Murder Suspect Sought Since ’71 Is Held

A man who has been a suspect since 1971 in the shooting deaths of his wife, mother and three children was arrested Thursday, less than two weeks after the television show “America’s Most Wanted” featured the case.

John List, 63, who had been living under an assumed name, was arrested without incident at his job in Richmond, Va., FBI agent Terry T. O’Connor said.

List, who has been working as an accountant under the name Robert P. Clark, was identified through fingerprints, O’Connor said. He was charged with five counts of first-degree murder and was being held at the Henrico County Jail. U.S. Magistrate David G. Lowe scheduled a bond hearing for Monday.

Neighbors Call Police

On or about Nov. 9, 1971, List is alleged to have shot and killed his mother, wife and three children at his Westfield, N.J., home, authorities said. The bodies were not discovered until Dec. 7, 1971, after neighbors saw lights going out in the house and summoned police.

After the slayings, investigators found that List had two mortgages on his house, was failing as a financial consultant and had been siphoning money from his mother’s $200,000 savings account. He reportedly left a five-page letter confessing to the slayings.

As many as 20 FBI agents worked on the case. There were numerous leads but officials said the trail went cold six years ago.

But since the case was featured May 21 on the Fox-TV program “America’s Most Wanted,” the FBI received more than 200 tips, including one that said a man named Bob Clark who resembled List was living in Midlothian, a Richmond suburb, O’Connor said.

A preliminary investigation showed that List married a woman in Denver in 1985 who apparently had no knowledge of his past and the couple had been living in the Richmond area since last summer, the agent said.