---
title: Login
description: Discover daily, weekly, and monthly celebrations from around the world! Explore unique holidays, awareness events, and fun observances that make every day special.
canonical_url: https://marktheday.info/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly9tYXJrdGhlZGF5LmluZm8vcm9iZXJ0LWRhdmlkLWhhbGw%3D
language: en-GB
notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://marktheday.info/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly9tYXJrdGhlZGF5LmluZm8vcm9iZXJ0LWRhdmlkLWhhbGw%3D.
markdown-tokens: 836
---

> **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://marktheday.info/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly9tYXJrdGhlZGF5LmluZm8vcm9iZXJ0LWRhdmlkLWhhbGw%3D. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content.
> **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above.


On November 9, 1971, John Emil List committed one of New Jersey's most disturbing family murders, killing his wife, three children, and elderly mother inside their home in Westfield. To outsiders, List appeared to be a respectable family man, a devout Lutheran, a Sunday school teacher, and a former Boy Scout leader who maintained strict rules within his household. Behind that carefully maintained appearance, however, List was experiencing serious financial difficulties and growing personal turmoil. On the day of the murders, he systematically shot his wife Helen, his 84-year-old mother Alma, and his three children, Patricia, Frederick, and John Jr. He then arranged the bodies of his wife and children in the family's ballroom, left behind a written explanation of his actions, and prepared to disappear. Having already canceled deliveries and informed the children's schools that the family would be away, List ensured that the murders would remain undiscovered for nearly a month.

When authorities finally entered the List residence in December 1971, they discovered the five victims, but John List had vanished without a trace. Investigators quickly identified him as the principal suspect, yet extensive searches failed to establish his whereabouts. For nearly 18 years, List successfully avoided capture by adopting the name Robert Peter Clark, relocating to the South, securing employment, and eventually remarrying. The breakthrough came in May 1989 when the television program America's Most Wanted featured the unsolved murders, including a remarkably accurate forensic sculpture showing how List might have aged. The broadcast generated numerous tips, including information that directed investigators to a man living in Virginia who closely resembled the fugitive. Authorities arrested List on June 1, 1989, finally ending one of America's longest-running and most notorious murder investigations.

Returned to New Jersey to stand trial, List was convicted in April 1990 of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to five consecutive life terms in prison. During the proceedings, he acknowledged killing his family and claimed that financial pressures and his religious beliefs had influenced his actions, explanations that did little to diminish the enormity of his crimes. List remained incarcerated until his death on March 21, 2008, at the age of 82. The John List murder case became a landmark example of how television publicity and forensic facial reconstruction could help solve long-standing criminal investigations, demonstrating that even after nearly two decades, a carefully constructed false identity could ultimately unravel.