Born in an extremely strict Lutheran family, John was raised as a single child. He was born as the only child in the highly religious German-American household. 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. The new lovers wed on 1 December 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland. He says today he felt he was letting the family down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU_2xrMKO8g. Though we'd like to say that Wayne and Pilar lived happily ever after, apparently that's not the case. They were shot methodically one by one. Reporters Rebecca Everett and Jessica Remo explore the impact of the capture, meeting people in Virginia who saw List unmasked and tracking down Lists second wife one side of the infamous story thats never been told. Police in Virginia arrested mass murderer John List on June 1, 1989, a mere nine days after Americas Most Wanted aired his case. The Lists might have appeared to be the ideal American family, but everything was not as it seemed. 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. He settled in New Jersey and took a job at a local bank. [4], After completion of his second tour in 1952, List worked for an accounting firm in Detroit, and then as an audit supervisor at a paper company in Kalamazoo, where his three children were born. Dr. Sheldon Miller, who examined List after his arrest last year, described him Friday as a man who had already been hit by the loss of his job and then learned that his wife had deceived him for years about her medical condition. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. The note John List wrote excusing his children from school. He said they were going to North Carolina to visit an ailing relative. [42] In 2015, the story was covered in the season 2, episode 2 of the Investigation Discovery TV series Your Worst Nightmare. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. "I feel when we get to heaven we won't worry about these earthly things. He married Helen and raised three children with her, while working as an accountant in many places, such as New York and New Jersey. Westfield police did not discover the bodies until nearly a month later. A federal appeals court rejected both arguments. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. "So eventually I got to the point where I felt that I could kill them. He went to the post office to stop the family's mail, then to the bank, where he cashed his mother's savings bonds, checking that he got the correct interest to the penny. I was shocked to hear about Bobs arrest and what he is charged with, the statement said. [11], Breeze Knoll remained empty until it was destroyed by fire in August 1972, nine months after the murders. He says he wanted to spare them the shame of losing their New Jersey mansion and to make sure they got to heaven. Delores Clark, right, tells reporters at a press conference on June 8, 1989 that she did not believe her husband was John List. If you want to get the most Any streaming system that wants to deliver live audio must have microphones. YouTubeForensic artist Frank Bender uses photographs to sculpt an aged bust of mass murderer John List. His lawyer hopes to convince the jury that List should not be held legally responsible for the deaths because he thought he was saving his family's souls by killing them. The episode aired on May 21, 1989 (Opens in a new tab), catching the eye of a neighbor who called the police and warned Clark's second wife, who seemed "stunned." (Opens in a new tab) List was . 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.". [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. "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. "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 caught the tail end of the show with his wife, who did not know his past. Aside from a few extra wrinkles, the bust was spot on. The man I know is kind, loving, a devoted husband and a dear friend. Expert psychologists believed rather that List was going through a mid-life crisis and as the prosecution pointed out, that was no excuse for killing five innocent people. Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. But his defence was rejected and he was imprisoned at the New Jersey State Prison. [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. [12] Neighbors noticed that all of the mansion's rooms were illuminated day and night, with no apparent activity within the house. 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. He died on March 21, 2008 in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. When they entered the house, music was still playing on the intercom, but List was long gone. When authorities entered the Westfield, New Jersey house on December 7, 1971, they heard organ music piped through the intercom system. 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 coffee. By 1971, he was still leaving for work every morning, but unknown to his family he was unemployed and unable to pay the bills. Several films and documentaries have been made to cover the details of the List murders. [24][25] On June 1, less than two weeks after the broadcast, List was arrested at a Richmond accounting firm after a Denver neighbor recognized the description and alerted authorities. Then, he went to the bank to close his accounts and cash his mother's savings bonds. He lost the bank job, and a succession of subsequent jobs. He said they were going to North Carolina to visit an ailing relative. List is charged with shooting his mother, wife and three children in their Westfield, N.J. home, and authorities said he left a five-page note detailing the crime. Once inside the kitchen, John Sr. shot him in the back of the head. He spent his days at the train station reading, napping, and wondering how to get his family out of their financial mess. news, Authorities later revealed that John kept lying to his family about his jobs. He did not mention his wife, his mother, or his children. The bust created of John List, right, next to the real John List, left. Delores Miller (wife) is an American Homemaker. He worked as an accountant, bringing a stable income back to his Victorian mansion; home to himself, his wife, three children and his mother. He killed them to save their souls so they would go to heaven. A new house was built on the site in 1974. March 3 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts library said a book was recently returned with a note apologizing for the tome being 56 years overdue. 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 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. 07, 2022, 8:00 a.m. Robbins is one of Pitt-Bradford's . The morning of November 7, 1971 began in a usual fashion. He placed the bodies of his wife and . He is most remembered for Murdered his entire family in 1971. He grew up as an only child with strict German parents, he had an overly protective and domineering mother (sort of like Norman Bates). Net Worth in 2022. 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. 'It's as if you're on a race track going around and around with no way out,' Miller told the jury in Union County Superior Court. British bus driver stops to give loose sheep a lift. List's death ended a sordid chapter in Westfield's history. An aerial view of the List family home in Westfield, New Jersey. 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. Cindy wrote a book about her family, "The Cash Family Scrapbook." Cindy married three times, and shares a daughter, Jessica, with her first husband, Cris Brock. 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. Then he sat down and wrote a confession letter to his pastor explaining his financial problems. [28][29], At trial, List testified that his financial difficulties reached crisis level in 1971 when he was laid off with the closure of the Jersey City bank. 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. 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]. 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. In 1950, John List was recalled to active military service. Officers entered through an unlocked window leading to the basement and discovered the family's bodies. 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. YouTubeThe note John List wrote excusing his children from school. "I wish I had never done what I did," he told Connie Chung in 2002. [32], On April 12, 1990, List was convicted of five counts of first degree murder. Following the gruesome death of his family. John List and his family were the definition of the American Dream in 1965; they seemed to have it all. March 3 (UPI) -- A Kentucky man who stopped to buy some breakfast said he lost his appetite when he won $50,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket. 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. John was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and five terms of life imprisonment. Forensic artist Frank Bender uses photographs to sculpt an aged bust of mass murderer John List. 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. He imposed a sentence of five terms of life imprisonment, to be served consecutively, the maximum permissible penalty at the time. John had a very normal childhood and he did not show any signs of psychological troubles. List had a masters degree in accounting, but lacked social skills and had a history of losing jobs.
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