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

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GameChanger [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man who was voted Camp Crystal lakes's favorite bomas boy
here is the captain some say I can't be killed but you guys know I've been brain
dead for years it's good to be seeing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
[Music] friend today we are still sipping on this classically great stout beer this
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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 cry [Music] [Music] when we left off yesterday Captain we were starting to take a look at who this
Jeffrey lungren 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 lungren who had a splinter group from the reformed latterday 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 lungren farm on April 29th 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 lungren 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 we're we're a weird little cult here's what's weird though too Captain while
we're on the road of weird his group Jeffrey lungren 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 lungren 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 lungren picked May 3d
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 lungren 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
lunden'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 jennis yarbor 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 SP 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 was 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 know no offense to Ohio but I don't think Christ is coming here
first why wouldn't he this is Buck idation baby he's well he's going to come visit the Browns put them out of
their misery hey if Christ is coming back I want to know in advance so I can be wearing sunglasses when because your
future looks so bright so on May 2nd of that year Chief yarboro brought Jeffrey lungren 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 lungren on that date but
what we do know is that Jeffrey lungren returns to the farm and after it's after
that period of questioning that he comes back 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 dat to 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 yoro 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
jeffy's plan you you divide and conquer you take individuals you sleep deprive 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 well you don't need to be around those
people anymore also according to the police chief around this time lman Dale luffman who we've discussed at length
and others who decided not to follow Jeffrey lungren or were no longer following Jeffrey lungren they start to
receive death threats from an anonymous source on April 16th 1989 so we're going to fast forward
almost a full year here Jeffrey lungren 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 yarboro 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
for forced labor polygamy and other such claims to justify probable cause to go in in 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 at some point it's not just people that refus to follow or stop following
Jeffrey lungren 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 lungren 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 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 right 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 lungren had selected the designation for the group obviously because he's he's
the you know the one in charge he tells them where to go and what to do according to the information I have
Jeffrey lungren 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 lungren selected Katherine 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 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 red flags because we've seen it time and time
again take the 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 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 profits are always some nerdy ass white dude that doesn't know how to dress I hate nerdy ass white
their their hairlines are normally running from their faces it makes zero sense I think that's why we're so
fascinated by him 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 Jeffrey lungren takes on a second wife Katherine 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 that the group starts to split up a little bit and Jeffrey
lungren starts to see his flock diminishing with every move that they make H 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 lungren his wife Alice they're one of their sons Damon and his new wife Katherine
Johnson and a man named Daniel craft they all go to California my guest here Captain is 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
are 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 lungren 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 lungren had taken his woman and was generally disenchanted with lungren 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 lungren had fired
the bullets that they recovered so Jeffrey lungren bought this weapon in 1987 and sold it in West Virginia in
October of 1989 an article that came from the Cincinnati Inquirer 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 profet 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 lungren about what was happening with the group no doubt they viewed Jeffrey lungren 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 yarboro told the inquir 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 [Music]
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cheers to you you know one of the things about a cult is you have to have the definition of having a cult 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 lungren the bullets that killed them came from his 45 the people that assisted Jeffrey
lungren 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 lungren was the
trigger man but the others that were indicted were all people who were present when the AY family members were
shot and killed one by one in a ritualistic sacrifice or knew about the plan besides Jeffrey lungren himself who
was charged with five counts of aggravated murder and five counts of kidnapping four of his followers were
charged with the same charges as Jeffrey lungren the others charged were Damon Paul lungren aged 19 which is lungren
son a high school senior Daniel craft Jr a Furniture Builder Ronald Lu 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 Len's wife Alice the second wife Katherine 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 moved from Ohio to West
Virginia and then to Missouri where they were last seen lungren and a few of his
followers including his original wife Alice's second wife uh Katherine Johnson they're 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 lungren were arrested on January 7th at
a motel near the Mexican border this in the state of California then 3 Days Later Katherine
Johnson and Daniel craft 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 lungren 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 judges
well and 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 Splinter us 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
lungren so that law enforcement and 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 lungren well these people are are easily suggestable 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 lungren in for were 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 lungren 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 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 kill 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 Avery 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 lungren saw them as less committed to the cult as the other
members this because they refused 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 lungren
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 right 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 lungren 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 lungren 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
that Jeffrey lungren 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 17th 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 lungren went out to the barn with his son Damon and four other followers this was
brandcraft windship and Ron L 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 CRI out according to police he cried out please
this isn't necessary then Jeffrey lungren Shot Dennis twice Cheryl was next they probably told her her husband
needed her or something when she was brought in according to Ron Lu who later gave an interview about this Lu 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 going through
their little kids at this time period probably seeing their their parents tied up and and
taken away and like you said to cover up the sound of a gun which you probably heard 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 LU 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 Lu 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 instant ly and members of The Cult would
later tell police that they listened to Becky's struggle to breathe as L exited the barn Lu exited the barn to go back
into the Farmhouse to retrieve the youngest of the children seven-year-old Karen playfully climbed on L's back for
a piggyback ride to the barn once inside she was bound and lowered Into the Now bloodstained pit as she sat next to her
sisters the little girl was shot in the chest in the head yeah this is not a religious group this is a group of
savages lungren said at the time quote it had to be done it was God's will after the murders the men covered the
bodies with lime to speed up the decomposition filled the pit with stones and dirt and returned to The Farmhouse
for a prayer meet Jeffrey lungren 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
lungren and sentence him to Ohio's death row the trials were all held separately
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 Buri them in a pit one at her trial Jeffrey lungren wife Alice came up with
the defense that she had stayed with lungrin 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 lungren abused 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 sat 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 it was called in yeah 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 lungren family of of the actual lungren family Damon lungren 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 averies 20 different discussions this is 20 different meetings where Jeffrey
lungren is explaining to his group that or or a 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 was abuse
happening you couldn't I couldn't imagine where this kid's mindset was with all this abuse
with all this rhetoric of my father is a prophet I mean he had to be completely brain
washed 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 lungren 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 lungren himself
the prosecutor said that he kept waiting for him to plead insanity but that never
happened in fact Jeffrey lungren 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
corporate room to believe my [ __ ] NBC News described the defense or described lungren by saying at the trial
lungren was unrepentant and Resolute in his convictions afforded the opportunity
to make an unsworn statement on the stand lungren declared quot 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 belonged 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
lungren was instructed by God to kill the averies they didn't 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 lungren on August 29th the jury found lungren 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 lungren to be sentenced to die by the state of Ohio they also found him
guilty of being an NAB a nerdy ass [ __ ] and 2006 lungren 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 in 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
lungren on October 24th 2006 Jeffrey lungren 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
plane 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 lungren was executed by lethal
injection he felt not one twinge of sympathy as Jeffrey lungren was strapped into the gurnie 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 lungren 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 lungren was
buried in a simple ceremony in a prison grave in chilo Ohio with convicts serving as his Paul Bears 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 Lu eligibility in 2048 Alice lungren parole eligibility for 2092 and Damon lungren who will be
eligible for parole in the year [Music] 2098 [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 l leners 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 True Crime 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 it [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

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

Part 2 of 2

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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.

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

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Brief Summary

Jeffrey Lungren led a cult that murdered the Avery family in a ritualistic sacrifice in 1989, resulting in his execution in 2006.

Key points

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True Crime Garage Introduction. Welcome to True Crime Garage, your hosts discuss true crime over craft beer.
The Avery Family Murders. Exploring the disturbing case of the Avery family and their connection to Jeffrey Lungren.
Cult Members Indicted. Thirteen members of the cult were indicted for their involvement in the murders.
Lungren's Arrest. Jeffrey Lungren and his followers were apprehended near the Mexican border, armed and ready.

Episode highlights

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1:55WatchNov 16, 2023

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