Found Deceased NE - William Leslie "Les" Arnold, 24, on the lam, Lincoln, 15 July 1967 *died in 2010, ID'd in 2023*

[bourbongal]

A lot of criminals went to Brazil back in the day. And until recently if you married and or had children with a citizen of Brazil they would not extradite you.

There are rumors the guys that escaped Alcatraz went to Brazil. I think we should remember that customs and background checks etc wasn't as thorough back then.

 

[Murkywaters]

Mystery solved. After escaping from prison in 1967, Arnold moved around the U.S. before eventually moving to New Zealand in 1992 and then to Australia in 1997, where he died in 2010.

Leslie Arnold mystery solved: Man who died in Australia was enigmatic Nebraska fugitive

After more than half a century, the mystery of Leslie Arnold has been solved. Henry Cordes reveals the amazing secret life lived by the fugitive who gunned down his parents

omaha.com

Here is a map taken from the above article detailing Arnold's timeline.

 

[Betty P]

Wow, there's so much to unpack in this story. Very well reported and written, by the way.

I wonder if Les Arnold/John Damon's family had issues with OCD. While the parenting practices of the 1950's in the US were much different and overly strict, Arnold's parents seemed more strict, perhaps psychologically abusive. Again, that was not unusual in the 50's and 60's.

When he finally snapped, his attack on his parents was horrific. It sounds like he regretted his actions later in life. The way he re-built his life after escaping prison was commendable.

In retrospect, his choice to escape jail may have been better than staying until paroled. He was a bright, ambitious guy, evident in his fast path to honest, hard-earned financial success. Had he waited for parole, his horrific criminal record would have limited his job opportunities. He wouldn't have been able to escape his past without creating a new identity.

He was young enough that he overcame his past and built a better life. Obviously, his best option would have been to not murder his parents, instead leaving them behind after graduation to create his own life. I feel badly for his children and step-children. I hope they can put this behind them and reconcile his past with the father they knew. It was interesting that he had a Bible that he read front to back. Maybe it helped him reconcile his past.

Amazing what DNA testing is doing to resolve old crimes.

 

[Betty P]

I think he went to Brazil. He had the one minister helping him and I read in another place that after arriving in Chicago he received help from another minister. There was a lot of missionary work going on in Sao Paulo in 1968. I think it's very possible that it was arranged for him to go there as a missionary.

This might actually be a good guess as to how someone was able to file immigration papers in SaoPalo, Brazil using Les Arnold's name. A friend who was a minister helped drive him escape and travel to Chicago. It's possible the same minister or member in the same church filed the immigration card when they traveled to Sao Paulo for missionary work.

From what is now known about Les's life after escaping prison, he apparently never went to Brazil. He married shortly after escaping prison and remained with his first family until 1977.

 

[ntt1]

They sure got lucky with the DNA match, it seems. I wonder if other similar missing persons cases might see the same type of thing done. I'm assuming it was likely one of the larger databases (like Ancestry or 23andme) that they used, given it was a living sibling that consented and provided the sample. If so, it seems to be a bit of a grey area that in that it would have been for law enforcement purposes, but technically the sibling could have tested by himself and gotten the same results (if that makes sense).

 

[Melt71]

7 May 2023 www.theage.com.au/national/in-australia-he-was-a-great-father-in-the-us-he-was-a-teenage-killer-20230507-p5d6do.html

... Finally, in November 2020, Westover tracked down Arnold’s brother in Missouri. He agreed to provide a DNA sample. Later, in August 2022, Westover connected with a man from Australia who was trying to learn about his late father, Damon, who had told him he was an orphan from Chicago. DNA samples from Arnold’s brother and Damon’s son indicated a match and proved that Damon was really Arnold....


.... Then came the hard part: Westover had to break the news to the man from Australia that the father he knew as Damon was actually an escaped convict who had killed his parents. Westover said he told the man over a video call. “That was a really hard conversation,” he said. “Their family didn’t know any of this stuff, so it’s hard not to feel bad for them.”....


.... “I’m glad he’s dead,” Westover said, explaining that if he were still alive, he would be facing arrest in his eighties. “As bad as that sounds, I’m glad because I really wouldn’t want to put the family through that,” Westover said. “I think they had been through enough already, let alone if I was to take their dad from them.”

 

[Deleted member 287549]

Just heard about this case via a recent Yahoo article. What WLA did was heinous - i.e., murdering his parents because they wouldn't let him go to a movie/use their car. What an entitled piece of garbage.

He deserved to be in prison for the rest of his life - at the least. It's appalling that he escaped & was able to live a "normal" life as a new person (essentially), start a family, etc. - especially given what he had done.

It's obvious that it was a lot easier to "start over" back in the 1960's than it would be today - i.e., they didn't have a great way to do "background checks" when people started a new job; applied for a driver's license; etc. These days, I don't think someone disappearing & starting over like this would be as feasible/possible - unless they really went under the radar.

That being said, it also seems evident that this guy was probably looking over his shoulder his entire life - due to being worried that he would eventually be caught, etc.

DNA evidence reveals family man in Australia was teenage killer who escaped Nebraska jail

William Leslie Arnold killed his parents aged 16 in 1958 and escaped prison 10 years later, mystifying authorities until now

www.yahoo.com

 

[Betty P]

Just heard about this case via a recent Yahoo article. What WLA did was heinous - i.e., murdering his parents because they wouldn't let him go to a movie/use their car. What an entitled piece of garbage.

He deserved to be in prison for the rest of his life - at the least. It's appalling that he escaped & was able to live a "normal" life as a new person (essentially), start a family, etc. - especially given what he had done.

It's obvious that it was a lot easier to "start over" back in the 1960's than it would be today - i.e., they didn't have a great way to do "background checks" when people started a new job; applied for a driver's license; etc. These days, I don't think someone disappearing & starting over like this would be as feasible/possible - unless they really went under the radar.

That being said, it also seems evident that this guy was probably looking over his shoulder his entire life - due to being worried that he would eventually be caught, etc.

DNA evidence reveals family man in Australia was teenage killer who escaped Nebraska jail

William Leslie Arnold killed his parents aged 16 in 1958 and escaped prison 10 years later, mystifying authorities until now

www.yahoo.com

Agree, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for someone to pull this off today.

He was an extremely messed up young man to have committed such gruesome, unjustified murders. It's amazing he was able to keep his violent tendencies under control for the rest of his life. My guess is that he was still young enough to be impressionable and the prison environment forced him to "grow up" and learn to control his anger and violent impulses. That and the daily fear of being caught and returned to prison kept him in line. He knew he couldn't do anything to attract attention to himself or his family without being discovered. A powerful motivator, for certain.

 

[doublestop]

Wow, there's so much to unpack in this story. Very well reported and written, by the way.

I wonder if Les Arnold/John Damon's family had issues with OCD. While the parenting practices of the 1950's in the US were much different and overly strict, Arnold's parents seemed more strict, perhaps psychologically abusive. Again, that was not unusual in the 50's and 60's.

I'm struck between the difference in his ears in the first three photos compared to the last three.
I didn't realize prominent ears could do that, unless he had them pinned.