Cleveland’s 1986 Balloonfest Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Edi Libedinsky on Unsplash

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1. Cleveland's 1986 Balloonfest (Bettman / Getty)

"It was supposed to improve Cleveland’s image and show the world a city on the rise. But 35 years ago today, a monumental event quickly turned disastrous; causing multiple accidents and hampering the search for two missing fishermen in Lake Erie.

“It was like almost a volcano when it went off,” said FOX 8’s Neil Zurcher who covered the event,  “Just about everything in the world that could go wrong went wrong that weekend.”

On Sept. 27. 1986, more than 100,000 people filled Public Square in downtown Cleveland for the charitable event.

Balloonfest ’86 was a fundraising event sponsored by the United Way and included legendary balloon artist Treb Heining from California.

“The United Way and they’re going to put Cleveland back on the map. They’re gonna have a giant balloon launch,” said FOX 8’s David Moss, who also covered the event.

It took months of planning and thousands of volunteers to inflate the 1.5 million balloons that were to be released. They were held in place by a specially constructed netting structure.

At that time, the thinking about environmental impact was different, and people thought the balloons would reach an altitude where they popped and disintegrated. The year before, in 1985, Disneyland had launched one million balloons to honor Walt Disney on what would’ve been his 84th birthday.

In 1986, Cleveland was a city on the rebound. It had just landed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and wanted Balloonfest to take the city to new and greater heights.

“They wanted to put Cleveland into the Guinness Book of World Records, they wanted to do something bigger and better than anybody else,” said John Grabowski, chief historian at the Western Reserve Historical Society and Case Western Reserve University history professor.

But almost immediately there was trouble. Strong storms moved through Northeast Ohio the night before causing some of the balloons to release on their own and more inclement weather was heading that way on launch day.

Rather than cancel the event, organizers decided to launch the balloons earlier than planned, just before 2 p.m. At first, the launch seemed successful, said John Rinaldi, who was broadcasting live at the event for the Big Chuck and Lil John Show. 

“It was unbelievable. It was a great sight, people were cheering, everybody was happy,” Rinaldi said. But then things began to suddenly change..."

Source: “Balloonfest ’86: 35 years since downtown Cleveland event turned disastrous” by Suzanne Stratford (Fox 8) 2021

The Secret Life of William Leslie Arnold Notes:

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1. Mugshot of William Leslie Arnold

"When asked about his origin story, John Damon always told his family he was an orphan from Chicago. Which was true, in a way.

In 1958, the 16-year-old Omaha boy indeed became an orphan — when he shot his parents to death.

And nine years later, after he sawed through prison bars and escaped the Nebraska State Penitentiary, the fugitive did flee to Chicago to launch his new life.

But back in those days, Damon was known by a different name: William Leslie Arnold.

After more than half a century, the mystery of Leslie Arnold has been solved.

U.S. marshals in Omaha recently through DNA evidence determined a career salesman under the alias John Damon who died in Australia in 2010 was actually Arnold, the long-lost convicted killer who escaped the state penitentiary in 1967 and vanished without a trace.

The 67-year-old Arnold left behind a wife and two children in Australia — as well as three surviving stepdaughters from a previous marriage here in the United States — all of whom were oblivious to his dark, secretive past.