Jeffrey Lundgren
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 Jeffrey Lundgren |
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| Born: | May 3, 1950 Missouri, United States |
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| Died: | October 24, 2006 Lucasville, Ohio |
| Occupation: | self-proclaimed prophet former cult leader |
Jeffrey Don Lundgren (May 3, 1950 – October 24, 2006) was a self-proclaimed prophet, former leader of a cult group, and convicted murderer.
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[edit] Childhood
Lundgren was born in Missouri, U.S. and grew up as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. According to his allegations (supported by some of his former neighbors) he was severely abused as a child, particularly by his father. His mother reportedly did not defend him. Lundgren was, by most accounts, a loner when he was in middle and high school. He became an expert hunter when he began to spend time with his father as a teenager. The pair would go on hunting trips, and Lundgren became a gun expert, learning shooting and maintenance techniques.
Lundgren enrolled at Central Missouri State University, and he spent time at a house that was specially built for RLDS youth. While at the house, he became friends with Keith Johnson and Alice Keeler.
Keeler, who had been abused by her father as well, quickly bonded with Lundgren, and the two became lovers. By 1969, Keeler was pregnant with Lundgren's baby. The couple married in 1970, and Lundgren went to service with the U.S. Navy.
[edit] Adulthood
On December 2, 1970, the couple's first child, a boy, was born. By 1974, Keeler was pregnant for the second time. Prior to receiving an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy at the end of his first term Lundgren sought an early release from his term of duty with an argument that his presence was necessary for the sustenance of his family. He was denied for reasons non-necessary according to military recommendations. He received an honorable discharge from the Navy days before his four year enlistment was completed. His second son was born soon after.
Lundgren and his new family settled in San Diego after he was discharged from the Navy. Once economic problems began to set in, the Lundgrens moved back to Missouri. In 1979, Keeler gave birth to a third child, a daughter. People close to the couple claim that Lundgren seemed distraught by the family's money problems and was tired of his wife.
Lundgren allegedly became abusive after the birth of his daughter. According to hospital records, his wife was hospitalized for a ruptured spleen, which may have been caused by Lundgren pushing her into a closet door handle. In 1980, the couple had their fourth child, another boy.
In 1987, Lundgren was dismissed as a lay minister by the RLDS.[1]
[edit] Prophet
Lundgren and his family soon abandoned the religious group, and Lundgren began to feel a call to teach the Bible in the way he understood it. He formed his own sect soon after. Membership never exceeded more than twenty.
Lundgren began to offer Bible study services at his home. He sought to convince his congregation that he was God's last prophet. He asked for money from his supporters, and some would give him their life savings, which often were calculated to be thousands of dollars.
Lundgren then proclaimed he had received a call from God to move to Kirtland, Ohio, a small town near Cleveland which is the historic centre of the RLDS. According to Lundgren, he was told by God that he and his supporters would soon witness the second coming of Christ if they moved to Kirtland.
By this time, seven of Lundgren's 12 followers had moved in to the family home. The remaining five were members of the Avery family. Lundgren felt that the Averys were committing a sin by not living in his house. The Avery family father, Dennis, sold his Missouri house in order for his family to move to Ohio. Avery decided to set apart a relatively small amount of money for his family's use, with a bank account. Once again, Lundgren considered this a sin, because he wanted all of his followers' money to be given exclusively to him.
In 1984, Lundgren, his family, and his followers moved to Ohio. In Kirtland, Lundgren received a job as a tour guide at the Kirtland Temple, the first Mormon Temple of early Latter-day Saints (Mormons), deserted in 1837, and now primarily a tourist museum preserved by the RLDS church.
In time, Lundgren convinced his followers that they had to seize the temple, from which he had stolen about $40,000, and to kill anyone who stood in their way. He changed his mind, however, and started telling his followers that they had to kill a family of five instead if they wanted to see God. As punishment for their "disloyalty," he chose the Averys. At some point, he referred to the slaughter of the Avery family as "pruning the vineyard,"[1] most likely a reference to the allegory of the olive tree found in chapter 5 of the Book of Jacob, part of The Book of Mormon.
[edit] Murders
On April 10, 1989, Lundgren ordered two of his followers to dig a pit in the barn, in anticipation of burying the Averys' bodies there. The anticipation was that there could be five bodies buried in the pit. Lundgren told the rest of his followers, including the Averys, that they would go on a wilderness trip. A week later, on April 17, 1989, he rented a motel room and had dinner with all of his followers. He then called his group's men into his room. He questioned each as to their purpose in the action. All of the men assured Lundgren that they were with him in the sacrifice. Dennis Avery was not invited to the meeting in Lundgren's bedroom.
According to followers' admissions, Lundgren later went inside the barn, with a church member named Ron Luff luring Dennis Avery into a place where the other men awaited by asking him for help with equipment for the camping trip. Luff attempted to render Avery unconscious with a stun gun; the stun gun had a mechanical failure. A stun bullet struck Avery but did not knock him out.
Avery then was gagged and dragged to the place where Lundgren awaited. He was shot twice in the chest, dying almost instantly. To mask the sound of the gun, a chainsaw was left running. Luff then told Avery's wife, Cheryl, that her husband needed help. She was gagged, like her husband, but also had duct tape put over her eyes, and dragged to Lundgren. She was shot three times, twice in the breasts and once in the abdomen. Her body lay next to her husband's. The Averys' 15-year-old daughter, Trina, was shot twice in the head. The first shot missed, but the second killed her instantly. Thirteen year old Becky Avery was shot twice and left to die, while six-year-old Karen Avery was shot in the chest and head. Both died.
[edit] Case
Officers coincidentally came to Lundgren's farm to talk to Lundgren on April 18, 1989, the day after the murders. After this he left town.
Lundgren and the rest of his group went east to West Virginia. But as months went by and nothing happened, Lundgren became disillusioned, and he and his family returned to California, leaving the rest of the surviving cult members behind.
Nine months after the killings, in 1990, police following a tip from an informant returned to the long-abandoned farm and uncovered the five bodies of the Avery family.[1]
The Lundgrens became fugitives. Media attention increased, and police began to track the cult members. The FBI joined in the hunt. Eventually, all of Lundgren's followers were found, and they helped catch him and his family.
Thirteen of Lundgren's sect were arrested, including Lundgren and his wife.[1] Alice Lundgren received five life sentences for conspiracy, complicity and kidnapping. Jeffrey Lundgren was given the death penalty.
[edit] Execution
The Ohio Supreme Court set October 24, 2006 as his execution date. According to the state attorney general's office, as of August, 2006, he had exhausted his appeals.[1]
On October 17, 2006, Judge Gregory Frost issued an order temporarily delaying Lundgren's execution. Lundgren attempted to join a lawsuit with five other Ohio death row inmates challenging the state's death penalty law, claiming that because of his obesity the lethal injection would be particularly painful and amount to cruel and unusual punishment. State Attorney General Jim Petro appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati.[2]
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order allowing the execution to go forward. The U.S. Supreme Court refused a last-minute request to stop his execution, and Gov. Bob Taft also denied clemency.[3]
On October 24, 2006, Jeffrey Lundgren was executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Cult Leader Who Killed 5 Sentenced to Death August 24, 2006 Associated Press report.
- ^ Cult leader says he's too obese for execution October 18th CNN.com report
- ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/24/ap/national/mainD8KV5DV80.shtml
[edit] External links
- Lundgren cult profile
- News Article
- Ohio Executes Cult Leader October 24, 2006
- Ohio executes Cult Leader Oct 24th 2006
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