Episode 3 of The viewertitled Götterdämmerungfinds Nora (Naomi Watts) and Dean Brannock (Bobby Cannavale) digging deeper into the mystery surrounding the threatening messages appearing in their mailbox at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, NJ. While the suspect pool is practically emptying thanks to the alleged murder-suicide of nosy neighbors Mitch (Richard Kind) and Mo (Margo Martindale), Dean comes into contact with a religiously obsessed man named John (Joe Mantello) who claims to be a building inspector working with the crew remodeling the kitchen – making a sandwich for his fridge.
Finally, Dean’s private detective tells him a story about a man named John Graff, a former resident of Dean’s property who lost his lucrative job after moving his wealthy mother into his home, his wife, and his two teenage children. A flashback reveals that John Graff is the same modern-day John who made himself a sandwich in Dean’s kitchen. Graff’s psychological demise began after he lost his job and led to the transfer of money from his mother’s savings account to maintain the illusion that he was employed. Graff later killed his mother on the second floor, waiting for his daughter to get home from school before shooting her and the rest of his family. However, the storyline is not far from a real truth.
In John List, Graff is art imitating life
On November 9, 1971, John List lost his job and gradually bled out his mother’s $200,000 savings before killing her and his wife at their (yes) home in Westfield, NJ. He also ambushed two of his children when they got home from school, and is rumored to have lunch for himself in between the murders, after which he reportedly traveled to his oldest son’s football game and visited him about 10 times later that night. shot. Police didn’t find the Lists’ bodies until nearly a month later after neighbors raised concerns. John List left a note saying that he was ending their lives to protect them from an increase in evil in the world.
The humble, sweet-natured List went on the run, took on a new identity, remarried, and for nearly 18 years eluded about 22 million people to a America’s Most Wanted episode detailing his crimes. A Richmond, Virginia woman who saw the show informed authorities that she thought her neighbor, a church-going accountant named Robert Clark, looked a lot like the image of List she had seen on the program. Officers went to the man’s home and discovered that Clark was indeed John List. The infamous mass murderer was arrested in 1989, convicted and sentenced to five life terms.
Robert Blake starred as the Upset List in the 1993 docudrama, Judgment Day: The Story of John List. List died in 2008 due to complications from pneumonia.