Every so often, I will come across a story that causes me to wonder about humans and our capabilities. They unsettle me, and I struggle to understand how humans might be able to do such a thing.
It always centers on someone’s ability to do the horrific, or the terrible, or the dishonest.
I noticed this news piece that occurred on this date, November 9, 1971. It is about a Sunday school teacher, of all people.
The man’s name was John Emil List. For whatever was happening in his human brain, he decided to slaughter his entire family. This all took place in their Westfield, New Jersey, home.
Immediately following the crime, John Emil List then disappeared. The police investigating the scene quickly named List as the most likely suspect in the murders.
In the everyday life before the murders, this John Emil List was as normal as they came. He was a good father, a successful father. As mentioned, he was also a Sunday school teacher and Boy Scout troop leader.
And in their home, John Emil List was a strict disciplinarian with his children. Maybe with his wife too. He was very rigid about enforcing those rules.
And then, on November 9, the unthinkable happened. He went from person to person in his family, killing them. Reasons unknown. He shot his mother, Alma (above her left eye), his wife Helen (in the side of the head), and two of his children (in the back of their heads). Finally, he shot his oldest son several times (in the chest and face).
Once he was done, he carefully laid out their dead bodies and left the gun right beside them.
John Emil List did several things before he even killed them so that the bodies would not be found for quite some time. First, he canceled the newspaper, as well as the milk delivery. He called the post office and canceled the mail. Next, he notified the kids’ schools to tell them the kids would not be attending for a while. He said the family was going to visit a sick relative out of town.
So, the dead family was left unnoticed in the house for quite some time. And once someone did notice? John Emil List had vanished without a trace.
Eighteen years passed. Local law enforcement had pretty much given up hope for ever finding List. The whole thing was cold-cased.
But leave it to TV. America’s Most Wanted began airing in 1988. A year later, they highlighted the List Family murders on one of their shows. It aired on May 21, 1989. Of course, as with all those shows, the calls came flooding in. Most leads went nowhere. But. But. But. One viewer claimed that John List was living in Virginia under the alias Robert Clark.
As it turned out, that was him. John Emil List had taken on a new life. He got remarried. Was starting a new family.
In 1989, they arrested him and brought him back to New Jersey to face charges for the death of his family. He was convicted and got five consecutive life sentences. John Emil List died in prison in 2008 (complications from pneumonia aged 82.)
I’ve read that Most people who intentionally harm others don’t think of themselves as evil. They tend to minimize or justify their heinous actions. And according to Psychology Today:
“A disproportionate amount of violence and crime in ordinary societies is perpetrated by the small minority of people with antisocial personality traits. And an even smaller percentage are psychopaths, at the extreme end of the spectrum of antisocial traits—the ones most likely to commit sadistic acts of violence.”
There are many studies on this, and most point to statistics and generalities such as these. But I wish they’d give a reason for these brain malfunctions. Like, they were forced to eat tofu as a child. Or, their parents made them watch reruns of “Joanie Loves Chachi” during their youth. Something.
Regardless. Something takes a turn somewhere along the line. Because I don’t think any of us were capable of such things when we first come out of the womb. It all starts to happen in the learning.
And with that? Learn something good today. For the love of everybody, learn something good.
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Evil is whatever distracts.
— Franz Kafka
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Good and evil. Right and wrong.Those are two fundamental opposing concepts that define the nature of humankind.
— Wayne LaPierre
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The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
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Who murders their entire family? Who could?
