My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 383 - Why Pigeons?

Episode Date: July 6, 2023

On today’s episode, Karen tells the legendary story of Cleveland’s 1986 Balloonfest and Georgia covers the secret life of William Leslie Arnold.For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast, Killer Psychy Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the cold-butter killers you read about in the news. Listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psychy Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today! 🎵 Hello! Hello! And welcome.

She's my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hardstark. Hey, that's Karen Kilgara. And we're about to bring it to you once again. Are you prepared? Have you readied yourself for what is about to wash over you? You might need to start walking. You might need to stop walking.

Get a towel, you know, just in case. I don't know. Boil some water. Yeah. Rip up some sheets. That's right. We're about to birth a brand new episode baby. Bite down on a wallet and get ready.

And have this baby. I would love the idea. They shove wallets into pregnant women's mouths when they're having their babies. I bet that tastes terrible. Yeah, you know. When I used to work at like a restaurant in Santa Monica and like the bikers would come in and pay with cash from their back pocket,

from their wallet, the money was always wet from their butt sweat. No. I'm sorry, I'm telling you that. No, let's do. I like the idea of kind of going over old job memories as a practice of gratitude. One of the last time you've touched money that had butts went on it. Oh my God, it's been so, so long.

And if it was anyone's butts went, it's probably mine. So like who cares? So that's the kind you enjoy. Yeah. You're like, suddenly this money feels silky and not disgusting and down. Listeners, tell us what the most disgusting thing from your job is. We want to know. What was yours?

I think there's been plenty of like, you know, counter like staff jobs where I had somehow I was in charge of making sure the bathroom is clean, or anything like that. Yeah. That was, you know, anything related to that kind of where the public goes, and then I'm also supposed to make it decent, was always horrible. They don't put that in the job description when they're like, you can work in retail. Right. Like guess what? Guess what nightmare is waiting. Or even just a simple, the going into cleanup, the dressing rooms after people tried stuff on at the gap, where it's like, it's one thing to leave your stuff all over.

But then there's people, it's like, how did you make it smell in here? And all you did was try on clothes. Oh yeah. Yeah, the transfer of BO in such a short amount of time is actually a little impressive, probably. And also maybe a touch dirty.

I was positive there's people in there trying to get away with some sexy stuff in the dressing room. No, ew, why would you do that? Because you're not supposed to, I guess. But at least sexy place. For someone like me who is folding down like sweaters on a folding board a mere 10 feet away the least sexy situation possible. Absolutely. That's so risky. What's going on with you? Well, you know, and I can take all of these gross topics and be

even grosser by saying, I don't remember if I told you about on Valentine's Day this year, Blossom brought in a dead gofer for me. No. As it should let everyone know that Blossom's your dog in case they don't know that already. Oh, that's Blossom my next door neighbor. Blossom my dog.

A gofer? You have brought in. I've never seen a gofer in LA in my life. Oh, yeah, they have huge front teeth And also it's it's just I'm lucky enough to have enough of a yard where my dog can catch a go for yeah So that and she was like of course she'd want me to show you this. Yeah, you know, you're gonna applaud and I just kind of made like a no Sound because it's so awful and then I just took a pile of paper towels and then

did the lazy thing, which is pick up the gofer and throw it off the back patio into the backyard so that I just as if now this is done, because I'm saying it's done. Yeah. And you're in a kind of a panic because this is so fucked up. But you're just here. Yeah, I don't want to touch it. Right, exactly. I would say less than two hours later, that same gofer was back on the same spot on the rug with her. She thought you guys were playing a game. You know what I mean?

Sure, I'll go find it if you want me to. Right. So that was February. It is now the end of June. And today, I'm sitting there working on my story for today and a very bad smell begins to waft. And I don't know where it really where it's coming from. Oh, that's okay.

Sorry, the first was I had eyes on it. So I see something across the patio, which I think is like a big leaf. But then I'm like, as wind blows, whatever, it's not going anywhere. And I'm like, that is not a leaf. Get out, walk over, yet another dead dover. And so I have to yell at the dog. And I do the exact same mistake. It's like, it is a perfect example of what I'm like where I already made this mistake in February. I'm going to do it again with the same like wishful thinking. Yeah, hope for different circumstances. Yeah. Maybe if I hope harder that this thing goes away

and the dogs won't. And so I threw it off the thing and then of, like 15 minutes later, this smell envelops the front room where I am diligently working on my story. And that I now realize that gov has been dead for a while because it was like the worst smell and and blossom looking at me like I'm loving this game for us. I love this thing we've set up where I go fucking to old dead rodents and bring them to you. Oh my God. Yes. Yeah.

So I don't think it was the same, that the smell was terrible as if it was the same rodent, but there's no possible way it could have been, because I threw the other one away in a Ziploc bag. So you did, okay. It was still quite dead though. That's definitely horrible. That's gross.

I'm sorry to hear that for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Although I do think it's like, that's how much my dog loves me. Is she just, no for sure. She won't stop bringing me.

The biggest, deadest rodents she can find. That means she's like, you know, attached to you, right? I hope so. You can get mad at that. I hope it's sad and not her being like, could we have more of these around? It's like that. Can we get sugar cereal thing you do to your mom when your child's like, she thinks you're so stupid that you can't fend for yourself. So she's like bringing you food. She's like, listen, I know I don't feed you. You're just gonna waste away. That's what, when we took Cookie to like a trainer,

he was like, well, the reason she doesn't obey you is because she thinks you're her puppy and you're too stupid to live. Like when you leave the house and she goes nuts cause she's alone, it's because she's like, I don't, my puppy's gonna die out in the world. She has no skills. She's so stupid.

Which I kind of got a kick out of. I know it's bad and she doesn't listen to anything I say, but it's pretty cute. I know. She's my new mommy. It's hard to treat dogs, the way you're supposed to treat them to get them to listen to what you say.

That's the piece I have a problem. Cats are like, it's the pre-agreed thing of like, well, both not listen to each other. It's gonna work out great. Dogs, you have to treat dogs in a way as if you're pretending not to like them as much. I know. And I don't take it.

I don't like that at all. I can't do it. Yeah, I'm really bad. I do a lot of stuff where blossom loves to stand on her back legs and make people pet her. And I'm always like, don't do that. Get down, but I have a big of stuff where Blossom loves to stand on her back legs and make people pet her. And I'm always like, don't do that. Get down, but I have a big smile on my face, and I clearly think it's the cutest thing. And if you didn't like it, it would still, it would happen anyway, because I think it's kind of cute.

It is. Okay. Speaking of dogs, I don't know. What else you got? Oh, I don't know. What else he got? Oh, I don't think I'm really at a loss right now for TV series. Did you ever watch Dave? I don't think you ever got into it. Did you? I watched one episode. It's just not for me. Not for you. Okay. The last season was pretty epic. Brad Pitt is like the coast part of the last episode. Yes. It's just a surprise Brad Pitt. And suddenly, he's just like in the last episode.

It was in Brad Pitt's the best. He's such a good actor. It was very entertaining. But I love how much Brad Pitt loves comedy. He's like a real fan. He's a real fan and supporter. And also I know people love that show. So my opinion, I don't think he's even relevant

because it's just, I'm not the audience. No, I got it. Let's see, what do I watch? Brad Pitt in. Let's talk about Brad Pitt vehicles. See, yeah, I don't know. Dave, I watched Mars attack. Mars attacks.

Holds up. I bet. Tim Burton. Well, should we get to the news? The news, the exactly right news. Oh, sure. I was like, what do you want to talk about? The news, Russia.

Oh yeah, we do a news corner now. I didn't tell you. I thought I'm doing that. Can you imagine? We just have to start talking about international relations. Oh, Jesus. Guys, the exactly right network with all its many and high quality podcasts, as we've been

alerting you for weeks, it's now official. Do you need a ride? Is back in the car. We are live from the streets of Los Angeles. We're widely available. The second episode of the seasons four premiere, we did basically did a cliffhanger, because Chris and I were riffing so much

on the drive to Margaret Cho's house that it took up a full episode. And then she actually gets in the car and then that's a second half of the premiere episode. Yeah. I love that. How fun. A lot of fun.

That's perfect. Yeah. And then over on That's messed up an SPU podcast Kara and Lisa chat about episode PTSD from season 10 of SPU. Then they're joined by actor Dominic Famousa, who you may also know from Nurse Jackie. And then That's messed up also recently announced fall tour dates and you can get tickets at That's messed up live.com. And the live shows are fucking epic. You should definitely get your butt to the seat. Over on Wicked Words, Kate Winkler, Dawson talks to Jamie Gearing about her book, Mad Man in the Woods, Life Next Door to the Unibomor, which Georgia covered in episode 179 way back in June of 2019. And that was a live show in San Francisco. So go listen to that if you haven't. And then this weekend at MFM Store,

you'll find a flash sale on Lock Your Fucking Door merchandise, including keychains, patches, and of course, a door mat. So go to myfavoriter.com to check that out. We got my dad a new door mat, because he hadn't got one and so, so long that his doorant was actually impeding your ability to open the screen door to get inside his house.

And so for Father's Day, we got him a dormant that says, hope you're brought wine. That is so Jim. We thought he'd like it. I thought you were going to say the dormant. Have you seen the one that says, come back with a warrant? I mean, people these days. Oh, man, takes all kinds, yeah.

It really does. Are you the warrior of your friend group? Doom scrolling late into the night, researching all the survival scenarios you may find yourself in? Stop scrolling. Grab your weighted blanket and your headphones because we have a new podcast to help you cope. From Wondry, don't panic.

Leans into our most absurd anxieties and diffuses them with humor and actual advice for how to deal should you find yourself facing your fears. Hosted by anxious and overly informed comedian Anthony Ataminek, each week explores a worst-case scenario, like what do you do if you encounter a bear or a swarm of killer bees, or find yourself stuck in quicksand. Each episode's panic of the week will make you laugh, learn, and sure, possibly sweat

profusely. Enjoy Don't Panic on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Don't Panic early and add free on Wondry Plus. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. All right, I think I'm going first, right? Do it. Okay, when this story was suggested to me, I was like, I've done it already.

And then our crack staff, Hannah and Alejandra was like, no, you haven't we checked. And I was like, I've done it already. And then our crack staff, Hannah and Alejandra was like, no, you haven't we checked. And I was like, this can't be possible. And I actually have a memory of doing the research, which must be implanted by the government. That'll be on the on our spin off show implanted by the government. On my favorite murder investigation. So I guess it just turns out that I've heard lots of other podcasts cover the story.

We've never covered it. I personally apparently never have. So when at Rachel slash Dibble recently messaged me on Twitter asking me to cover this story, I was like, Rachel, I've done it. And I was wrong. And Rachel, you were right. And so was everybody else. Let me just preface it by saying this. A couple months ago, I told you the story of Cleveland's 1974 10 cent beer night. So if you didn't hear that episode listener,

it was an event that started with a crowd of baseball fans getting wasted on ludicrously cheap beer. And it devolved into mob violence and an appearance by the Riot Squad. You can go listen to episode 366 if you want to hear that story. So some people may argue that 10 cent beer night and the chaos within that is the perfect encapsulation of what Cleveland was like in the 70s. Fewer places in the United States had a worse reputation. They were dealing with serious economic,

social, and environmental crises all at the same time. So in 1969, 68 or 69, I think the Koehoga River caught on fire due to pollution. I was just gonna say, didn't their river catch on fire, but I was like, that's crazy. It's true. There's no way. Okay. It just straight up caught on fire, but I was like, that's crazy. It's true. There's no way.

Okay. Yeah. It just straight up caught on fire. Also, Cleveland in the 70s became the first American city to default on its loans since the Great Depression. Wow. And then the job market took such a dive in that decade that around 200,000 Clevelanders just left the city to find work somewhere else.

But then, as the decade goes on in the 80s arrive, everything kind of starts to turn around. Thanks to very passionate effort on the part of those Clevelanders who stayed in the city and dedicated themselves to changing their bad reputation, they invest in new social programs, environmental cleanup efforts, and investments to boost the economy.

And then in 1986, Cleveland wins the contract to be the permanent home of the rock and roll hall of fame. Nice. This story I'm about to tell you is almost like the continuation of Tencent Beer Night into the mid-80s. I think I know what this is, Tom. What we're building toward here? Aha, think I know what this is. Tell me. What we're building, Torit here.

Aha, and I'm excited. OK. Locals and leaders in Cleveland realized they should be building off of this great PR from winning the bid for the Rock and Wall Hall of Fame, and from generally kind of turning the vibe around on their city. So in 1986, someone comes up with a big idea.

It meant to grab America's attention and show the world that Cleveland stands for something new, something positive and aspirational, even lofty. And this is the story of the legendary 1986 Cleveland Balloon Fest. Remember this one of the most bungled PR stunts in American history. We have talked about this, for sure. Like, you're not wrong in remembering it. And I feel like sometimes it's because like,

years ago someone wrote it in, wrote it in as a hometown. And that's how we remember it or what we remember it from. Or maybe when we did a live show in Cleveland, someone did a hometown on stage and we just never went up. Maybe, or I think maybe I started to do this for the Cleveland hometown and then I switched it to the Circleville letterwriter, those poison pen letters. Yeah.

And also there's a very, very hilarious dollop episode if you've ever listened to the history podcast, The Dollop, Dave and Gareth cover this in one of their episodes. That's how I first heard about it. And it's one of those things where kind of can't believe when you have never heard of it and someone tells you about it because it's like, I was there, I was 16. I should have known about this. Like, I thought I had my finger on the pulse. But no. Okay. I am excited to learn the details. Okay, great. Of this debacle. So the main sources for today's story are a Fox 8 news report from 2021 called Balloon Fest 86. 35 years since downtown Cleveland event turned disastrous written by Susan Stratford.

There's also a mini documentary from the Atlantic entitled The Balloon Fest that went horrible wrong. And an episode of a podcast called The Alarmist entitled The Aftermath Balloon Fest 86. And you can find the rest of our sources in the show notes. This is a very 80s story. And the 80s, it's so funny to me how they were so formative for me. And for the majority of people, they're like Cindy Lopper and Billy Idol and like MTV. And that's kind of, the 80s doesn't have a lot of grounded meaning. It's just like maybe the 50s was to us when we were growing up. Yeah.

So I'm going to try to paint a picture having been there. Georgia was only just born. I was a teen at the time. Basically, pop culture was neon pink over the top, built for spectacle, right? Ronald Reagan becomes the president at the beginning of this decade. MTV is launched in 1981.

It's pretty early. Yeah. And then that just, it directly starts beaming Madonna and Michael Jackson and Cindy Lopper and all these music, you know, superstar straight into our homes. Then in 1984, the summer Olympics take place in Los Angeles. It features opening and closing ceremonies that stun audiences worldwide. This is a Washington Post recap, a describing the ensemble of like basically what it took to put on both the opening

and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics. Quote, 10,000 singers and dancers, 2500 pigeons, 1065 balloons, 750 marching band members, 270 jitterbuggers, 84 motorized pianos and a full-fledged rocket man flying with a jetpack on his back. End quote. Anna Partridge and a pear tree.

I mean, what a show. You know, what a show. Why are the pigeon, why pigeons is what I want to know? They're inside the motorized pianos maybe, just being driven around, they're driving them. Doves were busy that day, so they're like, let's just get the pigeons instead. Doves were too expensive, they were all with France

at the time. Excess, I feel like there's a lot of excess in the 80s, and that proves it. Well, we didn't realize, or maybe we did, we had it good in the 80s, and that proves it. Well, we didn't realize, or maybe we did, we had it good in the 80s and 90s, especially compared to the 70s. So we're just coming out of like recession, the gas crisis, Jimmy Carter, all these things.

Suddenly Ronald Reagan's there. He used to be a movie star. And now he's a successful politician with his slick hair and his big smile. And he's just there to be like, we're good, everything's good. Yeah, sweet everything under the rug and let's deal with it later. Yeah, or never.

Triggered down economics. Right. The success of this ambitious expensive and high stakes performance of both opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics basically instantly feeds the world's desire for more large-scale shows and events. And then advocacy groups and nonprofits follow suit

in 1985, the Live Aid concert is televised around the world. They raise $150 million for famine relief in Africa, and it is seen by 1.9 billion people. Wow, wild. Right? And it is seen by 1.9 billion people. Wow. Wild. Right? A very big deal. And also very unifying kind of like maybe one of the last

moments like this, where it was like we all understand that as much as we might have our day-to-day problems, what we're seeing in Africa should not be happening. And they need help right now. And it's like famine relief became this really important thing. And all these huge musicians came together to play that concert and basically give people this amazing show and then raise all this money.

Yeah. So then the success of Live Aid versus a nonprofit called USA for Africa. And the next year, that group plans this event. And I don't know if you remember or not, it's called hands across America. It rings a bell, I guess. Okay. What year was it?

1986. Okay. So I was sick. So I heard it. As a 16 year old, here's what was crazy. This thing, especially if you were watching daytime like kids TV cartoons, anything like that. There would be constant commercials for Hands Across America. It sounded like a Ford truck commercial and also sounded just a touch Christian. And it had this, it was like a men's and women's chorus.

And they were like, Hands Across America. And then it just showed people grabbing hands in a field. It's like inspiring, right? Yeah. Like me too. Okay. So it's like this message of like we're all coming together.

Yeah. And this time they were going to raise money for homelessness and hunger in America. Okay. The way they were going to do that was on Sunday Memorial Day weekend, 1986 at 3 p.m. 5 million people would hold hands in a human chain stretching from battery park in Manhattan to Santa Monica, California across 4,000 miles of American terrain. And all those people would hold hand for 15. Yes, all those people would hold hands for 15 minutes. And it would raise awareness and money for hunger and homelessness. It sounds sweaty, first of all,

but that sounds impossible. Metaphorically, I can under, like, oh, that's a great idea metaphorically. Yeah. And then in actuality. The execution and the logistics to pull something like that off. And they said, I was reading this article

because for a little while in my 30s, I kind of thought I hallucinated hands across America because it is the weirdest idea in terms of a fundraiser. I would love so much to watch a documentary about hands across America. But you can kind of see, like just in doing this, discovering that it was connected to USA for Africa makes perfect sense because they basically put on

the one of the most successful charity events ever. Yeah. So I think this is the hubris that kind of bled over into the next year of like, you know what we're gonna do? Everybody's gonna hold hands. Stop mouth, let's just have mouth. Yeah, and it'll be like, first idea, let's go with it. Come on.

Holding hands, right. Whoever talks the loudest gets their idea executed. So I was reading this article is really short. I think it was on history.com, but they were saying that basically there were parts that were stretching through big cow pastures in the middle of the country where nobody wanted to go and stand.

So farmers would put their cows out there to take the place of people, just have the cows stand in that position. There was parts in the desert where no one was going to go. They wanted to do it through a major league baseball game, but Pete Rose, who's the manager of whatever the team was at the time, was like, go fuck yourself. It was like no way. Because I used to think about it all the time. I saw the commercial all the time, but I was like no way. Because I used to think about it all the time. Like, I saw the commercial all the time, but I was like, they don't give you any information. It's not like, hey San Francisco, show up in this field

and you'll be part of Hands Across America. Like, it only seemed like there was a commercial and a concept, but no actual like boots on the ground plan of how to, how to be in it. So I thought about it a lot, whereas just like how were they gonna do this? And they thought it was gonna raise $150 million for these causes, it raised 15.

15 million. 15 million, still decent for sure. And back then, good money. Oh, I don't have the translation of the money, but I'm telling you all of this, because it just sets the stage and kind of paints the picture of what was going on. We didn't have anything. It was the 80s. We didn't, right? You still were going to the library for research. You were lucky if you had cable. You were

lucky if you had Atari, maybe Nintendo if you were super rich. You have to catch the news at like 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. or you just wouldn't know the news that day. Or I guess, really a newspaper or two, obviously. But like, if something happened that day, there's no way to know it unless you fucking watch the news. Yeah, there's no internet. There was a lot of trust for what was shown to you on TV

and what was advertised and stuff is just like, well, we better head down to hands across America and make a difference. Like, there was a lot of following and the plan wasn't being analyzed and in the way things, everything is analyzed these days. Yeah. Yeah. And if you planned live aid, that was such an unbelievably amazing plan. Bob Geldoff was one of the main people who did that.

So it's like, yeah, they get to keep trying and maybe not kill it in the exact same way. So this just is adding to the building the sense around what the people were thinking when the Cleveland chapter of the nonprofit organization, the United Way, came up with this plan. They're about to kick off their annual fundraiser, the donations that they raise in that fundraiser,

it's their big annual event. Those donations get funneled into 175 different Cleveland area social services programs. So they're like, we gotta go big this year and we gotta really make a difference. Also, another event that had happened in the year before in 1985 is it was the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. When that happened, you may or may not remember Disneyland released a million balloons into

the sky to celebrate their 30th anniversary in Anaheim. I don't remember that, but that's a terrible idea. Yeah, right? And also just a little bit more background is for the children of today. At this time in the 80s and before it, I would say definitely during the 70s. Superlatives, especially the Guinness Book of World Records, was a big deal. People cared about it, it got talked about in the weirdest way where it was like being those kinds of like, you're the best. You've done the most you've like perfect bowling game or five in a row, whatever. All those things smoking the most cigarettes at once.

That's my favorite one. Tall, tallest guy, shortest guy. The nail, longest nails was my fucking favorite. Smallest waist, very disturbing. Oh my God. That one was crazy. No, yeah, but we definitely had the book like in our house that it was a big deal. Yeah. It was like a bragging, right? If you were in it. Getting into the

Guinness Book of World Records was a goal of many people and it's good PR, right? It's something you can say happens. Totally. So what the people in Cleveland maybe weren't considering was that they were stealing an idea from Disney essentially or you know borrowing Yeah, and at Disney they have dedicated teams of engineers designers experts figuring out the logistics to releasing a million balloons into the sky They're they do things a very specific way at Disney and actually a lot of the event planners who worked on that Disney 30th anniversary also worked on the 1984 Olympics.

So there were people who were like major event producer planners that they basically once the Olympics were seen, they were now the sought after team to execute major events like this. In that group as an event manager and a logistics expert named Tom Hallowac, and a revered balloon expert named Treb Heining. So I want that to be on my business card, balloon expert. Reveered. Reveered. Not a common place, not your run of the mill, but a truly adored balloon expert. Now, Treb is his first name, unless I'm mispronouncing it. He began his career when he was a teenager, selling balloons at

Disneyland. That's how he got to be a balloon expert. Nice. And since that time, he became known for creating unique and intricate balloon art and decor. And Treb Heineck is credited with inventing balloon arches, balloon spirals, and balloon columns. So he is revered. Let me tell you, in the 90s, at least the 90s that I remember, if you didn't have a balloon arch at your bar or bot mitzvah, you were nobody. You're garbage. Had to have a balloon arch. And then the coolest thing was you got to bring it home with you after.

So like my brother's bedroom being like full of a balloon arch and my sister and I were so jealous. It was like it. It was it. Well, you know that makes me think of remember the lady to lady summer party that they had, I guess it was last year, because it's June now, Jesus Christ. Yeah.

So hot, but they had a gorgeous blue narch that I went to brandy and I was like, that is the most beautiful thing. She goes, we made it ourselves. Oh my God. It really makes an impression for a party or an event. It's like something exciting is happening. Yeah. We have Treb Heineck to thank for that before him. And this is this is Maran, my researcher, Maran, that her finest before him.

Unbelievably, no one was tying balloons together in big clusters. Not one person. Oh, man, the lack of imagination before him is sad. And also, if he's a teenager that works at the balloon stand at Disneyland, because like, that was, I remember we went to Disneyland when I was five and it was coming up on my six-pert day, but it was just a family trip. It wasn't for that. But I remember getting one of those Mickey Mouse balloons with the ears. Remember the balloon guy there? He was holding like 50 of those gigantic balloons.

And that effect standing under that was awesome. It was magical. Yeah. Someone said, yeah, for sure. I'm also saying this too. I'm about to tell you the story. I'm a big fan of balloons. Like, I get balloon magic. It's real.

Okay. That's good to know. That's good to know. I mean, you know that about me because I told you the story of me when I thought the balloons were for me that time. Oh, yeah. So the United Way in Cleveland

wants to hire these two event producers for their upcoming event, but unlike Disneyland, Cleveland doesn't want to release one million balloons. They want to release two million balloons. And they're going to call it balloon fast. Two million balloons equals balloon fast. So right up front, we'll say this. It's a terrible idea. Yeah, hindsight is 2020 vision.

So the 80s, they were just coming around to going it's bad that our river caught on fire. Yeah. Or it's our something we did. It was our fault. Yes. We can not do that anymore. There's something to be done about it.

Right. Yes. So the idea to be so forward thinking as to be like maybe releasing plastic latex into the sky forever, like everyone pretending that's the end of the story isn't great, but it's just not the way things worked back then. Yeah. Logically, the balloons would fall back down to earth and cause hazards for the environment and for wildlife, but contextually, the popularity makes a lot of sense in the 80s

because it's an era of flashiness and self-indulgence. And this is the funniest, like, Gen Z report on what this was like, or I'm like, it wasn't that heavy, it was just balloons. But she's comparing basically the flashiness and the self-indulgence. It makes sense that a wasteful useless, fleeting but captivating item, like a colorful latex balloon could drive an entire

publicity stunt. And as the Cleveland television station Fox 8 reports, quote, at that time, the thinking about an environmental impact was different, and people thought the balloons would reach an altitude where they popped and disintegrated. Yeah, that's like, that's not a thing.

Look, it's so ridiculous. It's almost like, well, that's as much as anyone's ever thought of it, so that's the facts. Right. Before the internet, we were allowed to lie to ourselves like that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So the United Way contacts Treb Heineck to head up the balloon-fetched vision, and they hire Tom Hollowock and several other event planners who know their stuff.

And this team of people who all now call the events crew, they actually are all from Southern California and they relocate to Cleveland for this event. When they arrive, they hit the ground running, they immediately realize that balloon fest is gonna be a way bigger lift than that Disneyland anniversary that they worked on, in part because they'll be dealing with double the balloons,

obviously, but beyond that, it's taking place in Cleveland's bustling public square, which is in the shadow of the city's iconic terminal tower. So that's just basically kind of their downtown. Please don't write in about how it's actually not downtown. I'm using that symbolically. This is the launch site, and it's a busy, confined downtown.

Oh, it is downtown. There it is, downtown location. Okay. It'll also double as a massive balloon factory and the balloons holding space while all the balloons get blown up with helium. So they start, they call this spot the balloon bin. So they're coming up with this plan, they're coming up with the mechanics of executing this plan, and then a date is announced.

Balloon Fest is officially scheduled for Saturday, September 27th. And now anticipation begins to build. It's no longer just about the United Way's fundraiser, which is really important in and of itself, but now Balloon Fest becomes about the future of Cleveland. This underdog city is at the forefront of something that's going to be both historic and beautiful. And Hollowock will later say, quote, the city fathers were all behind it,

the level of cooperation that was given to the United Way and eventually to all of us, from everybody in Cleveland from the top down was stunning. So this is kind of beautiful as a beginning, because everyone's beliefs and balloon fest. Yeah, it's like for a greater good too. So it's, yeah, yeah, you don't question it when it's like, okay, so you don't want to give money to this, you know, important cause.

But what do you fucking Debbie Downer? Like, come on. Right, and also it's up until this moment, no one can think of a downside to having a bunch of balloons in the air. Yeah. It's going to feel like the biggest field day of all time, kind of like Disneyland, like, come on. This is going to be amazing for all of us. So now the city planner tells the events team that whatever they build for their this thing they're calling the balloon bin has to abide by building codes. And of course, the events crew doesn't want to hear this because that

means the balloon bin will have to be built as if it's a permanent building. One of the stipulations is it'll need to be able to withstand 90 mile per hour win. So it can't just be something they throw up there and cross their fingers. At first, this seems like a deal breaker in terms of time and expense and the United Way considers calling it off. But then the events crew says they think they can figure something out and hollow walk immediately hires a Cleveland-based architect to weigh in. So over the summer of 1986, the team comes up with a blueprint for the balloon bin. It turns out to be a three-story tall 250-foot-long,

150-foot-wide rectangular structure made of heavy-duty scaffolding. The sides are wrapped with tarp, giving it the feeling of a large roofless tent. And at the top of the scaffolding, they have a massive net held down by huge weather balloons. tarp giving it the feeling of a large roofless tent. And at the top of the scaffolding, they have a massive net held down by huge weather balloons.

So the plan is as the two million balloons are inflated by volunteers who are going to be working inside the scaffolding structure, they're just going to be releasing the balloons up into the net. And then when it's launch time, those large weather balloons are going to be released first They'll lift the whole net Into the sky to fly away. Mm-hmm. And that's releasing two million balloons into the sky Okay, so we're gonna speed ahead

September 26, 1986. It's the night before balloon fast. You're nervous, stomach, you can't, you can't go to sleep. The curlers in your hair staring at the ceiling, thinking about balloon fast. Meanwhile, the events crew is working around the clock on the balloon bin in public square, making sure everything is in order. There's a 2 p.m. launch time the next day. In nearby offices, Tom Hollowock is on the phone with the National Weather Service, and he is getting some very bad news. The weather official tells him, quote, there's a serious, serious squal coming in.

It's the kind of thing that might spawn tornadoes. Oh, shit. So that night, a severe storm rolls in and forces the crew to take shelter indoors. Just remember, the balloon bin doesn't actually have a roof. The roof is blue. At night, a severe storm rolls in and forces the crew to take shelter indoors. Just remember, the balloon bin doesn't actually have a roof. The roof is balloon. With a net rope.

So, as they wait out the storm, strong winds wreak havoc across Northeastern Ohio, causing extensive property damage. And the balloon bin, they go out after midnight and check it when the weather finally lightens up. And the crew sees that the scaffolding has basically the tarps have been torn down and netting is ripped. And so it looks like, you know, things are really bad. Yeah. So hiding waste no time. He calls an emergency late night meeting with the representatives from the United Way. And he is ready to do something he's never done before, and that's admit defeat. But then when the events crew goes back outside, they look and they see there's no actual damage to the scaffolding.

It's only the tarps in the net. And they're in bad shape, but they can be replaced. So they send out people to get replacement tarps. Another group starts weaving the net back together. They all work through the night. And by the time the sun rises on Saturday, September 27th, things feel hopeful. The balloon bin structure is restored. The nets fixed, balloon fest is a go. So Gleamlanders are giddy about this event around 8 a.m. thousands of volunteers, including many high school students, turn up to public square to help inflate balloons.

And these volunteers are ushered inside the balloon bin and they sit in folding chairs that are set up around a bunch of helium nozzles that are connected via copper piping to three tractor trailers parked nearby that had hauled in all of this helium. Always. Yeah. So to hit the goal of two million balloons by 2pm, Heineing says, quote, we're figuring that each person will do about two to three balloons a minute. Each one is going to do correctly about 700 balloons for the day, and we'll do it all in about four to six hours. Oh my God.

It's a race to the finish. Who planned it? Yeah, yeah. Why did it have to happen at two? Could we move? Could we move this along? Move that up a little bit. Volunteers work on basically an assembly line.

They grab a balloon, they attach it to the nozzle, they fill the balloon up, they tie it, and then they release it up into the netting above, over and over. So there's local reporters in the balloon bin with everybody, and they're getting the story on how all these volunteers are working so tirelessly for a balloon fest. Many people have blistered in bloody fingers thanks to the repetitive not tying motions. Yeah. And as high pressure as this kind of schedule for the event might feel, there's also free food and music being provided by local DJ and TV personalities, Chuk Shodowsky and John Ronaldo of the big Chuk little John show.

Hey! It's a big football show! Hong Kong. Hong Kong. the big Chuck Little John show. Hey, it's a big football show. Hong Kong. Hong Kong. BB, so they're conducting interviews around the tent for their live broadcast. Event officials are constantly reminding volunteers that they are actually becoming a part of Cleveland history and the Cleveland Plannedealer reports.

One staff are yelling, quote, we need you to keep going. You'll be known around the world. How many people were high as a fucking kite while they were doing that? I mean, 86. It's the only way to get through. Probably not. They'd just do some huge rails of coke and go down to balloon fest. See what happens.

I mean, the colors alone. What if a couple of them, that's how they met, you know, and fell in love. That would be cute. Yes, it's very possible or broke up because their fingers hurt so bad and they started, they started to bicker. Yep. Okay. Now outside of the balloon bin, 100,000 Clevelanders have shown up to watch their city break a world

record. People are into this. Yeah, yeah, it's a world record. People are into this. Yeah, yeah, it's a big deal. It's an event. There's also several Guinness World Record representatives there to be recording the event for the official. Yeah, there are. The official book.

Before Everind's eyes, the netting at the top of the balloon bin is slowly being lifted into the sky as more and more balloons fill it up. And everybody in general just seems kind of overjoyed. DJ Chuck Shodowsky interviews a local woman named Mary Ellen who's just shown up to public square with two dozen already inflated balloons to donate to the balloon bin. But as she handed them over,

one of the balloon bundles caught on her watch, ripped it off her wrist, and just floated it up into the air out of her reach. So Chuck Shodowski says, quote, if anybody finds Mary Ellen's watch tied to a bunch of balloons, if you return it to the station, we'll have all kinds of rewards for you. I must have an early delicate watch if it that easily floated away, right? Yeah. My grandma were one of those like elastic band time X's that were like real narrow. Yeah.

So as he's giving this live report to the to right to the TV camera, Mary Ellen standing next to him looking calm and collected, she's not mad about her losing her watch. She loves being part of things. Cute. The party like atmosphere continues for hours. And now they're approaching midday, everything's going as planned. And then Tom Hollowock gets another phone call from his contact at the National Weather Service. And there's more bad news. Another round of storms is coming into the area. He's told these ones won't be nearly as

intense as the ones that were from the night before, but they're serious enough to give them a warning about. They're expected to hit at 2 p.m., which is when they plan to... The odds of that, like the odds of all of this are beyond. It's a freak accident in every sense of the word. What's the thing of like whatever God is doing when you're trying to make plans is something, something, something? He has plans also of his own or her own or their own. Whoever.

So now with this new weather news, there's a new call to make. Obviously, they're not going to let their volunteers work in a storm with no roof, and they understand that with bad weather, it's not going to be the same effect visually that they wanted and that everyone was imagining. So again, the choice is they can either cancel the whole thing right now, call it a loss, or they can forge ahead. As you can imagine, they decide to forge ahead, but with a small concession to try to beat the incoming weather, they're going to now release the balloons 15 minutes early at 145. Okay.

Which means they'll only be able to release 1.5 million balloons. Lay. Not the full. Two million, but it still beats Disney's record. Apparently, somebody wanted to beat Disney's record. That was part of this. Also, I don't think that 15 minutes they could have filled another half a million fucking balloons, right?

Like, are you going to go against a door and revered balloon expert treb Hennings? Plants. I am. I'm going to call bullshit on that right now. This is probably one of the most controversial episodes we've ever reported. Well, at the same time as they're making this concession and basically just trying to keep it up. Because you have to think, if I was there and I was being forced to produce balloon fest,

which I truly would like lay awake obsessing about of how are we going to do this. But that idea where it's like, okay, well, we can't, if we, we can't delay it any further, these balloons will just start coming down. There will be no rising after a while. Like it's not like we can delay this by a day or two, right? It's like now or never. Totally.

And also, I'm sure it's like the vibe, like it was about those good vibes. That's the whole point. That's the point. They're trying to keep it all going. And outside Treb Henning, a dored balloon expert, Treb Henning is making an impassioned speech to the crowd saying, quote, Cleveland, it's your time. It's time to say yes.

It's time to say it's a happening city. We're on the move. It's no longer the butt of jokes. Even from there. I know. It doesn't seem like it. No. But I think he's like, this was the point of all of this and we're going to do it. It's only, it's only worked that way, Treb. So just before 145 DJs, Chuck Shadowsky and John Rinaldi, they get the crowd to start a 10, 9, 8 countdown. And then they get to one, the moment arrives,

the nets pulled back and hundreds, thousands of multicolored balloons fly up into the blue sky. Those first couple of seconds are an incredible sight. You can go look at it on YouTube, you can watch how this actually played out. Yeah, there's like a helicopter video of it, right? I think it's far enough away where you're getting a very large scope picture of what this is looking like. You can imagine what they thought it would look like. And then with like, there's gray clouds and rain, this big black net kind of slides away a little bit

and then these balloons start floating in a very, in not the Disney-esque way that you're picturing in your mind. Right, right. But non-plussed. The balloons seem non-plussed. The balloons are kind of bleeding to the right from what I remember the video looking like,

but it's still an incredible sight. I'm sure from the ground it was unbelievable. On the broadcast, you can hear Shadowsky yell, let's hear it for Cleveland, and tens of thousands of overjoyed spectators cheer in response, and then Renaldi adds, ladies and gentlemen, there is no mistake on the lake anymore,

because they used to call Cleveland the mistake on the lake. And then the crowd roars like they love that. It's all it all feels so good. People are overjoyed as the massive balloons fly up toward the terminal tower and beyond. And later DJ John Rinaldi would say quote, it was unbelievable. It was a great site. People were cheering.

Everybody was happy. End quote. This moment will be short-lived. Within minutes of the world's largest balloon launch, bad weather moves in and the mayhem begins. And when I say mayhem, I mean, the rain and the wind pushes a million plus balloons back down toward the ground before they've had a chance to pop at higher altitudes. Deflated balloons, like, there's some balloons that go up and they start to deflate, and then they

just fall back to Earth like a rain of trash. But what's worse, and you kind of wouldn't imagine it this way, with the weather system coming in and pushing inflated balloons down. They're bobbing in the air at different heights all the way down to the ground, basically making anyone's ability to see in front of them, whether they're driving, whether they're in a plane, whether they're anywhere, it's impossible to see. Cool. Yeah, because it's fucking balloons.

Like have you ever seen a person had to deliver balloons, have balloons in their car? Oh, yeah. And what a disaster mess that is, it's like that, but it's the sky is the car. I don't have to explain that. But one time I watched a guy,

we had gotten drunk, a day drunk in a TGA Friday and when I came outside, there was a guy who was wrestling balloons and do his car. And I laughed for like four years. It was my favorite thing I'd ever seen. That's good. That's a good one. But this isn't good.

It's not funny. It's actually, it's that kind of thing where you can see this team making decisions as they go, what's the negative effect? There really wouldn't be any. It's just balloons. And then everyone kind of learns as they go, what's the negative effect? There really wouldn't be any. It's just balloons. And then everyone kind of learns as they go. The nightmarish fact of what's really happening. Yeah. So this barrage of balloons is now pouring down

onto roadways, into rivers, onto Lake Erie, like confetti. It creates a surreal, multicolored latex version of a white out snow storm. Reporter David Moss remembers, quote, it was overwhelming. You thought, wow, we're gonna drown in these balloons." End quote. Another reporter named Neal Zerker says that quote,

or searcher, sorry, says the quote, we drove down this shoreway and it was like a multicolored river down the road. Motorists were running into each other, running into fences." And across town operations at Burke Lakefront Airport grind to a halt as thousands of balloons fall onto the runway, making it impossible to take off or land.

But it's the sheer number of balloons on Lake Erie that proved to be the real problem. Ahead of balloon fest, the events organizers and city planners knew that some balloons would wind up in the lake. And they assumed it would be like 10% of the balloons that they freed, according to the Atlantic quote, because of the weather, 60% of the balloons launch landed in Lake Erie instead of the expected 10%. This reminds me of one of my favorite childhood books, Cladie with a chance of meatballs.

Except the meatballs are fucking balloons. Yeah. Dangerous, dangerous balloons. Okay. And what's worse is, at the same time, that balloon fest is happening exactly simultaneously, the Coast Guard is running an active missing person search on Lake Erie for 40-year-old Bernard Solzer and 40-year-old Raymond Broderick, who had left on a fishing trip at 7 p.m. the night before.

They were expected home around midnight, but then there were those severe overnight storms and they still hadn't come home. So early Saturday morning, their families report them missing. And within hours, the Coast Guard has tracked down the men's battered 14-foot aluminum fishing boat docked along a break wall. Its motor is missing and the men are nowhere to be found. Oh, shit. Yeah. So immediately after finding their boat, the Coast Guard expands its search, and more rescue boats are sent into the water on Lake Erie

while helicopters are dispatched to search the lake from above. But no one has communicated with the Coast Guard about balloon fast. So the helicopters pilot is completely caught off guard by the sudden thousands of balloons headed straight toward his aircraft. Oh my God. As bewildering as it is, he knows that he's in a dangerous situation, so he's forced to land his helicopter.

And later reporter Niels Ercher interviews the pilot who'd say, quote, it was like flying through an asteroid belt you just couldn't see. Oh my God. And then down in the water, the inflated balloons are dropping all around the Coast Guard's boats. And as they blanket Lake Erie, it becomes all but impossible for the search and rescue

team to spot the fishermen because the balloons are bright and colorful, so they look like any life vest those missing fishermen might be wearing. And because of this freak accident, the two men's bodies aren't found for several weeks. Oh, man. Horrible. So back at headquarters, the United Way officials who started off euphoric, right, as this event launched, are just left speechless. It's horrifying. And as reporter Neil Zurcher says, quote, it was almost like a volcano went it went off.

Just about everything in the world that could go wrong, went wrong that weekend. So it's immediately clear balloon fest will not be the city's redemption. Instead, the fallout from balloon fest will be shocking, far reaching, and it's on par with a natural disaster. Oh my God.

So, the United Way invested around $500,000. It had taken money from its special initiatives fund to pay for balloon fest, but not only did it not raise money, it incurred the cost of the expensive cleanup efforts and the multiple lawsuits against the organization, including one brought by the wives of the expensive cleanup efforts and the multiple lawsuits against the organization, including one brought by the wives of the missing fisherman who believed that balloonfests interfered with their husband's rescue efforts. All of these lawsuits are settled out of court

for unknown amounts. The one thing that could maybe be considered a win for balloonfests is the Cleveland chapter of the United Way did set the world record for, quote, the largest ever mass balloon release. Congratulations. And it did make it into the 1988 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, kind of a pure victory. Years later, a spokesperson for the United Way would tell the Cleveland Planned-Dealer, quote, we would not do a balloon launch ever again. We've learned a lot in the last 25 years.

And I'm sure the other part of this quote after is like, stop fucking asking me about balloon fest. On the other hand, Tom Hollowock, who has spoken several times on podcasts and to reporters about this event, which is kind of cool that he's like, you know, like actually interviewed about it and agrees to be interviewed about it. And he refuses to write off balloon fest as a total failure. He openly and remorsefully acknowledges that a lot of regrettable things happened, but Hollowock also says, quote, balloon fest was an incredible triumph over adversity because we could have quit.

We should have quit a number of times. Any reasonable person would have said, oh, screw it. I'm not going to deal with this, but we didn't. And to this day, it's one of the high points in my career. It's not so much that it had to do with balloons. It's that dammit I was not going to quit. I'm not going to fail." End quote. Hmm. Yeah, someone argue that giving up

Isn't failing When good point to move forward with something Would fucking cause a lot of damage right in many many ways Except for that's information. They didn't have because everyone was like balloons. Yeah. Here's the thing, if they did the like research and talk to enough people that they found out 10% of these balloons might end up in like eerie and everyone was fine with it. Yeah. Then you can at least say that these events coordinators were not fully informed, like we today are fully informed. Yeah.

They weren't looking at it in the same way. It was like, everyone agrees this is fine. The idea also, and the thing that's really weird, is watching the weather push balloons back down to the ground. It's not, I don't think anything anyone has experienced, really, to be able to anticipate it. Yeah, yeah, like what happens when, I don't know, it's tough because it's like, you're right, there's, it's like, when do you,

there's so many things these days where you could think of many in the news lately where it's like, yeah, yeah. It meant to feat and know that you're still a great person who had great intentions. Totally. We got to have a new name rather than failure because like making this smart decision to not move forward with something or to like end something isn't failing. It's like critical thinking.

That's right. And it's making tough decisions and standing by tough decisions. I liked it thing. If I wasn't a revered and adored balloon expert, I would have said, hey, we saw what the weather did before. Yeah. We're going to lose some balloons. But we can just, we can keep this super positive vibe going and keep these volunteers here and just keep blowing up balloons as the other ones fall down within the balloon bin so that if they did delay for weather. Yeah, yeah. They should have had a sunny bright sunny day with no with no weather. Totally. That makes sense. But again, easy for me to say. Also like September. Let's put let's do this thing in June.

to say also like September. Let's put let's do this thing in June. Okay. That's yeah, that's true. In a way, perhaps you can tell I'm gonna wrap it up because the word perhaps is in this paragraph. Perhaps balloon fest encapsulates an underdog chapter in Cleveland's history when the city felt like it had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Today's Cleveland is far removed from its, quote, unquote, mistake on the lake reputation days. But what hasn't changed over the years is Cleveland's big heart, strong spirit, and sense of genuine creativity. Reported David Moss once said of balloon fest, quote, one thing you can say about Cleveland, they're always creative, doesn't always work out, but it's a creative city." End quote. And that's the story of Cleveland's 1986 balloon fast. Oh, wow. I bet if you went to a thrift-storing fucking Cleveland, you'd find a balloon fast shirt.

Or a balloon fast mug? Oh, yeah, someone sent a photo if you have that, got to see it. I wonder if those are like collector's items because of the, right? We're in the Guinness Book of World Records. Blownfest. Mistake by the lake. Blownfest, it was a good idea on paper. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Oops, we tried. That was great. Good job. Thank you. Okay, great job. That was a fun one. Tim has had a story. I recently stumbled upon.

It had been a cold case for many, many years. And it finally got a crazy twist ending. So we're not gonna end on a cliffhanger this time. Okay, I like the sound of this. This is the secret life of William Leslie Arnold. So the main sources I use in today's story are a series of articles under the header The Mystery of Leslie Arnold

from the Omaha World Herald, written by journalist Henry J. Cords, and all the other sources are listed in the show notes. So, let's start in 1942 when William Leslie Arnold is born on August 28th. He goes by Leslie. His parents are Opal and William Arnold. Opal is a good name for a girl. Opal's a great name. Opal.

So he grows up in the Nebraska town of Axarbin. It's Nebraska backwards. That's how great it is. Creative that town's name. Hey, they're no Cleveland, but they're trying. That's good. It's just like someone had named cities all day that day and was fucking done with it, you know?

Yep. So Leslie is a talented musician. At 16 years old, he plays the saxophone for Omaha's Central High School marching band. He plays in the dance band and the ROTC band. He's a good student. He like has a shit together. He and has a girlfriend from a neighboring high school

named Crystal, which sounds like a lie that you make up, right? Like my girlfriend's. So different schoolmates, true. Crystal. So he seems fine from the outside, but life at home is really difficult for Leslie. Opal struggles with undiagnosed mental health issues that have on two occasions centered to the hospital for what they call the time, nervous breakdowns. And she has an really

overbearing, authoritative parenting style that Leslie has just slowly wring away at Leslie. One of Leslie's best friends, Jim Child notes that, quote, his mother was excessively and compulsively hard on him. And Leslie feels like he can't do anything right in her eyes. And as he gets older, he's like a 16 year old man now. And his mother still treats him like a child. The other thing is that Opal doesn't approve of this girlfriend, Crystal. They've been together for about a year, but she looks down on Crystal and her family as well, because they're from a lower class than they are. And she thinks

he's not good enough for her son. And so Leslie's resentment for his mom grows stronger. So Leslie in his in his photo has like a baby face. He's got, you know, a 1950s or 60s crew cut, he could totally be played by Elliott Page. Oh, okay. Yeah, like looks like that. Elliott Page is like the hotter actor version. Okay. Yeah, central casting version. Yeah, exactly. Got it. On the night of September 27th, 1958, Leslie asks his parents to bar their car so we can take crystal on a date

to the drive in movies. But Opal refuses. Leslie and Opal get into a screaming match in the family's dining room, but Opal won't budge. So Leslie grabs his 22 caliber rifle and points it at his mom, hoping to scare her. So allegedly, he just wants to scare her into submission, but it doesn't work. She just laughs at him and tells him to put the gun away. Instead, Leslie shoots. Opal drops to the ground and Leslie stands over her and fires five more shots into her chest, killing

his mother. So Leslie's dad, William, here's the gunshots, runs into the room. He sees his wife dead on the ground. He charges towards Leslie in a fit of rage and swings at his son, but Leslie ducks the punch. And he points the gun at his father and fires six shots killing him as well. Oh my God. So, according to Leslie, he then curls up on the couch.

He cries about what he's done. He didn't mean to. He's traumatized by it. He later claims he never wanted to hurt anyone, but instead of turning himself in and coming clean, he comes up with a cover. He concocts a story that his grandfather, who lives in Wyoming,

has become senile and wandered off and is now missing. And so Opal and William, he tells people had to go to Wyoming to help look for him. So that's why they're not accounted for him. But here's a problem. Before he does that, that night, he takes crystal out to the movies in the family car. So like, he still goes to the drive-in with his girlfriend.

I just got to the story. I'm new to this story. I'm new here. But it doesn't really feel like it just got to the story. I'm new to the story. I'm new here, but it doesn't really feel like it's adding up in terms of what he's saying he meant to do or not meant to do. How do you do that? You murder both of your parents, and then you're like, let's go on a date. It's hard to argue any kind of remorse when that happens.

But at the same time, we don't know how bad the child abuse was in his home. He might have been pushed to the edge and had no feelings about it whatsoever. Then why are you claiming remorse and that you didn't mean to hurt anybody you did, then you just should admit it, put the gun down and turn yourself in. Right. So a day later, Leslie waits for a nightfall, and then he drags his parents bodies outside and buries them in a shallow grave in their backyard.

Essentially, it takes two weeks for his extended family and the authorities to get hit to his lies. On Wednesday, October 8, 1958, Leslie's grandparents finally go to the police on a Wednesday, October 8, 1958, Leslie's grandparents finally go to the police and report Opal and William missing. Exactly two weeks after the murders, police take Leslie in for questioning and he immediately crumbles under the pressure. He comes clean, recounting the murders as they happened. And while handcuffed to detective Glenn Gates and detective Earl White Jr.

Leslie leads police to the spot in his backyard where he buried his parents. And so Leslie's placed under arrest. So Leslie pleads guilty to two counts of second degree murder. He's given a life sentence for his crimes. He's taking to the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Now, because Leslie is so young at the time of the murder is just 16 years old, there's a good chance that the Nebraska-Partons board will wind up commuting his sentence.

They could release him on parole and he could go on to live a full life. And in fact, he does behave very well for the next nine years while he's in prison. He happily takes on shifts in the mess hall. He develops his cooking skills. He plays music in the prison band. A prison official later says, quote, we all just kind of felt that Leslie would ultimately make parole and make a success out of himself. So while he does do really well in prison,

he makes nice with the prison guards and fellow inmates, Leslie is hatching another plan. He and another inmate, another murderer named James Harding, form a plan to break out of prison. A friend of theirs is released on parole, and that friend finds a good day when the coast is clear and throws a storage tube over the fence into the prison yard,

and inside that tube, Leslie and James find two saw blades and two rubber masks. And so basically they go to this part of the prison where people who have good behavior are allowed to kind of hang out by themselves. It's like also a music room and no one ever bats a night about them being in there. So he and James take advantage of that fact

and during their free time alone use the saws to cut the bars in the music room window. They saw completely through them, and then they used chewing gum to temporarily like hold the bars together, which is just like Jesus. Total maghiver. Yeah. Finally, the opportunity comes for them to escape

on the night of July 4th, 14th, 1967. Everyone's asleep. The guards aren't looking. Leslie and James craft makes shift dummies and their beds using those rubber masks. And they sneak down to the music room, remove the gummed bars from the window,

and they slip out. Go over a barbed wire fence, out to the field where their pearly friend is waiting for them in the getaway car. They make a clean escape to Omaha, and then in Omaha, they meet up with Leslie's old childhood friend, Jim Child, who gives them a change of clothes, some cash, and tickets for a 3A Am bus ride to Chicago.

Wow. Yeah. So by the time anybody even realizes in the prison that the guys are missing, they're already halfway to Chicago. So a few days after they make it to the city, they separate the James and Leslie link up and give each other a status update. James is still trying to find his footing, but Leslie has already gotten

himself a job as a line cook at a diner. He's even started dating one of the waitresses there, an older woman named Jean Bovia, but he doesn't tell James about his new identity. So like he's on it, he's already like figured his shit out. How much time has passed? Like a week. A few days. A few days. Okay, sorry. Can I just now, I feel like in my armchair quarterback way, I just want to say, sounds to me

like the actions of a psychopath that he would be that compelling and magnetic to be able to get to charm him his way into getting a job and a girlfriend immediately. Yeah, there's also something to be said for the fact that you've been in for nine years and everyone is like, yeah, you're gonna get out soon, probably, like why not just finish your time and then go on to live a normal life?

Like, you know what I mean? Escape thing is just so bold and so like, it didn't sound like he was having a bad time in Like, you know what I mean? Escape thing is just so bold and so like, it didn't sound like he was having a bad time in prison, you know? Right. It almost just like, it's been so long you couldn't just finish that you couldn't finish it. You had to get out right then.

Crazy. Totally. Boggles the mind. Less than one year after their escape, police catch James and throw him back in prison. He serves the remainder of his sentence and eventually gets parole, living out the rest of his life as a free man until he dies in 2008. But as for Leslie, police are completely stumped on his whereabouts.

The biggest potential break in the case comes a year and a half after his escape when authorities get a hit on someone registering an immigration card in Brazil under Leslie's name, but that lead turns out to be fruitless and with no other leads, the case of this escaped convict who killed both his parents when he was 16 goes cold. Wow. Okay, then let's cut to August of 2020. 53 years after Lesley's escape. So Deputy US Marshal Matt Westover of Omaha is sifting through his caseload. He comes across the case of Lesley Arnold.

He's surprised to find the case from 1958 and his docket, but when he reads up on it, he's just totally captivated by it. He learns that a former Nebraska Department of Correctional Services investigator named Jeff Britton had dug into this case years prior. He'd never solved it. And so Britton had moved to California in 2013, and the case still had kept him up at night. So Westover calls Britton, and they

like talk about the case. They discuss different theories and tactics to try to track Leslie Arnold down. But one method in particular stands out for Britain because he had been in California. He was able to follow the case of Joseph DiAngelo, the golden-spin killer. Very closely, he even attended some of his court appearances after his capture in 2018. So he sees that DNA, genealogy, all that stuff is like catching people now. So Britain wonders if something similar might help West overcrack the Leslie Arnold case.

West over takes Britain's advice. He tracks down Leslie Arnold's little brother. He had had a little brother this whole time. His name is James. And in November 2020, James agrees to provide a DNA sample. So West over submits it to the registry. It takes nearly two full years, but Westover is about to get a break in the case

from a completely unexpected part of the world or go no Australia. Oh, hello. That's not the accident. That's right, that's British. Good day, mate. Yeah, that was British, but they both sound the same when I say them. Yeah, it sounds good.

Okay, so we're going back to 2010. This 19-year-old dude named John Vincent Damon, his father passes away, and John goes on a 10-year long quest to learn more about his father's history, you know, as you want to learn about your parents. All he knows about his dad, John Vincent Damon, is that he grew up in an orphanage in Chicago. So in 2018, when he's 27 years old, he finally makes a trip to Chicago from Australia to go to the orphanage himself and try to find his father's records, because he couldn't find anything else about him.

But when he gets there, he discovers that the orphanage, his father had told him about doesn't exist. Confused, he takes his dad's Illinois birth certificate to the vital records department to see if they can help. When they check out the birth certificate, they discover it's a fake. Oh, so now he's totally like, imagine fucking your dad Jim, just being like, oh, everything he told you about his life, not and none of it's true. I would laugh so hard. It'd be really hard for your dad because you have so much family, but these you're telling me all of these red-headed people are actors that you've surrounded me with my entire life. This is crazy. So now he's totally confused by this. He calls up his father's step-daughters who he had from a previous marriage, to see if they knew anything about his past because they're older. They're older.

They they knew him when they were older. But unfortunately, they all all they know is the same story that he he got as a kid that the dad John was from an orphanage in Chicago. That would be so sorry, but I just really put myself in that position of you're holding your dad's birth certificate trying in that kind of like ancestry.com. You know, I just want to know my people vibe and suddenly you're just like maybe I want to go see if my his childhood home got turned into a 7-11 like space. Yeah, shit. Yeah, and suddenly it's like, no, there's no one by that name that actually there might be a touch of fraud.

Anyway, goodbye. Have fun on your 19-hour plane ride back home. Jesus. Oh, so as a last-ditch effort in 2022, he submits his DNA to an analyst and posts the results on a public registry, hoping to find some link. And to his surprise, he gets a match on August 9th, 2022 to a man named James Arnold, who's the little brother of our fucking parent killer, Leslie. Okay. Got it with me. Yes. Yep. The man gets a call from this police detective Westover explaining that his father isn't a Chicago orphaned, turned Australian salesman,

named John Vincent Damon, but your dad is a 1967 escaped convict named William Leslie Arnold. Whoa. So not only do you find that the fucking orphan, the orphanage doesn't exist, the birth certificate is fake. Now he's an escaped convict with a totally different name. Can I just say that this is a little bit similar and I know I've told you this story like five times, but it's a little similar to the night that it's summer night me and my sister

are laying in bed, windows open because it's hot. We hear heavy breathing outside and walking through the tan bark. My sister runs into tell my dad, my dad pulls open the night stand for and pulls out a switchblade and flicks it open and goes outside. And it's of course a golden retriever that's just wandering in our front yard. But I literally after that, that was, I was probably 11 years old when that happened. I was like, it day. I don't like change your perspective on your dad a little bit. Switchblade.

Mr. Good Times. So I was like, oh shit, you're like from West Side Story style street fighter. Don't you feel a little safer after that? Absolutely, for sure. But, but it is that kind of like kids don't ever think of their parents as people. It's just you're my parents. That's what you are on this planet. Yeah.

My dad just told Vince, Vince told me that my dad had been in a band that had been on the radio in high school and that he played, I think it was the guitar. What? He told Vince out over breakfast one day and I didn't, no, I had to find out for my husband that my father had like been on the radio. my husband that my father had like been on the radio. You're does like it's locker room talk. We're just going to keep that between the boys. Jesus dad. Okay.

Brad, God. I mean, you got to ask your parents questions. Are they're not going to tell you anything? I think it's for real, you know? Yeah. And the stuff that you they don't like, Marty doesn't think that's a big deal. And we'd all be just like freaking out to hear it. It's like, come on.

I want to know. I want to know. Okay, so after years of stagnation, Westover is so stoked to finally have solved the mystery of where Leslie Arnold disappeared to, but he needs to know what happened in between his disappearance and his, you know, prison break and his death. How did Leslie Arnold become John Vincent Damon? And so in March of 2023, West over flies to Australia to meet the son of the man he and his colleagues spent so much time trying to find. This is four months ago, March of 2023.

Yeah, this just fucking came out. I like to read this at late night when I, you know, I was looking up cold cases on Google. This is a late night story that came up, discovery. Amazing. Yeah, like recently. All right, so let's go back to when Leslie and his partner who prison broke with him.

They see each other for the last time in Chicago in July of 1967 and Leslie tells James, I've got mine. You get yours. Yeah. He's like, I got got mine, you get yours. He's like, I got my job at this fucking diner and that a lady, let's both just like live our lives. Take a hike. And also it's like, well, it would be easy to believe that Leslie basically married that lady.

Like if you can get that done in one week, you're like, you'd probably have a family in two months. Like what's happening? The story right set self. As you like, you'd probably have a family in two months. Like what's happening? The story right, said self. Yeah. You are writing it right now. He got, so he got, he gets himself a new home, a new job and a new girlfriend and a new name. So as he's working at the diner, he's going by the name John Vincent Damon. He manages to get himself a forged Illinois birth certificate. And then he uses it to get a legitimate driver's license and social security card in that name.

So boom. And then just, I don't even think I can get myself a real birth certificate if I fucking needed it right now. You know what I mean? You know, you have to sign up for real ID. Now that's like a California law that you have to let. I've tried four times to do that online. I can't get it done.

This guy, and this guy goes, I mean, at the time, it's probably like, fucking sharpie and mechanical pencil on, you know, paper, but on the back of a napkin. So he just had to get one lady in the filing office to turn around for four minutes while he did something. Yeah. Then he had started dating Jean Bovia. And just days after they started dating, Leslie, a K.A. John, moves in with his new girlfriend. So you were fucking right about that. She's a divorcee with four daughters, ages 14, 12, nine, and five. So she's like, I'm not wasting time dating you for months on end. Yeah. They live in the project. So, you know, she needs the extra income that this person's making.

It's not a great choice, but it turns out okay. She's an older woman. She's 34 years old, while Leslie is just turning 25. The two get married in a courthouse on November 25, 1967, just 134 days after first meeting. A little more than two months, but yes. Oh, two months, yeah. Okay. A little more than that.

Sorry, I'm completely like jumping on your story and then being like, wait, let me guess more, let me guess more. I like. I'm going to call him Leslie for the story, but he goes by John. Okay. He never shares much about his life with his new family. He says he grew up in a Chicago orphanage and doesn't like to revisit his past, fair enough.

But he's a good provider. He helps take the family out of a housing project and into a nicer apartment. He and Gene's daughters get along fine. They do later say that he was a tough, strict parent who made them all get jobs once they turn 13, yikes, and often punish them by putting them into quote restriction, which he used as the term for grounding, which of course later they put it together that his strictness is something he inherited from his mother

that he killed for the same reason, and the term restriction is one he picked up while in prison. So like, fucking mind-boggling. The clues were kind of there if you knew to be looking for them, which of course they didn't. Nope, it didn't. Yeah. In 1969, two years after landing in Chicago, Leslie leaves his job at the restaurant. He gets a higher-paying job in sales.

It's a long hours. He travels a lot, but it allows the family to move into an even nicer home in Cincinnati. Nice. Even though Leslie could be strict, his step-dotters really do love him. He took care of them. He passed on his love of music to them. He took them to concerts. Todd had to play the piano. And he's the only man the girls had ever and whatever called dad. Wow. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good vote for Leslie slash John. Yeah. Yeah.

It sounds like he was a good man. Yeah. So then in 1971, Leslie and Jean take a trip to the Bahamas, leading out of Miami. Essentially, for some reason, they end up moving to Miami very suddenly without any real explanation. So you wonder if Leslie was like thinking that someone was on his tail, maybe.

Yeah. Three or four years later, Leslie starts getting antsy in Miami. He wants to move again. Jean doesn't want to and they, you know, fight about it for years and eventually, by 1977, the two split up. John gets himself an apartment in Burbank.

What? Because yeah, Burbank of a place. Because he's been traveling there. He'd been traveling to LA a lot for his sales job, so he just moved there. He maintains contact with his step-daughters, though, calling them regularly and attending graduations and other special life events,

even though he and their mom divorced. Huh. I know. I didn't have a fucking step-dad like divorced. Huh. I know. I didn't have a fucking stepdad like that. Yeah. I do now as an adult, but like, that sounds nice. That's when it matters. Yeah.

The idea that he's actually coming through, that wow, that's really okay. Yeah, that's nice to hear. Yeah. Then in the late 70s, early 80s, Leslie starts dating and other women in LA. They get married in 1983. They have two kids, a daughter born in 1986 when this John, when he is 44 years old and a son born in 1991 when Leslie is 49.

So he has some later in life kids of his own. But before his first biological daughter is born, one of the step daughters sits John, sits so confusing with the John and the last thing, sits Leslie John down and advises him to be kinder to his biological kids than he was to his step kids to kind of chill the fuck out a little bit and not be so harsh with them and let them know when they've done something good or done a good job rather than just disciplining him. And it looks like Leslie John took her advice because his kids say that he was like a wonderful father, his bio kids. Yeah. Wow. So life's good for John, Leslie and his new family for a while.

But in 1992, we have the LA riots. And he decides that he doesn't want to stand LA anymore. He says he doesn't think it's a good place to raise a family. But he could also be nervous about advances in technology and the DNA thing is kind of coming around. And it could be that he thought someone was on his heels again and got nervous because that year, right before they move, he gets a noticeable mole surgically removed from

his cheek. Oh, okay, that he had had his whole life like a defining characteristic. And they moved to New Zealand for five years, and they moved to Australia in 1997. And it's here that Leslie and his family settle for good. He raises them with love, kindness and understanding. While he continues his career in sales under his own company, like he did with the stepdaughter, Leslie shares his love of music with his kids, but for fear of being discovered,

he never ever plays music to them and with them. And never lets them know that he's like really good at the saxophone. So that's another thing they didn't know about him, that he fucking rips it on the saxophone. He never picks it up again and his son thinks it's because it's another defining characteristic of who he was. Yeah, which is so sad. So in the late 1990s Leslie has a heart attack, he survives, but his health never quite recovers. And so between his heart problems and his frequent flights while traveling for work,

Leslie develops deep vein thrombosis, which is difficulties with blood clots. And it worsens, so on August 6, 2010, at the age of 69, but really he had been 68 because he had forged that birth certificate. Right. He collapses and dies in his home in Australia. At the age of 69, 68, that's kind of young.

Yeah, it is young. And that's when his son starts trying to find out more about his father. So while none of Leslie's family members want to minimize the severity of the murders he committed back when he was 16, they all truly feel he had repented and reformed his life before his death. His criminal record as John Damon, this new person, is totally squeaky clean. Couple parking tickets is all he has under his name. His kids even still have Leslie's old Bible, which he carried with him since living in Chicago.

They all remember seeing their dad reading through it and looking at it now, they noticed that he highlighted two subjects frequently, which was sins and forgiveness. For Leslie's kids part, they've all gone on to leave happy, productive lives. Opal and William Arnold may never have gotten the justice for their murders at the hands of their son, but it seems safe to say, thankfully, that the next generation Leslie left behind is working to heal the family's history and trauma. And that is the story of the secret

life of William Leslie Arnold. Good Lord. That's like deathbed confession post deathbed. Yes. Like he had to know they were all going to find this stuff out eventually, right? Well, yeah, I mean, it's just such a huge thing and to go through. And it does point to, first of of all like how people viewed abuse and child abuse and abuse of behavior back then where it was kind of like spare the rod and spoil the child mentality. Yeah, yeah. So how bad it was for him comparatively when it was that long ago could could really be saying something. Obviously to be to the point where you kill both your parents is just wild. I just think it says something that like he did this horrendous thing while under, let's say it was true, it was under duress, his friend vouched for his how awful it was at home.

And then he went on to like never abuse his children. He kept a job. He didn't ever break the law. He just lived a good normal life. It's juxtaposed in such a way that makes you wonder if he not had these circumstances as a child. This never would have happened, you know. Well, and also I wonder if say there was a statute of limitations on the crime that he

was running from all that time, because I think that's why he didn't break the law. Like, he had to live a quiet life. You could kind of go through, and if you wanted to be really negative about it or kind of jaded about it, you could be like, well, he married that woman for cover and he kept that family for cover and he moved towns, whatever, you could see it in a bunch of different ways. The one way to look at it too is like, it's a very interesting conversation about, like crime, youth crime,

and how many kids stay in jail for things that they were, they were too young to understand the full weight of what they were doing or the full impact on their future lives. Because that's a, that's the kind of thing where it's like if there's jail, any kind of like jail reform or anything like that, it's like, you know, there's kids that get thrown into the system and just never come out. And that's kind of, that's the way they adapt.

And that's, you know, if that, if that could be a positive out of this as opposed to just this guy kind of like had a secret life, but then it's kind of like, yeah, there, what if there really is redemption in a way as opposed to just this guy kind of like had a secret life. But then it's kind of like, yeah, what if there really is redemption in a way, and there's a way to kind of like help that truth of like a kid in a bad situation, makes it worse,

and then just runs for his entire life. Now the first thing to do is to unprivatize prison. Right. And to for profitvatize prison, right? And to for profit prison is the, you know, for profit prisons is a horrifying, that's right, fucked up, absolutely. Concept that should not exist. Well, great job.

Thank you. Wild, so wild. So, I mean, there's nothing like the old double life secret life running from your past story. How many others are there out there? And please, we always say this, tell the people on your deathbed so we can have something to talk about. Yes.

Why keep, don't keep it to yourself. We have questions we want to ask. Out with it. Whatever. You might think it's too embarrassing. Out with it, whatever. You might think it's too embarrassing. You won't be here while we discuss it. Also just the idea of like people coming and hiding out in Burbank is such a good idea.

I have to tell you like if your Burbank is so low key, you could hang out there and blend in and nobody would ever, ever find you. Nope, it's so quiet. You live your quiet little life there, totally, totally. Go to that mini target on Hollywood Way, enjoy. There you go. Well, we've done it again.

We did it again. Thanks for listening, you guys. Yet again, we as always appreciate you. We did it for you. It's literally for you. Literally, figuratively, all the things. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered.

KABBIE! KABBIE! Yeah. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Aaaaah! This has been an exactly right production. Our producer is Alejandra Keck. Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crighton.

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