Reporters Rebecca Everett, left, and Jessica Remo read letters by John List, provided by a relative of the recipient during a June 2021 meeting at a Home Depot in Richmond, Virginia.

Father Wants Us Dead, NJ Advance Media’s examination of the 1971 John List murders and their legacy, was the culmination of a year-long effort.

Reporters Rebecca Everett and Jessica Remo reached out to more than 100 people associated with the case and interviewed nearly 50 of them. They also pored over hundreds of pages of documents obtained from the FBI, police and prosecutors. 

The result is this award-winning, nine-episode serial podcast, as well as a 15,000-word investigative retrospective into the depraved crime published in The Star-Ledger newspaper and on NJ.com in December 2021.

The reporting in this project is primarily based on interviews with the following sources:

Family, friends and neighbors: Tim Syfert, Dr. Bill Cunnick, Rhonda Conway, Susan Jankowitz, Ed Saridaki, Chris Day, Charles Jones, Rick Baeder, David Baeder, Ellen Brda, Brion Devlin, Dave Devlin, Dana DeVoe, Juliet DeVoe and Craig Stock.

Those involved in the investigation, capture and trial: Bernard Tracy, Robert Kenny, Jeffrey Paul Hummel, Kevin August, Randy Neidecker, John Walsh, David Baugh, Brian Gillet, Michael Mitzner, Steven Simring, Alan Goldstein and William L’E. Wertheimer.

Those who knew List, including in his second life: Kathleen “Kay” Ciarfello, Randy Mitchell, Les Wingfield, the Rev. Joseph Vought, Ludwig “Lou” Silbermann, Jerome Kendall, George Corbett, Harry Camisa, Pamela Brause, Burton Goldstein and Wendy Collins. And additional sources: Gabe Gluck, Robin Kampf, Edward “Chip” Saresky Jr., Gail Wittke Houston, Michael Stone, Paul Doros, Martin Eidelberg, and Frank Chupko, as well as several sources who asked that their names not be used.

Secondary sources include investigative files from the FBI, Westfield police and the Union County Prosecutor’s Office; Simring’s report from his psychiatric evaluation of List; letters provided by Wendy Collins and the family of Wally Parsons; archived news articles from The Star-Ledger, The Courier-News, The Daily Journal, The New York Times and The Richmond Times-Dispatch; and the book “Collateral Damage: The John List Story” by John List and Austin Goodrich. Family photos from the book were also used with permission from the Goodrich family.

Reporters conducted additional background research, including from the following books: “Death Sentence” by Joe Sharkey, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” by Mary S. Ryzuk, and “Righteous Carnage” by Timothy B. Benford and James P. Johnson.