One tragic footnote to this crime - when the List mansion was finally sold, it was discovered that the solarium roof and windows were original Tiffany glass and worth at least $500k - although List’s written reasons for murdering his family were religious in nature, I can’t help but think that a financial windfall like that would have pulled him back from the brink.
I’ve never believed it was religious. I think he was just trying to justify himself - using religion to do it was just a touch more creative than the average thug.
He was in terrible debt, robbing his mother, and then shot his whole family and took off. Made a new life and married another woman. Then he says, ‘I did it to spare them’.
I don’t care how many pages he wrote. Filthy lucre was the motive. There’s not a lutheran sunday school class in the world that teaches its good to murder your family to spare them poverty.