John List 1971

 He was a quiet accountant, a devoted churchgoer, and by all appearances, an ordinary family man. But behind that carefully maintained image, John Emil List was hiding financial ruin, desperation, and a deadly plan. In 1971, he murdered his entire family, vanished without a trace, and lived under a new identity for nearly two decades before his capture. This is the chilling story of one of America's most infamous family annihilators—and the long hunt that finally brought him to justice. 

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Hello, listeners. Welcome to Case by Case. This is a true crime podcast for educational purposes only. Nothing that I say is intended to be disrespectful or offensive to anyone. I research and rant. If that sounds good to you, let's carry on. For our first episode, we are going to be discussing John Emil Bliss. John was a family annihilator. A family annihilator is defined as a person who kills multiple immediate family members. They also have the statistics that 74% of family annihilator cases are murder suicide. And there is no comprehensive data that exists on family annihilators as a whole. So this is still something that research is kind of ongoing about. Now let's go back to John Blitz himself. So this particular case is going to take us to Westfield, New Jersey, on November 9th, 1974. The victims of this case are going to be Helen, age 46, who is the wife of John. We are gonna have Patricia, age 16, who is John's daughter. We'll have John, age 15, who's John's son, Frederick, 13, also John's son, and Alma, 85, who is John's mom. Their bodies were discovered December 7th, 1971. So they were discovered almost a month after their death. John was born September 17th, 1925, in Bay City, Michigan. Again, his mom was Alma and his dad was John Frederick, which I thought was absolutely cute because his sons were John and Frederick. So one had his dad's first name and the other one had his dad's middle name. And I just thought that was super cute. I was like, oh my gosh. Too bad he's an evil SOB. Uh it was said that his mother was overprotective of John. Uh, I'm not sure if that was just like religiously strict or if she was just like super mean or anything, because it really doesn't say that, but she was overprotective. So uh growing up up until he went to high school, John didn't have any friends, and it was also said that he didn't like leave his street, like he would go outside, but he really didn't leave his like immediate area. High school, he did have some friends just out of a kind of rebellion, like he didn't do too much, but he had friends, but he did not have any girlfriends. So it was like, I'ma have friends, but I ain't gonna do too much. I ain't gonna have no girlfriends. Um, and then once he graduated, he went to the army, he was a second lieutenant, and he went into World War II. Uh after leaving World War II, or after leaving the army, he didn't just leave World War II. Um, so after uh getting out of the army, he got his bachelor's in admin or administration, and then he got his master's in accounting from the University of Michigan, which is like, oh, that's super cool. Look at you, successful, and then you turn out to be what you are. It's so weird how like these people are just so normal at a moment's time, right? It's just like everything is going well, and then something just happens, and then you're not anymore. Like, what is that, right? And that's a thing where like psychology is so fascinating because when does that happen? Where does the snack occur? And why does it occur? Like, how are you so normal? What is the seemingly thing that you have? Are you wearing this mask forever, or does something happen? Like, where is your true color? You see what I'm saying? But anywho, so he marries Helen in 1957, and so he's about the age of 26 at the time. Approximately four years after that, they go on to have Patricia, and then the following year they have John, and then about two years later, they'll have Frederick. Um, excuse me. I have read different things about the job that he has, and so I'm not really sure what his job was. But the common thing that I've seen is that he does work at Jersey City Bank. Now, the two positions that I've read is that he's either an accountant at Jersey City or he's the president at Jersey City. I don't know which one, but either one, it don't even matter because Homie was making bank regardless. Um, so he moved the children, his wife and his mother into a 19-room house in Wessel, which is of course where unfortunately they all um lose their lives. Uh, side note, because I forgot to mention this or didn't mention it, um, Helen had a child previously to meeting John. So she's a widower. Her husband died in the Korea War. And so she actually wind up meeting John because of the base that they were stationed in. Uh, and that's how she came to meet him. Um, and I think it was a year before the murders occur occurred that um the her daughter got married and wind up moving out of the house. So she wasn't, she wasn't in the house at the time that that that this happened. Um, but I'm pretty sure if she was home, unfortunately, she would have fallen victim to John's stupidity. Um, but yeah, that was just a little side note. So let's go back into uh John's chaos. So John loses his job, right? And I don't know how many of you know about family annihilators, but that seems to be the beginning of the story of family annihilators. Like if it's not that they lost their job, it's that they're cheating. Like those seem to be the two main reasons that people decide that their family has to go. It's crazy. But so he loses his job. Um, and then due to his upbringing as um Lutheran, I believe I say I'm saying that right. Um, so due to his upbringing as a Lutheran, and then I'm sure also just the societal standards that we place on men being the providers and the protectors, um, because of those things, he was just like dead set on the fact that he's a failure because he can no longer provide for his family. Uh, and this led to him hiding the fact that he was unemployed. He would actually pretend that he was going to work. Where was he going? I don't know. You know what I mean? I don't know. You just went sitting in your car for eight hours a day, nine hours a day. What are you doing? Um, but that's what he was doing. However, he was still a Sunday school teacher and a Boy Scout leader. Um, so it wasn't like you're just like some failure who's not doing anything. Like you still, you're still a pillar of the community authority. So I'm sure you could have found something. You know what I mean? You're an accountant. People need somebody to crunch their numbers. You know, you could have, you could have done done anything. Even the Boy Scout people need accountants. So I don't know if he just wasn't looking for another job or if he was just like, I lost this job, so now everything's over. Um, I don't really know what he's doing, but regardless of which, she's unemployed, and so he's just like, oh, there it is. Life is over for them anyway. Uh so he was really strict with his children the same way his mother was strict with him. And this plays a part into why he decided to kill everybody. Like it's crazy. So, of course, this is 1970, right? And so this is like the era of Afro's and peace and love and all of these things, right? And you know, a little smoky smokes, okay? Freedom, love is everywhere. And so he felt like this free-spirited stuff was going to corrupt his children, okay? They're all gonna be out here doing drugs, they're all gonna be out here uh sex positive. And he was like, no, not my kid. That's not how this is gonna work. So because he feels like a failure, he can't provide for his family, because he um, you know, his children are gonna be out here sex positive. Um, and you know, his sons are gonna be uh, what is it? What were they doing? Protesting for he was like, no, they they they're gonna be corrupted. And so I have to save their souls, so they have to die. That's exactly what he thought needed to happen. And when I say exactly what he thought needed to happen, he did an interview with Connie Chung, and his words were it was my belief, this is verbatim, okay. I've even put it in quotes. It was my belief that if you kill yourself, you won't go to heaven. Okay, remember, he didn't kill himself. This is not a murder suicide, and because, of course, it's religion. Now, this is this is a little side note for me. I have heard many religious people say that committing suicide is the ultimate sin. And I believe that the reason that they say this is because you cannot repent or ask for forgiveness after your sin has been committed, of course, because you are dead. So that's my understanding of it. If I'm wrong, let me know. But it that that's what I gather from what happened. Uh, he goes on to say, um, he so I eventually got to the point where I felt that I could kill them. Hopefully, they would go to heaven, and then maybe I could have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness. Okay. And then I'm gonna skip forward just just a little bit, just just a little bit, because they did find a note after discovering the bodies. They found a note that John wrote to his pastor. It was five pages where he discussed the evil of the world and how he killed his family to save their soul. And no, sir, no, sir. Yes, there's evil in the world, there's always gonna be evil in the world, but in this case, the evil was not in the world, the evil was in the house, and it was you. You were the evil, you terrified your family, you took the lies from your family, you didn't even give them the right to their own free will, you didn't give them them the ability to to walk away from temptation. You see what I'm saying? So you're you're the evil in this case, anyways. So his family was discovered um again, almost a month after their death. They were discovered because neighbors were concerned about the light in the house. So I guess the lights were turning off, and uh they were like, Well, we haven't seen anybody moving in and out of the house. So why would the light be cutting off? And I'm assuming this is just like the bowl going out, maybe because why are the lights cutting off? That was weird to me. Um, also, one of Patricia's teachers, her drama teacher Abelie, was concerned about her absence. Now, I didn't grow up in the 70s, okay? So were the 70s just like a different time when it came to schools? Did they just not err about children's attendance? Because shouldn't the the school itself be concerned about why these three children are not in school? Is that not how that worked at that time? I don't know. But anyway, press it on because I don't understand. So the police went in and there was music playing, and that's where they found the bodies of um the five individuals. Uh, and unfortunately, I'm gonna be a little a little graphic here. Um, so Helen was, they were all shot. I don't know if I've if I said that, but they were all they all died from gunshot. Um, Helen was shot in her right temple. Alma was shot above her right eye, or I'm sorry, her left eye. Um, Patricia was shot in her jaw, but it went to her brain. So she was killed instantly. John, John put up a struggle. So John was shot 10 times, and he was shot in the head and then the chest, and then Frederick was shot in the left temple. So, um, yep. And like I said, they were discovered because of neighbors being concerned about the light, and so and and Patricia's drama teacher. Um, and so they found them deceased, and I already told you about the note that John left the pass her. So let's go on to his capture because John has a lot going on. He just he's doing the most and he's pissing me off. Okay. John has officially pissed me off because again, you lost your job, but you're an accountant. You have a uh bachelor's in administration, you have a master's in accounting. And you mean to tell me, sir, you can't find not a single damn job. I don't believe you. I do not believe that you couldn't find a job. I believe you lost your job. I believe you woe to me, and I believe that you then thought to yourself, I can't, I failed, and that's it. That's it. And then you were done. It's you could no. Okay, anyway, his capture. So he fled, of course. He dyed his hair, he went to Virginia, he changed his name to Rob Clark, and he got an accounting job. Wow. Interesting how you got a job, John. Sounds like you could have got another damn job, John. I don't understand. I feel like if you went to Helen and you said, yo, babe, I lost my job. Something tells me Helen would have been like, okay, let's see what we can do. I feel like it would have been all right. I just I there's just something in me that it would have been okay. But no, not you, not you, John. You big dum dumb. So he got in a calm chain job and then he got married again. He married a lady named Dolores. So in 1989, America's Most Wanted. I loved America's Most Wanted. Love, love, love America's Most Wanted. I was super excited when they said that they were gonna redo the show. Uh, so I watched it the very first episode when it re-aired, but I didn't like the whole holographic thing that they were doing, like uh the hologram, not holographic, the hologram thing that they were doing and stuff. They made it super high tech. And I mean, I get it. I get it. We're in the era of technology. I just didn't like it though. It didn't satisfy what I wanted it to satisfy. So I stopped watching it. But that original America's Most Wanted was my that was it. That was my jam. So, anyways, Americans Most Wanted had a forensic sculptor by the name of Ben Frank Bender and a criminal psychologist by the name of Richard Walter on their show. So they were showing pictures of John in his mid-40s to Bender for him to recreate a bus. And so, you know, a bus is just like the sculpture from the head to you know, like the shoulder area. And they had Walter do a theory of a physical profile of what John would kind of look like. So after recreating the bus, Walter from Bender, Walter was like, Oh, and he's probably gonna wear some rimmed glasses to make himself appear successful. Because, you know, the rimmed glasses made everybody look successful. So a woman in Richmond, Virginia, she wind up calling and being like, yo, that looks like Robert. And Robert lives near me. So I think y'all should go check him out. Cause yeah, I think that looks like him. Go get them. So um John was arrested on January. Nope, I'm a liar. John was arrested on June 1st, and fingerprints proved that he was in fact John Lis. Of course, like I said, he was going by Robert Clark. So his fingerprints prove you're not Robert Clark, you're John Liz. Who do you think you're fooling, sir? So in 1990, um, he went on trial. And so they had a psychiatrist, you know, check him out, make sure he wasn't suffering from any type of nothing, you know, do their due diligence. And so the psychiatrist was like, oh, he has he's suffering from midlife crisis. So that basically means you need to go to hell because midlife crisis. Yo, dumb ass damn. Uh, so he was sentenced to five life terms because that's what you get. That's what midlife crisis get you. Okay, get you to jail. Uh, he tried to appeal with PTSE from World War II and the Korean War. They were denied. I he also tried to say that the the um the note that he sent his hazard should have been confidential. It shouldn't have been something that everybody was able to see. But I do believe um, because the it wasn't him who gave it to the pastor, it doesn't hold confidentiality because there is a claw, like a thing between you and your pastor, I believe, where they can't tell the things that you confess to them. I think I don't know. I know, like, of course, there's something between you and your therapist, as long as you aren't telling them of a crime you're going to commit, they can't tell or something like that. I don't know. I might be talking out my ass right now, but anywho, I believe that's why they could because he didn't give it to him. Anyways, John died on March 21st, 2008, at the right old age of 82 of pneumonia, and so that is the case on John Bliss. It is very sad to me that John took the lives of his entire family um and snuffed out like his children were 16, 15, and 13. They had so much life ahead of them. Um, and I just can't believe that you were able to see the children that you were supposed to guide through their lives, right? You are the person who is supposed to ensure that they succeed, and you did not do that, you took their possibility of success away from them, and then the mother who sought you through your success, you took her light too. That is crazy. That makes no sense to me, and then you did it all in the name of bathing their souls, sir. What are you talking about? And then you're sitting here like I'm a fail failure, I lost my job, and then as soon as you leave, you go get another job. What is wrong with you? I just there's no part of me that believes he couldn't go find another job. Everything in me says that I don't even know if you lost your job. You might have quit your job, you might have quit, or you know what, you probably didn't lose your job. You probably lost your job because you're a nut. That's why you lost it. That's exactly why you were probably in it at your job viewing this whole evil in the world, this free spirit 70s situation, and you probably were out here talking about the fact that you don't like the fact that people are doing this, that, and the third, and blah blah blah blah blah. And they were like, Hey, you have to evolve with the way the world is working now, and you couldn't get down with it, and so they let you go, and you know what I mean? Like you just couldn't deal with it. Ugh. Anywho, that was the case of John Lisp. Um, I hope his family was able to rest peacefully. Um, it's very unfortunate again that their lives had to end so soon, especially for the person who took their lives to live until 82. You were able to live until 82, and you didn't get arrested until 1989, and you killed them in 1971. Ugh. That's well, I hope that I satisfied you enough to the point where you will come back for episode two, where I will be covering a very popular case. So I'm not really sure how much information I can give you that you don't already have, but I will try to cover um a few popular cases. I'm not gonna try to do too many popular cases because, again, there's not much more I can give you that you don't already know. Um, but I will be covering the very unfortunate inside Chris Watt case, uh, just because I want to get that one out the way. All right. I hope you have somewhat of a wonderful day if you can, because you know, true crime is heavy, so don't listen to it too much. Do some palette cleanser. All right, stay safe.