“Father Wants Us Dead,” NJ.com’s true crime podcast about the 1971 List family killings, is a finalist for a prestigious Webby Award, an international contest that recognizes the best in podcasting, video and other online content.
Nominees for the Webby Awards, nicknamed “the Oscars of the internet,” were chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which has been recognizing the best of digital media since 1996. “Father Wants Us Dead” is among five nominees in the category of Best Limited Series & Specials, Crime & Justice.
The winner will be selected by the academy, but “Father Wants Us Dead” is also eligible for The Webby People’s Voice Award, decided by votes from the public. Listeners can vote once on the award contest website until voting closes April 20. The winners will be announced April 25.
NJ Advance Media’s first foray into the genre is up against big podcast players including Wondery and CBC Podcasts, as well as past Webby winner “Up and Vanished.” Across all categories, the 27th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 14,000 entries from all 50 states and over 70 countries.
Pictured shortly after their move to Westfield in 1965 are John List, left, and at right, Helen List with their children, Patricia, Frederick (center) and at right, John Frederick.File photo/family photo from “Collateral Damage” by John List and Austin Goodrich
“Father Wants Us Dead” is a serial podcast reported and hosted by reporters Rebecca Everett and Jessica Remo. Over nine regular episodes and three bonus episodes, the podcast tells the story of the List family of Westfield, New Jersey, wiped out in horrific fashion by a pious patriarch with an obsessive personality and an absurd notion that they’d be better off dead than living in poverty.
Because of his careful planning, List was able to escape to start a new life and live undetected for nearly 18 years after the Nov. 9, 1971 murders.
This is NJ Advance Media’s first Webby nomination in an audio category, but just the latest honor for the podcast, which has garnered over 5 million listens since launching in May 2022.
It was named one of the top new podcasts of 2022 by both Apple Podcasts and Variety. Cosmopolitan included it among its list of “The 50 Best True-Crime Podcasts to Listen to in 2023.”
It won Best Audio Portfolio in the 2022 New Jersey Press Association awards. The podcast, which peaked at No. 4 on the Apple Podcast U.S. charts, was also a Spotify “Editor’s Pick” and recognized by PodSauce, NBC Sports and the No Road Long Enough blog, among others.
A mix of investigative journalism and true crime storytelling, the podcast digs into the man behind the 50-year-old crimes: John List, a strict father who volunteered with the Cub Scouts and taught Sunday school. He carefully plotted and executed the murders of his doting mother, Alma, 84; his wife of two decades, Helen, 46; and his three children, Patricia, 16; John, 15; and Frederick, 13.
A wanted poster for John List, provided by the FBI with notes on it, shows his photos, fingerprints and describes him as “a neat dresser.”Federal Bureau of Investigation
In a shocking, matter-of-fact confession note, List explained he had been secretly going broke and believed it would be better to send his whole family to heaven while they were still good Christians.
But List had a more self-interested motive, too. By the time authorities found the crime scene a month later, he had reinvented himself halfway across the country. Under the name Bob Clark, List started a new life, even marrying an unsuspecting woman, until he was finally discovered in 1989.
All episodes are available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, at fatherwantsusdead.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can visit fatherwantsusdead.com for bonus content, photographs and never-before-released documents from the List story.
You can vote for “Father Wants Us Dead” in the Webby People’s Voice Award here.
