The unsolved case of the Villisca Axe House murders.

The horrific unsolved mass murders of America. 

The case took place in Villisca, Iowa during the 1900's. It was a small midwestern town with a population of 2500. But the town was thriving. In 1912 they built a publicly funded armory for storing military equipment, which was the only one in the state of Iowa. 

The town was slowly growing and evolving until it wasn't. Everything changed on the 10th June of 1912. 

Josiah Moore, a reputed businessman, along with his wife Sarah and their 4 children( Herman, Katherine, Boyd and Paul) bought a house in Villisca in 1903. They were a happy Christian family. 

The Moore family were close with their neighbors. So on 9th June, 1912 the neighborhood kids Lena and Ina Stillinger asked their parents if they could tag along with Moore's to the children's day service at the church and then later stay the night over. The parents agreed and they all went to the church together. After the service had ended, Around 9:30 they went back to their house and went to bed.

The next morning around 7:30, a neighbor decided to check on them. She found it odd how quiet the house was because normally it's very noisy during the morning. She knocked on the door but no one answered. So she started getting more and more concerned. 

At one point she called Josiah's brother and he agreed that in fact it was unlikely of them to be so quiet. Then Josiah's brother Ross decided to go to their house. He drove there and with the neighbor lady he tried to find the spare key. Once they had found the key, Ross went inside the house. At first it seemed normal but then he checked the first floor bedroom, where he found 2 figures covered in sheets and then he spotted blood on the bed frame. He ran outside and told the neighbor about it. 

They called the Sheriff and Ross also called a man by the name of Ed, who was an employee of the Moore family. When Ed arrived Ross asked Ed to check the house because it was too hard for him. Ed went inside the house and noticed that there were bodies in every bedroom. Also he may or may not have found the murder weapon which was an ax. But it was very clean and it was leaning against a wall of the downstairs bedroom. 

According to Dr. J Clark Cooper, the first floor bedroom was very brutal. They found blood and pieces of brain scattered around the place. When Cooper lifted the cover he was unable to recognize who he was looking at because of how brutally the face was beaten and that was the same for all the victims. 

Dr. Cooper noticed some very interesting things at the crime scene. Such as;

• They found a 4 pound piece of slab bacon which was found wrapped in a cloth, near the ax. 
• On the kitchen table there was a plate of uneaten food and a bowl of bloody water.
• All the mirrors of the house were covered in cloths which were taken from the victims' closets.
• There were also kerosene lamps left at the foot of the couple's bed and also the Stillinger sisters bed. 
• One of Sarah's shoes was found lying on the side of Josiah's side of the bed and it was covered in blood.

All the victims' heads were covered in sheets and their faces were unrecognizable because of how they were heavily beaten with the ax about 20-30 times. The police found cuts on the knee and arm of Lena Stillinger which she possibly got while defending herself. But the others didn't have them so it was believed that she was the only one who saw the killer. Also her night gown was pushed up but there was no sign of sexual abuse.

The police also found that all the doors were locked from the inside but none of  the windows were broken. So the killer must have had a spare key. Some others also believed that the killer was inside the house already because the police found several bags of cotton batting on the floors and inside the closet of the room where the Stillinger sisters stayed. And it appeared as if someone was sitting inside the closet waiting for the right moment.

The police started investigating and they had few suspects. There was a man by the name Reverend Lyn Kelly who attended the Sunday school on 9th June and left Villisca around 5 in the morning of June 10th. He told the travelers of the train that there were 8 dead souls in Villisca. But no one knew about the murders at the time. 

2 weeks later he returned to Villisca as a detective and joined the group of investigators who were investigating the case. He started working with them but after a few weeks he caught the authorities attention because people were coming forward about him. They said that he had a very questionable past. He'd been assigned as a visiting minister in several small communities where he got a bad reputation. He was known as the person with "odd behavior". He was also known as a peeping tom. He also had several mental breakdowns and had been to a psych ward. 

Later a grand jury indicted Kelly for the murder of only Lena Stillinger. He was interrogated throughout the summer of 1917. Then surprisingly enough, he signed a confession on August 31st where he confessed to all the murders. He stated that God had whispered to him, "suffer to the children to come unto me". But during his trial he recanted his confession. In the trial the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 for an acquittal. A second jury was brought in and again acquitted Kelly in November because of lack of evidence. 

There were also other suspects for the murders too. It was suspected that Frank Jones, a fellow business rival of Josiah, was the original killer. Although He was never arrested, but some believed that he perhaps hired William Mansfield, a serial killer who was heavily addicted to cocaine. Detectives believed that it was done by him, because the other murders he committed were very similar to the Villisca house murders. He was arrested but later released from the charges.

While another detective believed that another serial killer, Henry Moore was the one behind the murders. Because a few months after the murders he was convicted for killing his mother and grandmother with an ax. And the murders were very similar to the Villisca murders but still he was never charged for the Villisca murders. 

Some others also believed that the killer was inside the house already because the police found several bags of cotton batting on the floors and inside the closet of the room where the Stillinger sisters stayed. And it appeared as if someone was sitting inside the closet waiting for the right moment.

Regardless, the case was never solved. Now, the Villisca Axe Murder House has been placed on the national registry of historic buildings and is open for tour. Many believe it to be haunted by the 8 souls who lost their lives on 10th June, 1912.    

The tragic case of Barbara Daly

The Socialite who was Murdered by her own son 

Barbara Daly was born on September 28, 1921 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Barbara had a normal childhood. But at the age of 11 she found her father, who committed suicide in the garage. Which left a significant trauma on Barbara. After the tragic incident Barbara and her mother moved to New York and started a new life there. 

In her early 20's Barbara became a prominent socialite in New York city. Her social charisma and beauty lead her to many elite parties and events as well as modeling contracts. She was featured in magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In fact, she was named top 10 most beautiful girls in New York. And of course she had many wealthy admirers. 

All the glamor aside, in her private life Barbara and her mother were suffering from severe mental health issues. Now at the time mental health wasn't talked about and was considered "shameful". So Barbara secretly started seeing a psychiatrist by the name of Foster Kennedy. 

At one point Barbara became friends with an aspiring actress named Cornelia Baekeland. Later she introduced Barbara to her brother Brooks Baekeland, who was a trainee pilot. She kind of brushed him off but later she found out that they're filthy rich. Brooks grandfather was actually the man who invented plastic! 

Their relationship was very rocky from the get go. At one point when Brooks wanted to get out of the relationship, Barbara allegedly told him that she was pregnant. So they immediately got married because it was heavily frowned upon at the time(still is). 

After the marriage the couple started their lavish life of constant parties and social events. Barbara at this time had a bit of a reputation for outbursts and just being straight up rude. And Brooks had countless affairs.

Regardless, Barbara did end up actually giving birth to a son in 1946 and he was named Antony Baekeland. Antony, best believe, grew up in wealth and luxury but his parents were mostly never around and neglectful of him.

Antony, in his early 20's decided to travel around Europe. In 1967, he met a guy by the name of Jake Cooper who was a bisexual Australian man. They became very close friends and Jake introduced him to various kinds of drugs. 

Soon they engaged in a romantic relationship. somehow Barbara found out that her son was in a relationship with a man. This made her furious. Barbara even drove down to Antony's place and made him move back with them to Paris.

Barbara thought he just needed to meet the right kind of girls. So she set him up with one of her friends' daughter, Sylvie. Sylvie moved to their house and the 4 of them started living together. Imagine Barbara's surprise when, instead of Antony, Brooks started a relationship with Sylvie. 

So Brooks divorced Barbara and married Sylvie. And her son was still attracted to men. To her it seemed like her whole life was falling apart. 

She would even hire prostitutes for her son, but nothing was working. She allegedly went as far as  manipulating her son into having sexual relationships with her, because she was so confident in herself that she thought it would finally "fix" him. 

Tony was diagnosed with schizophrenia which he was unable to treat for his family's "status". And Barbara's actions were affecting his mental state even more. 

On 17th October, 1972 Antony had enough of Barbara. So that day he went into the kitchen, grabbed the kitchen knife and attacked his mother which killed her immediately. Barbara passed away at the age of 50. 

After his arrest he confessed to the murder. He stated that he just couldn't take the abuse any longer and it was driving him insane. To him killing her was the only option. 

Afterwards Antony was institutionalized at Broadmoor, a psychiatric hospital. In 1980, at 33, he was discharged from there. Later he went on to live with his maternal grandmother in New York. 

But it wasn't a happy ever after, because it only took him 6 days to attack his grandmother the way he attacked his mother. Fortunately, she survived even after being stabbed 7 times. 

This time he was sent to prison for life. But in 1981 Antony committed suicide by putting a plastic bag over his head. 

England's whisper killer and his house of horrors

JOHN CHRISTIE:THE BRITISH SERIAL KILLER AND NECROPHILIAC 

John Reginald Halliday Christie was born on 8th April, 1899 in Halifa, Yorkshire. John's father was a carpenter and he was the 5th of seven kids. His father was very strict and had little to no tolerance towards his kids. John was a bit of a loner growing up and was often bullied by other kids.

What really affected John's upbringing, was his grandfather's funeral which he attended when he was only 8. It was his first experience with death and John later stated that it had a profound effect on him. In his teen years he would roam around the cemetery in his past time to be closer to the dead.

At the age of 15 he left school and worked as a movie projectionist for a while. At 18 he was called up to the army to serve in WWI. 

In 1919, John left the army and joined the post office. That is when he met a woman by the name of Ethel and they got married. But apparently it didn't last very long for them due to John's infidelity. 

So later he moved to London. During this time John went to jail many times for small crimes. In 1938, the couple got back together and moved to the ground floor of 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill. 

Things were going good for them for a while but then in 1939, John was called up again to serve in WWII. This time he worked as a special constable in the war reserve police. John said that the uniform gave him a lot of power. 

In 1943, John's wife left the town for a bit. So John decided to get back to his old self. One night he brought a 17 year old sex worker home. And when she wasn't looking, he proceeded to strangle her with a rope. First he tried to dispose of the boy in his house but failed. Then he waited for his neighbors to fall asleep then he dragged her body outside and buried the body in his garden. The girl's body was found nearly a decade later.

Later he went on to work as a clerk. And there he met a 31 year old woman and one night he invited her over to his house. He made her feel comfortable before making her unconscious with coal gas fumes. Then he proceeded to assault her and later strangled her with a stocking. Then he buried her beside his first victim. 

In 1948, a truck driver, Timothy Evans along with his wife Beryl and their 14 month old moved next to John and Ethel. The couples soon became friends. One day Beryl told John that she was pregnant but couldn't keep the baby. So John told her that he can perform an abortion on her. 

But during the abortion something went extremely wrong and Beryl passed away. Many believe that John intentionally killed her. 

Weirdly enough, Beryl's husband went to the police station and told them that he had killed her and shoved her body down the drain. 

So the police went to the house to investigate. They found her body in the bathroom and they even found her 14 month child's body beside her. When the police told Timothy this he was shocked and completely flipped his story. He told them that in reality, John was the one who had killed his wife and children. 

Regardless, they took him to court and he pled guilty. In 1950 he was hanged for murder that he probably did not commit. It was said that he had a very low IQ and that was exactly what John took advantage of. 

In 1952, the couple was on very bad terms again. So on the morning of December 4, 1952 John decided to kill his wife. John strangled Ethel in her sleep and killed her. Then he buried her under the floorboards of their flat. 

Few days after, when John needed money he sold all his belongings, including his dead wife's things and started a life of full freedom. John during this time murdered more women. So, he would go out at night, bring sex workers back to his place, torture them and eventually murder them. 

It was alleged that John had sexual relations with the victims body. Later he would either stuff their bodies in the alcove of the kitchen or in the floorboards like his wife. 

In 1953, John moved out of his house of horrors and went traveling through west London. But apparently for John, when the new owners of the apartment moved in, it didn't take them long to discover the bodies. They called in the police and soon they found the bodies of all his victims. They started a manhunt for John.

But he was found sooner rather than later. One night when he was roaming around the streets a police officer saw him and arrested him. 

After his arrest John claimed that those murders were all mistakes and were all accidental. Regardless he pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity. 

John's trial began on 22nd June, 1953 and after 3 days he was sentenced to death for 4 murders. On July 15th, 1953 John was hanged at Pentonville prison.

And that was the end of the Whisper Killer of England.  

Elizabeth Bathory: History's most notorious female serial killer.

The blood countess of Hungary

Countess Elizabeth Bathory was born in a Noble family on August 7, 1560. Her father George Bathory was a very powerful man and the family owned land in the kingdom of Hungary.

Elizabeth grew up in wealth and power. Her life was almost perfect but throughout her life she suffered from severe seizures. So to treat her, many doctors back in the day performed some very disturbing treatments on her. Such as feeding her another healthy person's blood mixed with a part of their skull.

Many historians believe that these encounters with the doctors as a child turned her into the blood thirsty adult that she became later on. 

The Bathory family took marriage inside the family very seriously to maintain their royal bloodline. Even her parents were blood relatives. 

So, at the age of 10 Elizabeth was set to marry a man by the name of Ferenc Nadasdy. Imagine everyone's surprise and disappointment when, before the marriage, at the age of 13, she gave birth to a child and the father wasn't her Fianc. Regardless, Elizabeth was forced to give away the child to a local woman. 

In 1575, through a royal wedding they were married. After the marriage, they moved into Ferenc's family castle where he built a torture chamber for all her victims. When her husband would be away for work it was said that Elizabeth brought in many lovers to keep her company. 

After 25 years of marriage, in 1604 Ferenc passed away. Which gave full freedom to Elizabeth to go on a murder spree.

 

Elizabeth would torture and kill her victims in very creative ways. Her victims were mostly young girls from the ages of 10-14. These girls were poor and were lured into her castle with promises of a better life or sometimes abducted. Once in a while she would even prey on the daughters of the upper class.

So Elizabeth would bring these girls to her torture chamber and brutally torture them. The tortures included beating, burning, biting and even cannibalism sometimes. These were her source of pleasure and satisfaction, something to do in her leisure time. 

After she was done with all that, she would drink the blood of her victims and even bathe in it. She believed it was good for her health and also would keep her youthful forever. 

Elizabeth is estimated to have killed hundreds of women from 1590-1610. In her journal she stated to have tortured and killed 650 girls in the span of 20 years. For years she did whatever her heart desired and got away with it for her high social status and power.

But in 1610, all that came to an end when Elizabeth made a bold move. Elizabeth, through the help of her servants, began abducting the daughters of the Nobles. When their daughters started to go missing, the nobles did not sit quietly and started putting the pieces together. 

Count Thurzo jumped on the case and began investigating. When he went into her castle to investigate, he ended up walking into Elizabeth torturing a girl who was tied up and there was another girl who was already dead. 

So Elizabeth along with her servants got arrested. They brought everyone in custody and many people started coming forward. Many servants even stated that they saw her preying on her victims but couldn't say anything, well because they were her servants. 

Almost everyone received a death sentence, except Elizabeth herself. Because she was member of a royal family. So instead they built a prison for her inside her own castle. 

After living in house arrest for years, in 1614, at the age of 43, this vicious serial killer passed away in her sleep. 

The urban legend of the Bunny Man

 The infamous Bunny Man of Virginia

Every state in the US has their own urban legend. For Virginia, it's the Bunny man. Virginia is one of the oldest states in America, rich in culture and history as well as in unsettling urban legends. 

The legend of the Bunny Man started when in the 1970's one couple decided to go on a drive and when they parked near a bridge, they saw a man in a bunny costume. All of a sudden the man went up to them and started screaming at them to get off of 'his' property. And before they knew it they saw glass shattering so they tried to escape as fast as they could. The woman even saw a hatchet. 

They immediately went to the police station and filed a report. That is when the police started receiving some other reports about a man dressed in a bunny costume. 

Still to this day, it is believed that if one goes near the bridge during Halloween, they will most likely encounter the Bunny Man. And he'll kill them, skin them and hang them from the bridge. 

Few days after the incident, there was construction going on near the site, A security guard was doing his duty, that is when he saw a man hacking at the roof of a nearby house with an axe. The security guard called out to the man and when the man turned around, he saw that the man was dressed in a full bunny costume. But the Bunny Man threatened the security guard to get off of his property or he was going to chop his head off with the same ax.

The guard reported the incident to the police but they couldn't find any evidence of any Bunny Man. That is when the reporters jumped in and started making headlines. This is how the mysterious man dressed in a bunny costume got the name "Bunny Man".

But there are other more terrifying cases. It is said that once 3 boys went near the bridge and they started chanting the name 'Bunny Man'. The next day they were found dead, hanging from the bridge. 

According to another case, once a boy was driving through the bridge with his parents, when he suggested that they should stop there for a while. That is when he killed his family before killing himself. Some say that it was the presence of the Bunny Man that influenced him to do so.

Over 50 different people claimed they saw the Bunny Man, but the police didn't find any traces of him. So everyone started wondering who this Bunny Man really is. So there are many different conspiracies. Different articles and different sources suggest different ones.

Some believe that the infamous mental asylum of Virginia was once traveling through the particular bridge with it's patients in a bus. But the bus had been in an accident and all of the patience died except two. Douglas and Lawrence. So one day the police went to look for them. But they found Lawrence's body hung up in the woods with a morgue note tied up in his toe. And the note said "You will never catch me" and it was signed by the Bunny Man. 

So the police realized it was obviously Douglas and they have to catch him as fast as they can. During that time they started getting a lot of calls from the locals stating that they're finding dead, hanged rabbits everywhere. It seemed like he was eating those bunnies for survival but also because he enjoyed killing them. Now some believe that Douglas was fascinated with bunnies mostly because he murdered his entire family during Easter. That is why he was in the asylum in the first place. 

Now according to some sources the police never caught the Bunny Man. While some others believe that right when they were about to catch him, he ran near the bridge where he was hit by a train. But interestingly enough, they never found his body. 

So, that was the urban legend of the infamous Bunny Man. 

The unsolved case of a hidden cult

 The case of Tate and Terrie Rowland

Tate Rowland was born in a small town in Texas, called Childress. It was a very small town and Tate was popular among many. Tate was a bit of a wild child. He had quite a reputation around the sheriff's office.

 Tate also had a girlfriend named Karen. She belonged to a wealthy family and she was well known too. Tate and Karen would constantly get into fights but then soon make up again. 

One day, their fight escalated and he tried to choke her. So Karen pressed charges but it didn't go any further. But he moved to Louisiana. During springtime when he went back to town, he found out that Karen ended up getting married while he was away. He was upset, sure but he did move on quickly.

On 26th July, 1988, around 6:00 PM Tate's friend Chad went to Tate's parent's house and told them that Tate had hung himself. At first they didn't believe him because of how emotionless Chad's face was. 

 Chad took Tate's parents to the place where Tate had committed suicide. They found him hanging from a tree. Apparently Tate's dad had to take him down the tree. 

The police got to the place and Chad was the first one they started interrogating. According to his statement, around 5:00 PM that afternoon, they met around a small field area to drink some beers. Then suddenly Tate strung a rope over a tree and announced that he was going to hang himself. Chad thought that he was kidding and he went to throw a beer can away. But when he came back Tate had already done the deed. 

But the Police didn't believe the story. Because when someone is hanged, there's only one robe mark above the Adams apple. But Tate had two. So the police suspected that he was strangled first and then hung. 

The police questioned Chad again after 2 days and this time he changed his story. He said that the first time Tate tried to commit suicide the rope broke so they went to his house again and brought another rope. He said he lied the first time because he didn't want to get into any trouble for not stopping him.

 Regardless Tate's death was listed under suicide and they didn't even do an autopsy. Many thought he was just very upset about Karen which led him to do such a thing.  However, something very interesting happened at his funeral. 

Many people noticed a mysterious lady, dressed all in black and her face was covered with a black veil. But she left before anyone could talk to her. There was also this other kid who was chanting the word 'Suicide' over and over again. 

Many other odd incidents started happening after that.

Few days after his death the police got a tip. So a mile away from the place where they found Tate, someone spotted a cow skull lodged in a tree. Beneath the tree there was a pile of sticks and rocks and it formed a circle. Another night, an officer saw a figure standing near Tate's grave. When he got there the figure was gone but he saw that there was tobacco spit all over his tombstone and there was also a burned cross. 

By this point, the rumors started to spread. Most of the people in town believed that Tate was a member of a cult and they killed him because he disappointed them in some way. Many even accused Karen of witchcraft and she was the one who made Tate join the cult in the first place.

Now around this time many attempts of kidnapping started to take place. The local school staff mentioned that they had seen a few people waiting in their cars in the school parking lot. They didn't recognize these people. One of them even tried to snatch a kid but the kid got away. 

So people were getting more and more sure that there was in fact a cult in town. At that point someone came forward with a confession.

A 15 year old boy by the name of Ray was arrested one night for drunk driving. Later he told the police that he was a member of a satanic cult in town and that he had been near the tree when Tate was hanged. But the next day he stated that he didn't remember saying anything of that kind. People even started calling his house "Devil house" because of a painting on the back of his house. 

Few months later when things started going back to normal, that is when Tate's sister Terrie was found dead in Ray's 'devil house'. 

Terrie was going through a rough patch in her life. One night she partied with some people who were close to Ray's brother. The next morning she was found dead by one of her friends. According to the autopsy report, Terrie had more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit and she died by choking on her own vomit. 

The police couldn't find any evidence but the people in town thought otherwise. Many believed that Tate and Terrie's deaths were linked somehow. Perhaps through a cult. 

Fortunately, One sheriff started a fresh investigation in the case. And he came across some very interesting evidence. 

They found that Ray's brother tried to commit suicide by swallowing almost 30 tablets of Elavil. Ironically, when 3 years after Tate's death they exhumed his body from the cemetery, they found some traces of the same drug in his body through autopsy. And after doing a new autopsy on Terrie's body, they yet again, found the drug Elavil. 

Many weird and suspicious activities happened after that. But apparently the police found nothing. Still to this day the case of Tate and Terrie Rowland remains a mystery. 

John List: America's most wanted

 The 18 year case of John List.

John Emil List was born on 17th September, 1925 in Bay City, Michigan. John followed his father's footsteps and became a Sunday school teacher and a devout Lutheran. During world war11 he enrolled in the army and worked as a laboratory technician. In 1946, after getting discharged from the army he enrolled in the University of Michigan. 

During the 1950's when the Korean war escalated, John was asked to serve the army again. Around this time he met Helen Morris Taylor. Helen was beautiful and already had a daughter. The two of them connected and soon got married. Later the family moved to Northern California. 

John then started to work at a paper company in Kalamazoo. There they had 3 children(Patricia, John Jr, Frederick) and started a family. 

Things were going good for the List family, but then in 1959 things started going downhill. When Helen became a raging alcoholic. It was said that she became very unstable at this time. She took out most of her anger on John. 

In 1965 John was offered a position at a bank in New Jersey. So the family, along with John's mother, moved there. They moved to a 19 room Victorian mansion called "Breeze Knoll". 

Everyone thought they had a "perfect life". His coworkers kind of envied him, but they also stated that John was 'cold'. Actually John  lacked social skills and that was the reason he lost his job. But instead of telling his family, he would go to the train station and sit there all day. So no one would know that he had lost his job. 

But the bills were due and he needed to come up with a plan soon. So he came up with a plan..

On 19th November, 1971, John decided to murder his whole family. At first he shot his wife in the head from behind, who was just enjoying her morning in the house. Then he went to his mother's room and shot her right above the left eye. In the afternoon when his kids, Patricia and Frederick, arrived home from school, he shot both of them in the head as well. Then he went into the kitchen and made himself some lunch. 

Afterwards, he went to his bank and closed his and his mother's account and took out all the money from her account. Then he went to his son, John Jr's Soccer game. He watched him play. But after they got home, he shot his oldest son as well. He shot him multiple times because according to John "he tried to resist and run away".

Now John considered himself  religious. So after committing all the murders he wrote a 5 page letter to his pastor, confessing to all the murders. He said that he killed his family to save their souls, and that the 70's were a very sinful time and he was worried that his family was giving into the temptations. 

Then he put the bodies in sleeping bags and kept them in the ballroom of the mansion. He even cut off himself from all the family portraits, so when the police do show up, they won't find him. He turned down the thermostat, turned on the radio and then just like that, he was gone.

So the family used to be very reserved, so no one came to check on them. John even stopped milk, mail and newspaper deliveries. But the neighbors noticed that all the lights were always turned on in the house. But then the lights began to burn out one by one. That is when they got suspicious. 

A month after the incident the neighbors reported the police and they immediately found the bodies. 

They searched and searched for John but they found 0 to no evidence. All the reliable evidence had already been destroyed. 

But 18 years later in 1989 John was found through the famous TV show 'America's Most Wanted'. In that show, they showed a forensic facial sculpture of John. Frank Bender created the sculpture according to what he thought John would look like after all these years. He even gave him glasses because he had a theory that John probably used glasses to disguise himself. And he was completely right about that. 

A couple in Denver watched the show and they realized that the sculpture looked oddly similar to their old neighbor. So they called the hotline and through this couple they were able to find John. 

They arrested him and ironically he looked exactly like the sculpture. He was even wearing the same frame of glasses. John stood by his fake identity for a month, but when they showed him all the evidence, he finally confessed.

So here's what John did in those 18 years:

According to John's statement, After the murders, he left the family car near the airport, then traveled by train and bus from New Jersey to Michigan and then to Colorado. He then went to Denver and took an accounting job there with the name Robert Peter Clark. 

In 1985, he married a woman by the name of Dolores Miller. Then they moved to Virginia and freely lived there for many years. 

Trial:

In his trial, John stated that back in the day he was financially struggling. He even blamed his wife's alcoholism at one point. Psychiatrists said that he had obsessive compulsive disorder. So for him there were only two options. Either ask for help or kill his family. Nothing in between. John was very prideful so asking anyone for help wasn't an option. He said that he was sparing them from the shame. He also believed that if he kills them, they'll go to heaven. 

On 12th October, 1990, he was convicted of five counts of first degree murder and sentenced to 5 consecutive terms of life imprisonment. He was ineligible for parole for almost 75 years. 

At the age of 82, on 21st March, 2008 John died from pneumonia. Regardless, John showed 0 remorse and no guilt for his actions.