John List, The Murderer Who Killed His Family and Disappeared For 18 Years

John List worked as an accountant in a bank nearby his New Jersey mansion to provide for his family. He lived with his mother, wife, and three children. The home had 19 rooms, including a ballroom, marble fireplaces, and a Tiffany skylight.

His family were the embodiment of the American dream in 1965. They went to church each Sunday as devout Lutherans and List even taught Sunday school. Everything appeared to be perfect if you looked at them from the outside.

John List, Murderer

In 1971, John List lost his job., he was 46. He couldn't bear to tell his family about the loss of income.

He spent his days at the train station where he would read the newspaper and secretly skimmed money from his mother's bank account so he could pay the mortgage. He refused to go on welfare, he didn't want to bear the embarrassment and violate the principles of self-sufficiency that he learned at his father's knee.

His solution was to murder his mother, wife and children.

John List shot and killed his wife, Helen, his 16-year-old daughter, Patricia, his 15-year-old son, John, and 13-year-old son, Frederick, as well as his mother, Alma, who was 85.

He shot them methodically, one by one. Helen was first. List saw the children off to school before he shot her in the kitchen as she was drinking her morning coffee as routine. Then he went up to the third floor and shot his mother while she was in bed.

When Patricia returned home from school, he killed her, then the youngest, Frederick. List then made a sandwich, closed his bank accounts, and went to cheer on his surviving son at his high school soccer game. He then gave a ride home before he shot him in the chest.

His Escape

John List laid the bodies of his family on top of sleeping bags in the ballroom of the home, then he wrote a note to his pastor, who he thought would understand. He feared his family would turn from God once they were confronted with a world full of evil and poverty. So he only had one option to ensure they arrived safely in heaven.

He wasn't willing to suffer the earthly consequences of his actions, so in efforts to baffle the police, he cleaned the crime scenes and used scissors to remove his face from every photo in the mansion.

He canceled deliveries and contacted his children's schools to let them know that they would be on vacation for a few weeks. He turned the lights on in the home and left religious hymns playing in the house's empty rooms.

He slept in the mansion where his family was lying dead before he walked out the following morning and disappeared for 18 years.

A month passed before neighbors grew curious about the constantly burning lights and empty windows, they suspected something was wrong at the mansion.

When police entered the home on December 7th, 1971, they heard organ music piped through the intercom system. They also found the five-page note that John List explaining that the bodies on the ballroom floor were his family members, all killed out of mercy. He thought he saved the people he loved most.

The FBI found List's car parked at the Kennedy International Airport in New York City, but they never found him.

18 Years Later

In 1989, New Jersey prosecutors had a plan.

Frank Bender, expert forensic artist, created a physical bust of John list as Bender imagined he might have looked aged. He gave him a hawk nose, grizzled eyebrows, as well as horn-rimmed glasses. Psychologists theorized that List would be wearing the same spectacles he wore when he was a young man to remind himself of the more successful days.

It was a spot on depiction of John List. When America's Most Wanted aired the story of List and his murders on May 21st, 1989, 22 million people saw Frank Bender's sculpture. That was when tips came pouring in.

A woman from Richmond, Virginia, thought he was her next-door neighbor, Robert Clark. The man had a striking resemblance to the bust and she said that he was also an accountant that attended church.

Authorities then went to Clark's home and spoke to his wife, who he met at a church gathering. Her story put the end to the 18-year long mystery.

List changed his identity and fled to Colorado under the named Robert Clark. The alias worked and he kept it when he moved to Richmond.

The Trial

Police arrested John List on June 1st, 1989, nine days after his case was aired on America's Most Wanted.

His trail started in 1990, defense lawyers argued that the man suffered from PTSD from when he was in the military in WWII and Korea. And expert psychologists argued that he was going through a mid-life crisis. Prosecution pointed out that was no excuse to murder five innocent people.

The jury agreed that John List was guilty and he was sentenced to five life terms.

When interviewed in 2002, List said he didn't kill himself after he murdered his family because that would prevent him from getting into heaven. List wanted to be reunited with his wife, mother, and children in the afterlife, somewhere he believed there would be no pain or suffering.

List died in prison in 2008.

The mansion in New Jersey where he lived with his family burned down several months after the murders took place. Authorities never found the cause of the fire and a new home was built on the property years later.