How did this man who lived in the 19
room mansion, worked as an accountant in
a bank and was a sunday school
teacher living a seemingly good life
suddenly take the lives of his entire
family
and disappear for 18 years?
This is the story of how detectives
finally caught John List
after nearly two decades. It was 1971.
John was in his late 40s when he found
himself under a mountain of debt and
lost his accounting job.
He was skimming money from his mother's
bank accounts to pay for the mortgage
while fearing that he can no longer
support his family.
He went bankrupt but refused to go on
welfare
and didn't want his family to suffer in
poverty
So he decided the only solution was to
take
the lives of his wife, three kids,
and his own mother. In his
words.. "I did it to save their souls"
He placed their bodies in sleeping bags
lining them up together in the ballroom
immediately after he wrote a five page
confession letter to his pastor
the youngest one struggled a lot and i'm
sure
many will say how could anyone do such a
horrible thing
but after it was over i said some
prayers for them all
that was the least I could do. He sent
notes to the kids school saying that the
family will be in north carolina for
several weeks to visit their sick
grandmother.
he closed all bank accounts taking the
rest of his mother's money
and stopped all mail milk and newspaper
deliveries to the mansion
john lowered the thermostat in the house
played church music from the radio
and left to start a new life
because john's plan was so methodical
and his family was very reclusive in the
first place
for over a month nobody noticed anything
it wasn't until the neighbor saw the
lights in the house burn out weeks after
and realized it still hadn't been fixed
and they finally grew suspicious the
teachers also realized that the kids
hadn't returned to class and felt
something was off
police was called and the investigation
of john list
and his family began december
7 1971 law enforcement
entered the mansion through an unlocked
window
immediately they felt how cold the place
was
and saw the bodies in the ballroom they
were all decomposing at this point
there was a trail of dried up blood
leading to the bathroom
it looked like john didn't do that well
when cleaning up the crime scene
and left the mop and bucket inside the
shower
the organ music was still playing and
soon after
they found the five-page confession
letter to his reverend
police checked all around the room and
inside one of the drawers
was the revolver and handgun he used
john list also meticulously cut out his
face
in every family photo they found
his car parked at the kennedy national
airport but
there was no evidence of him boarding
any flight
the detectives had no lead and john list
had disappeared without a trace.
1989. Although it's been nearly two
decades
the new jersey police never gave up on
this case
newspapers with his face continue to
appear with the headline
john list still not found after this
many years it was possible he took his
own life
but he could have also started a new one
far away
around this time a show called america's
most wanted
was airing its first season and garnered
a huge audience
that's when detectives contacted john
walsh
the creator of the show in hopes to get
this case on television
the plan was to tell the world about
john lewis's crime
and get someone to call in with
information on his whereabouts
however the last picture they had of him
was from 1970
nobody knew what he would look like 18
years later
that's when they hired frank bender a
master in forensic sculpting to create a
bust
of an old john list forensic
psychologists were also very important
in helping bender imagine
list's new look he carefully analyzed
the man's entire history
his upbringing his fears and his
genetics through pictures of his parents
and after many hours the physical bust
of john list
was complete it featured his hawk nose
receding hair wrinkles the sagging
cheeks
and even the same scar behind his ear
frank bender also theorized that john
list would still be wearing
thick glasses as it reminded him of his
younger
wealthy self to finish off his clay
sculpture
bender put on a pair of dark rimmed
frames
different from the ones before he became
a fugitive
and on may 29th 1989
the john list episode aired on america's
most wanted
to over 20 million households
nine days later john list was arrested
his neighbor wanda was watching the
episode when she noticed some very
striking similarities
an accountant glasses man in the 60s
with the same facial features as that of
the bust
and a churchgoer
she called the show's tip line phone
number just in case
bob clark an accountant living in
richmond virginia
remarried to a woman named dolores
miller
whom he met at a church gathering
robert peter clark real name
john list when confronted by detectives
he denied ever knowing such a man but
the evidence
was all there his fingerprints matched
the ones on the firearms he used
and magnificently he wore the exact
same thick rimmed glasses that frank
bender
had put on the bust his new wife dolores
told her story of how they met
and after finding out the truth she
divorced him immediately
for months he kept denying it but on
february 16th
1990 liszt confessed to his true
identity 18 years ago he parked his car
at the jfk
airport but instead of taking a flight
he took a train to denver colorado
to start another life under his new name
with everything finally revealed he went
on trial and the judge
sentenced him to life in prison in an
interview in 2002
they asked the list why didn't you take
your own life
his answer doing that would have barred
me from heaven
as i wanted to reunite with my family
some final facts that i found out while
researching this story was that the name
of the mansion
breeze no was burned down nine months
after the crime by an unknown group
and destroyed along with the home was a
stained glass skylight
said to be a tiffany original that was
worth a hundred thousand dollars
in 1970. in present day
this would be worth about 680
000 and this amount of money would have
cleared
john lewis stepped john walsh the host
of america's most wanted
donated frank bender's physical bust to
a forensic science exhibit which can now
be seen
inside the alcatraz east crime museum in
tennessee
hope you all enjoyed this new type of
creepy video compared to what i usually
post
make sure to drop a like subscribe to my
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guys
in the next video
