Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Family annihilators have always held a particular interest for true crime fans. But that term hasn’t been around for very long. The annihilation of the family was not a notion that many believed to be a possibility. And then the world was introduced to John List.

John Emil List was born in Bay City, Michigan on September 17^th, 1925, to American-German parents who harboured a very authoritarian style of child rearing. They were active members of their Lutheran church. This religious upbringing was instilled in List so intensely, he viewed very little as being of the same importance than his relationship with the church.

By 1943, he’d enlisted in the U.S. Army and joined the infantry as a lab technician during WWII, being discharged after the war in 1946. After that, he enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in accounting. During his time in university, List was also promoted to the rank of 2^nd lieutenant in the ROTC.

In 1950, he was recalled to active military service due to growing tensions during the Korean War. While on base, he met Helen Morris Taylor in Fort Eustis, Virginia. She was a widow who lived nearby with her daughter Brenda. She found List charming – and it helped that he had a military background and a future ahead of him.

List and Helen married on December 1^st, in Baltimore, Maryland. But List wasn’t just gaining a new family – he was also gaining all of their secrets. Secrets that would lay dormant for many years to come.

They moved to northern California where List worked long hours as an Army accountant. Following his second tour in 1952, List was discharged once again and the family moved to Detroit where List worked for a local accounting firm. He was certainly working his way up the ranks in the finance sector.

Soon after, List became the audit supervisor for a paper company in Kalamazoo, where the family settled for a long while. Helen was pleased with the situation, as their family kept growing. Now settled for a while, the pair decided it was time to have children. Brenda gained three half-siblings during their time in Kalamazoo.

By 1959, List had moved up the ranks to general supervisor of the company’s accounting department. And the family certainly enjoyed the financial perks of such a position. Especially Helen, who’s demons were starting to catch up with her. Her rampant alcoholism was so severe that she was described as unstable at the best of times, and cold and vicious at the worst.

In order to get his family back on the right path – the righteous, faithful path – List moved the family to Rochester, New York. Brenda did not go with them, having married and moved out of the family home before the big move.

List became the director of accounting services for Xerox. Things were looking up – things were going back to how List wanted them to be. They were happy, healthy, God-fearing church goers. Life couldn’t possibly get any better, could it?

Oh, it could. In 1965, List had become the vice president and comptroller of a Jersey City bank. Once again, he moved his family. This time, they moved into a 19-room Victorian mansion in Westfield, New Jersey named Breeze Knoll.

List invited his widowed mother, Alma, to live with them in the attic apartment – there was more than enough room for the entirety of the List clan. The mansion included a ballroom, marble fireplaces, and a Tiffany skylight. The Lists were the very embodiment of affluence. They were living the American dream.

But trouble was just around the corner.

In 1971, List lost his job. Any other form of employment never quite seemed to work out. But he had an image to upkeep, a family to take care of, and, most importantly, a hefty mortgage to pay.

In order to keep his family from finding out his dirty little secrets, List skimmed money from his mother’s accounts to pay the mortgage and keep the mansion that he really could no longer afford.

List could not bear to tell his family of his misfortunes. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He didn’t. He fooled them all. He would leave the house at his normal time, spending the day at the train station reading the paper, applying for jobs he wouldn’t get, and napping. Then he returned home as if nothing was amiss. And his family were none the wiser. Of course, they weren’t necessarily on the lookout for red flags. Red flags that both husband and wife were trying desperately to keep from each other, and their children.

List’s marriage was falling apart. All of Helen’s secrets had come back not only to haunt her, but to bite List himself in a big, big way.

List had the misfortune of discovering that Helen had contracted syphilis from her first husband. She’d passed it on to List himself. She kept it quiet, hoping he wouldn’t notice. But now, something made sense to List. Helen had rushed the marriage, and insisted on marrying in a state that did not require a blood test in order to acquire a marriage certificate. She was securing her future by sacrificing her new husband’s health.

But Helen hadn’t been able to keep quiet for long. Her health was adversely affected in a big way. List learned the truth after Helen’s multiple hospitalizations. Her alcohol and tranquilizer abuse was not doing her health any favours.

List’s entire life was crashing down around him. Everything falling apart at the same time was a slap in the face; the ultimate contradiction to his image of a perfect, God-fearing, Christian family. This was a big, big problem. And big, big problems require big, big solutions. And List had a very big solution.

On November 9^th, 1971, John List put his plan into action. He sent his children off to school, as usual. But instead of leaving for the train station, he stayed behind. He approached Helen, and shot her in the back of the head as she drank her morning coffee in the kitchen.

Not wasting any time, List went up to his mother’s attic apartment and shot her point-blank over the left eye. He went back downstairs, and then he sat. And he waited.

He shot his daughter Patricia (16) and his youngest son Frederick (13) in the back of the head upon their return from school. As he watched them bleed out on the floor, List noticed he was famished. He went into the kitchen, stepped around his dead wife, and made himself a sandwich.

Done with his snack, List drove into town to close all the family bank accounts – including his mother’s – and take out some funds. From there, he went to Westfield High School to watch his oldest son, John Jr. (15) play soccer.

Once the game was over, List drove them home. Then List pulled out the gun, shooting at John Jr. John Jr. struggled with his father. This infuriated List. He shot his son repeatedly in the face and chest to make sure he was really, truly dead.

Deed done, List moved the bodies of his wife and children into the ballroom. He left his mother upstairs in her apartment. He then sat down and penned a 5-page confession letter to his pastor – asking him to keep this between them and the Lord.

In the confession, List explained that he thought his family was turning their backs on God. He felt they were being adversely influenced by all the wicked and all the evil in the world. He felt the only way to save them was to take their lives and send them on a safe passage up to Heaven, where they would all eventually be reunited.

After penning the letter, List scoured the home for all of the family photos. He then cut his face out of all of them. He was covering his tracks. He then slept peacefully throughout the night.

The next morning, List turned on all of the lights throughout the mansion. Every. Single. One. He then pumped a religious radio station through the mansion’s intercom. And then he fled, not to be seen for close to 18 years.

The bodies of the List family weren’t discovered until December 7^th. The family was reclusive, and a little standoffish. It wasn’t unusual not to hear from them for a few days. List had also made sure to keep away unwanted visitors.

Before fleeing, List had sent notes to his children’s schools informing them that they’d be away for a few weeks visiting Helen’s mother in North Carolina. He also made sure to cancel all milk, mail, and newspaper deliveries due to this sudden vacation. List had completely cut Breeze Knoll off from the outside world.

Neighbours reported seeing many lights, but no activity throughout the mansion. Suspicion finally set in when the lights all began to burn out one by one. Police were finally called to investigate the sprawling mansion. The FBI was called after the annihilated family had been discovered.

The FBI went full throttle right away, chasing all of the seldom leads List left behind. Investigators found his car parked at Kennedy International Airport in New York City, but had no record of List. If he’d hopped a plane, or changed vehicles, or found alternative transportation, he did it using cash on hand and a false name. John Emil List was on the run. And then his trail ran ice cold.

On May 21^st, 1989, the story of the List family annihilation was broadcast across the states on popular TV show America’s Most Wanted. Investigators gave brief details of the case, and showed the few photos of List they had prior to the 1971 purge of his image from family photos. They also showed an age-progressed clay bust provided by forensic artist Frank Bender.

With this information out to the nation as a whole, the FBI hoped for anything that would lead to the capture of John Emil List. Their hopes were soon fulfilled. A tip came in from Richmond, Virginia. The woman on the line claimed that the bust had an uncanny resemblance to her neighbour, Robert Clark.

The FBI took the lead and ran. And what they found was quite the tall tale.

After fleeing New Jersey in 1971, John List went to his home state of Michigan. From there, he traveled further west. In 1972, he settled in Denver, Colorado under the name Robert Peter “Bob” Clark and gained employment as an accountant.

From 1979 to 1986, List worked as a comptroller at a paper box manufacturer, securing his role in the finance sector once again. He joined a local Lutheran church, even teaching Sunday school for his congregation. If anything, List’s faith never wavered throughout his entire criminal enterprise.

List met Delores Miller – an Army PX clerk – during an event put on by the church. In 1985, they married. Delores had no idea the kind of man she was intent on spending her life with.

In February of 1988, List moved his family (as is his pattern, it seems) to Midlothian, Virginia where he resumed his work as an accountant at a firm in nearby Richmond.

Piecing things together bit by bit, the FBI swooped in on June 1^st, 1989 and arrested John Emil List at the accounting firm where he worked, taking him back to New Jersey to face the consequences of his actions.

List steadfastly denied his old identity, sticking to his new one like glue. However, his new identity was slowly unravelling. After being challenged with fingerprint evidence, List admitted to his true identity on February 16^th, 1990. Charges laid, List was now facing trial.

He testified that he was shamed and humiliated by his financial difficulties, and he’d lose respect if he admitted to his failings to his family. To the outside world, he couldn’t admit to his familial difficulties – that would also be hugely shameful and humiliating. These things did not fit into the authoritarian upbringing he’d experienced.

He also said that he felt betrayed by Helen’s cruel deceptions and he alcoholism. She would frequently, and quite often publicly, berate him. Just to add salt to the wound, Helen would also constantly compare List to her deceased first husband – especially when it came to their relations in the bedroom. That was no way to lead a good, Christian life, he said.

A court appointed psychiatrist agreed – to an extent. They testified that List suffered from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. His entire life was in complete disarray. He saw only two options that would restore order to his life.

One – he could go on welfare. But that was completely unacceptable. To do that would be to admit failure. And he had not been raised to be a failure.

So, he went for his only other option – he rationalized that he was doing his family a favour. He would kill them and send their souls to Heaven, saving them from the temptations that could alter the state of their afterlife.

List’s defense did nothing but paint him as the exact opposite of the image he’d tried so hard to hold onto. Rather than a provider, protector, and family-man, List was seen as manipulative, monstrous, and calculating. He looked every inch the psychopath he tried so hard to hide.

On April 12^th, 1990, List was convicted if five counts of first-degree murder. At his sentencing hearing, List denied being directly responsible for annihilating his family. He blamed it on his state of mind at the time. Superior Court judge William Wertheimer was not persuaded. “John Emil List is without remorse and without honour,” he said. “After 18 years, 5 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 was sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment to be served consecutively – the maximum sentence at the time.

List immediately filed an appeal. He claimed that his judgement had been seriously impaired due to PTSD from his past military service. He also argued that the letter to his pastor was a confidential missive between him, his pastor, and the Lord and therefore should not have been admitted into evidence. A federal appeals court rejected both arguments vehemently.

While serving his sentence, many clamoured to interview List and ask him a question that had been niggling at everyone’s minds for years. If he was so desperate to meet his family in Heaven, why hadn’t he killed himself along with them?

List answered when Connie Chung asked him in 2002, saying that he’d have been barred from Heaven for committing the most vile sin of suicide. In order to reunite with his loving, forgiving family, he couldn’t join them until it was his time. Which is a pretty self-righteous thing to say, when you’re a murderer.

Throughout the entirety of the trial, Delores maintained that she’d never had any idea that the man she married had been John List. She filed for divorce immediately after he was arrested.

List died of complications with pneumonia at the age of 82 on March 21^st, 2008 while in prison custody at St. Francis Medical Centre in Trenton, New Jersey.

And that sprawling, 19-room mansion with the Tiffany skylight? It was met with arson on August 20^th, 1972. The arson case remains unsolved.

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Sources:

John List, The Mass Murder Who Killed His Family So He’d See Them In Heaven – All That’s Interesting
Selfish Kills: Family Annihilator John List, His Double Life and Dubious Motives – Cat McAuliffe for Ranker
Killer of Family Gets 5 Life Terms – author unknown for the Los Angeles Times
Wikipedia for some filler info