In the afternoon, he killed his children as they came home first his daughter Patty, a budding actress at 16; then his youngest, 13-year-old Frederic; and finally 15-year-old John, his namesake and his favorite. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. I did what I thought was best, she said. Id argue that religious zealotry was the EFFECT of a prior cause: mental illness. He then called his childrens school to grant them leave to visit their grandmother in South Carolina. He chose not tocommit suicide because he considered it a sin. Host John Walsh, whose own son had been a murder victim, asked viewers to call in tips. Out of the marriage that he despised, out of the family responsibility, out to a new life. 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. Ill keep searching! He told Steve Reed, a vice president of the agency, Richmond Placements Inc., that he wanted to live and work in a more vibrant economy. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, 11-year-old reads aloud from 'pornographic' book he checked out from library at school board meeting, Influencer refuses to switch business class seats so family can sit together, Chicago's top cop quits one day after woke mayor lost re-election bid, Family raises 250-pound 'dog' for 2 years then realizes it's a bear, RHOA star Drew Sidora accuses ex Ralph Pittman of cheating, mental abuse, Original Gone With The Wind script reveals secret war over slavery, cut scenes, Drake regrets disrupting someones life by name-dropping exes in his songs, Kanye West and 'wife' Bianca Censori look surprisingly happy on dinner date. John had a very normal childhood and he did not show any signs of psychological troubles. To the right of the Chinese red front door is an Amish plaque inscribed, ''Bless This House.'' Among his favorite programs, the Stefanos said, was ''America's Most Wanted,'' which on May 21 broadcast the feature on Mr. Feb. 20, 2002 -- Thirty years ago, accountant John List methodically murdered his whole family his mother, his wife, and their three children. The morning of November 7, 1971 began in a usual fashion. And that's the only time. Hopefully they would go to heaven, and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness.". He also found and read a rambling, five-page confession List had written to his pastor in Westfield. He married Helen and raised three children with her, while working as an accountant in many places, such as New York and New Jersey. Several sources in the book Righteous Carnage mentions his arrogance. The general manager of the wholesaler, Jim Roberto, confirmed that Mr. Clark had worked for him from 1977 to 1979. Clark moved in with Miller in November, 1985. So he simply erased his total history to date and started somewhat successfully again. As always, a great & engaging read. Its people who in every single act of malfeasance, twist religion to some self-serving end. Its not a good read.full of his BS and tons of grammatical errors and misspellings. Trivia. There were more problems. List was a member of the U.S. Army during the Second World War. When asked about his family, ''he would make some allusion to Michigan or Minnesota,'' Mr. Bassler added. Obituary for Bro. ''I don't say people can't change, and maybe God will forgive Bob. The familyhad bought the house for around $50,000 in 1965. Episodes, photos and other information are also available at fatherwantsusdead.com. Delores Miller in Maryland We found 34 records for Delores Miller in Silver Spring, Dundalk and 17 other cities in Maryland. Police didnt discover the bodies until several weeks later. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. "I don't know whether it was only because he was still jerking that I wanted to make sure that he didn't suffer, or that it was sort of a way of relieving tension, after having completed what I felt was my assignment for the day," List said. LOL. Until next week, cheers. It rippled through the county and state: John List, the man who had meticulously murdered his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield mansion and disappeared without a trace, was in custody. ''He came in from the other room wide-eyed,'' as if to indicate that she was not to say anything. The FBI says that Clark is the alias List developed when he fled to Colorado after the Nov. 9, 1971, slayings in Westfield, N.J., an affluent suburb 15 miles west of New York City. That, though, cant be claimed to be a bad thing in itself. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? The bodies of the three children were positioned face down, usually indicating some degree of shame or discomfort. He died in the prison hospital at the age of 82, in 2008. In addition to the financial distress, his eldest daughter wanted to become an actress, which was not acceptable by John owing to his Conservative upbringing. Soon after his high school graduation, he joined the United States Army during the Second World War, where he worked as a laboratory technician. His story was made into a hit TV movie starring JOHN List the quiet New Jersey accountant who murdered his entire family in 1971, took on a new identity and a new family and went undetected for 18 years says the killing were merely his assignment for the day., In his first TV interview since the infamous murders, tonight on 20/20 Downtown, List tells Connie Chung: Eventually I got to the point where I felt that I could kill [his family], hopefully they would go to heaven, and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness.. He then drove his son back to the house and emptied both the guns on him, shooting him in his head and chest repeatedly. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The bodies of the wife and children were on sleeping bags in the ballroom, off the kitchen. However, today we are not here to talk about the legendary singer but about his son Tamon Pendergrass. According to Mortgage Bankers Associationdatacited by the FDIC, lenders foreclose on one in every 200 U.S. homes and one child in every classroom belongs to a family in jeopardy of losing a home because of difficulty meeting mortgage payments. Lack of faith. "I knew it was wrong. In 1975, Clark joined St. Pauls Lutheran Church in downtown Denver. His dad used to go to the ball games. John and I were classmates and were on the same baseball team. Superior Court Judge William LE. When the police entered the house, on December 7th, the bodies had begun to decompose. List died at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton four days after being taken there from the New Jersey State Prison, officials told The Associated Press. If List simply admitted to his family and creditorsand the IRS thathe was in crisis, a solutionthat didnt involvehomicideand pseudonymscould have beenhammered out. He had been fired from all his jobs due to his cold demeanor and his inability to be social with his co-workers. In Loving Memory: Obituaries February 20-26, 2023 ROBERTSON COUNTY TENNESSEE: (Smokey Barn News) *Refresh this page for updates and newly listed obituaries for this week. Northwestern UniversitysInstitute for Policy Researchfound that during the subprime-mortgage-induced Great Recession,8 million Americans lost their jobs and each year lenders foreclosed on4million homes. He simply killed them to eliminate the problem and his own stress. 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. They attended church each week with List's mother, a strict Lutheran who lived with them. Little is known of Peggy, who stopped talking to her father in 1975 and hasnt spoken out about him since. Bank Vice President and Sunday School Teacher. She turned pale and kept looking at it, saying, Oh, my! Wetmore said Clark then lived in a ramshackle trailer park on the outskirts of Golden. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). ''There were just some certificates hanging on the wall from a staff accountant we used to have, but who is now deceased,'' Mr. Joyner said. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Morrison said that by 1977, Clark had begun to find work as an accountant, List's occupation before he disappeared. I guess I finally decided the only way to save them from that was to kill them.. I have to say though the wife had it coming for duping him and belittling him throughout the marriage. Over the years, the John List murders have been featured in films such as Judgment Day: The John List Story and The Stepfather. "At least I'm certain that all have gone to heaven now. Listlowered the temperature in the house, cued up some organmusic on the intercom system, and told his kids teachers that the family had gone on a trip to North Carolina. Ten days after a creepy, glass-eyed bust of John List was shown on Americas Most Wanted, Westfield residents had not heard of a single promising lead. Breaths will not be held, I say *largely* irrelevant because Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal are more than tangential to some of the issues of justice that were interested in here. Mr. Clark flew out at his own expense for an interview and obtained the job. He even had turned the thermostat down to 50 degrees to preserve the bodies.. Not sure what youre saying here. Butin a pre-Antiques Roadshowworld, he didntthink to get an appraisal and try to sellthe glass if it really existed, that is. Even from his jail cell in Virginia, where he is accused of being the fugitive John Emil List and awaits extradition to New Jersey to face charges that he murdered five members of his family in 1971, he has neither protested his innocence nor confessed his guilt. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. List, an accountant, insurance salesman, former bank vice president and Sunday school teacher, disappeared in November 1971. ''Bob talked about church things so often that he could get monotonous,'' Mr. Bassler said. Human name disambiguation pages. It was a segment on the 1971 murders, broadcast on May 21, that the authorities have said prompted telephone tips that led to his arrrest. He went on to wed again, join a new family and live in peace and anonymity for nearly two decades. Westfield police did not discover the bodies until nearly a month later. ''The tax season was coming up, and we needed somebody,'' Mr. Joyner said. "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. Delores Hall is an American stage and television actress who made her Broadway debut as a replacement in the ensemble of Hair. ''He was living meagerly, said he needed a full-time job,'' Mr. Oldson added. Why are we still having these debates? ''He said he'd been through that before and knew what I meant. That he appeared functional, maintaining a relationship and holding a job down, doesnt change this. It's a good question (subject to He says today he felt he was letting the family down. Then he went downstairs, dragged his wife's body into the ballroom and began scrubbing up the blood so the children would not realize what was going on when they got back from school. He means it. Delores Miller Clark lived a simple life in Denver before she met and married John List, who then went by the name Robert Peter Bob Clark. In a letter to Mrs. Flanery, her neighbor in Aurora, in December, Mrs. Clark wrote that the apartment ''is going to rob us of everything we own.''. Love your posts, RR! WebDelores Hazel Miller, age 82, went to heaven, Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Following the gruesome death of his family. He wrote of being under a lot of pressure, but I cant reveal anything else, Moran said. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. About a year ago, he and Mrs. Clark made a $12,000 down payment on a $76,000 slate-blue single-story three-bedroom house in the planned community of Brandermill, in the southwestern suburb of Midlothian. She had a young daughter from her previous marriage. Liberals and the US media largely composed of such conspire to present a blatently one-sided narrative. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. The Richmond friend said that Mr. Clark told him he had an undergraduate degree in accounting and a master's degree in finance, both from Michigan, and that he was a Certified Public Accountant. When Fox Broadcasting Co. aired his case last month on its Americas Most Wanted television show, more than 200 tipsters called to say they thought they recognized the former mamas boy from Bay City, Mich. Now, in his first-ever public comments about the 1971 crime, the 76-year-old former Sunday school teacher says he is waiting to be reunited with them in the hereafter. "I finally decided the only way to save them from that was to kill them," he said. At one Eventually, he took a decently paying job with a paper company at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and settled there with his family. . Not to this horrific extent but nevertheless in some way that makes me uncomfortable to be around these type of people. meticulously murdered his mother, wife and three kids. List caught the tail end of the show with his wife, who did not know his past. So true extremism of any kind always seems to hurt some innocent people. If List thought he could just hit the delete button on the fam and waltz off *and* find redemption he may be bitterly disappointed when he finds his advocate was busy for his final court appearance and hes going to have to act as his own defense. He murdered his mother, wife and three children in November 1971, due to financial distress and other issues within the family, and fled. We became friends, you might say.. By then, he was assigned to the finance corps, from where he was discharged in 1952. Any prospective John Lists of the new millenniumsurely could see that their problems were shared by countless homeowners around the U.S. and the world. ''I remember talking to him a few times about marriage, because I was having marital troubles at the time,'' Mr. Roberto recalled. One doesnt need to like the man himself Perhaps the strongest illustration of this is the mismatch between media mores and voters: the overwhelmingly liberal (anti-Trump) media being vastly unrepresentative of the people as expressed in the popular vote: Biden 51.3%; Trump 46.9%. I think you mean religious extremists. Delores Clark acknowledged at her news conference that she had dismissed the magazine article from her mind and had never shown it to her husband. He resembledthe sculpture. List would also be 63 years old now. 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 In late 1987 Mr. Clark responded to an advertisment placed in a local newspaper by a Virginia empoyment agency. Mass Murderer, Overextended Homeowner That was the only time I ever saw Bob show any anger.. The pastor, the Rev. John List was an American mass murderer, who became infamous in the 1970s for killing his mother, wife and three children. But ''around 1973'' he was working as a night cook at the Holiday Inn West in Golden, Colo., west of Denver, said Bob Wetmore, one of the few friends Mr. Clark would make in the next few years. List, including an old picture and a bust created by sculptor in Philadelphia, Frank A. Bender, that showed how Mr. I told my son-in-law to call the FBI and give them Bob and Delores address in Virginia.. ''I dismissed it because I felt it was not true,'' she said. Mr. Joyner said Mr. Clark was a hard worker who often arrived at his office, in a two-story brick building in a shopping mall across from a J. C. Penney store, before 8 o'clock and worked straight through till 5, taking lunch at his desk. Id hate to see the heatingtab for the 19-room mansion that occupied 431 Hillside Avenue in Westfield, New Jersey. In interviews in the last week, many new details have emerged about Mr. Clark's life over the last 20 years in Colorado and Virginia. It was so methodical, so cold-blooded, Moran said. The first seven episodes of Father Wants Us Dead are available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can subscribe on those platforms to be alerted when new episodes drop every Tuesday through June 21. When they entered the house, music was still playing on the intercom, but List was long gone. What on earth has your comment got to do with the price of fish? Finally, Delores shook her head and said, Thats not my husband. I then dared her to show it to Bob and ask him, but I dont think she ever did. They remember him as a quiet, kind, intensely private man who worked first as a cook, later as a bookkeeper, for small, obscure companies. Mr. Wetmore helped Mr. Clark move ''one pickup truck's worth load of stuff'' to Denver. Authorities are not certain just when List arrived in the Denver area, but one Denver man remembered meeting Robert P. Clark in Golden in early 1973, just over a year after the murders. While List wouldnt meet the legal threshold for madness, he was unquestionably deeply disturbed: mass murder as well as a later life of lies and deceit. It became apparent to me they would soon foreclose on the home and the questions of where would we go. WebJohn List may refer to: John A. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. ''I had the impression that he was barely eking out enough of a living to buy weenies and a room somewhere. ''I was afraid, just in case he was the same man,'' she said. The Downturn Laid Off and Late With the Mortgage, Gradually, Mr. Clark became less and less of an asset to All Packaging. After being out there that long, List says, I guess I got to the point where I thought well, maybe I wont be caught., In 1989, one of Lists Virginia neighbors recognized him on Foxs Americas Most Wanted.. It was 4 years ago, I believe now youll be cheering people that threaten death on The CIC and his supporters. '', ''One thing about Bobby,'' the friend in Richmond said. Work Mr. Clark switched to a restaurant in a Denver department store, and, Mr. Wetmore said, he mentioned taking a course at H & R Block and doing a little tax work to make extra money. His middle son, John Jr. who was also his favorite suffered the most brutal death. A couple of years ago I bought a supermarket tabloid that contained an article on the List murder case, she said. "I was hungry," he told Downtown, adding with a chuckle, "that's just the way it was.". "So eventually I got to the point where I felt that I could kill them. Mr. Reed put Mr. Clark in touch with Charles S. Joyner, one of the two partners in the accounting firm of Maddrea, Joyner, Kirkham & Woody in Richmond. Flanery recalls asking Delores Clark then if she thought her husband might be John List. 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