American Notes CRIME

The murders were carefully and diabolically plotted. By the time the bullet- riddled bodies of John List's mother, wife and three children were discovered in Westfield, N.J., in December 1971, the quiet accountant had been missing for nearly a month. It took authorities 18 years to catch up with him, and then only through a TV crime show.

Last month Fox Television's America's Most Wanted program reported on the case, featuring a sculptor's bust portraying List, now 63, as he would appear today. A tip to the program's hot line led FBI agents to Robert Clark in Brandermill, Va., an accountant who bore a striking resemblance to the sculptor's guesswork. Fingerprints indicated that authorities had found their man. New Jersey prosecutors expect to charge List/Clark with five overdue counts of first-degree murder.