking if he planned to shoot her. Tragically, Arnold responded by firing six shots, claiming her life.
A few minutes later, Arnold’s father, Bill Arnold, arrived home carrying bags of groceries. A struggle ensued between the two, resulting in Arnold shooting and killing his father as well. Reports suggested that Opal Arnold favored her younger son, James, who was 13 years old at the time, while being particularly harsh towards Leslie. There were also indications of Opal’s struggles with mental illness.
After the horrifying incident, Arnold took his girlfriend to a movie theater, where they watched the horror film “The Undead.” He then left his younger brother with a neighbor, fabricating a story about his parents embarking on an emergency trip to assist their grandparents. That night, Arnold buried his parents’ bodies in a shallow grave beneath a lilac bush under the cover of darkness. The truth emerged when Arnold’s grandparents came looking for Opal and Bill, leading him to confess to their murders.
Despite being known as a respectable and talented student and saxophonist in his Midwestern city, the revelation of Arnold’s crimes shocked the local community. Prior to his guilty plea, he penned an apology letter to his neighbor, expressing remorse and acknowledging the goodness of his parents, which he had realized too late.
Arnold’s escape from prison unfolded eight years into his life sentence, in collaboration with another inmate named James Harding. With the assistance of a recently paroled individual, who smuggled saw blades and rubber masks into the prison yard, they meticulously sawed off the bars of a window in the music room. Using chewing gum to temporarily hold the bars in place, they executed their plan. On July 14, 1967, the two fugitives donned rubber masks attached to their pillows, deceiving the prison guards, and made their escape through a window. They managed to scale a 12-foot, barbed wire fence before their absence was discovered. Geoff Britton, a retired criminal investigator, dedicated years to investigating the case, even though the escape occurred five years prior to his birth.
Arnold eventually settled in Chicago, where he promptly married a divorcee with four daughters within six months of his escape. Assuming the false identity of John Damon, he pursued a career as a salesman. To evade detection, the family relocated to Cincinnati and later to Miami. However, Arnold’s second marriage
faltered, leading to a complete severance of ties with his stepdaughters after the divorce. In Los Angeles, he met his second wife, a foreign exchange student, with whom he had a son and daughter. The family subsequently moved to New Zealand in 1992 before finally settling in Australia in 1997. Arnold, now living as John Damon, achieved financial success and spared no expense when it came to providing his children with the best education.
Despite his proficiency as a saxophonist, Arnold’s son never witnessed him playing the instrument. Instead, his father claimed to be an orphan from Chicago and maintained a small circle of friends while offering only fragments of the truth to his family. Arnold battled a clotting condition for several years and passed away on August 6, 2010. Britton, who tirelessly pursued the case from 2004 to 2013, obtained DNA samples from Arnold’s brother in 2007 but failed to find any matches among relatives. The emergence of popular public DNA databases like 23andMe and Ancestry.com did not occur until later. In 2020, the case fell into the hands of Matthew Westover, a U.S. marshal, who decided to upload a sample of James Arnold’s DNA, with his consent, to a public database. A breakthrough occurred in August 2022 when a message revealed a DNA match between James and a nephew, ultimately connecting him to Leslie Arnold.
Westover traveled to Australia, seeking to obtain a DNA sample from Arnold’s son, and also captured a photograph of his grave. This case significantly altered Britton’s perception of rehabilitation, leading him to reconsider his views. Arnold’s son, who recently became a parent himself, had nearly a year to process the astonishing revelations about his father. While acknowledging that his father was a great parent, he recognizes the suffering caused by his actions and empathizes with his uncle, who lost both parents abruptly and endured a childhood filled with shame, fear, and guilt. Arnold’s son believes that his intelligent and driven father carried a lifetime burden of remorse for his heinous crimes, evidenced by the highlighted lines in his bible regarding sin, guilt, and forgiveness.