The true account of the man who murdered his family in their New
Jersey mansion--and eluded a nationwide manhunt for eighteen years.
Until 1971, life was good for mild-mannered accountant John List. He was
vice president of a Jersey City bank and had moved his mother, wife, and
three teenage children into a nineteen-room home in Westfield, New
Jersey. But all that changed when he lost his job. Raised by his
Lutheran father to believe success meant being a good provider, List saw
himself as an utter failure. Straining under financial burdens, the
stress of hiding his unemployment, as well as the fear that the
free-spirited 1970s would corrupt the souls of his children, List came
to a shattering conclusion.
"It was my belief that if you kill yourself, you won't go to heaven,"
List told Connie Chung in a television interview. "So eventually I got
to the point where I felt that I could kill them. Hopefully they would
go to heaven, and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my
sins to God and get forgiveness."
List methodically shot his entire family in their home, managing to
conceal the deaths for weeks with a carefully orchestrated plan of
deception. Then he vanished and started over as Robert P. Clark.
Chronicling List's life before and after the grisly crime, Death
Sentence exposes the truth about the accountant-turned-killer,
including his revealing letter to his pastor, his years as a fugitive
with a new name--and a new wife--his eventual arrest, and the details of
his high-profile trial.
Revised and updated, this book also includes photos.
