John List
|
|
John Emil List (born September 17, 1925 in Bay City, Michigan) is a mass murderer from Westfield, New Jersey. On November 9, 1971 he murdered his mother, three children and his wife and then disappeared. Investigations revealed that he had been suffering from financial problems due to him losing his job as an accountant, heavy expenses related to his fancy house and family problems caused by his wife's mental illness and his children's rebellious behavior.
On June 1, 1989 he was arrested while living under the pseudonym Robert Peter "Bob" Clark. He was identified by a friend who had seen a feature about him on the television program America's Most Wanted that included an age-rendered clay bust which looked very similar to List, even though he had been missing for 18 years.
In the 18 years since he committed his crimes he had been living in Denver, Colorado and Richmond, Virginia, where he remarried and started a new life and a career as an accountant. On April 12, 1990 he was convicted in a New Jersey court of five counts of first-degree murder, and on May 1 was sentenced to five life terms in prison.
It was determined later that most of his financial problems could have been solved by selling the expensive Tiffany & Co. glass ceiling inside his living room.
Trivia
- The film Usual Suspects bases the elusive character of Keyser Soze on List.
Books
External Links
- John List, famous murder - The Crime Library (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/list/1.html)