He murdered his wife, mother, and three children. A murder so carefully carried out that no one noticed for nearly a month. John List gave himself plenty of time to make his escape, and remain a free man for more than 17 years.
John Emile List was born on September 17, 1925 in Bay City Michigan, an only child of John Frederick List, 66, and Alma Barbara Florence List, 38. With German-American parents, he grew up Lutheran, and even spent time as a Sunday school teacher.
He graduated from Bay City High School, in 1943, and was “just there” according to a former classmate. “He never projected himself. He was always in the background.”
His father died the following year at the age of 85.
List enlisted in the United States Army where he served as a laboratory technician during World War II. He was discharged in 1946 and went on to enroll at the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor’s degree in business administration. Afterward, he furthered his education and earned his master’s degree in accounting.
List was commissioned a second lieutenant through ROTC, and in November 1950, when the Korean War escalated, he was recalled to active military service. It was while he was at Fort Eustis in Virginia, that he met Helen Morris Taylor, the widow of an infantry officer who had been killed in action in Korea. Widowed, she remained living nearby with her daughter, Brenda.
John and Helen’s relationship flourished, and the two were married on December 1, 1951, in Baltimore Maryland. They had 3 children, Patty, John, and Frederic.
In 1965, the family moved to Westfield, New Jersey. He took a job as the Vice President and Comptroller of a nearby bank. The family lived in an 18-room mansion at 431 Hillside Avenue, the epitome of elegance boasting marble fireplaces and even a ballroom. Even with List’s mother living with them, they were the picture perfect family – successful and happy.
But perfect didn’t last long. In 1971, List lost his job at the bank. He went on to lose several more jobs before he lost faith. Looking to save himself the embarrassment, he never told his family, and refused to apply for unemployment or welfare. Instead, he would spend his days at the train station, reading, napping, and trying to figure out what to do next.
“I grew up with the idea that you should provide for your family and to do that you had to be a success in the job that you had — or you’re a failure, and that was not a good thing to be,” he said.
Unable to pay the bills, foreclosure closing in, he made a decision that would change his life forever. “I finally decided the only way to save them from that was to kill them,” he said.
A devout Lutheran, he knew murder was sin, but he convinced himself that it was for the best. “It was my belief that if you kill yourself, you won’t go to heaven,” he said. “So eventually I got to the point where I felt that I could kill them. Hopefully they would go to heaven, and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness.”
Looking through his things, he found an old 9mm Steyr 1912 semi-automatic handgun he had purchased – a souvenir from World War II, and his father’s .22-caliber target revolver. He bought ammunition and took a trip to the shooting range.
One evening, after dinner, he asked his family what should be done with their bodies after they died. “I remember talking about funerals and cremation and burials. I thought I was being real clever,” he said.
Then the day came. November 9, 1971, he left a note for the milkman to not deliver. He sent his children off to school, then retrieved his guns from the car. Loaded, he entered the house and went to the kitchen where he found his wife, Helen. She sat, drinking coffee and he shot her from behind.
List made his way upstairs where he found his mother, now 84, having breakfast. He kissed her, then shot her in the head.
Back downstairs, he dragged Helen’s body into the ballroom and began the process of cleaning up, scrubbing her blood so that the children wouldn’t know something was wrong when they returned from school.
Next, he ran some errands, stopping at the post office to place a stop on the family’s mail, then to the bank where he cashed out his mother’s savings bonds. Back home, he called friends and family, letting him know that the family had left and gone to North Carolina to visit Helen’s ailing mother. He planned on driving out to join them.
All this before lunch.
When the children returned home, it was time to end it. He shot Patty, 16, followed by 13-year-old Frederic in the back of the head. He went to the High School to watch John, 15, play in a soccer game. Upon returning home, he had to kill his favorite child.
But John didn’t die as easily as the rest. He emptied both the 9mm and the .22-caliber into him as his body jerked in protest.
“I don’t know whether it was only because he was still jerking that I wanted to make sure that he didn’t suffer, or that it was sort of a way of relieving tension, after having completed what I felt was my assignment for the day.”
Next, he dragged the bodies of his children into the ballroom and lined them up before cleaning up the mess he had made.
Leaving his mother upstairs, she was too heavy to move, he placed his wife and three children on sleeping bags before lining them up in the ballroom. He put music on the internal intercom, and cleaned up meticulously. He removed his picture from all family photographs in the home.
Everything was covered, everything except the confession. He sat down and wrote a 5-page letter to his pastor, explaining his financial problems, noting that he was sure they were all in heaven now.
The next day, List drove to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Covering his tracks, he left his car behind and took a bus into the city. He made his way across the country, stopping in Denver, Colorado.
List assumed the name Robert P. Clark and got a job as a hotel fry cook before finally landing a job as an accountant for H&R Block.
Back in New Jersey, the bodies of his family lay behind, waiting to be discovered. On December 7, nearly a month later. Neighbors had noticed that all the rooms in the home had been lit, day and night. There didn’t appear to be any activity around the house either. Then the bulbs began to burn out.
Neighbors contacted the police. When officers arrived, they got no response at the door, and entered the home through an unlocked window. Inside, they discovered the remains of the List family.
In an area that saw very little crime, the murder of the List family quickly received national attention. Police received tips and followed numerous leads, coming up empty handed each time. Going through the house, they found that all photographs of John List had been destroyed, impairing their ability to create a credible wanted poster.
Police found his car at the airport, but there was no evidence he had boarded a plane.
Alma List was flown to Frankenmuth, Michigan, where it was interred at the Saint Lorenz Lutheran Cemetery. Helen, Patty, Frederic, and John were all buried at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield.
Meanwhile in Colorado, List joined a local Lutheran church and ran the car pool for shut-in church members. From 1979 – 1986 he worked as the controller at a paper box manufacturer outside of Denver. In 1985 married Delores Clark, a widow. Together the two of them picked up and moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1988, where List got a job as an accountant at a small accounting firm.
It looked like he had gotten away with it.
In May 1989, an episode of America’s Most Wanted aired. This particular episode featured an age-progressed clay bust, sculpted by forensic artist Frank Bender. The bust was so close to accurate that one of List’s neighbors recognized him. John List was arrested on June 1, 1989.
But List wasn’t going down so easily. He denied being John List. He maintained that he was Robert P Clark, even after being extradited back to New Jersey. When faced with irrefutable evidence, including a fingerprint match, he finally confessed on February 16, 1990.
At the trial, it came out that after List had been laid off when the Jersey City Bank closed, he tried finding another job, but had difficulty obtaining one. He diverted money from his mother’s bank account to avoid defaulting on his mortgage.
He encouraged his children to get jobs, claiming he wanted to teach them responsibility, but truly needed the extra income.
To make matters worse, Helen had been dealing with alcoholism and untreated tertiary syphilis, something she had contracted from her first husband and kept hidden from List. It came out that she had pressured him into marriage by claiming she was pregnant, and had insisted they marry in Maryland, which did not require the premarital syphilis test that was mandated in most other states at the time.
The syphilis, combined with her alcoholism had, according to testimony, “transformed her from an attractive young woman to an unkempt and paranoid recluse.” She apparently frequently, and often publicly, humiliated him by comparing his sexual prowess unfavorably with that of her first husband.
List saw a court-appointed psychiatrist, who went on to testify that he suffered from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and had only seen two solutions to his situation: accept welfare, or kill his family and send their souls to heaven. To him, welfare was an unacceptable option because it would expose him and his family to ridicule and violate his authoritarian father’s teachings regarding the care and protection of family members.
On April 12, 1990, John List was convicted of five counts of first degree murder. At his sentencing hearing he denied any direct responsibility for his actions. “I feel that because of my mental state at the time, I was unaccountable for what happened. I ask all affected by this for their forgiveness, understanding and prayer.”
“John Emil List is without remorse and without honor,” the judge said. “After 18 years, five months and 22 days, it is now time for the voices of Helen, Alma, Patricia, Frederick and John F. List to rise from the grave.”
List was given five life sentences, to be served consecutively – the maximum penalty at that time.
He filed an appeal, claiming that his judgment had been impaired by post-traumatic stress disorder due to his military service. Additionally, he argued that the confession letter he had left at the crime scene was a confidential communication to his pastor and therefore inadmissible as evidence. A federal appeals court rejected both arguments.
He did eventually express some degree of remorse, “I wish I had never done what I did,” he told Connie Chung in 2002. “I’ve regretted my action and prayed for forgiveness ever since.”
John List died of complications from pneumonia on March 21, 2008, when he was 82.
If you’re looking for another family annihilator story, check out this one about Ronald Simmons.