John List (murderer)

John Emil List (September 17, 1925 – March 21, 2008) was an American mass murderer and long-time fugitive. On November 9, 1971, he killed his wife, mother, and three children in their Westfield, New Jersey home, then disappeared. He had planned the murders meticulously; nearly a month passed before his family's bodies were discovered. List assumed a new identity, remarried, and eluded justice for nearly 18 years. He was finally apprehended in Virginia on June 1, 1989, after the story of his murders was broadcast on the television program America's Most Wanted. After extradition to New Jersey, he was convicted on five counts of first degree murder and sentenced to five consecutive terms of life imprisonment, making him ineligible for parole for nearly 125 years. List gave critical financial problems, as well as his perception that his family members were straying from their religious faith, as his motivations for the murders. He claimed to believe that killing them would assure their souls a place in heaven.