The disturbing similarities with the John List affair

Ten years ago, to the day, began in Nantes one of the biggest French criminal cases: the assassination of Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès and her four children at the family home. History fascinates by the preparation of the “five methodical executions”, but above all because the father of the family has disappeared and, obviously, carefully organized his escape. Sometimes compared to French affairs
Romand or
Godard, the Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès affair especially recalls another fivefold assassination, this one American, having
hit the headlines 40 years earlier.

On December 7, 1971, in Westfield, New Jersey, the disappearance of the List family alerted neighbors and authorities. Police enter the home and find the lifeless bodies of the mother, her three teenage children and the grandmother. The father of the family, John, an insurance agent, is missing. He becomes the main suspect but remains untraceable despite active searches. It was not until 18 years later, on June 1, 1989, in the State of Virginia, that a certain Robert Clark, a discreet married man, was confused by his fingerprints: he was John List!

“The similarities between the Dupont de Ligonnès and John List affair are, in our eyes, very disturbing”, react Jean-Michel Laurence and Béatrice Fonteneau, co-authors of the book Without pity for his family, the mystery Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. The two journalists, like many others, are struck by the commonalities.

The profile, the mobile and the operating mode match

First resemblance, the profile: John List, 46, was a man without history, living in a comfortable house. His mother had raised him with a very strict religious education. Like Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. Second common point, the possible motive: at this time, John List was also riddled with debt and in professional failure. Difficulties that they do not assume to the point of hiding them from those close to them.

The criminal facts, then, are very comparable. “On November 9, 1971, John List returned from his work day,” recounts Jean-Michel Laurence. He coldly, methodically, shoots down his wife, mother and children with a gun. He attends the football match of his last son, whom he eliminates when they return home. We remember that the Nantes police officers established that Thomas Dupont de Ligonnès was killed one day behind the other victims, returning from Angers where he lived. John List is baited on the body of the youngest, shooting ten times. The body of Benoît Dupont de Ligonnès, the youngest, was also hit with several projectiles unlike the other children killed. The List family dog ​​was missing. And we know that the Nantes killer had removed the two Labradors.

XDDL was there when the case broke

The pre-crime planning of the two cases is also consistent. “List had canceled his subscription to the milk delivery man, asking the Post Office not to deliver his mail anymore; he warned the school of his children and relatives of the absence of the whole family due to moving… ”, lists Béatrice Fonteneau. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès had indeed written to his relatives to tell them that he was going to be exfiltrated to the United States. He had notified the schools, terminated the rental agreement, paid some bills and made arrangements for mail. “John List also left the lights and music on to make it look like the house was inhabited. There was the same notion of saving time, ”adds Bruno de Stabenrath, a childhood friend of the French fugitive and author of the book. The Impossible Friend. John List’s car had been left in an airport parking lot. XDDL’s was left in the parking lot of a hotel.

In fact, the five bodies of the List family were not found until a month after the crimes, giving the suspect time to faint in the wild. In the Dupont de Ligonnès affair, 17 days elapsed between the presumed date of the assassinations and the discovery of the five bodies under the terrace.

But what is perhaps even more disturbing is that the study of the past voyages of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès made it possible to show that he was in the United States when John List was arrested on June 1, 1989. ! “He was on a ranch in Texas right when the affair broke,” confirms Bruno de Stabenrath. He probably heard about it because it had a huge impact there at the time. But we can’t be sure either. “

List could not contemplate suicide

If John List has been discovered after 18 years on the run, it is thanks to a television program dealing with wanted persons: America’s Most Wanted. His aged portrait, shown on the screen, was recognized by a neighbor of the so-called Robert Clark. The latter will deny for six months to be John List and the author of the crimes, before confessing everything. John List justified the homicides by his financial difficulties. “I finally decided that the only way to save them from this was to kill them,” he said, according to an article inABC News. “I grew up with the idea that you should provide for your family and in order to do that you had to be successful at work,” he added. John List even explained why he couldn’t consider suicide. “I was convinced that if you kill yourself, you will not go to heaven,” he said. He died in prison in 2008 at the age of 82.

Will Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès also be arrested, one day, under a new identity? “For that, he will have to be confused by his DNA, which was collected on one of his clothes found inside his car,” explains Jean-Michel Laurence. This DNA is kept in an armored cabinet in the forensic laboratory, IGNA. And it is he and only he who will provide irrefutable proof that it is indeed the father of the family who mysteriously disappeared in Nantes in April 2011… ”