The Hunt for John List (Part 2)

**Ash Kelley** (0:00)
Hey, Weirdos, I'm Ash.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:02)
And I'm Elena.

**Ash Kelley** (0:03)
And this is Morbid. We're post book tour.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:22)
We are. I'm exhausted, but it was so, so amazing.

**Ash Kelley** (0:26)
It was so fun. It was go, go, go. It was.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:30)
It was nonstop. And it was, but everybody we got to meet, like you guys were awesome.

**Ash Kelley** (0:35)
Yeah, people were very nice.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:36)
Thank you for coming out for the book. It was so cool.

**Ash Kelley** (0:38)
People gave like the nicest little gifties.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:40)
Yeah. And everybody was just like, lovely.

**Ash Kelley** (0:43)
Love that.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:44)
Like it was like a genuinely, wildly, lovely experience. Like every single person I met, I was like, well, fuck.

**Ash Kelley** (0:52)
Yeah.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:53)
You're awesome.

**Ash Kelley** (0:53)
And we finished it off at church.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:55)
I finished it off at a church.

**Ash Kelley** (0:57)
I gave a sermon.

**Alaina Urquhart** (0:58)
Yeah. So people were lovely there too.

**Ash Kelley** (1:01)
Yeah, it was great.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:02)
And now I'm just recouping.

**Ash Kelley** (1:05)
Yeah. Your immune system is ass.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:08)
Yeah, it is. It just is.

**Ash Kelley** (1:10)
Subjecting yourself to meeting so many people is tough.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:13)
Yeah. Because you're just like, I immediately get sick. But honestly, so worth it. Yeah, very worth it. So, so very worth it. You guys were awesome.

**Ash Kelley** (1:21)
And now you just have to wait for the list.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:23)
Yes.

**Ash Kelley** (1:24)
Next week? Yeah.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:25)
So that sounds that bad. We shall see.

**Ash Kelley** (1:28)
Okay.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:29)
You guys did make a hell of a turnout.

**Ash Kelley** (1:31)
Yeah, that was-

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:32)
And I appreciate you.

**Ash Kelley** (1:33)
What did I think? Didn't somebody say it was like a book tour on steroids?

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:36)
Yeah, that's what my literary agent said.

**Ash Kelley** (1:38)
Yeah, it was.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:42)
All right.

**Ash Kelley** (1:42)
I don't think there's any business. I mean, buy the book, continue to buy it.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:45)
Yeah, go get that book. People, it seems to be doing okay. So I feel good about it. It's always that scary thing of putting the book out being like, because you're like, did you like it?

**Ash Kelley** (1:56)
Yeah.

**Alaina Urquhart** (1:56)
But I'm excited. I'm excited for you guys to read it.

**Ash Kelley** (2:00)
It's a very, very wonderful book.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:01)
Thank you.

**Ash Kelley** (2:02)
I quite enjoyed it.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:03)
I quite enjoyed it.

**Ash Kelley** (2:05)
I liked it a lot. What I don't like a lot is that we have to talk about John List again today.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:11)
We do, but I'm excited for this part.

**Ash Kelley** (2:13)
Yeah, this is a, you know, spoiler alert, he gets caught.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:17)
Yeah, that's the thing. I'm like, I'm ready to see this fucker go down.

**Ash Kelley** (2:22)
Yes, we're going to get there. But first, I'm going to have to tell you a little bit about his early life and how he became John List.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:29)
Tell me about this idiot.

**Ash Kelley** (2:30)
Okay, I will. He was born September 17th in Bay City, Michigan, to John Frederick, known as JF and Alma List. They were cousins.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:42)
Oh.

**Ash Kelley** (2:42)
His parents were cousins.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:45)
Oh, okay.

**Ash Kelley** (2:47)
Twenty-year age difference between them.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:49)
Oh, okay. We got so much work in for us here. Already so much to unpack. We're way ahead.

**Ash Kelley** (2:55)
You can't marry your cousin.

**Alaina Urquhart** (2:57)
Nope, can't do that.

**Ash Kelley** (2:59)
Alma was a devout Lutheran, and she was described as humorless in nearly every aspect of her life.

**Alaina Urquhart** (3:06)
So John List.

**Ash Kelley** (3:07)
Yes. Yeah, I was just going to say two traits that she very much passed on to her son.

**Alaina Urquhart** (3:10)
Apple right from the tree.

**Ash Kelley** (3:12)
She also was an extremely, I guess you could say devoted mother, but it bordered on obsessiveness. It became a little too much.

**Alaina Urquhart** (3:20)
I mean, you marry your cousin.

**Ash Kelley** (3:23)
Yeah.

**Alaina Urquhart** (3:23)
Family is going to get a little weird from then on out.

**Ash Kelley** (3:25)
It's pretty true.

**Alaina Urquhart** (3:26)
Yeah.

**Ash Kelley** (3:26)
Not only did she dote on John day and night, but she also, quote, dressed him herself well beyond the age when other mothers might have urged independence, and she couldn't stand to have him out of her sight for very long.