
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 2, 1990                   TAG: 9004020102
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ELIZABETH, N.J.                                LENGTH: Medium

ARGUMENTS BEGIN TODAY IN LIST MASS-SLAYING TRIAL

John E. List, a buttoned-down accountant who felt his finances crumbling and family heading for damnation, fatally shot his wife, mother and three children in 1971 and vanished into 18 years of obscurity, prosecutors contend.

Eleanor Clark, an assistant Union County prosecutor, was expected to lay out the charges today in opening statements.

List's attorney, Elijah L. Miller Jr., maintains List is innocent by reason of his mental condition when the crimes were committed. Otherwise, Miller has offered little insight into what his arguments will be.

The "diminished capacity" argument allows the jury to come back with a conviction on a lesser charge.

List is accused of five counts of first-degree murder, one for each of the victims: his wife Helen, 45; children Patricia, 16, John Jr., 15 and Frederick, 13; and mother Alma List, 84.

Police found the bodies Dec. 7, 1971 after neighbors said they were worried about the family's absence and noticed light bulbs burning out in their 18-room Westfield mansion.

Inside the sparsely furnished home, church music played through a central sound system. The temperature was turned down to 50 degrees. A musty odor filled the house. And the bodies of the children and Helen List were lined up on the ballroom floor. Police found List's mother on the third floor.

Police say List, a devout Lutheran and Sunday school teacher, meticulously planned the crime, committed Nov. 9, sending notes to the children's schools and employer and even the milkman.

He also left behind a series of notes to settle his affairs, and a five-page letter to his Lutheran pastor saying he had to kill his family to save them from poverty and ensure their entry into heaven.

For 18 years, authorities kept up the investigation, seeking to contact Lutheran churches nationwide and tracking down tips around the world. But it took the television show "America's Most Wanted" to bring List back to New Jersey.

His case was detailed on the program last spring. A former neighbor of List's saw the segment and had her son-in-law call the program.

List was arrested June 1 in Richmond, Va. He had moved to a Richmond suburb, Midlothian, the previous year with the woman he married in 1985.

List almost immediately after fleeing had assumed the identity of Robert P. Clark, and lived most of his time on the lam in the Denver area.

He gradually assumed his old life, working as an accountant and joining local Lutheran churches.

by CNB