The mug shot of Jeffrey Lundgren reveals a nondescript middle-aged man, indistinguishable from any suburban father or small-town preacher. Yet behind this common façade brewed a fervent extremism that transformed Lundgren from tour guide to cult leader, ultimately claiming the lives of a family of five. This examination of Lundgren‘s Kirtland cult unravels the fateful path towards control and killings.
The Making of a Fanatic: Lundgren‘s Early History
Born in Independence, Missouri in 1950, Lundgren grew up as a dutiful member of the Reorganized Church of Latter-Day Saints (RLDS). The fourth of six children, Lundgren likely contended for attention and authority within a crowded household. Classmates recall Lundgren seeming entirely unremarkable – an average student who exhibited no discernible leadership qualities.
Yet later in life, Lundgren exhibited trademark traits of antisocial disorders like narcissism, defined by an inflated sense of self-importance plus lack of empathy. Such conditions often stem from childhood emotional neglect and trauma. While impossible to fully psychologically profile Lundgren from a distance, an insecure sense of self likely factored in his craving for control and institutional power.
The Kirtland Temple: Lundgren’s Launchpad to Legitimacy
After a stint in the Navy, Lundgren returned home to enroll at Central Missouri State University in 1969. He began working as a tour guide at the Kirtland Temple, constructed by pioneering Mormons in 1836. This immersion in the temple’s rich history and symbolism sparked Lundgren’s interest in fringe doctrines.
In 1983, Lundgren moved his growing family to Kirtland, OH to dedicate himself fully towards the temple. From this nationally registered historic site, Lundgren launched his self-declared ministry, using his academic expertise to attract followers. Many early converts recall Lundgren’s initial charm – his intellect and passion seeming evidence of spiritual authority. Beneath the surface, however, darker motives swirled.
Alice Lundgren: A Follower’s Experience of Coercion and Control
Among Lundgren’s earliest acolytes was Alice Keeler, a fellow Missouri native and RLDS church member. Alice began writing letters to Lundgren after hearing him lecture, her interest piqued by tales of his visions and prophecies. This paved the way for an in-person meeting where romance swiftly sparked. At only 19 to Lundgren’s 35 years, Alice was soon swept into a new life as Lundgren’s wife and fellow “END TIMES MINISTRIES” missionary.
Yet marital bliss soon soured as evidence of Lundgren’s controlling nature emerged. He insisted on opening Alice’s mail, regulating her diet, and censoring her reading materials. Financial domination increased with Lundgren convincing Alice to sign over assets and inheritance money to his solo control. Lundgren even flaunted an extra-marital affair, demeaning Alice to “servant” status.
Most disturbing were Lundgren’s alleged sexual assaults while Alice was pregnant or recovering from illness. These attacks involving religious imagery and Biblical justifications emphasized Lundgren leveraging faith for exploitation. When combined with financial coercion and attacks on autonomy, such experiences reveal Lundgren systematically degrading followers’ independence and dignity.
The Formation of the Kirtland Cult
By 1987, Lundgren had dissolved his family’s RLDS memberships, severed connections with outside relatives, and moved a dozen followers into a rented Kirtland commune. Here Lundgren’s absolute authority crystallized, with adherents addressing him and wife Terri as “Dad” and “Mom” and signing over paychecks for communal living expenses. The average member stayed 2 years, with commune numbers fluctuating between 12 and 21.
Lundgren meanwhile steeped followers in eccentric liturgies and blood oaths of secrecy. Blended with reinterpretations of Mormon tenets like eternal progression and plural marriage, Lundgren taught God demanded their total surrender to Lundgren’s vision. Resistance could only be cleansed through blood atonement.
This concept, rejected by mainstream Latter-Day Saint churches, holds that Jesus Christ’s crucifixion can’t redeem all sins, like murder or denying true doctrine. Only through actually shedding the sinner’s blood can justice be served. Lundgren fixated upon this idea of propitiatory sacrifice, finding justification to threaten exiled followers and opponents.
By 1988, Lundgren’s radicalism had fully metastasized, with talk of assuming the Kirtland Temple by force. He even prophesied his group garbed in holy robes to ritually kill dissenters and claim divine leadership of the RLDS church. Fantasies swirled of Lundgren seated on a throne while former classmates and relatives approached to kiss his feet and beg forgiveness before their executions.
Inside the commune, Lundgren monopolized adherents’ time with lengthy prayer sessions, temple trips, and lectures. Sleep-deprived followers shuffled through a haze of religious doublespeak that only reinforced reliance on their paternalistic master. Lundgren meanwhile amassed $10K in cash from members’ paychecks and savings accounts towards the commune’s ultimate destiny.
The Averys: Lundgren’s Chosen Sacrifices
Lundgren’s apocalyptic ravings may have remained dormant fantasy were it not for Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three young daughters – Trina (15), Rebecca (13), and Karen (7). The Averys had trekked from Missouri that year to join Lundgren’s fold, likely lured by promises of fellowship and godly purpose. They little suspected the machinations unfolding.
Some scholars posit Lundgren may have targeted the Averys due to Dennis’s inheritance of over $100K. Lundgren promoted the Averys as exemplars before convening the group one evening. He announced the Averys were appointed blood sacrifices, offerings to seal the group’s status as God’s true chosen order. Such an act could cleanse the Kirtland Temple and usher in the prophesied end times.
While Avery family reactions went unrecorded, the proclamation produced varied distress among followers. Some privately feared similar victimization as sinners meriting death under Lundgren’s evaluation. Others expressed outrage yet found themselves pressured into another ritual oath of secrecy lest they be marked for sacrifice too.
The revealed willingness to shed blood marked Lundgren’s full descent into depravity. Doctrine and charisma no longer sufficed for his authority; only through ultimate destruction of human life could Lundgren confirm his supremacy.
The Murders: Execution of the Plan
With the group emotionally paralyzed, Lundgren moved rapidly to orchestrate the deaths in April 1989. He dispatched Ron Luff, a lifelong Lundgren follower with construction skills, to Chillicothe, Missouri to ready a hiding place for corpses in the woods. Luff’s unwavering submission to even monstrous designs proved crucial.
The borrowed farmhouse commune in Kirtland then devolved into a haunted air thick with dread. Inside jokes and laughter vanished while members observed the Averies’ innocuous actions, imprisoned in the role of human sacrifices.
The killings spanned April 10-13, 1989 with Luff luring the Averies one by one from the commune to Lundgren and another follower waiting in the barn. Dennis Avery was shot first, with Cheryl next under the guise Dennis required her aid. Trina and Becky were each later coaxed to the barn on false pretenses while little Karen Avery was simply carried over.
Gunshot wounds to the head felled all victims save Cheryl, who required a knife to the throat when bullets failed. Evidence suggests the 7-year-old Karen was likely killed last, forced to witness the preceding carnage. Lundgren rationalized her elimination as necessary since she would never comprehend the offenses meriting her family’s slaughter.
In the ultimate sacrilege, the orchestrated massacre of innocents was accompanied by prayers that this “Mitvah” ritual would prove acceptable to God.
The Cult Aftermath: Justice Postponed
Having satisfied his bloodlust, Lundgren next prodded his rattled followers about seizing the Kirtland Temple as the first phase of conquest. But fear now tempered the group’s zealotry. Sensing too much exposure and links to the missing Averies, in August 1989 Lundgren abruptly relocated his family and remaining followers to West Virginia.
Camped here nearly a year without electricity or indoor plumbing, the group‘s solidarity decayed amidst their squalor. Lundgren talked expansively of himself as the God of the whole Earth as doubts grew. In 1990, members covertly disposed of cult items in a storage locker before scattering.
But the forgotten dead in Chillicothe forest could not rest. Investigators finally discovered the five corpses after former follower Cheryl Johnson contacted police. Johnson‘s participation in the bleak burial hit home the group’s hideous atrocities. She worked closely with authorities towards Lundgren‘s capture.
The sole missing cultist Ron Luff also surrendered after the uncovered graves confirmed Lundgren’s monstrosities against innocents. Luff‘s onetime slavishness yielded to cooperation and admission of conspiracy.
The Wheels of Justice
In October 1990, a Pennsylvania sheriff‘s department arrested Lundgren and followers at a state park. Compelling evidence like clandestine tapes of Lundgren commanding the killings elicited both confessions and finger-pointing from arrested cultists eager for leniency.
The legal aftermath stretched years with followers including Alice Lundgren receiving reduced charges for cooperation and guilty pleas. Jeff Lundgren was convicted on five counts of murder in 1990 in Ohio before separate West Virginia trials of conspirators.
Most disturbing was Lundgren‘s continued pompous flair before Ohio jurors, quoting Jesus and the Analects while denying wrongdoing. Attempts to subpoena Jesus and Mormon church President Wallace Smith as witnesses reinforced delusions against death sentencing later that year.
Lundgren’s apparent refusal of remorse sparked particular outage after old RLDS friends related conciliatory jailhouse letters from Lundgren contrasted by courtroom disdain. His wavering persona seemed to cast guilt itself as merely a role.
Ron Luff as first conspirator received life imprisonment in 1992 while Lundgren‘s wife Terri was sentenced to 5 terms of 7-25 years. Remaining followers accepted plea bargains of conspiracy to murder or complicity for reduced sentences.
The extent of legal penalties reflected societal scorn towards sweeping betrayal. Lundgren systematically exploited weaknesses and cognitive dissonance to position himself as custodian of members’ temporal and spiritual fate. His incarnation of ultimate predator demanded proportional punishment.
Conclusion: Structures of Violence
If nothing else, Lundgren’s sordid saga showcases the fragility of civilized bonds before dicey charisma and religious extremism. Lundgren leveraged both towards playing God at a shocking human expense. His trajectory stands as cautionary tale of unchecked spiritual power.
By probing the psychological and relational architecture enabling Lundgren’s control, critical insight emerges on forces ripping communities asunder. The lingering question becomes not how a monster emerged, but why so many followed him into ethical oblivion. What despairing searches or escapes so clouded judgment to permit sanity’s murder?
The righteous quest must center on preventing future susceptibility through societal stacks against exploitation. For moral myopia festers easiest beyond transparency‘s reach. Its antiseptics are the difficult asks – to examine assumptions of authority and probes for pluralistic truth.