John List The Murderer

John Emil List (September 17, 1925–March 21, 2008) was an American mass murderer and long-time fugitive. On November 9, 1971, he killed his wife, mother, and three children at their home in Westfield, New Jersey, and then disappeared; He had planned the murders so meticulously that nearly a month passed before anyone suspected that anything was amiss.

List assumed a new identity, remarried, and eluded justice for nearly 18 years. He was finally apprehended in Virginia on June 1, 1989, after the story of his murders was broadcast on the television program America's Most Wanted. After extradition to New Jersey, he was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to five consecutive terms of life imprisonment, making him ineligible for parole for nearly 75 years.

On November 9, 1971, List murdered his entire immediate family, using his 9mm Steyr 1912 semi-automatic handgun and his father's Colt .22 caliber revolver. While his children were at school, he shot his wife Helen, 47, in the back of the head, then his mother Alma, 84, above the left eye. As his daughter Patricia, 16, and younger son Frederick, 13, arrived home from school, List shot each of them in the back of the head. 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. After driving John Frederick home, List shot him repeatedly because, as misfire evidence showed, his son attempted to defend himself.

List placed the bodies of his wife and children on sleeping bags in the mansion's ballroom. He left his mother's body in her apartment in the attic. 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. He then cleaned the various crime scenes, removed his own picture from all family photographs in the house, tuned a radio to a religious station, and departed.

The murders were not discovered until December 7, nearly a month later, due in part to the family's reclusive tendencies, and in part to notes sent by List to the children's schools and part-time jobs claiming that the children would be visiting their ailing maternal grandmother in North Carolina for a few weeks. 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. List also stopped milk, mail, and newspaper deliveries. Neighbors noticed that all of the mansion's rooms were illuminated day and night, with no apparent activity within the house. After light bulbs began burning out one by one, they called the police. Officers entered through an unlocked window leading to the basement and discovered the family's bodies.

Westfield, which had few violent crimes recorded since 1963, received national attention as the site of one of the most notorious felonies in New Jersey since the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindberg, Jr. A nationwide manhunt was launched. Police investigated hundreds of leads without success. All reliable photographs of List had been destroyed. The family car was found parked at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, but police found no evidence that List had boarded a flight. Alma's body was flown to Frankenmuth, Michigan, and interred at the Saint Lorenz Lutheran Cemetery. Helen and her three children were buried at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield.

Breeze Knoll remained empty until it was destroyed by fire in August 1972, nine months after the murders. Although the destruction was officially ruled arson, it remains unsolved with no suspects. Destroyed along with the home was the ballroom's stained glass skylight, rumored to be a signed Tiffany original, worth at least $100,000 at the time (equivalent to $700,000 in 2022). A new house was built on the site in 1974.