hi guys how are you today
my name is Bailey Syrian and today is Monday
which means it’s murder mystery and makeup Monday
if you are new here
every Monday I sit down
I do my makeup and I talk about true crime
story that’s been heavy on my noggin
if you like true crime
and you like no no no
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I don’t say like true crime
because you shouldn’t like it
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today I’m just gonna talk about this guy
named John List
have you heard of him
well you’re about to
and the guy is messed up
John List he was born in Bay City Michigan
his father whose name was also John List
I’ll just call him Father
he was a devout Lutheran and a Sunday school teacher
John List the son
he also became the same thing as his father
so a devout Lutheran
and a Sunday school teacher
in 1943 he enlisted in the US Army
and served as a laboratory technician
during World War II
and then in 1946
he was discharged
and he enrolled at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor
and he earned his bachelor’s degree in business
business as business administration
and then he got his master’s degree in accounting
so this John List guy
if you haven’t caught on
he’s pretty smart
he seems to be really good with numbers
he seems to be all there
for the most part
I mean we don’t really know
everything’s going well
right wow cool
November of 1950
the Korean War escalated
and John was recalled to active military service
and then in Virginia
where he was stationed
he met Helen Morris Taylor
and she lived nearby
with her daughter Brenda
I guess the 2 of them just hit it off
they fancied each other
and then they started dating
not long after
they got married
on December first 1951
in Baltimore Maryland
and the family moved to Northern California
while a lot of moving huh
so he’s strange to me
cause this is a side note
so he strange to me
cause like I’ve never really like
did did a big move at all in my life
maybe I should move more
cool story Bailey
wow so then in 1952
John List had completed his second tour in the Army
and he then started to work paper company
in Kalamazoo
which side note
I had no idea
Kalamazoo was a real place
oh my God Bailey
you’re so dumb
I’m gonna visit
there’s so much
I need to learn
you guys anyways
so Kalamazoo
great awesome
love that so
while living in Kalamazoo
that’s where John List and his wife Helen
kind of settled in a little bit more
and they started a family
so they had
children in 1959
it seemed like the marriage was kind of going south
it’s reported that Helen she wasn’t
she was an alcoholic
she was becoming just very unstable
she was angry
she was jealous
and she seemed to just take a lot of her anger
out on John
okay so do you remember
I think said
Helen had a daughter already
before she got married to John
and her name was Brenda
so in 1960 Brenda married
and she ended up leaving the household
and the rest of the family
ended up moving to Rochester New York
John took a job with Xerox
a lot of moving
happening right
had a lot of different jobs
but it seems like really good jobs right
so then in 1965
he accepted a position
at a bank in Jersey City
so again he moved with his wife and children
and also john’s mother
moved in with him
but they moved into this Victorian mansion
called Breeze Knoll
this Victorian mansion
is so extra like wow
a 19 room Victorian mansion
it’s beautiful it’s huge
I don’t know
what you would do
with 19 rooms
would love to know
so from the outside looking in
John seemed to be the perfect family man right
and as we all know here
it’s all a lie
to his co workers and stuff
it seemed like he had this awesome life
awesome family
amazing house
but a lot of his co
workers would say that
he was aloof
I love that word aloof
that he was aloof cold man
and he had little to no friends
people would say that
John lacked social skills
and because of his
lack of social skills
it was the reason
as to why he jumped from job to job
because he actually was losing jobs
he was getting fired
a couple of times
he got like
a promotion
but it wouldn’t last long
he just couldn’t seem to like
talk to people
before everything went down
John would leave every day
to go to work
everyone thought
he was going to work
so John would
leave the house
and he would go to the
train station
and that’s as far as he would get
he would go to the train station
and then he would sit there
and he would
spend his day
reading the newspaper
really John had lost his job
instead of just telling his family
that he lost his job
he was just like
I’m gonna go to the
train station
just sit there all day
reading a newspaper
just reading
in general and then
I’ll come home
at the end of the day
so they think
I was at work
great plan John was doing this for a while
and like the stress was just
building up
because bills are due
and who pays the bills
John everything falls on him
he’s just getting more and more stressed about this
and being honest
is just way too hard for people
you know so
the mortgage
was behind on payment
and I mean then
John finds out
that the foreclosure process has begun
and John knew
he was about to be exposed
as a failure
he’s been lying
and he needed to figure out a plan
and boy did he
make a plan
callum a fucking zoo
so get this
you ready buckle
in kitty cats
it’s a wild ride
so on November
9th of 1971
the children had left
they had gone to
school Helen
john’s wife
is sitting in
out of the 19 rooms
I guess she’s like
sitting in where
the breakfast room
or whatever
you know she’s sitting there
she’s having her coffee
John came up behind her
and he shoots Helen
in the back of the head
once John knew
that indeed
his wife was dead
John headed up the
stairs to his
mother’s room
alma who was 84
at the time
and she was living
they called it the attic
it was just like
the you know
the top room
of this mansion
her own little area
John heads up the
stairs to his
mother’s room
he goes into her bedroom
and he shoots her
right above her
left eye now
by this time
it’s a little bit
afternoon and
his daughter
Patricia who’s 16
and his son
Frederick who is 12
they arrive home
from school
and you guessed it
John sadly shoots
both of his children
in the back of the head
no words now
at this point
John even later
will say that
I’m sorry for laughing
every episode
there’s like
a moment of just like
what the fuck
where I have to laugh
but here here
this so John
shoots his wife
his mom and his 2 kids so far
and after this
he’s like hmm
you know what
I’m kind of hungry
so he goes into
the kitchen
and he makes himself some lunch
and he eats this lunch
how you eat
lunch after
just murdering
your family
that’s a different
level of crazy
that’s a level
of crazy that
I don’t want to
know what what
he made like
a Bologna sandwich
the hell are you doing
John no so once
John had finished his lunch
he then drove
to his bank
and he closed
both um like
his account
and his mother’s
bank account
he also went into his
mother’s savings account
took out all of her money
then John headed
to Westfield
High School
and this is so sad
but he watched
his oldest son
John Junior
who was 15 at the time
but he watched him play
in a soccer
game yeah again
this is a special
kind of crazy
once his son
is done with
the soccer game
he drove home
with his son
they’re just
driving home
like normal
and I guess
John is just
acting calm
cool collected
like nothing happened
which is oh
John Jr walks
into the house
and then sadly
John shot him
in the chest
and the face
John will later say that
he shot him
so many times
because this
young boy had
multiple shots
and the reason
that he shot him
so many times
was because he
tried to resist
and he tried to run away
and John just shot him
repeatedly until
he was sure
that the boy
was dead so
I guess this was
john’s plan
now okay like
this is how sick
some people
are and how
I don’t know
you guys this is
what’s weird
like this is the stuff
that really just
gets my brain
so confused
and wrapped up
in all of this
because it’s like
what how why
what there’s
so many questions
so then John calls the
kids school
and he tells them
that they’re
gonna be away
for a while
so they’re gonna be absent
and not to worry
now John considered
himself a very
religious man
so after killing his
whole family
he then sits down
and he wrote
a 5 page letter
to his pastor
after committing
the murders
which was later
found on the desk
in his study
now on this 5
page letter
it was essentially
a confession
and he explained
he was attempting
to save his
family’s souls
because then
it was the 1970s
and he believed
it became a
very sinful time
John said that
he believed
his family was
giving into temptation
especially because
his daughter
came forward to John
and his wife
and said that
she wanted to
become an actress
and John viewed that
occupation as corrupt
and linked to Satan
now side note
I don’t want
anyone to think
I am singling out
religion at all
and making it about that
whether you
agree or disagree
I’m not pointing
the finger at
at that at all
because I know that
there are a lot
of good people
who have good intentions
when it comes
to religion
and what they believe
in all that stuff
and I’m not trying
to get into
that at all
because I know
a lot of people
tend to think that
I am trying to
point the finger
at religion
and that’s never
been the case
I just kind of
mention their life
being Lutheran was
like a big part
of this guy’s life
and his reasoning was that
does that make
sense cause
there’s been
a couple videos
where people are like
you shouldn’t make it
about the religion
I’m like I’m not just
played a big role
in their life
and I’m talking
about their life
because again
there’s a lot of
good people
out there who are in
these churches
or whatever
religion and
then there are
some bad seeds
who ruin it
for everybody
if you are Lutheran
I am not singling you
out and saying
your people
are bad at all
I truly believe
in my heart
there’s a lot of
good people
out there and
unfortunately
there’s some
bad ones is what
I’m getting at
okay thank you
kalamazoo so
John then put the bodies
of his wife
and his children
in sleeping bags
I’ve also read
that he put
them on top
of sleeping
bags regardless
sleeping bags
were involved
and then he
moved them all
to like the
floor of the
mansions ballroom
when you walk
into the front door
they were all
right there
based off of
photos I saw
but he moved them all
into the same room
the ballroom
he left his
mother’s body upstairs
in the attic
where her room was at
I guess he gave up
trying to move
her downstairs
I’m laughing
because of how
ridiculous this is
now he was doing this
all throughout the night
apparently I think
at some point
he went to bed
the next day
when he woke up
he decided he
needed to cut
his picture
out of all the
family portraits
in the house
when police
did show up
eventually one day
and they needed a photo
for the wanted
poster that
they were sure
gonna draw up
they wouldn’t have
a reference
as to what he
looked like
and who he was
so he went through
every single photo
in the house
the photo drawer
or whatever
and he cut himself
out of every
single photo
after doing
that John then
turned down
the thermostat
in the house
so it was freezing
to preserve the
bodies and also
to prevent a
smell from happening
correct me if I’m
wrong on that
but I’m pretty sure
that’s what it is
and then he
turns up the radio
and then John just
banished it
took nearly a
month until
police were notified
and the murders
were discovered
it said this is
mainly because
the family really
stuck to themselves
they didn’t really
socialize at all
they didn’t
really talk
to neighbors
they didn’t
have friends
no one went to go
check on them
you know and then
also John sent
letters to like
the children’s
school stating
that the family
would be visiting
helen’s mother
in North Carolina
for several weeks
and that the
kids weren’t
gonna be in
school he also
called the school
to let them know
they weren’t
gonna be in school
John had also
stopped the
mail delivery
newspapers and
milk deliveries
you see back
in the day milk
would be delivered
to your front
door wild times
John stopped
all of that
nobody’s coming to the
house at all
now the neighbors
though they did
notice that
the mansion’s
lights were on
day and night
like they never shut off
they also noticed
like there was
no movement
happening in the
house they could
hear the radio
they saw the lights
but they didn’t
never saw people
coming in and out
they never saw
anything and
then finally
the neighbors
say that the
lights began
to burn out
one by one by
one so like
the upstairs
and downstairs
and like the
lights were
just going out
and once that happened
the neighbors finally
called the police
sometimes it’s
good to have
nosy neighbors
you know so
the neighbors
called the police
and then the police
show up to the
house they knock
knock knock
and they’re not
getting any answer
they peek through
the window and
guess what they see
that’s when
they see the
bodies laying
on the floor
so police go
into the home
and they find
all the bodies
in the ballroom
unfortunately
it took them
a while to find
the poor mother
all the way
upstairs but
they did find her
then the police
launched a nationwide
manhunt police
investigated
hundreds of
leads without
any success
all of the reliable
photographs
of John had
been destroyed
or cut out so
they really
didn’t even
have any idea
of what this
man could look
like and again
at this point
it had been
almost a month
so this John
guy he got a
pretty damn
good head start
police then
found the family
car and it was
parked at John F
Kennedy Airport
in New York
City so police
looked into
like did he
get a flight
did he get a
ticket they
could not find
any evidence
of John buying a
ticket aboard
that he boarded
a flight at all
so they think that
it’s just a ruse
so it would take
18 years for
police to learn
what happened
to John 18 years
here’s what happened
according to John
and later reports
it said that
John left his car
at the airport
so then John had
traveled by
train and bus
he had traveled by
train and bus
from New Jersey
to Michigan
and then to
Colorado so
then John settled
in Denver in
early 1972 and took
an accounting
job as Robert
Peter Clark
aka Bob which
the name of
one of his college
classmates was
Bob Clark so
it’s believed
that that’s why
he took his
classmates name
and John would say
that it was
like his friend
or whatever
and then they
interviewed
the friend the real
Robert Clark
and the friend was
like I have
no idea who
that is and
then while in
Denver he joined
another Lutheran
congregation
and he ran a
carpool for
the church members
at one of the
church gatherings
he met Dolores
Miller and he
married her
in 1985 she had
no idea about
his past life
but his real
name was John
and all that
February of
1988 the couple
then moved to
Midlo Thillion Virginia
I guess in every video
I should have like
word of the day
and have it be a word that I can’t pronounce
or I mispronounce
because every video
oh it’s all our teeth
anyways so the couple then moved to Virginia
where John and his new wife had lived
and John was now still using that same name Bob Clark
which is so weird because he must have had to like come
up with a bunch of paperwork
cause how was he getting these good jobs
and then he just kind of went back to working
as an accountant
so John may have like
lived the rest of his life and freedom
if it weren’t for the TV show
america’s Most Wanted
remember is that show still on
it should be because it was pretty damn helpful
because this show featured John
and the family killings
in May of 1989
on the show
they got a forensic sculptor
to create a head a bust
they say showing what John most likely looked like
now when america’s Most Wanted
agreed to feature the John Les case
it was considered at the time
to be the oldest case on the program
John had been missing at that point for 18 years
so it was like
slim to no chance of them finding it
but hey it’s worth a shock
and then they brought in the forensic artist
Frank Bender
and he’s the one who created the bust
what John List
would look like
to this day
so he made him look aged
frank Bender
he had great success in helping capture aging fugitives
he was the best of the best
now in order to create a bust of the aging John
Bender went
or he consulted with the forensic psychologist
in order to make a profile of of John
his sculpture showed John with like
a receding hairline
sagging jaws
and a pair of glasses
and Frank bender’s theory
was that John would use glasses to disguise himself
as someone more important than he was
which would be proven accurate
and it’s nuts how good this guy is
like he was spot on
so the show airs
and in Denver Colorado
a couple was watching and saw the sculpture thing
when they saw it
they’re like
that looks way too similar to our old neighbor
their old neighbor was John
so when they saw this on the TV they were like
pretty sure
that’s our old neighbor
so then they called a hotline
that they leave on america’s Most wanted
and they give a tip and with this tip
they were able to locate John
now when John was arrested
he was wearing the exact style of sunglasses
that sculpture forensic sculpture had envisioned
and he looked just like it
it was great
see on June 1st 1989
John was arrested at the Richmond accounting firm
after the Denver neighbor
viewed the america’s Most Wanted broadcast
and John continued to stand by his fake name
that he was Bob Clark
and he insisted that they had the wrong guy
he stood by that for a solid month
you got the wrong guy
my name is Bob Clark
finally John was faced with the evidence that they have
which included a fingerprint match with john’s
military records
and then of course
the evidence that they found at the crime scene
which was more fingerprints
and shoe prints and stuff like that
hairs DNA I mean
he lived there
on February 16th 1990
my door just like
closed on its own
oh my God anyways
on February 16th 1990
finally John confessed his true identity
he was taken a trial
and John testified
that he was faced with financial difficulties in 1971
after losing his job
now he didn’t want to share this humiliating news
with his family
so he spent each workday at the train station
reading newspapers
until it was time to come home
he ended up taking
money from his mother’s bank accounts
to avoid falling behind on his mortgage
which eventually
he just ran out of money in general
he goes on to say
that he was dealing with his wife’s alcoholism
and he really just throws her under the bus
saying that
he was also dealing with her untreated syphilis
now this is what John says
by that time
her excessive alcohol consumption and the syphilis
had transformed her from an attractive young woman
to an unkempt
paranoid shut in
that’s what John said
and he goes on to say that she would frequently
publicly belittle John
constantly telling him that his sex performance was
awful compared to her first husband
so John goes on to say that he killed his family
to spare them from the humiliation of losing their home
and because he hoped they would go to heaven
psychiatrists say that John never showed any remorse
he never cried
he never got upset
he never said sorry
later during the trial
it was confirmed that John suffered from obsessive
compulsive personality disorder
and it caused him to consider
only 2 solutions to his little predicament
he could either accept welfare
because he didn’t have a job and he was struggling
or he could kill his family
there’s no in between
John would go on to say
that welfare was an unacceptable option
because he and his family would be exposed to ridicule
he would be viewed as a failure
and accepting handouts violated his father’s teaching
yeah well I think murder
would violate your father’s teaching as well
but what do I know
so john’s goes on to say
with a controlling
alcoholic wife
and a mother who was just constantly on his case
about everything
there was only so much he could handle
before he was driven to murder
so finally on October 12 1990
John was convicted of 5 counts of first degree murder
at his sentencing hearing
he denied direct responsibility for his actions
saying quote
I feel that because of my mental state at the time
I was unaccountable for
what happened
I ask all affected for their forgiveness
understanding and prayer
end quote jeez
the judge was unmoved by this
he imposed a sentence of 5 terms of life imprisonment
to be served consecutively
which was the maximum penalty at the time
in 2002 John did an interview with Connie Chang
where she at
she doesn’t do that anymore does she
and John was asked why he didn’t commit suicide
like if you’re gonna kill your whole family
cause you’re embarrassed
why wouldn’t you just kill yourself too bro
John stated that he didn’t want to take his own life
as it would forbid him from his entrance into heaven
where he hoped to reunite with his family
which I think is such a crock of shit answer
Because murder is gonna prevent you getting into heaven
come on John
you’re not thinking
finally March 21st 2008
John died of complications from pneumonia at age 82
while in custody
their old mansion is called Breeze Knoll
it was the home where the murders took place
it was destroyed by arson
on August 20th 1972
which was 10 months after the murders
it’s believed you know
once news got out that there were murders taken place
that somebody went and like
burned it down
which is honestly
probably for the better
you know which I found this really interesting
when I was reading this article
it was like destroyed
along with this home
was the ballroom
stained glass skylight
which was rumored to be a Tiffany original
which was worth at least 100 000
at the time
which today would be worth either about 1,000,000
or well over $1,000,000
it’s unfortunate that that happened
and I’m like
you know what’s unfortunate
that the whole family died
in the house
like let the Tiffany
stained glass
skylight go
a new house was built on the same site in 1974
I wonder if they know what happened
so that is a story about John List
and the awful things that he did to his family
it’s truly unfortunate that he got to live
18 years of his life out living
but at least they caught him
and he did go to prison
but the whole thing like that
still pisses me off
thank God for america’s Most Wanted
it seems that a lot of men
not all men
okay I’m not saying that
a handful of men
truly believe that
murder is easier than divorce
and it’s disgusting
it’s so disturbing
that one’s crazy
cause this guy
you would never guess
and I feel like
that’s one thing we’ve been learning here
on my Monday episodes
the killers
never look like a flipping killer
mmm anyways
I hope that you have a very good day today
please be safe out there
make good choices
other than that
I hope you have a wonderful day
did I say make good choices
make good choices
and I’ll be seeing you guys later bye