Life is full of surprises, and not all of them are pleasant. One such surprise recently struck an Australian man who was trying to learn about his origins and family – and discovered an extremely dark past. The following story was not written by Hugh Nesbo, but by us with the help of ChatGPT.
In 2010, the man's father, 69-year-old John Damon, who worked as a sales manager, died. The son, who identified himself on the BBC's podcast "The Gift" under the pseudonym Andrew, said all he knew about his father's past was growing up in an orphanage in Chicago. In 2022, after watching a TV show about DNA testing to reveal his family's past, he decided to try one for himself — and the result wasn't what he expected.
The DNA profile revealed that John Damon was not the father's real name. His original name was William Leslie Arnold, and he did not lose his parents in any accident. The truth is that William murdered them at the age of 16. He shot them both with a pistol and buried them in the backyard of the family home. He was arrested, imprisoned and imprisoned for 8 years, during which he was described as an "exemplary prisoner".
However, this was not the end of the story: Arnold was not released from prison after 8 years for good behavior or due to the fact that he was a minor abused by his parents. In 1967, he escaped from prison and started a family, which soon moved to Australia. For 56 years, the father was wanted in the United States, until Andrew's family interest led to his posthumous finding.
Surprisingly, Andrew expressed understanding and forgiveness for his father, saying that people can change over time, and that the man who raised him was a very different person from the one who committed the terrible deeds.
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