He came along at just the right time for Leigh Wainscott. She had recently ended a 20-year marriage and was juggling work and life as a single mom. One day in October 2004, John appeared at her church.
A few days after New Year's, Wainscott was at work when a police officer approached her. He had a photograph in his hand. 'That's John,' Wainscott said. But he wasn't. He was Jeffrey Manchester, the officer told her, an escaped convict who had been living for the last six months inside hidden rooms he'd created in a nearby Toys R Us and Circuit City.
Jeffrey Allen Manchester was born in Sacramento in 1971. By all indications, he had a typically sunny California childhood, attending high school in Rancho Cordova before enlisting in the military. With the legendary 82nd Airborne division, Manchester learned the skills of a paratrooper: rappelling, jumping from great heights and handling weapons.
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