Sculptor Frank Bender’s work may not rank with that of Michelangelo or Henry Moore, but his art may be more valuable.

Bender is a forensic sculptor.  From his Philadelphia studio, Bender makes the invisible visible.  It’s his job to render sculptures of fugitives, many of whom have been long on the run.  Bender must consider how a criminal has aged and how he or she may look today even though the crime may have happened decades ago.  Bender is also called upon to help identify crime victims in cases in which the body is beyond recognition.

Frank Bender with John List bust (MarioRuiz/Timepix)

A typical case – if there is such a thing – was that of John List.  Back in November 1971, List murdered his entire family.  He shot and killed his mother, his wife, and his three children.  He left the corpses in plain view inside his Westfield, New Jersey, home, but it still took police a month to discover the grisly murders.

But there was no doubt as to who had done the crime.  List left behind several notes explaining why he had to “free his family’s souls.”  The only clue as to List’s whereabouts was that his car was found in a nearby airport’s parking lot.

In many respects, List’s ability to elude capture was as extraordinary as his crime.  From all outward appearances, List was an anonymous everyman.  He attracted little notice.  Later it was learned that List felt enormous shame because of losing his job and various debts. Instead of facing facts and facing his family, List chose to eliminate them.

But List did next to nothing after the murders to hide his true identity. He changed his name and that was about all.

Only Frank Bender, working with psychologist John Walter, was able to penetrate List’s thin disguise.

Bender’s List assignment came from that noted patron of the arts, America’s Most Wanted.  Although detectives had updated List’s photo to imagine what he looked like in the mid-eighties, the television show wanted more.  It was 1989 and the television show wanted, as all television shows do, a strong visual. Bender was asked to render a bust showing how John List would look now.

Although Bender had experience in aging faces, he realized that he needed a psychological portrait, not just a physical one.  The psychological profile would help him estimate how List might have altered his appearance, as well as how List’s personality could influence the natural aging process.  So Bender turned to criminal psychologist Richard Walter.

The bust was already underway, but Bender wasn't altogether sure of his conclusions. “Richard Walter gave me the confidence that what I did was right,” Bender recalled. “As an artist I always feel a little insecure, so he gave me that security.”

Walter was already experienced in these matters, having worked for more than ten years for the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office as well as the Michigan Department of Corrections. At Bender's studio, he read the newspaper accounts of the List murders and looked over the various photographs.

“The most important thing,” Walter said, “was the crime scene itself.  By the time I'd finished reading, I knew what it was about, and that took me about 20 minutes.  There's a prototype for that kind of murder, so you already have built-in probabilities for certain behaviors.  So I worked those probabilities and refined them, as well as shaped them to List's personality.  There was a certain pattern already established in this crime, and there in the evidence was the amount of organization involved.  Knowing the particularities about the type of murder it was, told me that it was about anger and control.”

It was a nice day in Philadelphia, so Bender and Walter went for a stroll.  Their goal was to let the combination of their diverse perspectives and range of expertise broaden their sense of John List. To create an accurate bust, there were certain things that Bender wanted to know, so as they walked, he came up with one query after another.

“In the information game,” said Walter, “the most important part of the equation is the question, and Frank was brilliant at asking the right questions.  We'd get to a corner, for example, and he'd say, ‘Rich, how would John List stand here?’  I'd think it out and then show him.  Then we'd go on and he'd say, ‘What would be the average expression on his face?’  I'd show him so he'd know which muscles would stay tight and which muscles would lengthen.  It was that kind of question that added the final touch.”

Together, psychologist and artist concentrated on other behaviors:

• What would be List’s diet? 
• Would he still be around the same weight?
• What was his level of vanity?
• What was his degree of rigidity?
• How would intolerance of regional differences affect where he would live?
• What could they learn from the notes List left?

They looked over what was known of List's past habits and what others who had known him reported. Then they decided which of his traits would remain consistent,  despite attempts to adopt a new identity.

“I said that he would remarry to a subservient woman. He would rejoin the Lutheran church, and more specifically, that his first job would probably be a night clerk at a motel.”

And that's exactly what List did.

“Richard said that List would dress like him,” Bender added.  “He'd be wearing a suit and tie.”

“We dressed him down to his socks,” Walter continued. “Given his history and rigidity, I figured the most modern he'd get would be to wear a striped suit.  He'd always wear the white shirt and plain tie, probably striped.  He’d also wear dark shoes and dark argyle socks.” 

They figured List would still work as an accountant and would be paunchier, with drooping skin around the jowls, deep worry lines, and a receding hairline.  Despite the fact that List had a pronounced surgical scar behind his right ear that could betray him, he would not have opted for cosmetic surgery.  He would likely still have financial difficulties and would be wearing glasses picked for a specific reason.

“My intuition told me he'd want something that would make him look successful and intelligent,” Bender recalled, “so I needed a pair with thick rims.  I went around the corner to a local antique shop that a guy by the name of Bill ran at the time.  I asked Bill if he had any old glasses and he said, yeah he did.  When he cleared out estates, he'd find glasses, and over the years he'd thrown them all into this big basket.  So I went through this entire basket, but I couldn't find what I wanted.  I told him he didn't have a pair that would work and he said, ‘Wait a minute.  I've got my old glasses here in a drawer.’  He pulled out a pair of reading glasses with a thicker rim, which was exactly what I wanted, so he told me to take 'em.  I went home and put them on the sculpture.”

In addition to appearance, Bender and Walter also had to consider what would drive a man who was reportedly religious and conservative to kill his entire family.  They pondered List’s mounting anger and despair, as well as exploring how he would have planned his escape.  Walter predicted that although List might initially travel a long distance, List would likely live no more than 300 miles away from his former home. 

Finally, the bust was finished and taken to the television studio.  The show was broadcast and the forensic sculpture had its intended effect.  A former neighbor of a man named Bob Clark called in. She felt they should check him out, and her details were compelling.  One FBI agent doggedly pursued each lead and this one looked pretty good.

Ten days after the call, agents entered the office where Clark worked -- about 240 miles from the original crime scene -- and arrested him.  Although he insisted they'd made a mistake, fingerprints confirmed his identity as that of John List.

On the day List was nabbed, Bender excitedly called Walter to share the news.  As the details came out, it became clear that their collaboration had yielded some strikingly accurate information.  Not only did List look pretty much as they had figured, but his behavior since the murders matched most of their predictions.  List had actually first gone to Colorado and had lived there for seventeen years, but he'd moved to Virginia, worked as an accountant, had remarried, and had joined another Lutheran church.

Bender and Walter were gratified, because not only had justice been served, but their techniques had been affirmed as well.

“It's nice, but it's kind of scary, because the issue then becomes ‘how did you do it?’  It's hard to explain the synergy.  It's both powerful and empowering, but with it come expectations for consistency, so the standard always gets higher,” Walter said.

List was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.