Editing John List (section)

===Murders===
List killed his family: his wife, Helen, 45; his children, Patricia, 16, John, Jr., 15, and Frederick, 13; and his 84-year-old mother, Alma. He first shot his wife in the back of the head and his mother once in the left eye, while his children were at school. When Patricia and Frederick came home, they were shot in the back of the head. John, Jr., the elder son, was playing in a soccer game that afternoon. List made himself lunch and then drove to watch John play. He brought his son home and then shot him once in the back of the head. List saw John twitch as if he were having a seizure and shot him again. It was later determined that List had shot his elder son at least ten times.

List then dragged his dead wife and children, on sleeping bags, into the ballroom of his ramshackle 19-room Victorian home. He left his mother's body in her apartment in the attic and stated in a letter to his pastor that "Mother is in the attic. She was too heavy to move." In the letter, List also claimed he had prayed over the bodies before going on the run. The deaths were not discovered for a month, due to the Lists' habit of keeping to themselves. Moreover, List had also sent notes stating that the family would be in North Carolina for several weeks to the children's schools and part-time jobs and had stopped the family's milk, mail and newspaper deliveries.

The case quickly became the second most infamous crime in New Jersey history, surpassed only by the [[kidnapping]] and murder of the Lindbergh Baby. A nationwide manhunt for List was launched. His car was found parked at Kennedy Airport, but there was no record of him taking a flight. The police checked out hundreds of leads without results.