In an interview with Connie Chung in 2002, List said he didnt kill himself after killing his own family because he felt that would prevent him from getting to heaven. John Emil List (1925-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial However, he was not ready to disclose his incompetency to his family yet and hence, he left the house every morning, sat on the railway station and read books and newspapers all day. List is accused of killing his wife, his three children and his mother in 1971. John Emil List, 63, was profiled on the TV program "America's Most Wanted" May 21. All rights reserved (About Us). 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. 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. John List was an American mass murderer, who became infamous in the 1970s for killing his mother, wife and three children. FBI agents visited his unsuspecting second wife in Virginia and handcuffed the killer, who was going by the name Robert P. Clark, at his accounting office. John List (murderer) - Wikipedia Delores kept a low profile after Johns arrest, and it is unclear what happened to her. He says he wanted to spare them the shame of losing their New Jersey mansion and to make sure they got to heaven. John List met Helen Morris Taylor, a young widow of an American enlisted man who had died in the Korean War. Though we'd like to say that Wayne and Pilar lived happily ever after, apparently that's not the case. So he spent his days at the train station, reading the newspaper and secretly skimming money from his mothers bank accounts to pay the mortgage. Aside from a few extra wrinkles, the bust was spot on. Where Is John List Now? 'The Watcher' John Graff True Story, Real The undertaker keeps the remains for a year and if nobody comes to claim them, they are put in a concrete vault and buried in a grave (at the state cemetery) on Cedar Lane in Trenton.". 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. John fled the house after putting all the bodies on sleeping bags, turning the house lights on and putting on some classical music. Hopefully they would go to heaven, and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness.". Read on to discover more details. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Elijah Miller has presented testimony from witnesses, including a Lutheran pastor who knew the Lists in the early 1960s in Rochester, N.Y., to describe the troubled family. After gruesomely murdering his entire family, John List had begun living a normal life again. As I was doing it I knew it was wrong," he said. List died in prison in 2008 at the age of 82. In 2008, John Walsh, the host of America's Most Wanted, donated the age-progressed bust by Frank Bender that played a pivotal role in List's apprehension to a forensic science exhibit at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment in Washington, D.C., whose collection was later moved to Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. At sixty-four, John's father was twenty-six years older than Alma, whom he had married one year earlier, after his first wife died of cancer. He defended himself saying that he was not mentally stable. 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. He murdered his mother, wife and three children in November 1971, due to financial distress and other issues within the family, and fled. John packed off his children to school and loaded both of his handguns. John had first moved to Michigan, and then to Colorado, where he took an accounting job in Denver. It was a masterful depiction of John List. 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. See who retired from Pitt in the second half of 2022 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. 2023. From New York, he had traveled overland to Denver, where he began a new life under the name Robert P. Clark, working first as a hotel fry cook and later as an accountant for H&R Block. The Stepfather is Based on the True Story of John List - Wicked Horror He was not, however, willing to suffer the earthly consequences of his actions. They'll either have forgiven me or won't realize, you know, what happened," List told Downtown's Connie Chung in an interview at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where he is serving five life sentences. He was arrested in 1989 after a former neighbor recognized him from a profile on the syndicated TV show America's Most Wanted. He married Helen and raised three children with her, while working as an accountant in many places, such as New York and New Jersey. The Lists might have appeared to be the ideal American family, but everything was not as it seemed. The third wife was Pilar Pallette, with whom he had three more children. 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. March 3 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts library said a book was recently returned with a note apologizing for the tome being 56 years overdue. "I feel when we get to heaven we won't worry about these earthly things. Returning home, he made several calls to explain that the family had gone to North Carolina to visit his wife's ailing mother, and that he was planning to follow by car. They also found the five-page note from John List explaining that the bloodied bodies on the ballroom floor were his family members, killed out of mercy. videos, 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. 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. Spouse/Ex-: Delores Miller Clark (m. 19851989), Helen List (m. 19511971), children: Frederick List, John, Jr. A South Carolina jury has found once-prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh guilty on all counts in the deaths of his wife and son. 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.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU_2xrMKO8g. He feared his family, confronted with a world full of evil and poverty, would turn from God; this was the only way to ensure their safe arrival in heaven. List's home, a. John Sr. drove to the field and watched him play, then gave him a ride home. Overdue book returned to Massachusetts library after 56 years. Liss testified after a judgeruled that information on Helen List's medical condition could be given to the jury that must decide whether List is guilty of murder. Then, read the chilling story of John Wayne Gacy, the original killer clown. This article is about the murderer. [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. According to trial testimony, Helen had pressured List into marriage by falsely claiming that she was pregnant, then insisted that they marry in Maryland, which did not require the premarital syphilis test mandated in most other states at the time. John List may refer to: John A. List, who grew up in a strict Lutheran community in Bay City, Mich., was 'immersed in his religion,' he said. Joe Sharkey's DEATH SENTENCE is an account of the life of John Emil List who, in a case that was well known in the 70s, killed his mother, his wife, and their 3 children. Everything looked great on the surface. Then, he went up to the third floor and murdered his mother in her bed. Following the end of the war, he resumed his studies and enrolled into the University of Michigan, from where he completed his bachelors degree in business administration. Its hard to believe the solution he arrived at would have been more acceptable to his father, but John List would later say it seemed to him the only option: the murder of his mother, wife, and children. This is either the most unbelievable mix-up or . He took a break and made himself lunch. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. His lawyer, Elijah Miller Jr., argues that knowing his wife suffered from syphilis helped drive the deeply religious man over the edge. He killed them to save their souls so they would go to heaven. March 2 (UPI) -- A Minnesota police officer came to the rescue of a raccoon he spotted running around with a jar stuck over its head. Joseph Vought, Ludwig "Lou" Silbermann, Jerome Kendall, George Corbett,. He settled in New Jersey and took a job at a local bank. In 1989, America's Most Wanted featured List and a forensic sculptor's impression of how he would look then, 18 years after the murders. See the events in life of John List in Chronological Order, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_List_(mugshot).jpg, https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/john-list-10634.php. . John List, going by the name Robert Clark, rented a room in this house in Richmond, Virginia from S. Wallace Parsons, until he and Delores Clark moved into their new home. The episode, "Murder House", premiered on November 18, 2015. 'List believed doing what he did do to his family was allowed because he was sending them to join God and saving them from the embarrassment of having to be on the public dole.'. 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. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. During his years on the run, List went by the name Robert Clark. But he fled to Colorado, assumed a new name and remarried, managing to elude a nationwide manhunt for 18 years. [15][16], In 1971, as the FBI later discovered, List had traveled by train from New Jersey to Michigan and then to Colorado. John List Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements Help keep John List (murderer) and Delores Miller (wife) profile up to date. By 1971, he was still leaving for work every morning, but unknown to his family he was unemployed and unable to pay the bills. 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. YouTubeThe bust created of John List, right, next to the real John List, left. March 2 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman scored a $100,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket less than 12 hours after she scored an $11,000 jackpot at a casino. He then called his childrens school to grant them leave to visit their grandmother in South Carolina. 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. However, he was a loner who was not socially active and had very few friends in school and his locality. 1971 Family Killer Breaks Silence - ABC News The bodies of John Lists wife and three teenage children were found laid out on sleeping bags in the ballroom. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. The alias worked, and he kept it when he moved to Richmond. In addition to the financial distress, his eldest daughter wanted to become an actress, which was not acceptable by John owing to his Conservative upbringing. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In 1965, when List and his family moved to affluent Westfield, N.J., he seemed to be a model of suburban success and propriety. Then he sat down and wrote a confession letter to his pastor explaining his financial problems. John List: The Father Who Killed His Entire Family and - The Lineup If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. He made himself a sandwich, closed out his bank accounts, and cheered for his only surviving son, John, at his high school soccer game. ', Suspected burglar inside New Brunswick home was a panicked deer. After List's discharge in 1946, List enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in accounting, and was commissioned a second lieutenant through ROTC. He is most remembered for Murdered his entire family in 1971. He then walked up to the third floor and shot his 85-year-old mother, Alma. John List (murderer) (1925-2008), American mass murderer.
