We last heard from Jesse James’ dad late last month, when Larry James told TMZ that Jesse wasn’t the tough thug he tried to portray and that his only crime was stealing film from a fotomat as a teen. Larry also tried to explain away Jesse’s interest in Nazi memorabilia as if he had no hand in it. He claimed that when Jesse was a child he bought books for him on WWII and the Nazis, but that it was just in response to Jesse’s fascination with the Nazi regime. A “friend” of James was a German Nazi who gave little Jesse a bunch of “literature” that his father passed on to him as a “joke” and claimed to have later destroyed.

In his Nightline interview, Jesse told a sob story about living in fear of his abusive dad, who would regularly go into rages and broke his arm when he was just seven. In response, the older James denies ever beating Jesse. He gave Radar Online an elaborate tale about how Jesse broke his own arm by throwing a tantrum. As for a photo of Jesse with a black eye, his dad claims he also did that to himself.

In an exclusive interview obtained by RadarOnline.com, Larry explained his version of how Jesse got injured. He alleges that Jesse’s arm was broken by falling off of a fence he had jumped in an attempt to retrieve a ball he had accidentally kicked into a neighbor’s yard.

“Just to show off…he dove over the fence, landed on the ground, and broke his arm,” Larry said. “He neglected to say that I was right there, picked him up, lifted him over the fence and I never let go of him until his hand was in a cast. I even had them cut his shirt off him at the hospital so I didn’t have to let go of his arm.”

Larry even felt guilty for originally making Jesse get the ball. “But I didn’t break his arm, he did it by throwing a tantrum,” Larry added. “I still feel sorry about it. I wish I had just gotten the d–n ball myself. It wasn’t worth my son breaking his arm.”

Larry also addressed a childhood photo shown on Nightline which pictured a young Jesse with a black eye. “We lived in a big house on a hill and had a small race track on the field below us and I had bought him a small minibike,” Larry explained. “He was riding it, he crashed and banged himself up pretty good. He got a black eye, had a couple of cuts on his arm but it was nothing serious. I for sure didn’t blacken his eye.”

Larry does not hold a grudge against his estranged son and hopes for a reconciliation before he passes away. He also feels empathy for Jesse’s situation and infidelity issues, citing his own past with women.

“I am so sorry for what has happened in his life. God knows I’ve made a lot of mistakes, unfortunately most of them has been with women,” Larry added. “I kind of know where he is at right now. I am always there for him…with open arms.”

[From Radar Online]

Kids can get hurt in all sorts of ways, and it’s possible that Jesse is lying about his childhood in order to elicit sympathy. It’s not like he’s proven himself to be trustworthy. I believe him and find his dad really sketchy, though. There are too many minor details he’s including in his stories. That doesn’t make Jesse seem like less of a self absorbed creep to me. If he was abused like that it doesn’t excuse his massive infidelity over 30 years later.

It seems like Jesse’s confession has exposed a rift in his family. His sister backs up his tale of childhood abuse. She told E! Online that it was “completely true” that Jesse was abused and that “I saw it… He did abuse Jesse.” Jesse’s then-stepmother, who was with his father from when Jesse was six but has since divorced him, denies that Larry was abusive. She told TMZ “Larry was the most caring father, the kindest father who would do anything for anybody. He loved Jesse to death and would brag about him all the time.” Jesse’s stepmother says Jesse and his dad had a falling out when Larry turned him in for stealing from the Fotomat when he was 16. Whatever happened between them, Jesse hasn’t spoken to or seen his dad in six years.

Here’s James out in Long Beach, CA yesterday. Credit: Fame Pictures