The Kirtland Cult Killings /// Part 2 /// 622 | Forensic Files

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who
was voted Camp Crystal Lake's favorite mama's boy here is the captain some say I can't be killed but you guys know I've
been brain dead for years this could be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
[Music] today we are still sipping on this classically great stout beer this is Dragon's Milk Bourbon Barrel aged
Imperial Stout from the good Folks at New Holland this is a delicious craft brew filled with roasted malt and hints
of coffee chocolate vanilla and a little Oaky Bourbon Barrel goodness garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of
five and here's some cheers and thank yous to our good friends first up a big cheers to Erica in Nampa Idaho who says
we are the only true crime podcast that she listens to and a big we like your jib to Aaron Tucker from Charlottesville
Virginia and last but certainly not least we have Chris and Jen in Philly you guys got yourselves one heck of a
football team out there everyone we just mentioned they went to truecrimegarage.com and clicked on the
Donate button which helped us out with this week's beer fund yeah Fly Eagles Fly okay yo was my nickname in high
school make sure you check out our website store it's hoodie season baby we got three new hoodies coming out at the
start of next week so make sure you are ready to order and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music]
we were starting to take a look at who this Jeffrey Lundgren character was and we talked about five bodies being
found in the barn that was located on the property that he was leasing that he and his family were leasing the 15-acre
farm the bodies were recovered in January of 1990 and the bodies were determined
to be that of the Avery family followers of Jeffrey Lundgren who had a splinter group from the reformed Latter-Day
Saints in Kirtland Ohio but we need to go back in time a little bit before the bodies were found Captain
because there's a lot of stuff leading up to these murders and we need to figure out just who is responsible for
the murders of the Avery family let's go back to April of 1988. this is when people in town in Kirtland Ohio
started talking about weird stuff going on down on that farm on the Lundgren Farm on April 29 1988 a
neighbor of the farm called police complaining that a cult was living at the farm and mentioned gunfire and
paramilitary activity going on at the farm there are reports that Jeffrey Lundgren was always dressed in Army
fatigues and kept a gun at the ready he told his people that God chose him to lead a revolution in Kirtland Ohio
the plan was to take over the temple by force in order to initiate the process by which he and his followers would find
Salvation this was what the military training was for seems like a lot of these so-called prophets especially the
prophets that tell you their prophets seem to be fascinated with Warfare and Military they seem to be that's 100
and now I'm fully regretting that when we started up True Crime garage that we started calling some of the listeners
the garage Army seems like a mistake at this point well in a way where we're weird little Cults here's what's weird
though too Captain while we're on the road of weird his group Jeffrey Lundgren and his
followers who are now conducting military training at the commune at this 15-acre Farm they had a somewhat
detailed battle plan this again from a later report that says quote according to Lundgren his followers had to
recapture the temple afterward an earthquake would then Elevate the temple and Christ would
return to establish Zion so the men in the group undertook paramilitary training to prepare for this assault on
the temple and Jeffrey Lundgren picked May 3rd 1988 his birthday of course as the date to
recapture the temple right it's it's all got to be about him and specific members
of the reformed Latter-Day Saints were actually targeted for extermination so essentially we are talking about he's
put together a hit list or a kill list here Captain one cult member Kevin Curry became disenchanted with Lundgren and
his radicalized teachings he ends up leaving Kirtland Ohio and he moves to Buffalo New York shout out to
the bills Mafia he moves there in 1988 and he goes to the FBI field office there in Buffalo and tells agents about
Lundgren's plan to use lethal Force to seize the Kirtland Temple on that May 3rd date in 1988. the FBI passes along
this information to the Kirtland police chief Janice Yarborough that is likely the initiation plus the the neighbor
calling about gunfire and the cult living on that property that gets the Kirtland police involved
in this whole mess way back in 1988 well before the killings took place well just
think about this let's say you're a part of this church and then this splinter group and maybe
some of the people that go off in this group you go those are friends of mine so I'm going to go with them
and then you go to a couple of these services and now they're asking for all your
money and now they want you to do military training I'm sure there's a bunch of people that went into this splinter
group and went what the heck is going on and if there's a second coming of Christ
you know no offense to Ohio but I don't think Christ is coming here first Mission baby he's well he's going to
come visit the Browns put them out of their misery it if Christ is coming back I want to
know in advance so I can be wearing sunglasses because your future looks so bright so on May 2nd of that year Chief
Yarborough brought Jeffrey Lundgren into the police station he's confronting him about this planned
attack on the temple and also questioning him about the reports of the gunfire that was heard coming from the
property that he's leasing we don't have the details other than that of this questioning or the back and forth that
likely went down between the chief his men and Jeffrey Lundgren on that date but what we do know is that
Jeffrey Lundgren returns to the farm and after it's after that period of questioning that he comes back
and he announces to his followers that he's had a vision a new vision that told Jeffrey that the time
for the attack was not right so I guess they are going to need to pick a different date a new date for the
attack on the temple based off of this new vision that he's had police were now watching the farm
Chief Yarborough went to the commune after the neighbors complained about hearing gunfire he says that when he was
there he observed the group of people marching in formation discussing and practicing military tactics wearing
military uniforms but unfortunately you know he doesn't love what he's seeing but his hands are tied right because
nothing going on was technically illegal and there's no doubt that he does not want to get in a situation or get his
Department into a situation where there's a legal entanglement about religious freedom according to the
police chief a few months later the cult members stopped coming into town at all
and they stopped interacting with anyone else outside of their little group and they were becoming more and more
isolated well this is probably part of Jeffrey's plan you you divide and conquer you take
individuals you sleep deprived them you take them of all their resources you cut
them off from friends and family members hey your your friends or your co-workers
are telling us that what we're doing here is a little crazy ma'am you don't need to be around those
people anymore also according to the police chief around this time luffman Dale luffman who we've discussed at
length and others who decided not to follow Jeffrey Lundgren or were no longer following Jeffrey Lundgren they start to
receive death threats from an anonymous source on April 16 1989 so we're going to fast
forward almost a full year here Jeffrey Lundgren purchased three guns using a credit card but it's not his credit card
he's using a credit card of a member of his group that member is Dennis Avery so Dennis Avery's credit
card purchases three guns in April of 1989. on the 18th of 1989. so just two days later after the
gun purchase Chief Yarborough five of his men and some FBI agents they decide to pay a
visit to the commune they said later that this was part of a civil rights violation investigation or civil rights
violations investigation I'm guessing here that they're probably using rumors that they're hearing about unpaid labor
forced labor polygamy and other such claims to justify probable cause to go in and visit the
commune and ask some questions and take a good look around right what they were really checking on my
belief is these death threats these Anonymous death threats believing that they're probably coming from someone or
someone's on this property and if they go there looking at these other things which
which they had reason they had cause to go there on those other items maybe they find evidence of these death
threats that they are in fact coming from this property so they needed some evidence on these death threats coming
from the property because they had Anonymous death threats being made this at some point it's not just people that
refuse to follow or stop following Jeffrey Lundgren but now we have death threats that are being made against
certain church members not only in Kirtland Ohio but also in Kansas City as well
so there was information that members of Jeffrey Lundgren's group were going to kill members of the old church
now when they're there more than 12 guns are found in the house but they were owned legally so they were
not confiscated and again they they find no proof of illegal activity so there's
no arrests that are made even with the the police chief there all of his men and several FBI agents
a little Clarity in our timeline though here captain notice the dates because one thing that that we do not
know up until this point in our telling of this true crime story is that while the guns were purchased on April 16th
and the FBI and the police chief and his men are there on April 18th the averies the family of five the
bodies that are later found in the barn they had been shot and killed the day before this visit from law enforcement
on the 17th and as far as law enforcement goes I'm a scary situation to put yourself into
you are backed by FBI so you probably feel pretty safe but it's also not a large group it's a
group of less than 20 individuals so when you see them doing their little military activities it's probably a
little silly to law enforcement and FBI but still you have to take all this stuff serious
because you're probably hearing some pretty crazy rumors coming out of this Farm well so when authorities when they
arrive on the farm they find men in this group they find them in the barn but they find them on the other side of
the barn from where the bodies were right so had they gone and looked around in the barn a little more and gone to
the other side they may have noted the freshly upturned Earth but also at this time you have to keep in mind they have
no idea that this group would be capable of murdering some of their own there there's no rumor of that nor was
there any threat made against the Avery family in fact no one's even reported this family
missing they're not reported missing until the person calls in in January after they're killed and I'm sorry in December
after they're killed and tells police hey this family's missing this family of five is missing and you're going to find
them dead and buried in a barn which they do a few days later in early January so after the FBI and the police go to
this property the the whole group decides all right boom it's time to abandon this area it's
time to abandon the farm it's time to change our plans all together so they just up and leave
the whole group or the majority of them anyway so much of their things the belongings the
animals everything that they had kind of put together is just kind of left there
because they're fleeing in the middle of the night practically and they end up leaving for West Virginia which is not
much better than Ohio and then Jeffrey Lundgren had selected the designation for the group obviously because he's
he's the brother the one in charge he tells them where to go and what to do according to the information I have
Jeffrey Lundgren selected the destination for the group's pilgrimage which was to
seek the golden sword that would provide protection to the group in the event of
the end of the world so they're going to be camping in Parks living in tents working odd jobs they're
they're on the Run they're in another state but they're essentially trying to keep on task with their general idea or
Mission as they had it so they continued preparing their military plans for achievement of
Zion it was while the group was in West Virginia that Jeffrey Lundgren selected Catherine Johnson as his second wife
which of course angered her husband her real husband Larry well these prophets can't just have one wife they have to
have multiple wives yeah the thing that drives me crazy is that when we take a look at these cults
don't we we just see the same behaviors over and over again where it's like all of these are huge red flags not just
because they would be red flags on their own but they're huge Reds Flags because
we've seen it time and time again take this same course of events the same series of events first off hey
we're just a bunch of good people who want to be away from everybody else and we want to do our own thing we want to
be left alone to practice our religion and it and our and express our religious freedoms and take care of each other and
grow as a as a little Community ourselves right that's that's usually how it starts right and then shortly
after that it's like all right well all the paychecks all the money all the work
being done that's for the group and for our leader and now we're wearing Army fatigues all of a sudden and we're
buying guns and now this guy's got to have wives or he's molesting the children it's I mean it's it's the same
series of events time and time again well and these prophets are always some nerdy ass white tune that doesn't know
how to dress I hate nerdy ass whites they're they're hairlines are normally running from their faces it makes zero
sense I think that's why we're so fascinated by them because it just doesn't make any sense that this guy
would rise to some kind of power over anybody let alone handfuls of people the garage is on
record as being against nerdy ass white dudes nerdy-ass white dudes can all go to hell so after they do this little
brief period in West Virginia Lundgren takes on a second wife Catherine Johnson her husband is pissed
off about this then now the group ends up moving to Independence Missouri remember this is the headquarters for
the actual reformed Latter-Day Saints Church and there they move into once again an
old farmhouse but that didn't last because now now we start having some dissension amongst the
ranks right the the group starts to split up a little bit and Jeffrey Lundgren starts to see his flock
diminishing with every move that they make with every relocation that they that they make well and hold on because
they killed five of their members so that already made their group a lot less powerful he and Alice
his his actual wife arranged for their three children to go to Alice's parents and Jeffrey Lundgren his wife Alice
they're one of their sons Damon and his new wife Catherine Johnson and a man named Daniel Kraft they all go
to California my guest here Captain is that they I I mean this appears to me that they
are actively on the run from the law at this point right I mean they all they already were but this is this is when
you're when the ship is sinking and you start tossing luggage overboard uh to avoid the ship from sinking faster and
so that's what I I feel like this situation is they're they're kind of sending everybody away if you're not
with us who cares and we're pushing other people away too and this small very small group of us we're all going
to go to California hold on maybe our cult could just be a cult that's against Cults we don't have a nerdy ass white
dude be the leader we don't wear Army fatigues we don't do military activities we just kind of sit around and talk
about true crime and drink some beer and our Temple which is a garage meanwhile while all of this is going on
keep in mind no one has reported that the averies are missing at this point everyone in Kirtland assumed that the
family had actually left with the cult when the cult left right it was now December 1989 and that is when the
disgruntled cult member Larry Johnson remember he his wife took off with Jeffrey Lundgren he's the one that
calls in the tip to the authorities in Kansas he calls it into Kansas City Missouri and he tells them about the
Avery murders about the Avery family being murdered of course Johnson is ticked off that Lundgren had taken his
woman and was generally disenchanted with Lundgren and his grandiose proclamations and demands
so Johnson decides to rat him out and thank God that he did now after the bodies were found
police discovered that a 45 caliber semi-automatic weapon belonging to Jeffrey Lundgren had fired the bullets
that they recovered so Jeffrey Lundgren bought this weapon in 1987 and sold it in West Virginia in
October of 1989. an article that came from the Cincinnati Enquirer just a week after the bodies
were found Blair's quote cult deaths illustrate the limits of laws control the article says that police had been
watching the commune on the farm for two years and had been looking for a reason
to make an arrest but had no legal basis to do so they were suspicious of the whole thing the structure with the
profit at the top of the food chain the handing over of the checks the paychecks
to him the military militant type behavior all of the weapons they were suspicious of this they had placed the
commune under surveillance and tried to question Jeffrey Lundgren about what was
happening with the group no doubt they viewed Jeffrey Lundgren as a complete [ __ ] artist and his
followers as suckers but until there are legal grounds for police to step in they
can't there's no law against being a sucker Chief Dennis Yarborough told The Inquirer quote we did everything we
could to come up with probable cause of criminal activity but no law had been broken and no one outside could have
foreseen that the cult members would turn on each other foreign [Music] tired of the same old game nights
looking for a fun New activity to do with your family your partner your friends or by yourself then hunt a
killer is for you with hunter killer you get to be the detective you'll need to sort through evidence piece together
Clues and solve the case with an immersive murder mystery game pick from Standalone Single part crime cases
multi-chapter mystery boxes jigsaw puzzles books or an exclusive monthly subscription storyline that unfolds over
six months hunter killer has different difficulty levels and story lines so you can customize it to your interest and
skill level and the items in the Box are realistic feel authentic and are pretty
cool you'll probably want to keep them when you're done playing the game plus there's a spoiler-free online community
of over 100 000 members if players get stuck or want to chat about True Crime I'm currently playing the Quad City
killers and it's just another great game another great mystery from the good folks over at hunt a killer the items
that arrived the evidence that arrives I'm loving going through the evidence and trying to piece together the story
as it happened and figure out who is responsible and unsolving the Mystery this game is full of great puzzles and
ciphers you're really going to like the real detective work that you get to do to try to solve the game do you have
what it takes to hunt a killer learn more at huntakiller.com garage and use promo code garage for ten dollars off
your purchase check out huntakillar.com garage today foreign [Music] we are back
cult members cheers to you you know one of the things about occult is you have to have
the definition of having a call is that you would have not control but you would
be suggestive of their diet if that makes any sense so I guess here in the garage since we're telling you to enjoy
a nice brew that that that puts us in the cult category that it does Captain without a doubt so now we have
a family of five dead shot and killed and buried in the barn belonging to the leader of this little group that leader
Jeffrey Lundgren the bullets that killed them came from his 45. the people that assisted Jeffrey Lundgren in the murders
were his followers and the followers helped to bury the Avery family as well prosecutors after they find these bodies
after they put together this evidence they very quickly brought indictments against 13 members of the family very
quickly on January 5th 1990 the charges were that Jeffrey Lundgren was the trigger man but the others that were
indicted were all people who were present when the Avery family members were shot and killed one by one in a
ritualistic sacrifice or knew about the plan besides Jeffrey Lundgren himself who was charged with five counts of
aggravated murder and five counts of kid kidnapping four of his followers were charged with the same charges as Jeffrey
Lundgren the others charged were Damon Paul Lundgren age 19 which is Lundgren's son a high school senior
Daniel craft Jr a Furniture Builder Ronald luff a forklift operator and Richard brand a civil engineer others
were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping these
were Lundgren's wife Alice the second wife Catherine Johnson and six others but here's what we have going on now
at this point they bring these charges against these 13 individuals they have some of these people in
custody but they don't have all of them in custody because the group splintered off from each other that's right and
remember they're losing people as they go they move from Ohio to West Virginia and then to Missouri where they were
last seen Lundgren in a few of his followers including his original wife Alice his second wife
uh Catherine Johnson their last scene in Missouri but they don't know where this group went
but the good news here is that it doesn't really take very long to finally track them down so three of the missing
lundgrens were arrested on January 7th at a motel near the Mexican border this in the
state of California then three days later Catherine Johnson and Daniel Kraft were apprehended on the
10th near San Diego so the remaining people that they were looking for are found in California when police caught
up with Jeffrey Lundgren and his band of followers they were armed with an AR-15
three handguns and multiple knives so they are equipped with survival gear as well and clearly plan to evade capture
and try to live off the grid as long as they could but luckily for us police caught up with them and for them
it's over they never got to Zion instead they were all in jail Judgment day did indeed come for them but it
would be in the form of prosecutors juries and judges well like you said where they were found
they're running from the law they initially go to one place and with the lack of resources go to another
place then the group splinters off again and then they're found in California but
where by the border of Mexico probably trying to flee into Mexico well keep in mind
too what we have here captain and this is one of the more intriguing parts of the story to me this True Crime Story
and it's it's smart and it's also the right thing to do at the end of the day remember they charged all of these
people 13 different people with varying degrees of involvement and murder that is likely to get them to all turn
on each other or at least turn on Jeffrey Lundgren so that law enforcement in the courts can get the real story of
what happened to the Avery family right so that plan worked of course it did these people many of
them who they quickly rolled over on their fallen Prophet Jeffrey Lundgren well these people are easily suggestible
people so we we will learn what actually happened here and we're going to go into
the details of that let's get it now remember when the police showed up they bring Lundgren in for questioning and
then he comes back and he's saying that he's had a new vision and that they we we need to change the date of the attack
on the the Temple of seizing the temple right the truth of the matter is this that when Lundgren decided to switch
gears he actually began preaching to his group that they needed a sacrifice he told his followers to prepare for a trek
to the wilderness and they started packing up only the essentials and casting off their worldly
possessions in order to reach Zion but before they Departed he told the group that they would have
to sacrifice 10 people saying that he had received word from God through the scriptures that it was
necessary to prune The Herd and then later he downgraded this number to five after another Vision that he had
well once he did the math and realized if I killed 10 people then I don't have any followers he told his cult following
that the end of days was very near and to ensure their salvation they had to make a human sacrifice but he left one
family out of his plan for leaving the area and going into the Wilderness and they in fact became
his secret Target this would be the averies the family of five the Avery family he basically turned all the other
cult members against the averies telling them that their death would be spiritually cleansing and protection
from Armageddon the prosecutors on this heinous case said that the averies were selected to
be the sacrificial Lambs because Jeffrey Lundgren saw them as less committed to the cult as the other members
this because they refuse to live on the farm with the other group with the rest of the group retaining their own
residence in town and even keeping some of their own money that they earned apparently Jeffrey Lundgren did not like
Dennis Avery and thought that Cheryl Avery the mother and wife had too many rights for a woman and he was generally
pissed that they weren't following his every word and and obeying his orders how dare they live in their own house
how dare they keep some of their own money how dare they give rights to the women in their family
how dare they so of course he's telling his followers this meanwhile the averies
they're told none of this they have no idea what's going on Jeffrey Lundgren instructs Cheryl Avery to write to her
extended family and tell them that they were leaving on a Wilderness trip to Wyoming and that they would be out of
touch for a considerable amount of time and Cheryl Avery does this she writes to
the extended family and tells them about this fictitious trip to the Wilderness she believes they're going
and so does her husband they're going to follow Jeffrey Lundgren and the rest of them to Wyoming they
officially withdrew their daughters from the Madison Township Schools that they attended as they thought they were all
going to Wyoming as we know they weren't going to Wyoming the Jeffrey Lundgren and his followers had other plans for
them yeah of course they had other plans they're going to be sacrificial Lambs for the stupid cause on the evening of
April 17 1989 the averies were invited out to The Farmhouse for a party celebrating the group's departure on
their Wilderness trip around 6 30 p.m after dinner with all of the cult members Jeffrey Lundgren went out to the
barn with his son Damon and four other followers this was brand craft Winship and Ron Luft the averies stayed inside
the house with the women and children of the group the burial pit had already been prepared they dug this thing out
days earlier let's be clear here many of the members of this commune but not the averies knew
this was coming and had prepared for it in advance they decided that they were going to use
a chainsaw to hide the sounds of the gunshots so they're out there buzzing a chainsaw
now this is all from the Huffington Post and a little warning here it's it's hard to take some of
these victims are children the article reads one by one the Avery family members were brought into the
barn Dennis was first they probably told him that he needed to attend a meeting of the male members of The Cult
but once he got out in the barn they bound his hands and after a scuffle tossed him into the pit this isn't
necessary Dennis Cried Out according to police he cried out please this isn't necessary then Jeffrey Lundgren shot
Dennis twice Cheryl was next they probably told her her husband needed her or something when she was brought in
according to Ron luff who later gave an interview about this love placed his hand on Cheryl's shoulder and solemnly
said just give it up it'll be easier this way just let go Cheryl must have been in shock because
she silently allowed the men to tie her hands and put her in the pit where she was then shot three times well just
imagine the terror and the horror that's gone through their little kids at this time period probably seeing
their their parents tied up and taken away and like you said to cover up the sound
of a gun which he probably hurt still heard the gun if you're in close range but you have this constant buzzing
of this chainsaw I mean this is horrific well it is horrific but keep in mind they're none the wiser they're leading
these individuals out to the barn one at a time and they're they're attacking tying them up and then
shooting them one at a time right so when when the father Dennis goes out there he has no idea
that they're going to attack and kill him and then when they go in and ask Cheryl hey can you come out to the barn
Dennis needs you for something she has no idea what she's walking into at this time
in the attack the Avery children are still inside playing video games and luff he then returns to The Farmhouse
and he retrieves Trina the oldest of the three mentioning a game of hide and seek
inside the barn he gets her to go to the barn with him under this ruse Trina was then bound at
the wrist and lowered into the pit next to the bodies of her parents the first bullet police said grazed her head and
then the second pierced her skull killing her instantly afterward luff escorted Becky to the barn and helped
Place her on top of her dead mother the girl was shot twice once in the thigh and once in the chest she did not die
instantly and members of The Cult would later tell police that they listened to Becky struggle to breathe as luff exited
the barn luff exited the barn to go back into the Farmhouse to retrieve the youngest of the children
seven-year-old Karen playfully climbed on luft's back for a piggyback ride to the barn once inside she was bound and
lowered Into the Now blood-stained pit as she sat next to her sisters the little girl was shot in the chest and
the head yeah this is not a religious group this is a group of savages Lundgren said at the time
quote it had to be done it was God's will after the murders the men covered the bodies with Lyme to speed up the
decomposition filled the pit with stones and dirt and returned to The Farmhouse for a prayer meeting Jeffrey Lundgren
asked some members of his cult to help him research how to change his identity and this is when they started to get
ready to leave now as we said Captain we have all these charges against these other individuals
and of course the idea here is to start getting some plea deals with many of these members
that were charged because the goal ultimately for the prosecution will be to convict Jeffrey Lundgren and sentence
him to Ohio's death row the trials were all held separately and we are not going to get into the trials
but there are a few things of note would have been cheaper if we just would have
buried them in a pit one at her trial Jeffrey Lundgren's wife Alice came up with the defense that she had stayed
with Lundgren because she was afraid for herself and her children and she cried throughout her testimony and at her
trial the jury went and toured the barn and she cried during this tour as well according to some sources there may be
some evidence that Lundgren abuse Alice but note that she was not the one who called the tip into police nor did she
try to help the averies in advance of their murder so of course the judge was not impressed and Alice got five life
terms in prison well we have to again we have to remember that they sit there in the graves
for almost a year so it's not just that the murders took place and there was a couple days that
went by and and she didn't call in it's over eight months before and was called in now that's many
days and nights that you had freedom that you had a life that you were around your loved ones
where this family wasn't and Well on top of that three children it's there's no excuse and another
member of this Lundgren family of of the actual Lundgren family Damon Lundgren was only 19 at the time of the murders
he was charged with murder as well there was uh five over 500 people who knew him
from school that went on to sign a petition for leniency in his case stating that he was a good kid uh but
Witnesses testified that Damon was present during at least 20 different discussions leading up to the killings
of the Averys 20 different discussions this is 20 different meetings where Jeffrey
Lundgren's explaining to his group that or or small section of his group that we are going to kill these people
he here are the people we are going to kill now let's start planning how we are going to kill them and get away with it
yeah this one this one's a little difficult for me because his parents were supposed to protect him supposed to
raise him obviously they were not doing that in a healthy environment if there's abuse happening
you could have I couldn't imagine where this kid's mindset was with all this abuse with all
this rhetoric of my father as a prophet I mean he had to be completely brainwashed well
in this case remember all the trials were separate in this case the judge was I mean you could view this
one of two ways that the judge was harsh on Damon or he was lenient on him he was
at least harsh on Damon with his words saying at trial to Damon you accept no blame you blame your father you claim
this was your father's doing and none of your own and the judge goes on to say Jeffrey
Lundgren could not have done any of this without the help and devotion of you and
his other followers Society cannot tolerate such excuses so the judge spared Damon from the death penalty so
that would be the leniency part of it the judge gave him 120 years for assisting in the murders and he would
not be eligible for parole for at least 80 of those 120 years for as for Jeffrey
Lundgren himself the prosecutor said that he kept waiting for him to plead insanity but that never happened
in fact Jeffrey Lundgren pled not guilty at his trial even with all these people
turning on him his trial started in August of 1990 and he offered up really no real defense as far as the courts
would be concerned he did testify about his beliefs and his visions and how they
led him to do what he did it's almost as though he was accustomed to people following him and
falling for his [ __ ] and maybe he assumed that his powers would similarly affect the jury yeah or the idea that I
tell myself [ __ ] lies and I believe them and look I was able to get a handful of
people to believe my [ __ ] he had to think on some level oh I can get this courtroom
to believe my [ __ ] NBC News described the defense or described Lundgren by saying at the trial Lundgren
was unrepentant and Resolute in his convictions afforded the opportunity to make an unsworn statement on the stand
Lundgren declared quote I cannot say that God was wrong I cannot say that I am sorry I did what God commanded me to
do in the physical act it's not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God I am a
prophet of God I am even more than a prophet I am not a false prophet therefore I am not worthy of the death
penalty and it looks to me like yeah buddy you probably are well if you could talk to God why didn't he tell you to
cut your mullet the prosecutor presented some of the remnants of the clothing that belong to the Avery family that was
found on the bodies of the averies when they were buried he presented this in court
This was later seen as a stroke of Genius because the stench of rot from the tatters
of this clothing overwhelmed the courtroom some of the jury had a visceral reaction to this
in the end the jury didn't buy that Lundgren was instructed by God to kill the aviaries they didn't buy that he was
some sort of prophet with a direct line to the Almighty they saw him for what he was a murderer
and the jury dropped the hammer on Old Jeffrey Lundgren on August 29th the jury found longer and guilty of five
counts each of aggravated murder and kidnapping and then after the testimony in the sentencing phase it took them
just two hours to agree to recommend Jeffrey Lundgren to be sentenced to die by the state of Ohio they also found him
guilty of being a NAB a nerdy ass [ __ ] in 2006 Lundgren's appeals had all been
exhausted by this time and his time was almost up he was granted a clemency hearing which was held on September 26
2006. we don't need to get into all of the points that was made by the prosecutors
and opposing clemency look this dude killed a family of five with pre-planning and intent period
that's that's a fact in short the board did not find that there was any evidence presented that
was sufficient enough to Warrant a favorable recommendation for executive clemency in regard to Jeffrey Lundgren
on October 24 2006 Jeffrey Lundgren was executed by lethal injection at a Southern Ohio Correction Facility his
last meal was Turkey potatoes and gravy and a salad and pumpkin pie his final words as reported by the Cleveland Plain
Dealer were quote I want to profess my love for God my family my children and my beloved Catherine he said while
staring at the ceiling I am because you are from the News Herald as was his prerogative by law the
prosecutor in this case chose to be present when Jeffrey Lundgren was executed by
lethal injection he felt not one twinge of sympathy as Jeffrey Lundgren was strapped into the
gurney and administered the mixture of drugs that ended his life and he said the guy was a grifter and a
cold-blooded murderer he deserved to die later prison officials said that Jeffrey
Lundgren had been so certain that he would win a delay that he napped much of the morning
the self-proclaimed prophet who was once surrounded with loyal followers died with no family members or friends
among the witnesses no one claimed his body Jeffrey Lundgren was buried in a simple
ceremony in a prison grave in Chillicothe Ohio with convicts serving as his pallbearers
I think the reason why this case is so sad to me is normally there's one killer and in this case there's
multiple killers and multiple people that just stood by and did nothing and for whatever reason for their own
personal gain their own salvation that they thought they were more important than this family some of the
accomplices have now been paroled but still imprisoned are Daniel craft eligible for parole in 2024 Ronald luff
eligibility in 2048 Alice Lundgren parole eligibility for 2092 and Damon Lundgren
who will be eligible for parole in the year 20 98. [Music] want to thank you guys so much for
listening to our show our little garage show we would be nothing without you make sure you share these cases on
social media to spread the word Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this
week I'm very excited to be recommending I Don't Like Mondays the true story behind America's first modern school
shooting by n Lee Hunt guys and girls you're going to want to check this one out this is the story
about Brenda Spicer who was a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice Suburban neighborhood and she made and
executed plans that would Place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying National precedent this is considered to
be one of the first American modern school shootings check out the book I Don't Like Mondays by in Lee Hunt you
can find that great title and many more on our recommended page on our website truecrime garage.com and make sure you
are subscribed to the show many of you are listening and not subscribed so make sure you subscribe to the podcast and
until next week be good be kind and don't let him foreign [Music]

The Kirtland Cult Killings /// Part 2 /// 622 Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com December 31st, 1989 - A tip was called into the Bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. The caller said that a family of five was missing and he knew where they were. The caller told authorities that the family could be found buried in a barn in Kirtland, Ohio. This call sparked a recovery effort and a manhunt. This week in the Garage we discuss the senseless murders of the Avery family and the cult living on the property where the bodies were buried.

Beer of the Week - Dragon’s Milk by New Holland Brewing Garage Grade - 4 and half bottle caps out of 5

Recommended Reading - I Don’t Like Mondays: The True Story Behind America’s First Modern School Shooting by N. Leigh Hunt

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

Jeffrey Lundgren led a cult that murdered the Avery family in a ritualistic sacrifice, resulting in multiple arrests and his execution.

Key points

The Cult's Military Training. Jeffrey Lundgren's followers engaged in paramilitary training, believing they were chosen for a divine mission.
Death Threats and Isolation. Members who left Lundgren's cult received anonymous death threats, leading to increased isolation.
The Disgraced Informant. Larry Johnson, a disgruntled cult member, tips off authorities about the Avery murders.
Police Surveillance. Authorities had been watching Lundgren's commune for years but lacked legal grounds to intervene.
Lundgren's Arrest. Jeffrey Lundgren and his followers were apprehended while attempting to evade capture near the Mexican border.
The Avery Family's Tragic Fate. The Avery family was tragically targeted for a ritualistic sacrifice by Jeffrey Lundgren and his followers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If there's a second coming of Christ... I don't think Christ is coming here first.

Discussion on the cult's beliefs and location.

7:56WatchOct 19, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.