Those under 30 may not remember a time before reality TV. But before “The Real World,” “Survivor” or even one of the earliest reality shows, “COPS,” there was “America’s Most Wanted.”
A gamble of a show on a new, long-shot network called Fox, “America’s Most Wanted” went from airing on a handful of affiliates to attracting over 20 million viewers each week across the country.
Whether or not you liked the earnest show filled with lurid reenactments of gruesome crimes, the formula got results for law enforcement. And it was because of the people at home — sitting on their couches, seeing the faces of wanted men and calling the suspenseful show’s hotline.
That’s why in 1988, detectives at the Union County Prosecutor’s Office knew they had to get the infamous John List murder case on “America’s Most Wanted.” They had desperately searched for 17 years for the man who killed his entire family in the bucolic suburb of Westfield and then vanished.
The latest episode of NJ Advance Media’s investigative true crime podcast about the List murders, “Father Wants Us Dead,” rides along with those detectives and through production of the show that had tip line phones ringing into the night on May 21, 1989. The first six episodes of the podcast are now available wherever you get your podcasts.
The List family shortly after its move to Westfield in 1965. John List, left, and at right, Helen List with their children, Patricia, Frederick, center, and John Frederick, right.File photo/family photo from “Collateral Damage” by John List and Austin Goodrich
It proved to be harder than expected to get List’s face on TV — and not just because no one had any idea what that face looked like so many years after he vanished in 1971 as part of his horrific plot to kill his mother, wife and three kids in their mansion.
John Walsh, the original and most famous host of “America’s Most Wanted,” takes podcast listeners through the challenges the show faced and why his FBI contacts were so desperate to crowd-source the search for List — at that point, the feds’ third-longest running fugitive case.
Based on information gleaned from nearly 50 interviews and hundreds of pages of police and FBI documents, “Father Wants Us Dead” is an in-depth and chilling narrative from two reporters with more than 25 years of combined experience.
The first six episodes of “Father Wants Us Dead” are available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can subscribe on those platforms to be alerted when new episodes drop. Episodes, photos and other information are also available at fatherwantsusdead.com.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com.
