o it’s monday and you’re dreading it, when really you should be excited because boy do I have some tea for you! How do you like yours? If you’re into true crime stories, murder and mysteries then this is the blog for you.Today’s man of the hour (or how ever long it takes you to read this lol) is John List.

John List was a Sunday school teacher who was devoted to his Lutheran faith, just like his father. He was born on September 17, 1925 (sorry Virgos, but I am NOT surprised that he was one of you) in Michigan. He was born to American parents of German descent and was their only child. He served the US army as a lab technician in 1943 and seemed like a good guy. After being discharged in 1946, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Michigan. 

Fast forward to 1950 when he met he met Helen Morris Taylor, who was a widow with a daughter – Brenda. The two got married on December 1, 1951 and here is where the tragedy began. Being that John was a devout Christian, he married Helen because she claimed she was pregnant, which she confessed was a lie after they’d gotten married. It didn’t take long before she got pregnant for real. Within four years they had three children born in Kalamazoo (the name makes me giggle). 

In 1960, Helen’s daughter – Brenda got married and moved out (and honestly this is the best thing to ever happen to her.)

John was a great accountant and would always end up with a great position but he couldn’t hold a job for long. This is said to be because the difficulties he had at home hindered his work performance. Helen would call him at work frequently saying that he was a horrible father and husband. She was an alcoholic who suffered from untreated syphilis. She would take her anger out on John (who didn’t know she had syphilis.) It is said that she contracted it from her late husband and kept it a secret. The untreated syphilis led to a brain disease causing Helen to have frequent blackouts and she would fall and bump her head. One time it was so bad that she cracked her skull and the doctors said she also had dementia. 

Helen always encouraged John to live above their means and convinced him to buy a 19-room, Victorian mansion in Westfield, New Jersey in 1965. This came after he had accepted a position as Vice President at a bank in New Jersey. John couldn’t afford the home but asked his mother Alma for a loan which she gladly gave her only child. (I mean she ended up living there too!) 

Affected by Helen’s toxic behavior, the children start doing poorly in school, Patricia expressed  her interest in becoming an actress (which her Lutheran father was against) and John eventually loses his job. His coworkers described him as a “cold man” who lacked social skills. Instead of telling his family he lost his job, John would leave the house, go to the train station and read the newspaper in his car and pretend that he’s been at work all day. (Wow I’ve never heard or seen this before) 

At this point the mortgage is behind, he had been taking money from his mothers savings account but it wasn’t enough. And before you know it boom! The house was in foreclosure and unable to deal with the humiliation or the idea of going on welfare, John comes up with a plan. 

On November 9th 1971. Helen the alcoholic was having her morning coffee and John took his gun and shot her in the back of her head. When she was confirmed dead, he went upstairs to the attic and shot his mother above her left eye as she laid in bed. When the afternoon approaches and his two children Patricia (16) and Frederick (13) come home from school he sneaks up behind them and shoots them both in the back of the head. Our deadly dad then decided to prepare himself some lunch, because you know… killing your family makes you hungry. 

Once he was full he drove to the bank and emptied / closed both his and his mothers account. After closing the accounts he drove over to his sons John jr. (15) high school and watch him play in a soccer game. (Because that’s what you do after killing most of your family, apparently) After the game, he drove his son home like nothing happened. Once they were inside John Junior spotted the bodies and his father them tried to kill him too. He succeeded after a bunch of failed attempts since John jr tried to defend himself. 

That night John took all of the bodies and placed them in sleeping bags and moved them to the mansions ballroom. However, He didn’t move his mothers body, it’s rumored that he got tired of trying to move her so he left her in the attic. Now it was clear that John planned the murders and thought about how he was going to get away with it. He cleaned the crime scene and then cut his face out of ALL the family photos, so that when police went looking for him, they wouldn’t be able to find him! (Talk about premeditated!) He turned all the lights on and then blasted the radio (on a religious station, believe it or not)  as loud as it could go. Then he left the house. Before leaving the state he canceled the milk delivery (it was the 70’s they still had milk delivered to the house), newspaper and mail deliveries and notified the children’s school / part time jobs that they’d be visiting a sick relative (Helen’s mother) for a few weeks. 

It turns out that Helen’s mom was sick and that’s the only reason why she wasn’t in Westfield during the time of the murders or else she would’ve been dead too according to John. The bodies of the List family wasn’t discovered until about a month later on December. 7, 1971. Now if you’re anything like me you’re probably wondering why or how did it take a WHOLE MONTH before anyone realized. Well as previously mentioned, John had poor people skills and Helen wasn’t so nice herself. So they had no friends, they had neighbors but weren’t familiar with them. Though it was the neighbors who noticed that all the lights were on and music was playing but there was no movement at all in the 19-room mansion. They didn’t press the issue until all the lights started to blow one by one in each room. They called the police who only checked the outside perimeters of the home and decided that there was nothing suspicious going on. On December 7th they were called again and found Patricia’s drama coach outside the house trying to get a hold of her. He was concerned because he hadn’t seen her in a month and knew that her father didn’t approve of her new interest in acting. 

He was able to convince the officers to enter the home through an unlocked window. (Because… screw warrants) and so the bodies were found in the ballroom. 

The case was huge worldwide and the manhunt was on! America’s most wanted just started airing (man I miss this show 🥺 I used to watch it on Saturday nights with my mom, omg guys I just did a google search and a reboot is coming this March! But not with the original host John Walsh… suddenly I’m sad again) and this case would be the oldest opened case on the show. Being that they had no pictures of John List it seemed as if there would be no luck. That’s where forensic artist – Frank Bender came in and saved the day! He was able to make a 3D CLAY sculpture of what John List would look like 18 years after the gruesome crimes. Let me tell you… the way the sculpture resembled John List was creepy but it helped them catch the bastard. 

Let me tell you what happened once he left the bloody mansion behind. He drove his car to the John F. Kennedy airport to make it look like he boarded a flight but what he really did was travel by train from New Jersey to Michigan to Colorado. He moved to Denver in 1972 and got a job as an accountant under the name Robert Peter Clark or just “Bob” for short. Turns out someone by that name existed and was a classmate of his back and college. However the real Bob Clark claims he has no idea who he is. (This could be true , I mean he bad poor social skills and maybe Bob didn’t notice him.) 

John List joined a Lutheran church congregation and ran a carpool for its members. He met Delores Miller at a church gathering and married her in 1985. (No, she knew nothing of his past.) The couple moved to Virginia in 1988 where “Bob” still worked as an accountant. 

John almost got away with it, if it wasn’t for this meddling TV show. In May 1989, America’s most wanted aired the episode about him with the age progressed Clay bust. His former neighbors in Denver were pretty certain it was him and called the hotline! On June 1st he was arrested at a Richmond accounting firm. He told authorities they caught the wrong guy and he maintained his innocence for months until they revealed that they had his fingerprints matched those from his military records and prints from the crime scene (guess he didn’t clean it that well.) 

On February 16, 1990 he confessed that he was indeed John List. (But we already knew that) He said that being in a financial ruin led him to steal money from his mother after being laid off from work due to the closure of Jersey city bank. He pretended to go to work instead of seeking new employment (which would have been the smart thing to do.) He encouraged his children to get part time jobs to teach them how to be financially mature when it was to hide the fact that they were growing broke. (Because of course three part time jobs held by teenagers can pay a mortgage). He also said the world was becoming more and more evil and when Patricia decided she wanted to be an actress he had to save their souls. 

According to a psychiatrist John List had obsessive- compulsive personality disorder. In his financial situation he only saw two ways out… go on welfare and be humiliated for the rest of his life or give his family a trip to heaven. Apparently going on welfare went against his fathers teachings about a man being able to provide for his family (which was easy for him, he had a stable wife and one son.) 

One of the key pieces of evidence that helped in his conviction was a five page letter he wrote to his pastor detailing the murders and his reasons for committing them that he left in the mansion… (made no sense but hey… he did it!) 

He was convicted on April. 12,1990 and sentenced to serve life in prison.

When being sentenced he showed no remorse and blames his mental state saying, 

“I feel that because of my mental state at the time, I was unaccountable for what happened. I ask all affected by this for their forgiveness, understanding and prayer.”

The audacity…

He tried to appeal his case by saying that letter was inadmissible because it was between him and his pastor! (Yet you didn’t give it to him Johnny, you left it at home.) 

The appeals court rejected that along with his claim of suffering from PTSD from being in the Military… but he was just a laboratory technician. 

John List was interviewed in 2002 by Connie Chung and was asked why didn’t he commit suicide and die along with his family. His response was that if he committed suicide he wouldn’t make it into heaven. Killing his family was a sin but at least he could be forgiven. 

Well folks! That concludes my Murder Mystery Monday. I do hope you enjoyed reading about the devil dad himself, John List.