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You're listening to a morbid network podcast.

Hello and welcome back to Cult Leader. I'm your Cult Leader, Spencer Henry, and Cult Leader is a podcast about cults and crimes and hot dog my dog.

Which I just feel they need to clarify because sometimes people will comment like, I didn't know who hot dog was and because I haven't followed you on Instagram and then I just always heard you yelling hot dog and well, the hot dog's my dog.

Oh man, oh man. What a day, what a week, what a month, what a year. I feel like this year has like partially flown by but then also like is just dragging every day. But it's all good. We're alive. We're happy.

I'm going to actually go off topic for a second because I had an annoying day over the weekend and I'm going to give you some advice because I'm the Cult Leader. I want to help you basically a situation arose where somebody that I know told me something negative that somebody else I know said about me was I bummed sure. But it's nothing serious. It takes a lot to get me like actually upset because when it's other people's opinions.

It just doesn't just doesn't really phase me. But I am sharing this for a reason and the reason is that when somebody comes up to you and tells you something that somebody else has said you need to not only look at the person who said it you need to look at the person who's telling you because both of them are exhibiting just negative behavior. My mom always told me you need to look at the messenger and it's true because why would you tell somebody something if it's only going to make them feel bad and it's not like going to serve as a resident.

It's not a solution for anything. That person is not having your back. You know what I mean? I guess that's what I'm trying to say. The person telling you is not having your back by telling you they're displaying just like emotionally immature behavior half the time. I don't know who needed to hear that but I'm sure one of you did and I just wanted to kind of speak that into existence. I feel like when you put things like that in the universe they stay out of your head better. But don't worry about me. I'm fine. I think I understand myself pretty well, which is helpful in times like this.

And I know better than to get upset over dumb shit. Okay. All right. We good. Okay. You feel that you'll take that with you on a lighter note. I went and I shipped out all of the merch and now I can just relax and tell you all an awful story.

It was just Father's Day. So I want to talk about a dad who was a real piece of shit. And when I first read about this story I was like, oh yes. Another day, another murder to read about by the end. I was like, what in the fuck?

I'm pretty sure some of you have sent me this one before. But there's not a ton of information out there on this case. It's mostly just like recycled articles, yada yada yada. So I'm going to keep it short and sweet. But don't worry because I got a lot to say about it.

So we're going to talk about the man of the hour. John List. He was born in Bay City, Michigan on September 17th, 1925. And he was the only child born to German American parents, John List senior in his wife Maria.

The household was fueled by religion. His parents were devout Lutherans. And so both John and his father kind of really took roles in the church. At one point they were both Sunday school teachers. They took the word of God like very seriously.

As the only child he had all eyes on him. He had to work really hard in school. And it was a relatively strict upbringing. His parents were both originally from Germany. And if you know anything about Germans, they do not fuck around.

In 1943, we're going to fast forward a little bit. He graduates from high school and a then 18 year old John enlisted in the US Army serving in the infantry as a lab technician during World War II.

He gets discharged in 1946. And he enrolls in the University of Ann Arbor where he graduated with his ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba bachelor's degree in business administration. And the masters in accounting.

He was like a real number sky. I could never in November of 1950 as the Korean War started to escalate. John was called back to active military service. And he served at Fort Eustace in Virginia. And it's here where he meets this woman Helen Taylor.

She was a semi recent widow. Her husband had been killed in action in Korea. And she was living nearby with her daughter Brenda. John and Helen hit it off. They started dating. We get a relationship. He really kind of took a liking to her daughter Brenda. And they got married on December 1st in 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland. Afterwards, the family then uprooted and moved to Northern California where John served as an army accountant.

So he finishes up his second tour with the army in 1952. And after he's released, he acquires a job at an accounting firm in Detroit. Not long after that, he moved to work as an audit supervisor at get this a paper company in Kalamazoo.

Okay, so he's working at this paper company. And it's while they're living there in Kalamazoo that wish like, come on, Kalamazoo, that's not a place. But it is. It's in Michigan. John and Helen.

Three children are born. And so there's Patricia that comes first. And then a few years later, they have John Jr. And then a few years later, they have Fredreg. So to friends and neighbors, the list family really had it all. They had these four beautiful children. Yes, four don't forget Brenda from Helen's first husband.

All four of the children were there. John was like selling at work. And by 1959, he was the head supervisor for the company's accounting department. So he's doing really well at work. Helen was a little loose on the juice. If you know what I mean, she loved an alcoholic beverage.

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