Netflix’s new release , The Watcher , is a terrifying story based directly on true events . While the series has earned mixed reviews , it’s hard to deny just how creepy the underlying story is.
As it turns out, there are more layers to this saga: decades before the events that inspired The Watcher , something even more horrifying took place in the same New Jersey suburb.
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The seven-episode miniseries revolves around the Broaddus family.
Shortly after moving into their dream house in Westfield, New Jersey in 2014, the family started receiving a series of upsetting letters — letters that made it clear that they and their house were being watched.
The anonymous letters were threatening, and created a psychological ordeal for the family.
Eventually, the family decided enough was enough and moved their kids out of the house for their own safety. After that, they picked up their stakes and sold the house.
The case remains unsolved.
While the letter writer left plenty of clues, police were unable to pin down a suspect. It’s now been several years since the Broaddus family left the house and, with no new letters to work from, it’s essentially a cold case.
It isn’t the worst thing that’s happened in Westfield.
Anyone who’s watched the series knows that, in addition to the main family, there’s a creepy character named John Graff. This character is based on John List , a man who lived in Westfield decades earlier.
In real life, List had no connection to the Broaddus family.
Showrunners took a few creative liberties with their source material and decided to tie the characters together. While the real-life versions never interacted, they did all live in Westfield, New Jersey.
John List was a killer.
He murdered his whole family — wife Helen, mother Alma, daughter Patricia and son Frederick — in Westfield on November 9, 1971. After leaving the bodies, List wrote a letter to his pastor explaining that he killed his family to save their souls.
He then went on the run.
Because the family kept to themselves, the bodies weren’t discovered until December 7 — almost exactly a month later. After police discovered the bodies, the story became a national sensation and List was the subject of a manhunt.
He almost got away with it.
List had destroyed most of the known photographs of him, and he was able to escape and live in anonymity under an assumed name. After he was featured on an episode of America’s Most Wanted , he was captured and confessed in 1990 — nearly two decades after the murders took place.
He was convicted of five counts of first degree murder.
While he said at the time that he was unaccountable at the time due to his mental state, he did eventually express some remorse. He died in prison at the age of 82 on March 21, 2008.
Netflix offers an intriguing interpretation.
While the real-life timeline doesn’t match up, it’s still interesting to see what showrunners did to combine two of Westfield’s most notorious crimes.
Have you seen The Watcher ? Let us know what you thought in the comments section.
