He also argued that the letter he left behind at the crime scene, essentially his confession, was a confidential communication to his pastor and therefore inadmissible as evidence. Over the years, the John List murders have been featured in films such as Judgment Day: The John List Story and The Stepfather. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. [8], On November 9, 1971, List murdered his entire immediate family, using his own 9mm Steyr 1912 semi-automatic handgun[9] and his father's Colt .22 caliber revolver. John List passed away on March 21, 2008, after suffering from pneumonia. List left the bodies of his wife, his mother, Alma, 84, and his children, Patricia, 16, John, 15, and Frederick, 13, and several confessions and apologies in his Westfield home in November 1971 and disappeared for 17 years. His father died in 1944. John List (murderer) and Delores Miller (wife), See Associated With. Because syphilis is not infectious in its later phases, she did not pass it on to John List or her children, although she suffered several miscarriages during her first marriage. After making the decision, List says, there was no turning back. On Nov. 9, 1971, after sending his children off to school, List took his two handguns out to the car to load them, then walked into the kitchen and shot his wife from behind as she was drinking coffee. Daly said that if no one comes forward, the remains would eventually be returned to the state Department of Corrections, which has had custody of List since his conviction in 1990. His middle son, John Jr. who was also his favorite suffered the most brutal death. He killed his immediate family since he could not pay the mansions mortgage after losing his job and did not want them to face ridicule. John List appeared to be the perfect son, husband, and father. He simply exploded.'. He later moved to California, and then Detroit, where he worked as an accountant in a local firm. In 1989, Fox network broadcasted a TV show titled Americas Most Wanted, where an episode featured the New Jersey mass murders of John by his family. Police in Virginia arrested mass murderer John List on June 1, 1989, a mere nine days after Americas Most Wanted aired his case. After seeing his daughter and two sons off to school, List walked into the kitchen of his 19-room HIllside Avenue mansion on Nov. 9, 1971, and shot his wife, Helen, as she sipped her morning. "The Boogeyman of Westfield", was an American family annihilator and mass murderer who killed five members of his family on November 9, 1971, in Westfield, New Jersey. John List Sr., husband, father, son, accountant, devout Lutheran, had announced that they were going on a family trip, had stopped the paper and milk deliveries and then killed his family. The wife of Robert P. Clark--whom the FBI says is really John List, a man who killed his family in 1971--says his arrest is unbelievable and that the alleged killer is not the man I know.. However, the marriage was not very good. List left a confession letter at the scene, so police had little doubt as to who was responsible for the killings. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. He lived at 431 Hillside Avenue with his wife, Helen Morris Taylor; mother, Alma Barbara Florence List; and two children: daughter Patricia, and sons Frederick and John. Everything looked great on the surface. Kentucky man stops for breakfast, wins $50,000 lottery prize. In addition, it will contact the Social Security Administration, Veteran's Administration and Public Welfare for any possible death benefits. He said they were going to North Carolina to visit an ailing relative. Delores kept a low profile after Johns arrest, and it is unclear what happened to her. The Lists might have appeared to be the ideal American family, but everything was not as it seemed. Helen lived with her daughter Brenda near Fort Eustis in Virginia, where John served. "[38], Over the years, List and his crimes have furnished inspiration for documentaries, television dramas and feature films. . John Sr. shot him nine more times before dragging him into the ballroom with the rest of his family. Afterwards, he dragged his wifes body to the ballroom and made himself lunch and ate it. John List was a devout Lutheran who lived with his wife, mother and three children. John List (murderer) (1925-2008), American mass murderer. American Criminal John List was born John Emil List on 17th September, 1925 in Bay City, Michigan, USA and passed away on 21st Mar 2008 Trenton, New Jersey, USA aged 82. List's death ended a sordid chapter in Westfield's history. 7-year-old baseball umpire seeks Guinness World Record.
Madeleine Astor - Wikipedia His father was a devout Lutheran who also taught at a local Sunday School in Bay City. Delores Miller Clark lived a simple life in Denver before she met and married John List, who then went by the name Robert Peter Bob Clark. The bust created of John List, right, next to the real John List, left. After finding an old 9 mm pistol he had bought as a souvenir of World War II, and a .22-caliber target pistol, he purchased new ammunition and went to a shooting range for target practice. Helen List lied to her doctors during several hospitalizations, Liss said. [26][27] List continued to stand by his alias for several months, even after his 1989 extradition to Union County, New Jersey; finally, faced with irrefutable evidence including a fingerprint match with List's military records, as well as evidence found at the crime scene he confessed his true identity on February 16, 1990. Then he went downstairs, dragged his wife's body into the ballroom and began scrubbing up the blood so the children would not realize what was going on when they got back from school. He believed that it was his failure as a man to be unable to provide for his family.
Johnny Cash Fathered 5 Children with 2 Wives Meet All His Kids They married in 1985. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. He settled in New Jersey and took a job at a local bank. Helen's mother was in fact ill, and had canceled a visit to Westfield because of it; had she made the trip, List later said, she would have been his sixth victim. John Emil List Birth 17 Sep 1925 Bay City, Bay County, Michigan, USA Death 21 Mar 2008 (aged 82) Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA Burial Burial Details Unknown. He killed Patricia when she returned home from school, then the youngest son, Frederick. In an interview in 2008, parents told a reporter in New Jersey that children will not walk past that property, nor do they even want to live on the same street. ', 'List was being bombarded by stresses,' the doctor added. "I remember talking about funerals and cremation and burials. Fast forward 18 years to 1989. He murdered his mother, wife and three children in November 1971, due to financial distress and other issues within the family, and fled. Finally, with the prospect of foreclosure threatening to expose his financial failure, List made his terrible decision to kill his family but not himself.
John List: The Father Who Killed His Entire Family and - The Lineup On 9 November 1971, John murdered his wife, mother, and three children by shooting them. [10] While his children were at school, he shot his wife Helen, 47, in the back of the head, and then his mother Alma, 84, above the left eye. John Emil List, 63, was profiled on the TV program "America's Most Wanted" May 21. He met his first wife, Helen Morris Taylor, whose husband had been killed in action in Korea. They separated in 1973 and he moved . He said they were going to North Carolina to visit an ailing relative. When they entered the house, music was still playing on the intercom, but List was long gone. When they met, she led a simple life working as an Army PX clerk. Madeleine Talmage Astor ( ne Force; later Dick and Fiermonte; June 19, 1893 - March 27, 1940) was an American socialite and a survivor of the RMS Titanic. He later took a job as the vice president at a bank in New Jersey, where the family finally got settled. To avoid sharing this humiliating development with his family, List engaged in the same routine and dress as when employed, leaving home each morning on schedule and spending the day at job interviews or at the Westfield train station, reading newspapers until it was time to come home. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future.
See who retired from Pitt in the second half of 2022 . List had a masters degree in accounting, but lacked social skills and had a history of losing jobs. It took Johns fingerprints to match with the military records to convince the authorities that he was John List. He was apprehended 18 years later in 1989 and was sentenced to five terms of life sentence. He married Helen and raised three children with her, while working as an accountant in many places, such as New York and New Jersey. [44], In 2022, NJ Advance Media released "Father Wants Us Dead," a podcast serial on the events.[45]. The arrest followed Foxs Americas Most Wanted, featuring a sculpted clay bust of Johns age-progressed face. He murdered his mother, wife and three children at their home in Westfield, New Jersey on November 9, 1971. After learning about the murders committed by John List, check out the story of Dale Cregan, the one-eyed killer. This is either the most unbelievable mix-up or . List methodically murdered his wife Helen, his mother Alma, and their three childrenPatricia, 16; Frederick, 13; and John Jr., 15. The inconspicuous accountant was arrested without incident Thursday at work. I thought I was being real clever," he said. He lined up the four bodies in the ballroom (he said his mother's body was too heavy to move), put music on the internal intercom, and cleaned up meticulously. He turned on the lights and the radio, leaving religious hymns playing in the houses empty rooms. John packed off his children to school and loaded both of his handguns. Joseph Vought, Ludwig "Lou" Silbermann, Jerome Kendall, George Corbett,. John Sr. drove to the field and watched him play, then gave him a ride home. $1 Million - $5 Million. Attorney David Baugh, who represented List in Virginia, offers support.AP Photo/Steve Helber. Delores Miller (wife) is an American Homemaker. Contents 1 Background 2 Familicide, Capture, and Incarceration 3 Modus Operandi 4 Known Victims 5 Notes 6 On Criminal Minds 7 On Suspect Behavior 8 Sources Discover The 33 Scariest Animals In The World, From The Deep Sea To The Tropical Skies, The Story Of Caril Ann Fugate And Charles Starkweather's Natural Born Killing Spree, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. [6] In 1960, his stepdaughter Brenda married and left the household, and List moved with the remainder of his family to Rochester, New York, to take a job with Xerox.
John List's confession to his 2nd wife revealed in new episode of [14] All reliable photographs of List had been destroyed. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? Oct 9, 2018. He later pursued a masters degree in accounting from the same university and as the Korean War had escalated in 1950, he was recalled by the Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, stationed at Fort Eustis in Virginia, where he met his wife Helen. Delores and John divorced in 1989, probably following his arrest on 1 June. "The body is still at the Mercer County Medical Examiner's Office," said county spokesman Pete Daly. In 1965, when List and his family moved to affluent Westfield, N.J., he seemed to be a model of suburban success and propriety. But his defence was rejected and he was imprisoned at the New Jersey State Prison. The suspect denied he is List but the FBI said a positive link had been made through fingerprints. Eventually, he took a decently paying job with a paper company at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and settled there with his family. He canceled all deliveries and contacted his childrens schools to let their teachers know the family would be on vacation for a few weeks. In February 1988, the couple moved to a house in the Brandermill neighborhood of Midlothian, Virginia, where List, still using the name Bob Clark, resumed work as an accountant at a small accounting firm, Maddrea, Joyner, Kirkham & Woody. A neurologist, Dr. Henry Liss, testified earlier Friday that Helen List, 45, had tertiary syphilis and had hidden her disease for years from her doctors and her family. Read on to discover more details. His mother, Alma was overprotective and dominating that would forbid him to go outside and play with the other children because he might get sick. Delores Clark said that she was making her statement reluctantly and that she would have no further comment. John and Helen married on December 1, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland, the family moving to northern California. The research in this book is outstanding, and Sharkey clearly put a great deal of time and effort into it. Authorities said that he had been living a quiet life--active in his church, puttering in his yard on weekends--and that he had no problems with the law while a fugitive. A South Carolina jury has found once-prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh guilty on all counts in the deaths of his wife and son. They did not have any children together. John List was a devoutly religious man, and provided for his family in the town of Westfield, New Jerseywhere they lived in a 19-room mansion called Breeze Knoll. John Emil List, a.k.a. The army discharged him in 1946, after which he joined the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. British bus driver stops to give loose sheep a lift. March 3 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts library said a book was recently returned with a note apologizing for the tome being 56 years overdue. [23][16] The segment featured an age-progressed clay bust, sculpted by forensic artist Frank Bender, which turned out to bear a close resemblance to List's actual appearance. He waited for Helen to come down for her morning coffee. After light bulbs began burning out one by one, they called the police. After gruesomely murdering his entire family, John List had begun living a normal life again. The tipster said her neighbor was also an accountant and attended church. photos,
'The Watcher's John Graff is based on grim true story of family They were shot methodically one by one. The Rev. Born in an extremely strict Lutheran family, John was raised as a single child. Assistant Prosecutor Eleanor Clark strongly protested telling the jury of Helen List's syphilis during bitter legal arguments over several days. The day after the killings, List scoured the house for family photographs, tearing his image out of them so police would have nothing to use in Wanted posters. But, during a four-hour interview, he sought to explain how worries that financial hardship would split his family and turn them away from their faith forced him to make a tough decision.
The Truth About John Wayne's Wives - Grunge He married Helen and raised three children with her, while working as an accountant in many places, such as New York and New Jersey. But after doctors at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York concluded that her symptoms might be caused by syphilis, she admitted that she had suffered from the disease since the 1940s and had been treated for it at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. He refused to go on welfare, as it would entail excruciating embarrassment in the community and violate the principles of self-sufficiency that he learned at his fathers knee. Just as the kids entered from the main door, he shot both of them in the heads as well. He became increasingly depressed. He told her she went through a slow, agonizing death, the friend said. At a border crossing to Mexico in March 1944, she said she. Gwyn Conger Steinbeck - Who was She? He was previously married to Delores Miller and Helen List. After making himself lunch, List drove to his bank to close both his and his mother's bank accounts, and then to Westfield High School to watch his elder son John Frederick, 15, play in a soccer game. Unlike the others, John didn't go quietly, his body jerking as List emptied both the 9 millimeter and the .22 into his son. news, Like his father, List was a devout Lutheran and a Sunday school teacher. He couldnt bear to tell his family about the loss of income. John List may refer to: John A. He was portrayed in the 1993 film Judgment Day: The John List Story by actor Robert Blake, who, ironically, was later convicted of killing his own wife. [16], List died of complications from pneumonia aged 82 on March 21, 2008, while imprisoned at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey. The couple later moved to Richmond together . Dr. Miller said List had learned before the killings that syphilis was the cause of his wife's worsening medical and psychological problems and that knowing she had a sexually transmitted disease would have a 'tremendous impact' on someone of his background. Florida woman runs ultra-marathon distances for 23 consecutive days. In a five-page letter to his pastor, found on the desk in his study, List claimed that he saw too much evil in the world, and he had killed his family to save their souls. Authorities walk John List to a plane in Richmond, Virginia in 1989 before transporting him to New Jersey to stand trial.Steve Helber/AP. "[37] When asked why he had not taken his own life, he said he believed that suicide would have prevented him from going to heaven, where he hoped to be reunited with his family. "List, an unemployed accountant and devout Lutheran who shot his wife, mother and three children and disappeared for 18 years before being captured following a tip, died on Friday from massive blood clots in both lungs, authorities said.
John List: The Perfect Family Man Who Killed His Perfect Family When the police entered the house, on December 7th, the bodies had begun to decompose. A manhunt for John was declared, but it was not until 18 years that he was arrested. The family did not have a lot of visitors and it took the neighbours 29 days to notice that something was off in the house. He had drained his and his mothers bank accounts and fled, changing his identity. Salary in 2021. It turned out that List had changed his identity and moved to Colorado under the assumed name Robert Clark. "At least I'm certain that all have gone to heaven now. No one has stepped forward to claim the body of mass murderer John List, who died while serving a life sentence for killing his Westfield family in 1971, authorities said today. Then Frederick, 13. Several films and documentaries have been made to cover the details of the List murders. he is the biggest con man who ever walked the Earth, another unidentified friend told the paper. YouTubeThe bust created of John List, right, next to the real John List, left.
Where Is John List Now? 'The Watcher' John Graff True Story, Real But the jury has also seen evidence that List planned both the killings and his escape so carefully that he had been gone for a month before the crime was discovered. On November 9, 1971, John List shot his wife, his mother, and his three children. Details of Delores life before she married John List are unavailable. His father-in-law had heard from the county sheriff: After nearly 18 years, List had been caught. John List - History, Crime. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. While there is no set timetable on when that might happen, Daly said the remains of other prison inmates have been stored for up to roughly three months by the medical examiner's office. Attempts to reach List's former wife, Delores, whom he married in Denver while a fugitive and later moved with to Richmond, Va., where he was apprehended, have been unsuccessful. On April 12, 1990 he was found guilty on five . John died aged 82 in March 2008 of complications from pneumonia while still imprisoned. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. . His lawyer, Elijah Miller Jr., argues that knowing his wife suffered from syphilis helped drive the deeply religious man over the edge. List died in prison in 2008 at the age of 82. He was not, however, willing to suffer the earthly consequences of his actions. 2023. The new lovers wed on 1 December 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland. He spent his days at the train station reading, napping, and wondering how to get his family out of their financial mess. [35], List filed an appeal of his convictions on grounds that his judgment had been impaired by post-traumatic stress disorder due to his military service. All List wanted was to reunite with his wife, mother, and children in the afterlife, where he believed there would be no pain or suffering. March 3 (UPI) -- A sheep spotted wandering loose on a British highway was given a lift back to its owner by a concerned bus driver on her first day on the job. Based on information gleaned from dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of police and FBI documents, Father Wants Us Dead is an in-depth and chilling narrative from two reporters with more than 25 years of combined experience. List, who says he remains deeply religious today, acknowledges that his crimes violated one of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill.". They attended church each week with List's mother, a strict Lutheran who lived with them. List, 64, faces multiple life sentences if he is convicted. Examples include "Savior," the season 6, episode 16 of the television series Law & Order; the 1987 film The Stepfather and its 2009 remake; the 1993 film Judgment Day: The John List Story, in which List was portrayed by Robert Blake;[39] and the character Keyser Sze in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects.[40]. A deputy sheriff at the Henrico County Jail was tasked with watching John List after his arrest in 1989. John List was born John Emil List, on September 17, 1925, in Bay City, Michigan, to John Frederick List and Alma Barbara Florence List. [41] A 2003 episode of the A&E series American Justice also detailed the case and featured an interview with List. He slept in the mansion where his family lay dead, then walked out the door the next morning and wasnt seen again for 18 years. videos, Delores Miller (wife) and John List are divorced. Helen lived with her daughter Brenda near Fort Eustis in Virginia, where John served. YouTubeThe bodies of John Lists wife and three teenage children were found laid out on sleeping bags in the ballroom. But back in Denver, his former neighbors did recognize him, and called police. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. All rights reserved (About Us). He says he wanted to spare them the shame of losing their New Jersey mansion and to make sure they got to heaven. He also claimed to be suffering from PTSD. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. The third wife was Pilar Pallette, with whom he had three more children. Delores and John moved to a house around Brandermill, Midlothian, Virginia, where her husband worked as an accountant at an accounting firm. Now, in his first-ever public comments about the 1971 crime, the 76-year-old former Sunday school teacher says he is waiting to be reunited with them in the hereafter. Bender gave him a hawk nose, grizzled eyebrows, and horn-rimmed glasses. "I approached all of them from behind so they wouldn't realize till the last minute what I was going to do to them," he said.