COLLATERAL DAMAGE: The John List Story

by Austin Goodrich

To anyone who ever knew him, including fellow prisoners, John List comes across as a kindly and gentle man. Deeply religious he never missed church, never swore and never had a woman until just before marriage. But there was something wrong with him. He couldn't recall anything about the 41 days of combat he experienced in Germany as an infantryman in World War II. He couldn't seem to hold a job for long and he had trouble dealing with the problems of his teenaged kids. Then in 1971, seemingly out of the blue, List murdered his mother, wife and three children in cold blood, and fled to Colorado to live, work and remarry under an assumed name. Diagnosed as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, it now appears that both John List and his victims should be listed as collateral damage of war.To order iUniverse books call 1-800-288-4677 ext.501, or bookorders@iuniverse.com

Genres: True Crime

130 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2006

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been interested in the John List story, so I thought who better to get the story from than John List himself. Well, it was definitely an interesting read (albeit with a LOT of typos), and it made me think that he is definitely on the crazy side of the fence! It was interesting to learn about his background and his supposed rationale for what he did...but he is still a murderer in my book!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of John List eternally fascinates me. Not the part where he guns down his wife, mother and three children. Instead, it's the part where he disappears for eighteen years after committing his crime. I have read maybe four books on the subject of the murders, but this is the first rendition told in (ostensibly) John List's own words.

I don't know what a genuine mass murderer should sound like, but John List is intelligent, well spoken, and actually somewhat philosophical about his life and crimes. He relates details about his upbringing, and it comes across as restrictive and stifling as other true crime authors have told. His details of the murders are straightforward and clear. The same is true of his life story after the murders. It's a different world now from the one into which List disappeared, but for all that, I find it very hard to believe that this was not a cold-blooded, premeditated crime. He uses his Christianity as his main shield. He laments that his syphilis stricken wife has demanded to be removed from the local Lutheran church attendance rolls. He further repeats the part of his confession letter in which he avers that he feared for his children's souls if they continued down the path they traversed at the time of their deaths. Finally, he insists that his mother knew in full exactly how he fudged her finances to pay his own bills. To add to his poor li'l me self-portrait, he testifies that he suffered from PTSD as a result of his experiences in WWII.

His fellow inmates attest to his gentle manner, his intelligence, and his ease in getting along with others. But I find it hard to believe that John List was a man who turned into a momentary monster. If anything, he was a monster hidden beneath the veneer of a man, who was unleashed just in time to engineer a tragedy, one that a real man with a true conscience would have had the integrity to forestall.

As a sidebar...I have seldom read a book of any length with so many typographical errors in it. List's co-author, Austin Goodrich, may have left the errors in the text for the purpose of full disclosure, but to me as a reader, the abundance of errors suggests a monster trying to convince people that he is misunderstood. I have nothing personal against Mr. List, but it does disturb me that I had many difficulties throughout two marriages and in raising three children, yet I somehow managed to grow through all of the troubled times and emerge from them without murdering anybody. List promises that many of the authors who have written about him got many of the details about him wrong. As far as I'm concerned, this autobiography reinforces what they say, and reveal List as the boogeyman he really is.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.

I like to read memoir and true crime and so this was a good combination. I didn't mind all the grammatical errors -- It made it pleasantly creepy. I would say John List is a fascinating combination of autism, PTSD, and narcissistic personality Disorder with a touch of sociopath thrown in for good measure. His relationship with his mother reminds me of Norman Bates in Psycho. Despite all this, he's a really likable guy in a strange way. And good for him for evading the law for nearly 20 years. It's truly amazing when you think about it. This book is boring at times, lacks any insight or answers to questions, but still - an excellent book. I bought this after reading a book written about him.

[Michelle McAlindin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found in a free little library - read it as sadly Kohn List was part of my life growing up - read like a high school essay and the man gets no sympathy from me - 1.5

[Juliana Gray · Rating 1 out of 5]

A self-serving POS, written by same.