True crime lovers will have the opportunity to meet podcasters Rebecca Everett and Jessica Remo – reporters and hosts of the award-winning podcast, “Father Wants Us Dead” – at the Cherry Hill library on Monday, Feb. 27.
The podcast, produced by nj.com and The Star-Ledger newspaper, tells the story of John List, a New Jersey man who murdered his wife, children and mother and disappeared. Everett and Remo will offer an overview of the case and their reporting process, and then answer questions.
Released in 2022, the podcast has nine episodes, with three more as a bonus. Adult Services Librarian Claire Thomas noted that its production came about 50 years after the murders, and 34 years after List was caught.
“The podcast was great because the two reporters, Jessica and Rebecca, tracked down a lot of people who knew them back when they lived there in Westfield and interviewed a lot of the children’s friends from when they were growing up,” Thomas said of the producers’ research on the List family.
“It was really fascinating to hear their perspectives of something, because I had already known about the case,” she added. “But nobody had really done it that way yet.”
Everett said the perspectives of people who knew the Lists was a key consideration in creating the podcast.
“I felt they were so important to the story, because you can have the police talk about how List was caught and how the killings happened, but you really have to have a sense of who these people were for it to matter and not just sound like a sensational crime story,” she explained.
“I was really excited to talk to (friends of the List children) but also was really nervous that they would say no, because it’s painful and you’re asking people to open up about this really painful event in their young lives,” Everett added.
“When you’re a teenager and something like that happens to your young friend, that’s going to be with you forever.”
Though the story of John List has been well known for decades since the crime took place, the podcast sheds light on how to this day, it impacts the community.
“I think what I took away from it is how I see it now,” Everett noted. “In the present, I can still see how much it impacts those people who lived through it, but also the community, and sort of part of the legacy of Westfield is this horror story.
“ … I think maybe today we’re not as aware of how much a crime like that and the horror of someone killing their whole family can really stay with the whole community.”
Everett and Remo will speak at the library from 7 to 8:30 p.m. To learn more, visit https://fatherwantsusdead.com. To register for the event, go to www.chplnj.org.
