Father Wants Us Dead

50 years later, two reporters try to understand what drove John List to commit such atrocities — and the real cost.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in New Jersey to stand trial, John List makes one last attempt to stay free.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 years after the murders, a tip from an unlikely source leads authorities to John List's doorstep.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the trail gone cold, police try one last gambit to find their man.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As police frantically search for the mysterious killer, John List slips out of one identity and into another.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Step by terrible step, John List systematically kills each member of his family — and then confesses everything.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As family and financial worries mount, John List carries on an elaborate charade — all the while contemplating the unthinkable.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John List moved his family to New Jersey seeking a better life, but this seemingly ordinary accountant will turn out to be the scariest neighbor his town has even seen.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a quiet, well-to-do New Jersey suburb in December 1971, police make a shocking discovery that sends the community reeling — and launches a national manhunt for a fugitive mass murderer.

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'Father Wants Us Dead' is a serial investigative true crime podcast from NJ.com and The Star-Ledger about John List, the accountant and Sunday school teacher who killed his mother, wife and three kids in their Westfield, New Jersey mansion 50 years ago. John List left behind a confession letter, explaining why what he'd done was right, and disappeared to start a whole new life, eluding authorities for nearly two decades. The loss of those innocent lives, the horror and the fear, forever scarred this quiet New Jersey community.

New episodes will be released each Tuesday through June 21.

For more about the show or to see photos of the List family and the crime scene, visit www.fatherwantsusdead.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1971, a mild-mannered accountant and Sunday school teacher from New Jersey named John List murders his wife, mother and three children — only to disappear and begin a new life entirely on the other side of the country. Now, two veteran journalists go inside the mind of the killer, learn about the doomed family, and revisit the 18-year-quest to bring List to justice — a saga even more bizarre and twisted than ever previously reported. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices