The sadness of what has been going on around us is only compounded by the chilling irony that today marks the 80th Anniversary--yes, 80!!!!!!!--of Kristallnacht. Known as the "Night Of Glass," it was a, if not THE, starting point of the Holocaust, when a bunch of thugs and Nazi sympathizers tossed stones, shattering the glass windows of the stores of Jewish business owners. Simply because they were Jews.
As a Christian, married to a Jew, and, on behalf of all my Jewish friends, past and present, I am offended by what has transpired recently, and horrified that things occurred so close to this anniversary. I thought something like it could never happen again, but now I am not so sure.
I thought lessons had been learned after November 9, 1938, and once the war ended. But now I wonder.
Sadly, this is also the 47th Anniversary of The John List Murders, which took place in Westfield, New Jersey, on this date, back in 1971. List helped define the term "family annihilator," and set the gold standard in that field--and that is not a compliment.
He started off the morning by shooting his wife and his mother. When the kids came home that afternoon, he shot them one by one--first Patty, who was 16, then Frederick, 13. He then went to watch his son, John Jr. 15, play in a soccer game. He drove the boy home, tried to shoot him inside the house, John, Jr. was the only one who put up a fight, and it is too bad he did not survive. Then List, who planned to kill himself, but couldn't, went on the lam for years, being apprehended in 1990. He was convicted, and died in prison. When he died, on March 21, 2008, his family was waiting for him on the other side, to slap him across the face, and I hope they gave it to him good.
He came from a domineering mother, who controlled him so that he was so rigid he could not bend to change. This resulted in a series of jobs and losses. Having, before the murders, felt he hit rock bottom, he would hide out at the Westfield train station, pretending to go to work, but faking it, Eventually, facing dispossession and welfare, he felt his family would be better off dead, which was his rationale for the killings. But he was too narcissistic to take his own life, which makes him a greater monster than he already is.
He even started an new life in the Midwest, marrying a woman named Delores Miller, and working for a paper plant, and active in Lutheran church activities, under the name Bob Clark. However, he was starting to bottom out again, meaning, had he not been caught, Delores might have been his next victim. I have no doubt she would have been. He had that part of his act together.
I am sure the town of Westfield has not forgotten. And neither shall I.
List is being meted justice.
I hope his victims are now at peace.
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