3. Jeffrey Lundgren’s Farm
Jeffrey Lundgren got his start as a minister with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), a relatively large offshoot of the mainstream Latter-day Saint organization (also called “Mormons”). Lundgren became a lay minister with the Church in 1984 and his charisma quickly attracted followers. However, his habits soon concerned church leaders. For example, Lundgren claimed to have found a new way to interpret the scripture. His radical views, along with suspicions of theft, forced officials to remove Lundgren from his position.
After losing his position, Lundgren moved his wife and their four small children onto a farm he rented in Kirtland, Ohio. His new cult soon numbered around 20 people and Lundgren became the absolute ruler of his little kingdom. His followers were forced to give him their paychecks and participate in mandatory weapons training. In order to maintain his rule, he listened in on phone calls and banned cult members from talking to each other. Things escalated when Lundgren announced that women could achieve salvation through sexual acts—he had them dance naked while he watched and masturbated.
One of the families attracted to Lundgren’s church were the Averys. In Kansas City, Dennis Avery had been a computer operator at a bank while Cheryl Avery taught preschool and cared for their three young daughters. The couple were strongly opposed to the RLDS’s 1984 decision to allow women to become ministers. Lundgren’s fundamentalist teachings appealed to them so much that they quit their jobs, sold their house, and moved to Kirtland.
However, once in Kirtland, the Averys were not very happy and were possibly planning to leave the cult. Sensing this, Lundgren told his followers that they needed to perform a sacrifice.
On April 16, 1989, Lundgren went into town with Dennis Avery, where he made him buy two handguns and a carbine. The next day he had the Averys visit the farm for dinner. After the meal, while the Averys cleaned up, Lundgren and another cult member named Ron Luff lured the family one by one to the barn. There, Luff ran a chainsaw to mask the sound of gunshots.
Two days after the murders, the cult fled the farm. The bodies weren’t found until January 4, by which time the cult had fallen apart. The law eventually caught up with Lundgren and 13 members of the cult, who were all charged with the Avery murders. Lundgren told jurors at his trial that he was aprophet of God and “not worthy of the death penalty.” The jurors disagreed and sentenced him to death. In a last-ditch appeal, Lundgren claimed he was too fat to be executed. The court shot down that appeal, too, and he was executed by lethal injection on October 24, 2006.
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