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GameChanger [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
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
00:01:50
here is the captain some say I can't be killed but you guys know I've been brain
00:01:55
dead for years it's good to be seeing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
00:02:02
[Music] friend today we are still sipping on this classically great stout beer this
00:02:10
is Dragon's Milk Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stout from the good Folks at New Holland this is a delicious craft
00:02:17
brew filled with roasted malt and hints of coffee chocolate vanilla and a little
00:02:22
Oaky bourban Barrel goodness garage grade 4 and a half bottle caps out of five and here's some cheers and thank
00:02:32
yous to our good friends first up a big cheers to Erica and NAA Idaho who says we are the only true crime podcast that
00:02:41
she listens to and a big we like your jib to Aaron Tucker from Charlottesville Virginia and last but certainly not
00:02:49
least we have Chris and Jen and Philly you guys got yourselves one heck of a football team out there everyone we just
00:02:56
mentioned they went to True Crime garage.com and clicked on the donate button which helped us out with this
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week's beer fund yeah Fly Eagles Fly oky yokei was my nickname in high school make sure you check out our website
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store it's hoodie season baby we got three new hoodies coming out at the start of next week so make sure you are
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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
00:03:27
talk some true cry [Music] [Music] when we left off yesterday Captain we were starting to take a look at who this
00:04:01
Jeffrey lungren character was and we talked about five bodies being found in the barn that was located on the
00:04:11
property that he was leasing that he and his family were leasing the 15 Acre Farm
00:04:16
the bodies were recovered in January of 1990 and the bodies were determined to be that of the Avery family followers of
00:04:26
Jeffrey lungren who had a splinter group from the reformed latterday Saints in Kirtland
00:04:34
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
00:04:41
leading up to these murders and we need to figure out just who is responsible for the murders of the Avery family
00:04:51
let's go back to April of 1988 this is when people in town in Kirtland Ohio started talking about
00:04:59
weird stuff going on down on that farm on the lungren farm on April 29th 1988 a neighbor of the farm called police
00:05:10
complaining that a cult was living at the farm and mentioned gunfire and paramilitary activity going on at the
00:05:18
farm there are reports that Jeffrey lungren was always dressed in Army fatigues and kept a gun at the ready he
00:05:26
told his people that God chose him to lead a revolution in Kirtland Ohio the plan was to take over the temple by
00:05:37
force in order to initiate the process by which he and his followers would find Salvation this was what the military
00:05:45
training was for seems like a lot of these so-called prophets especially the prophets that tell you their prophets
00:05:53
seem to be fascinated with Warfare and Military they seem to be that's 100% and now I'm fully regretting
00:06:03
that when we started up True Crime garage that we started calling some of the listeners the garage Army seems like
00:06:09
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
00:06:16
we're on the road of weird his group Jeffrey lungren and his followers who are now conducting military training at
00:06:24
the commune at this 15 Acre Farm they had a somewhat detailed battle plan this again from a later report that says
00:06:33
quote according to lungren his followers had to recapture the temple afterward an
00:06:39
earthquake would then Elevate the temple and Christ would return to establish Zion so the men in the group undertook
00:06:48
paramilitary training to prepare for this assault on the temple and Jeffrey lungren picked May 3d
00:06:58
1988 his birthday of course as the date to recapture the temple right it's it's all
00:07:05
got to be about him and specific members of the reformed Latter Day Saints were actually targeted for
00:07:15
extermination so essentially we are talking about he's put together a hit list or a kill list here Captain one
00:07:22
cult member Kevin Curry became disenchanted with lungren and his radicalized teachings he ends up leaving Kirtland
00:07:34
Ohio and he moves to Buffalo New York shout out to the bills Mafia he moves there in
00:07:41
1988 and he goes to the FBI field office there in Buffalo and tells agents about
00:07:49
lunden's plan to use lethal Force to seize the Kirtland Temple on that May 3rd date in 1988 the FBI passes along
00:08:00
this information to the Kirtland police chief jennis yarbor that is likely the initiation plus the the neighbor calling
00:08:10
about gunfire and the cult living on that property that gets the Kirtland police
00:08:16
involved in this whole mess way back in 1988 well before the killings took place
00:08:23
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
00:08:30
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
00:08:38
couple of these services and now they're asking for all your money and now they want you to do
00:08:45
military training I'm sure there was a bunch of people that went into this splinter group and went what the heck is
00:08:52
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
00:09:01
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
00:09:09
their misery hey if Christ is coming back I want to know in advance so I can be wearing sunglasses when because your
00:09:16
future looks so bright so on May 2nd of that year Chief yarboro brought Jeffrey lungren into the police
00:09:24
station he's confronting him about this planned attack on the temple and also questioning him about the reports of the
00:09:32
gunfire that was heard coming from the property that he's leasing we don't have the details other than that of this
00:09:39
questioning or the back and forth that likely went down between the chief his men and Jeffrey lungren on that date but
00:09:49
what we do know is that Jeffrey lungren returns to the farm and after it's after
00:09:56
that period of questioning that he comes back back and he announces to his followers that he's had a vision a new
00:10:04
vision that told Jeffrey that the time for the attack was not right so I guess they are going to need
00:10:13
to pick a different dat to new date for the attack on the temple based off of this new vision that he's
00:10:19
had police were now watching the farm Chief yoro went to the commune after the neighbors complained about hearing
00:10:28
gunfire he says that when he was there he observed the group of people marching in formation discussing and practicing
00:10:36
military tactics wearing military uniforms but unfortunately you know he doesn't love
00:10:43
what he's seeing but his hands are tied right because nothing going on was technically
00:10:50
illegal and there's no doubt that he does not want to get in a situation or get his Department into a situation
00:10:58
where there's a legal entanglement about religious freedom according to the police chief a few months later the cult
00:11:05
members stopped coming into town at all and they stopped interacting with anyone
00:11:10
else outside of their little group and they were becoming more and more isolated well this is probably part of
00:11:19
jeffy's plan you you divide and conquer you take individuals you sleep deprive them you take them of all their
00:11:27
resources you cut them off from friends and family members hey your your friends
00:11:33
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
00:11:41
people anymore also according to the police chief around this time lman Dale luffman who we've discussed at length
00:11:51
and others who decided not to follow Jeffrey lungren or were no longer following Jeffrey lungren they start to
00:11:59
receive death threats from an anonymous source on April 16th 1989 so we're going to fast forward
00:12:08
almost a full year here Jeffrey lungren purchased three guns using a credit card
00:12:15
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
00:12:23
Avery's credit card purchases three guns in April of 1989 on the 18th of 1989 so
00:12:33
just two days later after the gun purchase Chief yarboro five of his men and some FBI agents they decide to pay a
00:12:41
visit to the commune they said later that this was part of a civil rights violation investigation or civil rights
00:12:50
violations investigation I'm guessing here that they're probably using rumors that they're hearing about unpaid labor
00:12:58
for forced labor polygamy and other such claims to justify probable cause to go in in visit
00:13:07
the commune and ask some questions and take a good look around right what they were really checking on my belief is
00:13:16
these death threats these Anonymous death threats believing that they're probably coming from someone or
00:13:22
someone's on this property and if they go there looking at these other things which which they had reason they had
00:13:29
cause to go there on those other items maybe they find evidence of these death threats that they are in fact coming
00:13:37
from this property so they needed some evidence on these death threats coming from the property because they had
00:13:43
Anonymous death threats being made this at at some point it's not just people that refus to follow or stop following
00:13:50
Jeffrey lungren but now we have death threats that are being made against certain church members not only in
00:13:55
Kirtland Ohio but also in Kansas City as well so there was information that members of Jeffrey lungren group were
00:14:05
going to kill members of the old church now when they're there more than 12 guns are found in the
00:14:14
house but they were owned legally so they were not confiscated and again they they find no proof of illegal activity
00:14:23
so there's no arrests that are made even with the the police chief there all of his men and several FBI
00:14:34
agents a little Clarity in our timeline though here Captain notice the dates because one thing that that we do not
00:14:43
know up until this point in our telling of this true crime story is that while the guns were purchased on April
00:14:51
16th and the FBI and the police chief and his men are there on April 18th the averies the family of five the
00:14:59
bodies that are later found in the barn they had been shot and killed the day before this visit from law
00:15:06
enforcement on the 17th and as far as law enforcement goes scary situation to put yourself into you are backed by FBI
00:15:16
so you probably feel pretty safe but it's also not a large group it's a group of less than 20
00:15:24
individuals so when you see them doing their little military activities it's probably a little silly
00:15:32
to law enforcement and FBI but still you have to take all this stuff serious because you're probably hearing some
00:15:41
pretty crazy rumors coming out of this Farm well so when authorities when they arrive on the
00:15:49
farm they find men in this group they find them in the barn but they find them on the other
00:15:59
side of the barn from where the bodies were right so had they gone and looked around in the barn a little more and
00:16:07
gone to the other side they may have noted the freshly upturned Earth but also at this time you have to keep in
00:16:14
mind they have no idea that this group would be capable of murdering some of their
00:16:20
own there there's no rumor of that nor was there any threat made against the Avery family in fact
00:16:29
no one's even reported this family missing they're not reported missing until the person calls in in
00:16:36
January after they're killed and I'm sorry in December after they're killed and tells police hey this family's
00:16:43
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
00:16:51
few days later in early January so after the FBI and the police go to this property the the whole group decides all
00:17:02
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
00:17:10
they just up and leave the whole group or the majority of them anyway so much of their things the belongings the
00:17:19
animals everything that they had kind of put together is just kind of left there
00:17:23
because they're fleeing in the middle of the night practically and they end up leaving for West Virginia which is not
00:17:29
much better than Ohio and then Jeffrey lungren had selected the designation for the group obviously because he's he's
00:17:38
the you know the one in charge he tells them where to go and what to do according to the information I have
00:17:43
Jeffrey lungren selected the destination for the group's pilgrimage which was to seek the golden
00:17:51
sword that would provide protection to the group in the event of the end of the world
00:17:59
so they're going to be camping in Parks living in tents working odd jobs they're
00:18:05
they're on the Run they're in another state but they're essentially trying to keep on task with their general idea or
00:18:14
Mission as they had it so they continued preparing their military plans for achievement of
00:18:23
Zion it was while the group was in West Virginia that Jeffrey lungren selected Katherine Johnson as his second wife
00:18:32
which of course angered her husband her real husband Larry well these prophets can't just have one wife they have to
00:18:39
have multiple wives yeah the the thing that drives me crazy is that when we take a look at these
00:18:48
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
00:18:57
just because they would be red flags on their own but they're huge red flags because we've seen it time and time
00:19:02
again take the same course of events the same series of events first off hey we're just a bunch of good people who
00:19:11
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
00:19:18
and and our and express our religious freedoms and take care of each other and grow as a as a little Community
00:19:26
ourselves right that's that's usually how it starts right and then shortly after that it's like all right well all
00:19:33
the paychecks all the money all the work being done that's for the group and for
00:19:37
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
00:19:45
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
00:19:53
well and these profits are always some nerdy ass white dude that doesn't know how to dress I hate nerdy ass white
00:20:01
their their hairlines are normally running from their faces it makes zero sense I think that's why we're so
00:20:09
fascinated by him because it just doesn't make any sense that this guy would rise to some kind of power over
00:20:17
anybody let alone handfuls of people the garage is on record as being against nerdy ass
00:20:25
white dudes nerdy ass white dudes can all go to hell so after they do this little brief period in West
00:20:34
Virginia Jeffrey lungren takes on a second wife Katherine Johnson her husband is pissed off about this then
00:20:42
now the group ends up moving to Independence Missouri remember this is the headquarters for the actual reformed
00:20:50
Latter-Day Saints church and there they move into once again an old farmhouse but that didn't last because now now we
00:21:00
start having some dissension amongst the ranks right that the group starts to split up a little bit and Jeffrey
00:21:07
lungren starts to see his flock diminishing with every move that they make H with every relocation that they
00:21:17
that they make well and hold on because they killed five of their members so that already made their group a lot less
00:21:27
powerful he and Alice his his actual wife arranged for their three children to go to Alice's
00:21:39
parents and Jeffrey lungren his wife Alice they're one of their sons Damon and his new wife Katherine
00:21:49
Johnson and a man named Daniel craft they all go to California my guest here Captain is is
00:21:58
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
00:22:06
are they already were but this is this is when you're when the ship is sinking and you start tossing luggage overboard
00:22:14
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
00:22:21
sending everybody away if you're not with us who cares and we're pushing other people away too and this small
00:22:28
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
00:22:36
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
00:22:45
we just kind of sit around and talk about true crime and drink some beer and our Temple which is a garage
00:22:54
meanwhile while all of this is going on keep in mind no one has reported that the averies are missing at this point
00:23:00
everyone in Kirtland assumed that the family had actually left with the cult when the cult left right it was now
00:23:07
December 1989 and that is when the disgruntled cult member Larry Johnson remember he
00:23:15
his wife took off with Jeffrey lungren he's the one that calls in the tip to the authorities in Kansas he calls it
00:23:23
into Kansas City Missouri and he tells them about the Avery murders about the Avery family being murdered of course
00:23:30
Johnson is ticked off that lungren had taken his woman and was generally disenchanted with lungren and his
00:23:37
grandiose proclamations and demands so Johnson decides to rat him out and thank God that he did now after
00:23:47
the bodies were found police discovered that a 45 caliber semi-automatic weapon belonging to Jeffrey lungren had fired
00:23:55
the bullets that they recovered so Jeffrey lungren bought this weapon in 1987 and sold it in West Virginia in
00:24:03
October of 1989 an article that came from the Cincinnati Inquirer just a week after
00:24:11
the bodies were found Blair's quote cult deaths illustrate the limits of laws control the article says that police had
00:24:21
been watching the commune on the farm for two years and had been looking for a reason to make an arrest but had no
00:24:29
legal basis to do so they were suspicious of the whole thing the structure with the profet at the top of
00:24:36
the food chain the handing over of the checks the paychecks to him the military militant type behavior all of the
00:24:45
weapons they were suspicious of this they had placed the commune under surveillance and tried to question
00:24:52
Jeffrey lungren about what was happening with the group no doubt they viewed Jeffrey lungren as a complete [ __ ]
00:24:59
artist and his followers as suckers but until there are legal grounds for police
00:25:04
to step in they can't there's no law against being a sucker Chief Dennis yarboro told the inquir quote we did
00:25:13
everything we could to come up with probable cause of criminal activity but no law had been broken and no one
00:25:20
outside could have foreseen that the cult members would turn on each other [Music]
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00:28:10
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
00:28:18
would have not control but you would be suggestive of their diet if that makes any sense so I guess here in the garage
00:28:28
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
00:28:36
doubt so now we have a family of five dead shot and killed and buried in the barn belonging to the leader of this
00:28:46
little group that leader Jeffrey lungren the bullets that killed them came from his 45 the people that assisted Jeffrey
00:28:55
lungren in the murders were his followers and the followers helped to bury the Avery family as well
00:29:03
prosecutors after they find these bodies after they put together this evidence they very quickly brought indictments
00:29:10
against 13 members of the family very quickly on January 5th 1990 the charges were that Jeffrey lungren was the
00:29:19
trigger man but the others that were indicted were all people who were present when the AY family members were
00:29:26
shot and killed one by one in a ritualistic sacrifice or knew about the plan besides Jeffrey lungren himself who
00:29:35
was charged with five counts of aggravated murder and five counts of kidnapping four of his followers were
00:29:41
charged with the same charges as Jeffrey lungren the others charged were Damon Paul lungren aged 19 which is lungren
00:29:49
son a high school senior Daniel craft Jr a Furniture Builder Ronald Lu a forklift
00:29:56
operator and Richard brand a civil engineer others were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated
00:30:05
murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping these were Len's wife Alice the second wife Katherine Johnson and
00:30:13
six others but here's what we have going on now at this point they bring these charges against these 13
00:30:23
individuals they have some of these people in custody but they don't have all of them in custody because the group
00:30:30
splintered off from each other that's right and remember they're losing people as they go they moved from Ohio to West
00:30:36
Virginia and then to Missouri where they were last seen lungren and a few of his
00:30:41
followers including his original wife Alice's second wife uh Katherine Johnson they're last scene in
00:30:48
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
00:30:58
finally track them down so three of the missing lungren were arrested on January 7th at
00:31:06
a motel near the Mexican border this in the state of California then 3 Days Later Katherine
00:31:13
Johnson and Daniel craft were apprehended on the 10th near San Diego so the remaining people that they were
00:31:22
looking for are found in California when police caught up with Jeffrey lungren and his band of followers they were
00:31:28
armed with an AR-15 three handguns and multiple knives so they are equipped with survival gear as well and clearly
00:31:36
plan to evade capture and try to live off the grid as long as they could but luckily for us police caught up with
00:31:44
them and for them it's over they never got to Zion instead they were all in jail
00:31:51
Judgment day did indeed come for them but it would be in the form of prosecutors juries and judges judges
00:31:57
well and like you said where they were found they're running from the law they initially go to one place and with the
00:32:07
lack of resources go to another place then the group Splinter us off again and then they're found in California but
00:32:14
where by the border of Mexico probably trying to flee into Mexico well keep in mind too what we have here captain and
00:32:23
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
00:32:33
the right thing to do at the end of the day remember they charged all of these people 13 different people with varying
00:32:41
degrees of involvement and murder that is likely to get them to all turn on each other or at least turn on Jeffrey
00:32:49
lungren so that law enforcement and the courts can get the real story of what happened to the Avery family right
00:33:01
so that plan worked of course it did these people many of them who they quickly rolled
00:33:09
over on their fallen Prophet Jeffrey lungren well these people are are easily suggestable people so we we will learn
00:33:19
what actually happened here and we're going to go into the details of that let's get it now remember when the
00:33:24
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
00:33:30
vision and that they we we need to change the date of the attack on the the Temple of seizing the temple right the
00:33:38
truth of the matter is this that when lungren decided to switch gears he actually began preaching to his group
00:33:45
that they needed a sacrifice he told his followers to prepare for a trek to the Wilderness and they started packing up
00:33:54
only the essentials and casting off off their worldly possessions in order to reach Zion but before they
00:34:03
departed he told the group that they would have to sacrifice 10 people saying that he had received word from God
00:34:11
through the scriptures that it was necessary to prune the herd and then later he downgraded this number to five
00:34:19
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
00:34:25
followers he told his cult following that the end of days was very near and to ensure their salvation they had to
00:34:33
make a human sacrifice but he left one family out of his plan for leaving the area and going into the Wilderness and
00:34:43
they in fact became his secret Target this would be the averies the family of five the Avery family he basically
00:34:52
turned all the other cult members against the Avery telling them that their death would be
00:35:00
spiritually cleansing and protection from Armageddon the prosecutors on this heinous case said that the averies were
00:35:10
selected to be the sacrificial Lambs because Jeffrey lungren saw them as less committed to the cult as the other
00:35:19
members this because they refused to live on the farm with the other group with the rest of the group retaining
00:35:26
their own residence in town and even keeping some of their own money that they earned apparently Jeffrey lungren
00:35:32
did not like Dennis Avery and thought that Cheryl Avery the mother and wife had too many rights for a woman and he
00:35:41
was generally pissed that they weren't following his every word and and obeying his orders how dare they live in their
00:35:50
own house how dare they keep some of their own money how dare they give right rights to the women in their family how
00:35:59
dare they so of course he's telling his followers this meanwhile the averies they're told none of this they have no
00:36:07
idea what's going on Jeffrey lungren instructs Cheryl Avery to write to her extended family and tell them that they
00:36:14
were leaving on a Wilderness trip to Wyoming and that they would be out of touch for a considerable amount of time
00:36:21
and Cheryl Avery does this she writes to the extended family and tells them about
00:36:25
this fictitious trip to the Wilderness she believes they're going and so does her husband they're going to follow
00:36:33
Jeffrey lungren and the rest of them to Wyoming they officially withdrew their daughters from the Madison Township
00:36:41
Schools that they attended as they thought they were all going to Wyoming as we know they weren't going to Wyoming
00:36:49
that Jeffrey lungren and his followers had other plans for them yeah of course they had other plans they're going to be
00:36:55
sacrificial Lambs for the stupid cause on the evening of April 17th 1989 the averies were invited out to The
00:37:03
Farmhouse for a party celebrating the group's departure on their Wilderness trip around 6:30 p.m. after dinner with
00:37:11
all of the cult members Jeffrey lungren went out to the barn with his son Damon and four other followers this was
00:37:19
brandcraft windship and Ron L the averies stayed inside the house with the women and Children of the group the
00:37:29
burial pit had already been prepared they dug this thing out days earlier let's be clear here many of the members
00:37:37
of this commune but not the averies knew this was coming and had prepared for it
00:37:43
in advance they decided that they were going to use a chainsaw to hide the sounds of the
00:37:50
gunshots so they're out there buzzing a chainsaw now this is all from the Huffington Post and a little warning
00:37:59
here it's it's hard to take some of these victims are children the article reads one by one the Avery family
00:38:07
members were brought into the barn Dennis was first they probably told him that he needed to attend a meeting of
00:38:14
the male members of the cult but once he got out in the barn they bound his hands
00:38:21
and after a scuffle tossed him into the pit this isn't necessary Dennis CRI out according to police he cried out please
00:38:30
this isn't necessary then Jeffrey lungren Shot Dennis twice Cheryl was next they probably told her her husband
00:38:38
needed her or something when she was brought in according to Ron Lu who later gave an interview about this Lu placed
00:38:46
his hand on Cheryl's shoulder and solemnly said just give it up it'll be easier this way just let go Cheryl must
00:38:56
have been in shock because she silently allowed the men to tie her hands and put
00:39:01
her in the pit where she was then shot three times well just imagine the terror and the horror that's going through
00:39:09
their little kids at this time period probably seeing their their parents tied up and and
00:39:16
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
00:39:24
close range but you have this constant buzzing of this chainsaw I mean this is horrific well it is horrific but keep in
00:39:36
mind they're none the wiser they're leading these individuals out to the barn one at a time and
00:39:44
they're they're attacking tying them up and then shooting them one at a time right so when when the
00:39:54
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
00:40:00
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
00:40:08
this time in the attack the Avery children are still inside playing video games and LU he then returns to The
00:40:16
Farmhouse and he retrieves Trina the oldest of the three mentioning a game of hide and seek inside the barn he
00:40:27
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
00:40:33
to the bodies of her parents the first bullet police said grazed her head and then the second pierced her skull
00:40:40
killing her instantly afterward Lu escorted Becky to the barn and helped Place her on top of her dead mother the
00:40:50
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
00:40:58
later tell police that they listened to Becky's struggle to breathe as L exited the barn Lu exited the barn to go back
00:41:07
into the Farmhouse to retrieve the youngest of the children seven-year-old Karen playfully climbed on L's back for
00:41:15
a piggyback ride to the barn once inside she was bound and lowered Into the Now bloodstained pit as she sat next to her
00:41:25
sisters the little girl was shot in the chest in the head yeah this is not a religious group this is a group of
00:41:31
savages lungren said at the time quote it had to be done it was God's will after the murders the men covered the
00:41:41
bodies with lime to speed up the decomposition filled the pit with stones and dirt and returned to The Farmhouse
00:41:47
for a prayer meet Jeffrey lungren asked some members of his cult to help him research how to change his identity and
00:41:55
this is when they started to get ready to leave now as we said Captain we have all these charges against these other
00:42:03
individuals and of course the idea here is to start getting some plea deals with
00:42:11
many of these members that were charged because the goal ultimately for the prosecution will be to convict Jeffrey
00:42:18
lungren and sentence him to Ohio's death row the trials were all held separately
00:42:26
we are not going to get into the trials but there are a few things of note would
00:42:32
have been cheaper if we just would have Buri them in a pit one at her trial Jeffrey lungren wife Alice came up with
00:42:39
the defense that she had stayed with lungrin because she was afraid for herself and her children and she cried
00:42:46
throughout her testimony and at her trial the jury went and toured the barn and she cried during this tour as well
00:42:56
According to some sources there may be some evidence that lungren abused Alice but note that she was not the one who
00:43:04
called the tip into police nor did she try to help the averies in advance of their murder so of course the judge was
00:43:12
not impressed and Alice got five life terms in prison well we have to again we have to remember that they sat there in
00:43:23
the graves for almost a year so it's not just that the murders took place and there was a
00:43:31
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
00:43:42
days and nights that you had freedom that you had a life that you were around your loved ones where this family
00:43:52
wasn't and Well on top of that three children it's there's no excuse and another
00:43:59
member of this lungren family of of the actual lungren family Damon lungren was only 19 at the time of the murders
00:44:08
he was charged with murder as well there was uh five over 500 people who knew him
00:44:15
from school that went on to sign a petition for leniency in his case stating that he was a good kid uh but
00:44:23
Witnesses testified that Damon was present during at least 20 different discussions leading up to the killings
00:44:31
of the averies 20 different discussions this is 20 different meetings where Jeffrey
00:44:39
lungren is explaining to his group that or or a small section of his group that we are going to kill these people he
00:44:47
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
00:44:52
yeah this one this one's a little difficult for me because his parents were supposed to protect him supposed to
00:44:58
raise him obviously they were not doing that in a healthy environment if there was abuse
00:45:07
happening you couldn't I couldn't imagine where this kid's mindset was with all this abuse
00:45:16
with all this rhetoric of my father is a prophet I mean he had to be completely brain
00:45:26
washed well in this case remember all the trials were separate in this case the judge was I
00:45:34
mean you could view this one of two ways that the judge was harsh on Damon or he
00:45:39
was lenient on him he was at least harsh on Damon with his words saying at trial
00:45:46
to Damon you accept no blame you blame your father you claim this was your father's doing and none of your own and
00:45:53
the judge goes on to say Jeffrey lungren could not have done any of this without
00:45:58
the help and devotion of you and his other followers Society cannot tolerate such excuses so the judge spared Damon
00:46:07
from the death penalty so that would be the leniency part of it the judge gave him 120 years for assisting in the
00:46:15
murders and he would not be eligible for parole for at least 80 of those 120 years for as for Jeffrey lungren himself
00:46:26
the prosecutor said that he kept waiting for him to plead insanity but that never
00:46:32
happened in fact Jeffrey lungren pled not guilty at his trial even with all these people turning on him his trial
00:46:41
started in August of 1990 and he offered up really no real defense as far as the courts would be
00:46:48
concerned he did testify about his beliefs and his visions and how they led him to do what he did it's almost as
00:46:56
though he was accustomed to people following him and falling for his [ __ ] and maybe he assumed that his
00:47:03
powers would similarly affect the jury yeah or the idea that I tell myself [ __ ] lies and I believe them and
00:47:14
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
00:47:25
corporate room to believe my [ __ ] NBC News described the defense or described lungren by saying at the trial
00:47:35
lungren was unrepentant and Resolute in his convictions afforded the opportunity
00:47:42
to make an unsworn statement on the stand lungren declared quot I cannot say that God was wrong I cannot say that I
00:47:51
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
00:48:01
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
00:48:11
of the death penalty and it looks to me like yeah buddy you probably are well if
00:48:16
you could talk to God why didn't he tell you to cut your mullet the prosecutor presented some of the remnants of the
00:48:24
clothing that belonged to the Avery family that was found on the bodies of the averies when they were buried he
00:48:32
presented this in court this was later seen as a stroke of Genius because the stench of rot from the tatters of this
00:48:42
clothing overwhelmed the courtroom some of the jury had a visceral reaction to this in the end the jury didn't buy that
00:48:52
lungren was instructed by God to kill the averies they didn't didn't buy that he was some sort of prophet with a
00:48:58
direct line to the almighty they saw him for what he was a murderer and the jury dropped the hammer
00:49:05
on Old Jeffrey lungren on August 29th the jury found lungren guilty of five counts each of aggravated murder
00:49:14
and kidnapping and then after the testimony in the sentencing phase it took them just two hours to agree to
00:49:21
recommend Jeffrey lungren to be sentenced to die by the state of Ohio they also found him
00:49:28
guilty of being an NAB a nerdy ass [ __ ] and 2006 lungren appeals had all been exhausted by this time and his time was
00:49:40
almost up he was granted a clemency hearing which was held on September 26 2006 we don't need to get into all of
00:49:49
the points that was made by the prosecutors in opposing clemency look this dude killed a family of five
00:49:58
with pre-planning and intent period that's that's a fact in short the board did not find that there was any evidence
00:50:08
presented that was sufficient enough to Warrant a favorable recommendation for executive clemency in regard to Jeffrey
00:50:16
lungren on October 24th 2006 Jeffrey lungren was executed by lethal injection at a Southern Ohio Correction Facility
00:50:25
his last meal was Turkey potatoes and gravy and a salad and pumpkin pie his final words as reported by the Cleveland
00:50:35
plane dealer were quote I want to profess my love for God my family my children and my beloved Catherine he
00:50:43
said while staring at the ceiling I am because you are from the News Herald as was his prerogative by law the
00:50:54
prosecutor in this case chose to be present when Jeffrey lungren was executed by lethal
00:51:02
injection he felt not one twinge of sympathy as Jeffrey lungren was strapped into the gurnie and administered the
00:51:11
mixture of drugs that ended his life and he said the guy was a grifter and a cold-blooded murderer he deserved to die
00:51:21
later prison officials said that Jeffrey lungren had been so certain that he would win a delay that he napped
00:51:29
much of the morning the self-proclaimed Prophet who was once surrounded with loyal
00:51:36
followers died with no family members or friends among the witnesses no one claimed his body Jeffrey lungren was
00:51:45
buried in a simple ceremony in a prison grave in chilo Ohio with convicts serving as his Paul Bears I think the
00:51:54
reason why this case is so sad to me is normally there's one killer and in this case
00:52:05
there's multiple killers and multiple people that just stood by and did nothing and for whatever reason for
00:52:13
their own personal gain their own salvation that they thought they were more important than this family some of
00:52:23
the accomplices have now been paroled but still imprisoned are Daniel craft eligible for parole in
00:52:33
2024 Ronald Lu eligibility in 2048 Alice lungren parole eligibility for 2092 and Damon lungren who will be
00:52:46
eligible for parole in the year [Music] 2098 [Music] want to thank you guys so much for
00:53:09
listening to our show our little garage show we would be nothing without you make sure you share these cases on
00:53:18
social media to spread the word Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful l leners this week I'm
00:53:26
very excited to be recommending I Don't Like Mondays the true story behind America's first modern school shooting
00:53:33
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
00:53:40
a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice Suburban neighborhood and she made and executed plans that would Place
00:53:49
her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying National precedent this is considered to be one of the first
00:53:58
American modern school shootings check out the book I Don't Like Mondays by in Lee Hunt you can find that great title
00:54:06
and many more on our recommended page on our website True Crime garage.com and make sure you are subscribed to the show
00:54:14
many of you are listening and not subscribed so make sure you subscribe to the podcast and until next week be good
00:54:22
be kind and don't let it [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
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tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
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projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that