'The Watcher's John Graff Is Loosely Based On A Real NJ Killer (2024)

Netflix’s The Watcher tells the terrifying (and very true) story of a family who is stalked by an anonymous letter writer after they moved into a new home in a coveted New Jersey neighborhood. While the plot is spooky enough, the fact that it’s based on a true story and very real people is even more horrifying.

The story, which is based on a 2018 article published in New York Magazine called The Haunting of a Dream House. explains how the Broaddus family (which is renamed the "Brannock" family in the series) began receiving threatening letters from someone dubbed “the Watcher” after they bought 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey. The letters included details about their children and menacing threats.

Police and private investigators got involved with the case, but no one ever figured out who was sending the letters, so it remains a cold case today. And while the story is hinged on a real-life family and events, Netflix has added and altered some aspects to add to the spooky drama. That's where a character named John Graff, whose presence gives everyone the heebie-jeebies, comes in. Here’s what you need to know about John's character and whether or not he was a real person.

Who is John Graff?

In the series, everyone meets Dean Brannock, who purchased "The Watcher" house with his wife. As the letters from The Watcher begin to arrive, Dean hires a private investigator named Theodora Birch, who tells Dean that a man named John Graff apparently used to own the home, moving in with his wealthy mom, wife, and two kids after losing his job.

Theodora then says that John Graff also received letters from The Watcher and ended up killing his wife, mom, and children.

In the series, John appears in random scenes dressed as different people. In the third episode, he shows up in the Brannock’s kitchen, pretending to be a building inspector. He later pretends to be part of the Westfield Preservation Society before his identity is discovered in episode 7. Umm...Okay, upsetting and creepy. Check.

But John Graff is not actually a real person. Instead, his character is very loosely based off of a man who lived in the same town back in the 1970s.

Who plays John Graff?

The character is played by Joe Mantello.

John Graff is loosely based on murderer John List.

While the character isn’t real, Graff's crimes are actually based on those of a real person named John List, who was an accountant in New Jersey. Unfortunately, John List engaged in similarly terrifying crimes—and he also lived in Westfield.

What did John List do?

In 1971, List killed his family in their home, according to The New York Times. He had lost his job and had been siphoning money from his mom to try to make ends meet.

List then ended up shooting his wife and mother in the house, along with his children when they got home from school. List confessed to his crimes in a letter he left in his study for his pastor, per the Times, and said in a post-script that “Mother is in the hallway in the attic. She was too heavy to move.”

List also said that the family was going on a trip and had stopped the milk and paper deliveries before killing everyone. He suggested in his letter, per the Times, that he was concerned about his family’s ability to go to heaven. “At last I’m certain that all have gone to heaven now,” he wrote in his letter. “If things had gone on, who knows if that would be the case.”

Where is John List now?

List made sure he was super hard to find after killing his family. He ripped his face out of all of his family photos before fleeing the house to make it more difficult for police to locate him, the Times reported. (This was the 70s, after all.) And in fact, List had been gone for a month before the bodies of his family were found. The police were able to locate his car at John F. Kennedy airport in New York, but there was no record of him taking a flight anywhere. The house was eventually destroyed by arson.

John List started a new life in Virginia under the name Robert Clark and was discovered after an America’s Most Wanted episode aired detailing the murder of his family and providing an age-adjusted image of him. By this time, List had remarried and was insisting he was really and truly Robert Clark. Eventually, he confessed that he was, in fact, John List.

In 1990, List was convicted of five counts of murder and sentenced to five life terms, per the Times. He died in 2008 at age 82, with the Times reporting his cause of death as "complications from pneumonia."