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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990                   TAG: 9005010501
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ELIZABETH, N.J.                                LENGTH: Medium

LIST GETS FIVE LIFE TERMS IN MURDERS; PAROLE NOT POSSIBLE

The consecutive sentences will keep him in jail for the rest of his life.

Concurrent life terms would have made him eligible for parole in 14 years, 11 months.

List, who did not take the stand during his trial, broke his silence, but refused to take responsibility for his crimes.

"I wish to inform the court I remain truly sorry for the tragic events of 1971," List said in a strong voice, staring straight ahead.

"I feel that because of my mental state at the time, I was unaccountable for what happened. I ask all affected by this for their forgiveness, understanding and prayer."

List was convicted April 12 of murdering his wife, Helen, 46; mother Alma, 84; daughter, Patricia, 16; and sons John, 15, and Frederick, 13.

Because of the former accountant's attention to detail in carrying out the slayings, the bodies remained in their 18-room Westfield home for almost a full month before they were discovered - from Nov. 9, 1971, until Dec. 7.

In the interim, List left New Jersey, changed his name and began a new life as Robert Clark. He eventually remarried, and worked as an accountant first in the Denver area and later at Richmond, Va.

His second wife, Delores Clark, said she was unaware of his past.

List was arrested last year after a television show re-enacted the crime.

"I think the case speaks for itself," prosecutor Eleanor Clark said Monday. "We're asking for the maximum."

Witnesses during the trial said List had written notes excusing his children from school and had the newspaper stopped. He turned down the thermostat to slow decomposition of the bodies, paid all his bills, cashed all his checks and left a note for the milkman telling him he wouldn't be needed for a while.

Then he shot his family, one by one: his wife over breakfast, his mother when she asked what the noise was, then each child as they returned from school. He left a note for his pastor and fled.

His attorneys admitted List killed his family, but said he was mentally deficient at the time, a product of a strict Lutheran upbringing with the "values and ethics of the 19th century."