John List, killer of family, dies at 82

UPI ^ | 3/24/08

[Borges]

John List, the devout Lutheran who killed his family, left the bodies in his New Jersey home and spent 18 years as a fugitive, has died at 82.

The state Department of Corrections said that List died Friday in a Trenton hospital. He had been an inmate at Trenton State Prison since he was given five consecutive life sentences in 1990.

List, an accountant and one-time Sunday school teacher, lived in Denver for years after shooting his wife, mother and three teenage children, returning to his previous occupation under an alias and marrying a woman he met at a church picnic. By the time of his arrest, after "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment on the crime, he was living in Richmond, Va., with his second wife.

In a five-page letter left for his pastor, List said he wanted to keep his family close to God. He also covered his tracks, telling his children's schools the family was going to be out of town. The bodies, laid out in the Victorian mansion he owned in Westfield, were not found for a month.

[frogjerk]

John List, the devout Lutheran who killed his family, left the bodies in his New Jersey home and spent 18 years as a fugitive, has died at 82.

I don't consider any murderer to be devout to anything other than themselves. If he was devout he would have been an upstanding citizen trying to get into Heaven.

[Puppage]

John List, the devout Lutheran who killed his family

Ummm, being a Lutheran myself, I don't think List was very devout. What with offing his family and such.

[Old Grumpy]

He was a monster who murdered his children, his wife, and his mother. Good riddance.

[Digital Sniper]

What truly compounds the gravity of this man's slaughter of his own family is that he actively fled from justice for 18 years and remarried, which to me is the true mark of a soulless bastard.

May God have mercy on this excuse for a human being, for I can spare none.

[mass55th]

Too bad he lived so long. I’m hoping his family is able to slam the Heavenly Gates in his face, and see his descent to Hell.

[wideawake]

I hope his last days were excruciating and hopeless.

His youngest child, Fred, was a classmate of my cousins in Westfield, NJ.

They were nice kids but shy, and the murderer didn't like his children hanging out with Catholics.

This bastard murdered not just his wife and his children, but his own mother.

[Scotswife]

And now is his time to face the music...when murderers can no longer avoid their victims or the God who sees everything.

[wideawake]

What with offing his family and such.

His wife's decision to stop attending Sunday service is what made him snap.

After she told him that she and the children were not going to go to church with him anymore, he went out the next day and got a handgun permit and started planning.

[stuartcr]

It should probably say...’who appeared to be a devout Lutheran’...

[Clemenza]

List was a control freak who had lost control of his career (he was fired from his accounting job) and his family (who decided to stop attending Church). Feeling "neutered" he decided that if he couldn't control his family, he'd kill them. I'm still shocked that he didn't off his former boss.

I seem to recall that John Emil had a large collection of Tiffany glass that could have been sold to pay off his family's debts.

[Beowulf9]

“His wife’s decision to stop attending Sunday service is what made him snap.”

How much more devout can you get than killing your wife and kids for not going to church?

I hope he remembered to take his cloven hoof shine kit with him.

[raccoonradio]

Saw TV show about him—think it was one of those “Cold
Heart, Iron Hand” shows on MSNBC

[wideawake]

Also, in his farewell note to his pastor before he skipped town, he wrote that he had killed his family because they were turning away from God and he thought that killing them now would help prevent their further slide into reprobate behavior. He says that he kneeled in prayer over each body as he killed each member of his family, asking God for his guidance.

[dead]

The guy who made that model of List and aged him 18 years is the greatest genius who ever lived. It looked exactly like him, down to every detail.

The creepy thing was, it also looked exactly like my father, but it turned out not to be him, which was a relief.

[stuartcr]

When I read about people like this, I have to question my belief that God really does know the future when He creates people.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

I don’t say this often...

Good. Good riddance. About time. Turn up the heat down there.

[Puppage]

He says that he kneeled in prayer over each body as he killed each member of his family, asking God for his guidance

Well, that's better then.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Not a “Victorian mansion.” Drove by there many times when I was a kid, having friends on that street.
Again, long may he burn.

[Niteranger68]

I seem to recall that John Emil had a large collection of Tiffany glass that could have been sold to pay off his family's debts.

I believe the glass was part of the home in which he killed the family. It doesn't matter though. He would have found a reason to kill them later.