S04 Episode 3 Extra: Listomania

Smith Barney LLC. Every hour in the US, seventy five people are reported missing. What if there was a task force dedicated to bringing them home? That's the story behind the new original drama Gone, premiering February twenty seventh on WGN America, starring Chris Nooth and Danny Pino, alongside newcomer Levin Ramin, who portrays the newest member of this elite team,

a survivor childhood abduction herself. Don't miss the season premiere of Gone Wednesday, February twenty seventh at nine eighth Central on WGN America. Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith Where for the weeks in between episodes, we look at the stories that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the show. In last week's episode, I See You, we took a stroll down the leafy

sidewalks of Westfields Boulevard in New Jersey, USA. It was there that, in two thou fourteen, Maria and Derek Broadus bought what they hoped would become a forever home for themselves and their young children. The proposed move soon turned nightmarish when an anonymous scribe in themselves the Watcher, began wreaking havoc with a series of increasingly bizarre and sinister letters addressed to the hapless couple. The content of the letters was enough to scare off the Broadesses, who were

forced eventually to abandon their move. To this day, the identity of the Watcher remains a mystery, and their house, which had been put back on the market, remains unsold. Incredibly, however, for such a quiet and seemingly pleasant town, the chilling tale of the Watcher pales in comparison with that of

Westfield's most infamous form a resident. Not many people notice the man in the smart, dark suit, carrying a briefcase in one hand and a rolled up newspaper in the other as he took a seat in his usual spot at Westfield train station. It was there he would sit in the autumn of nineteen seventy one day after day, arriving dressed for work around nine, yet seemingly content to just read the paper for almost eight hours before getting

up to leave shortly before five. Certainly, nobody could have quite imagined the thoughts that were running through his head every day for the previous month. The man John liszt Ate breakfast with his wife and three kids and his mother, who also lived with the family in their grand, nineteen roomed three story mansion on Westfield's Hillside Avenue. Having finished, he would routinely wish them all a good day, then stepped confidently into the street before heading off to work

at the Jersey City Bank. What he hadn't told them was that he had been laid off weeks ago, and so instead he did what he had done every working day since and headed to the local train station with his tie perfectly placed and a briefcase swinging in his hand. On the morning of Monday, November seventh, however, he had a change of heart after waving his children off to school.

Lizzt calmly waited for his wife Helen to take a seat at the kitchen table as she drank her morning coffee, then quietly collected his nine millimeter sty a handgun and shot her through the back of her head. Next, he grabbed some sleeping bags from a storage cupboard and spread them out across the boards of the house's opulent ball room. Picking his wife's dead body from the kitchen floor, he dragged it through to the other room and laid it

out on top of the sleeping bags. Returning to the kitchen, he filled up a bucket of hot water and methodically mopped the floor clean of blood, using kitchen towels to pick up the rest of it. Having finished the task, he made his way to the third floor, where he found his eighty four year old mother, Alma, confused as to why her son had not yet gone to work.

When she asked what all the noise had been earlier, John replied that it had come from somewhere in the garden and he had just come up to check that she was okay. It was only then that she saw the gun in his hand. Before she could react, he shot her at point blank range in the face, just above the left eye, then walked back down to the living room and waited. Sixteen year old Patricia was the

first to arrive home from school. Minutes later, she too was dead, also shot at point blank range in the faith before her body was dragged and placed next to her mother's. Thirteen year old Frederick was shot dead a short time afterwards, mere seconds after entering the house. His body was also placed next to his mother's in the ballroom.

Having cleaned the house again, List jumped into the family car and made the short drive south to the Westfield High School sports field, where he watched, waving and cheering, as his fifteen year old son, John Junior played in a soccer match. Collecting him after the game. There was little sign of just what List had done earlier in the day. After letting his son into the house, first, List waited for him to head into the kitchen before

following behind and shooting him in the back. It would take another eight bullets before List was satisfied that his son was dead. As he had done with his wife and other children, List dragged his son's body to the ball room and laid it down next to the others. Then covered up all of their faces. Finally, as a great sense of relief washed over him, List made lunch. After spending one final night in his house. The following morning,

List fled the scene. A few days later, letters arrived at the children's schools and their part time jobs, explaining that the family would be out of town for a few weeks, staying with Helen's mother in North Carolina. With John also having stopped their milk and paper deliveries and revute the mail, there was little to be gleaned from outside the pretty mansion of the horrors that were contained within. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you

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dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. It was some weeks after John List left his home that neighbors on Hillside Avenue began to wonder why the lights at number four three one appeared to stay on all day and night. Then slowly, as each individual bulb began to flicker out, until finally the house was dark once more, it started to dawn on them that something was very wrong. It was one

cold day in December. After fielding a number of calls from concerned neighbors, the two local officers finally paid a visit to the property. Stepping up to the hauch, they could just about hear the faint sound of a radio playing from inside, some sort of religious station from what they could gather. However, when they rung the bell, the officers got no response. After trying again to no avail, the pair eventually decided to force open the door and

instantly caught a whiff of something putrid from within. Delicately unholstering their guns, they eased opened the door and tiptoed inside, Moving slowly through to the kitchen, One of the officers noticed something strange about the various family pictures dotted about the house. All of them had the father's face cut

out of them. Moments later, following the fetid smell into the living room, the horrific truth of it all was finally discovered, and the lives of the many residents of Hillside Avenue, and indeed the entirety of Westfield, New Jersey, would never quite be the same again. It wasn't long before police tracked Liszt's car to the parking lot of New York's j f K Airport, but here the trail

went cold. Despite the mounting of a nationwide man hunt, the former father of three had completely vanished into the air. Eighteen years later, in May nineteen eighty nine, after being approached by New Jersey's law enforcement, producers of the TV show America's Most Wanted agree to feature a recounting of the List family murders in a last ditch attempt to

throw up any new leads. Included as part of their presentation was a clay bust that had been specially sculpted by expert forensic artist Frank Bender to give an impression of what the fugitive List might have looked like at

that time. The following day, police received a call from a resident of Denver, Colorado, who thought the sculpture bore a striking resemblance to her former neighbor, a gentle church going man named Bob Clark, who had moved with his wife to the town of Midlothian in Virginia the year before. A few days later, police officers entered the offices of an accounting firm in Richmond, Virginia, where Clark worked as

an accountant, and arrested him on suspicion of murder. Clark denied all knowledge of the crimes until finally, after being confronted with irrefutable evidence, he eventually confessed that he was in fact John List. As it transpired, List had never boarded a flight from j f K Airport after all, having only left his car there as a diversion before taking the train out of New Jersey toward Colorado and eventually settling first in Denver before moving to Virginia in

nineteen eighty eight. List's second wife knew nothing of his past life. In April nineteen ninety, John Emil List was convicted of five counts a first degree murder and sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment, one for each family member he murdered. He died eighteen years later at the

age of eighty two. Back in December nineteen seventy one, when forensic officers were picking their way through the List family home, they found a five page letter made out to the family's pastor, in which John List attempted to explain his motivations for murdering his family, Aside from his financial concerns at having lost his job and wanting to save himself and his family from the embarrassment of it all, it appeared that Liszt, who was a devout Lutheran Christian,

had also become disillusioned with his wife and daughters growing disenchantment with the church, a feeling which was exacerbated by his daughter's burgeoning interest in studying drama, which he saw as a threat to his Christian ideals. It was Liszt's committed belief that he had to act before the family's Christian credibility became so compromised that his wife and children

would no longer be eligible for admittance into Heaven. When asked by a journalist in two thousand and two if he had considered taking his own life after murdering his family, he replied that he hadn't, simply because, as is taught by the Bible, committing such an act would have prevented him from being admitted to Heaven himself and reuniting with his family there, which he was still very much looking

forward to. It is an argument unlikely to elicit much sympathy from anyone, and yet for a committed believer such as John, one that could also be argued makes its own logical but tragic sense. John signed off his letter to his pastor, please remember me in your prayers. I will need them whether or not the government does its duty as it sees it. I'm only concerned with making my peace with God, and of this I am assured

because of Christ dying even for me. PS mother is in the hallway in the attic, third floor she was too heavy to move John. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements have Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith.

Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained. Every hour in the US, seventy five people are reported missing. What if there was a task

force dedicated to bringing them home? That's the story behind the new original drama Gone, premiering February twenty seventh on WGN America, starring Chrisnoth and Danny Pino, alongside newcomer Levin Ramin, who portrays the newest member of this elite team, a survivor of childhood abduction herself. Don't miss the season premiere of Gone Wednesday, February twenty seventh at nine eighth Central on WGN America. Now, it's time to take care of yourself.

To make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video any time between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's t e l a d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast