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[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who
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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
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been brain dead for years this could be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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[Music] today we are still sipping on this classically great stout beer this is Dragon's Milk Bourbon Barrel aged
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of coffee chocolate vanilla and a little Oaky Bourbon Barrel goodness garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of
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Donate button which helped us out with this week's beer fund yeah Fly Eagles Fly okay yo was my nickname in high
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school make sure you check out our website store it's hoodie season baby we got three new hoodies coming out at the
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start of next week so make sure you are ready to order and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music]
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we were starting to take a look at who this Jeffrey Lundgren character was and we talked about five bodies being
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found in the barn that was located on the property that he was leasing that he and his family were leasing the 15-acre
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farm the bodies were recovered in January of 1990 and the bodies were determined
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to be that of the Avery family followers of Jeffrey Lundgren who had a splinter group from the reformed Latter-Day
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Saints in Kirtland Ohio but we need to go back in time a little bit before the bodies were found Captain
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because there's a lot of stuff leading up to these murders and we need to figure out just who is responsible for
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the murders of the Avery family let's go back to April of 1988. this is when people in town in Kirtland Ohio
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started talking about weird stuff going on down on that farm on the Lundgren Farm on April 29 1988 a
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neighbor of the farm called police complaining that a cult was living at the farm and mentioned gunfire and
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paramilitary activity going on at the farm there are reports that Jeffrey Lundgren was always dressed in Army
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fatigues and kept a gun at the ready he told his people that God chose him to lead a revolution in Kirtland Ohio
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the plan was to take over the temple by force in order to initiate the process by which he and his followers would find
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Salvation this was what the military training was for seems like a lot of these so-called prophets especially the
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prophets that tell you their prophets seem to be fascinated with Warfare and Military they seem to be that's 100
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and now I'm fully regretting that when we started up True Crime garage that we started calling some of the listeners
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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
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though too Captain while we're on the road of weird his group Jeffrey Lundgren and his
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followers who are now conducting military training at the commune at this 15-acre Farm they had a somewhat
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detailed battle plan this again from a later report that says quote according to Lundgren his followers had to
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recapture the temple afterward an earthquake would then Elevate the temple and Christ would
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return to establish Zion so the men in the group undertook paramilitary training to prepare for this assault on
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the temple and Jeffrey Lundgren picked May 3rd 1988 his birthday of course as the date to
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recapture the temple right it's it's all got to be about him and specific members
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of the reformed Latter-Day Saints were actually targeted for extermination so essentially we are talking about he's
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put together a hit list or a kill list here Captain one cult member Kevin Curry became disenchanted with Lundgren and
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his radicalized teachings he ends up leaving Kirtland Ohio and he moves to Buffalo New York shout out to
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the bills Mafia he moves there in 1988 and he goes to the FBI field office there in Buffalo and tells agents about
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Lundgren's plan to use lethal Force to seize the Kirtland Temple on that May 3rd date in 1988. the FBI passes along
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this information to the Kirtland police chief Janice Yarborough that is likely the initiation plus the the neighbor
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calling about gunfire and the cult living on that property that gets the Kirtland police involved
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in this whole mess way back in 1988 well before the killings took place well just
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think about this let's say you're a part of this church and then this splinter group and maybe
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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
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and then you go to a couple of these services and now they're asking for all your
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money and now they want you to do military training I'm sure there's a bunch of people that went into this splinter
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group and went what the heck is going on and if there's a second coming of Christ
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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
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come visit the Browns put them out of their misery it if Christ is coming back I want to
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know in advance so I can be wearing sunglasses because your future looks so bright so on May 2nd of that year Chief
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Yarborough brought Jeffrey Lundgren into the police station he's confronting him about this planned
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attack on the temple and also questioning him about the reports of the gunfire that was heard coming from the
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property that he's leasing we don't have the details other than that of this questioning or the back and forth that
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likely went down between the chief his men and Jeffrey Lundgren on that date but what we do know is that
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Jeffrey Lundgren returns to the farm and after it's after that period of questioning that he comes back
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and he announces to his followers that he's had a vision a new vision that told Jeffrey that the time
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for the attack was not right so I guess they are going to need to pick a different date a new date for the
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attack on the temple based off of this new vision that he's had police were now watching the farm
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Chief Yarborough went to the commune after the neighbors complained about hearing gunfire he says that when he was
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there he observed the group of people marching in formation discussing and practicing military tactics wearing
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military uniforms but unfortunately you know he doesn't love what he's seeing but his hands are tied right because
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nothing going on was technically illegal and there's no doubt that he does not want to get in a situation or get his
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Department into a situation where there's a legal entanglement about religious freedom according to the
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police chief a few months later the cult members stopped coming into town at all
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and they stopped interacting with anyone else outside of their little group and they were becoming more and more
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isolated well this is probably part of Jeffrey's plan you you divide and conquer you take
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individuals you sleep deprived them you take them of all their resources you cut
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them off from friends and family members hey your your friends or your co-workers
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are telling us that what we're doing here is a little crazy ma'am you don't need to be around those
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people anymore also according to the police chief around this time luffman Dale luffman who we've discussed at
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length and others who decided not to follow Jeffrey Lundgren or were no longer following Jeffrey Lundgren they start to
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receive death threats from an anonymous source on April 16 1989 so we're going to fast
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forward almost a full year here Jeffrey Lundgren purchased three guns using a credit card but it's not his credit card
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he's using a credit card of a member of his group that member is Dennis Avery so Dennis Avery's credit
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card purchases three guns in April of 1989. on the 18th of 1989. so just two days later after the
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gun purchase Chief Yarborough five of his men and some FBI agents they decide to pay a
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visit to the commune they said later that this was part of a civil rights violation investigation or civil rights
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violations investigation I'm guessing here that they're probably using rumors that they're hearing about unpaid labor
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forced labor polygamy and other such claims to justify probable cause to go in and visit the
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commune and ask some questions and take a good look around right what they were really checking on my
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belief is these death threats these Anonymous death threats believing that they're probably coming from someone or
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someone's on this property and if they go there looking at these other things which
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which they had reason they had cause to go there on those other items maybe they find evidence of these death
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threats that they are in fact coming from this property so they needed some evidence on these death threats coming
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from the property because they had Anonymous death threats being made this at some point it's not just people that
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refuse to follow or stop following Jeffrey Lundgren but now we have death threats that are being made against
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certain church members not only in Kirtland Ohio but also in Kansas City as well
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so there was information that members of Jeffrey Lundgren's group were going to kill members of the old church
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now when they're there more than 12 guns are found in the house but they were owned legally so they were
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not confiscated and again they they find no proof of illegal activity so there's
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no arrests that are made even with the the police chief there all of his men and several FBI agents
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a little Clarity in our timeline though here captain notice the dates because one thing that that we do not
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know up until this point in our telling of this true crime story is that while the guns were purchased on April 16th
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and the FBI and the police chief and his men are there on April 18th the averies the family of five the
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bodies that are later found in the barn they had been shot and killed the day before this visit from law enforcement
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on the 17th and as far as law enforcement goes I'm a scary situation to put yourself into
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you are backed by FBI so you probably feel pretty safe but it's also not a large group it's a
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group of less than 20 individuals so when you see them doing their little military activities it's probably a
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little silly to law enforcement and FBI but still you have to take all this stuff serious
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because you're probably hearing some pretty crazy rumors coming out of this Farm well so when authorities when they
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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
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the barn from where the bodies were right so had they gone and looked around in the barn a little more and gone to
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the other side they may have noted the freshly upturned Earth but also at this time you have to keep in mind they have
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no idea that this group would be capable of murdering some of their own there there's no rumor of that nor was
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there any threat made against the Avery family in fact no one's even reported this family
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missing they're not reported missing until the person calls in in January after they're killed and I'm sorry in December
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after they're killed and tells police hey this family's missing this family of five is missing and you're going to find
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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
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this property the the whole group decides all right boom it's time to abandon this area it's
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time to abandon the farm it's time to change our plans all together so they just up and leave
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the whole group or the majority of them anyway so much of their things the belongings the
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animals everything that they had kind of put together is just kind of left there
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because they're fleeing in the middle of the night practically and they end up leaving for West Virginia which is not
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much better than Ohio and then Jeffrey Lundgren had selected the designation for the group obviously because he's
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he's the brother the one in charge he tells them where to go and what to do according to the information I have
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Jeffrey Lundgren selected the destination for the group's pilgrimage which was to
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seek the golden sword that would provide protection to the group in the event of
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the end of the world so they're going to be camping in Parks living in tents working odd jobs they're
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they're on the Run they're in another state but they're essentially trying to keep on task with their general idea or
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Mission as they had it so they continued preparing their military plans for achievement of
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Zion it was while the group was in West Virginia that Jeffrey Lundgren selected Catherine Johnson as his second wife
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which of course angered her husband her real husband Larry well these prophets can't just have one wife they have to
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have multiple wives yeah the thing that drives me crazy is that when we take a look at these cults
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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
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because they would be red flags on their own but they're huge Reds Flags because
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we've seen it time and time again take this same course of events the same series of events first off hey
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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
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be left alone to practice our religion and it and our and express our religious freedoms and take care of each other and
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grow as a as a little Community ourselves right that's that's usually how it starts right and then shortly
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after that it's like all right well all the paychecks all the money all the work
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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
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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
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series of events time and time again well and these prophets are always some nerdy ass white tune that doesn't know
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how to dress I hate nerdy ass whites they're they're hairlines are normally running from their faces it makes zero
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sense I think that's why we're so fascinated by them because it just doesn't make any sense that this guy
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would rise to some kind of power over anybody let alone handfuls of people the garage is on
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record as being against nerdy ass white dudes nerdy-ass white dudes can all go to hell so after they do this little
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brief period in West Virginia Lundgren takes on a second wife Catherine Johnson her husband is pissed
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off about this then now the group ends up moving to Independence Missouri remember this is the headquarters for
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the actual reformed Latter-Day Saints Church and there they move into once again an
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old farmhouse but that didn't last because now now we start having some dissension amongst the
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ranks right the the group starts to split up a little bit and Jeffrey Lundgren starts to see his flock
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diminishing with every move that they make with every relocation that they that they make well and hold on because
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they killed five of their members so that already made their group a lot less powerful he and Alice
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his his actual wife arranged for their three children to go to Alice's parents and Jeffrey Lundgren his wife Alice
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they're one of their sons Damon and his new wife Catherine Johnson and a man named Daniel Kraft they all go
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to California my guest here Captain is that they I I mean this appears to me that they
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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
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you're when the ship is sinking and you start tossing luggage overboard uh to avoid the ship from sinking faster and
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so that's what I I feel like this situation is they're they're kind of sending everybody away if you're not
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with us who cares and we're pushing other people away too and this small very small group of us we're all going
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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
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dude be the leader we don't wear Army fatigues we don't do military activities we just kind of sit around and talk
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about true crime and drink some beer and our Temple which is a garage meanwhile while all of this is going on
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keep in mind no one has reported that the averies are missing at this point everyone in Kirtland assumed that the
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family had actually left with the cult when the cult left right it was now December 1989 and that is when the
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disgruntled cult member Larry Johnson remember he his wife took off with Jeffrey Lundgren he's the one that
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calls in the tip to the authorities in Kansas he calls it into Kansas City Missouri and he tells them about the
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Avery murders about the Avery family being murdered of course Johnson is ticked off that Lundgren had taken his
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woman and was generally disenchanted with Lundgren and his grandiose proclamations and demands
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so Johnson decides to rat him out and thank God that he did now after the bodies were found
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police discovered that a 45 caliber semi-automatic weapon belonging to Jeffrey Lundgren had fired the bullets
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that they recovered so Jeffrey Lundgren bought this weapon in 1987 and sold it in West Virginia in
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October of 1989. an article that came from the Cincinnati Enquirer just a week after the bodies
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were found Blair's quote cult deaths illustrate the limits of laws control the article says that police had been
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watching the commune on the farm for two years and had been looking for a reason
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to make an arrest but had no legal basis to do so they were suspicious of the whole thing the structure with the
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profit at the top of the food chain the handing over of the checks the paychecks
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to him the military militant type behavior all of the weapons they were suspicious of this they had placed the
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commune under surveillance and tried to question Jeffrey Lundgren about what was
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happening with the group no doubt they viewed Jeffrey Lundgren as a complete [ __ ] artist and his
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followers as suckers but until there are legal grounds for police to step in they
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can't there's no law against being a sucker Chief Dennis Yarborough told The Inquirer quote we did everything we
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could to come up with probable cause of criminal activity but no law had been broken and no one outside could have
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foreseen that the cult members would turn on each other foreign [Music] tired of the same old game nights
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cult members cheers to you you know one of the things about occult is you have to have
00:26:56
the definition of having a call is that you would have not control but you would
00:27:03
be suggestive of their diet if that makes any sense so I guess here in the garage since we're telling you to enjoy
00:27:11
a nice brew that that that puts us in the cult category that it does Captain without a doubt so now we have
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a family of five dead shot and killed and buried in the barn belonging to the leader of this little group that leader
00:27:28
Jeffrey Lundgren the bullets that killed them came from his 45. the people that assisted Jeffrey Lundgren in the murders
00:27:37
were his followers and the followers helped to bury the Avery family as well prosecutors after they find these bodies
00:27:46
after they put together this evidence they very quickly brought indictments against 13 members of the family very
00:27:54
quickly on January 5th 1990 the charges were that Jeffrey Lundgren was the trigger man but the others that were
00:28:03
indicted were all people who were present when the Avery family members were shot and killed one by one in a
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ritualistic sacrifice or knew about the plan besides Jeffrey Lundgren himself who was charged with five counts of
00:28:18
aggravated murder and five counts of kid kidnapping four of his followers were charged with the same charges as Jeffrey
00:28:25
Lundgren the others charged were Damon Paul Lundgren age 19 which is Lundgren's son a high school senior
00:28:32
Daniel craft Jr a Furniture Builder Ronald luff a forklift operator and Richard brand a civil engineer others
00:28:42
were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping these
00:28:49
were Lundgren's wife Alice the second wife Catherine Johnson and six others but here's what we have going on now
00:28:59
at this point they bring these charges against these 13 individuals they have some of these people in
00:29:06
custody but they don't have all of them in custody because the group splintered off from each other that's right and
00:29:13
remember they're losing people as they go they move from Ohio to West Virginia and then to Missouri where they were
00:29:19
last seen Lundgren in a few of his followers including his original wife Alice his second wife
00:29:26
uh Catherine Johnson their last scene in Missouri but they don't know where this group went
00:29:34
but the good news here is that it doesn't really take very long to finally track them down so three of the missing
00:29:43
lundgrens were arrested on January 7th at a motel near the Mexican border this in the
00:29:50
state of California then three days later Catherine Johnson and Daniel Kraft were apprehended on the
00:29:58
10th near San Diego so the remaining people that they were looking for are found in California when police caught
00:30:06
up with Jeffrey Lundgren and his band of followers they were armed with an AR-15
00:30:11
three handguns and multiple knives so they are equipped with survival gear as well and clearly plan to evade capture
00:30:19
and try to live off the grid as long as they could but luckily for us police caught up with them and for them
00:30:27
it's over they never got to Zion instead they were all in jail Judgment day did indeed come for them but it
00:30:35
would be in the form of prosecutors juries and judges well like you said where they were found
00:30:41
they're running from the law they initially go to one place and with the lack of resources go to another
00:30:50
place then the group splinters off again and then they're found in California but
00:30:55
where by the border of Mexico probably trying to flee into Mexico well keep in mind
00:31:02
too what we have here captain and this is one of the more intriguing parts of the story to me this True Crime Story
00:31:12
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
00:31:19
people 13 different people with varying degrees of involvement and murder that is likely to get them to all turn
00:31:28
on each other or at least turn on Jeffrey Lundgren so that law enforcement in the courts can get the real story of
00:31:37
what happened to the Avery family right so that plan worked of course it did these people many of
00:31:48
them who they quickly rolled over on their fallen Prophet Jeffrey Lundgren well these people are easily suggestible
00:31:57
people so we we will learn what actually happened here and we're going to go into
00:32:02
the details of that let's get it now remember when the police showed up they bring Lundgren in for questioning and
00:32:09
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
00:32:16
on the the Temple of seizing the temple right the truth of the matter is this that when Lundgren decided to switch
00:32:23
gears he actually began preaching to his group that they needed a sacrifice he told his followers to prepare for a trek
00:32:31
to the wilderness and they started packing up only the essentials and casting off their worldly
00:32:39
possessions in order to reach Zion but before they Departed he told the group that they would have
00:32:46
to sacrifice 10 people saying that he had received word from God through the scriptures that it was
00:32:54
necessary to prune The Herd and then later he downgraded this number to five after another Vision that he had
00:33:03
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
00:33:09
that the end of days was very near and to ensure their salvation they had to make a human sacrifice but he left one
00:33:18
family out of his plan for leaving the area and going into the Wilderness and they in fact became
00:33:26
his secret Target this would be the averies the family of five the Avery family he basically turned all the other
00:33:35
cult members against the averies telling them that their death would be spiritually cleansing and protection
00:33:44
from Armageddon the prosecutors on this heinous case said that the averies were selected to
00:33:52
be the sacrificial Lambs because Jeffrey Lundgren saw them as less committed to the cult as the other members
00:34:01
this because they refuse to live on the farm with the other group with the rest of the group retaining their own
00:34:07
residence in town and even keeping some of their own money that they earned apparently Jeffrey Lundgren did not like
00:34:15
Dennis Avery and thought that Cheryl Avery the mother and wife had too many rights for a woman and he was generally
00:34:23
pissed that they weren't following his every word and and obeying his orders how dare they live in their own house
00:34:32
how dare they keep some of their own money how dare they give rights to the women in their family
00:34:40
how dare they so of course he's telling his followers this meanwhile the averies
00:34:45
they're told none of this they have no idea what's going on Jeffrey Lundgren instructs Cheryl Avery to write to her
00:34:53
extended family and tell them that they were leaving on a Wilderness trip to Wyoming and that they would be out of
00:35:00
touch for a considerable amount of time and Cheryl Avery does this she writes to
00:35:05
the extended family and tells them about this fictitious trip to the Wilderness she believes they're going
00:35:11
and so does her husband they're going to follow Jeffrey Lundgren and the rest of them to Wyoming they
00:35:18
officially withdrew their daughters from the Madison Township Schools that they attended as they thought they were all
00:35:26
going to Wyoming as we know they weren't going to Wyoming the Jeffrey Lundgren and his followers had other plans for
00:35:34
them yeah of course they had other plans they're going to be sacrificial Lambs for the stupid cause on the evening of
00:35:40
April 17 1989 the averies were invited out to The Farmhouse for a party celebrating the group's departure on
00:35:48
their Wilderness trip around 6 30 p.m after dinner with all of the cult members Jeffrey Lundgren went out to the
00:35:55
barn with his son Damon and four other followers this was brand craft Winship and Ron Luft the averies stayed inside
00:36:06
the house with the women and children of the group the burial pit had already been prepared they dug this thing out
00:36:14
days earlier let's be clear here many of the members of this commune but not the averies knew
00:36:21
this was coming and had prepared for it in advance they decided that they were going to use
00:36:28
a chainsaw to hide the sounds of the gunshots so they're out there buzzing a chainsaw
00:36:35
now this is all from the Huffington Post and a little warning here it's it's hard to take some of
00:36:43
these victims are children the article reads one by one the Avery family members were brought into the
00:36:50
barn Dennis was first they probably told him that he needed to attend a meeting of the male members of The Cult
00:36:57
but once he got out in the barn they bound his hands and after a scuffle tossed him into the pit this isn't
00:37:06
necessary Dennis Cried Out according to police he cried out please this isn't necessary then Jeffrey Lundgren shot
00:37:14
Dennis twice Cheryl was next they probably told her her husband needed her or something when she was brought in
00:37:22
according to Ron luff who later gave an interview about this love placed his hand on Cheryl's shoulder and solemnly
00:37:30
said just give it up it'll be easier this way just let go Cheryl must have been in shock because
00:37:38
she silently allowed the men to tie her hands and put her in the pit where she was then shot three times well just
00:37:46
imagine the terror and the horror that's gone through their little kids at this time period probably seeing
00:37:55
their their parents tied up and taken away and like you said to cover up the sound
00:38:01
of a gun which he probably hurt still heard the gun if you're in close range but you have this constant buzzing
00:38:10
of this chainsaw I mean this is horrific well it is horrific but keep in mind they're none the wiser they're leading
00:38:20
these individuals out to the barn one at a time and they're they're attacking tying them up and then
00:38:29
shooting them one at a time right so when when the father Dennis goes out there he has no idea
00:38:38
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
00:38:43
Dennis needs you for something she has no idea what she's walking into at this time
00:38:50
in the attack the Avery children are still inside playing video games and luff he then returns to The Farmhouse
00:38:58
and he retrieves Trina the oldest of the three mentioning a game of hide and seek
00:39:04
inside the barn he gets her to go to the barn with him under this ruse Trina was then bound at
00:39:12
the wrist and lowered into the pit next to the bodies of her parents the first bullet police said grazed her head and
00:39:20
then the second pierced her skull killing her instantly afterward luff escorted Becky to the barn and helped
00:39:28
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
00:39:37
instantly and members of The Cult would later tell police that they listened to Becky struggle to breathe as luff exited
00:39:45
the barn luff exited the barn to go back into the Farmhouse to retrieve the youngest of the children
00:39:52
seven-year-old Karen playfully climbed on luft's back for a piggyback ride to the barn once inside she was bound and
00:40:01
lowered Into the Now blood-stained pit as she sat next to her sisters the little girl was shot in the chest and
00:40:09
the head yeah this is not a religious group this is a group of savages Lundgren said at the time
00:40:15
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
00:40:24
decomposition filled the pit with stones and dirt and returned to The Farmhouse for a prayer meeting Jeffrey Lundgren
00:40:31
asked some members of his cult to help him research how to change his identity and this is when they started to get
00:40:38
ready to leave now as we said Captain we have all these charges against these other individuals
00:40:45
and of course the idea here is to start getting some plea deals with many of these members
00:40:53
that were charged because the goal ultimately for the prosecution will be to convict Jeffrey Lundgren and sentence
00:41:01
him to Ohio's death row the trials were all held separately and we are not going to get into the trials
00:41:10
but there are a few things of note would have been cheaper if we just would have
00:41:15
buried them in a pit one at her trial Jeffrey Lundgren's wife Alice came up with the defense that she had stayed
00:41:22
with Lundgren because she was afraid for herself and her children and she cried throughout her testimony and at her
00:41:30
trial the jury went and toured the barn and she cried during this tour as well according to some sources there may be
00:41:39
some evidence that Lundgren abuse Alice but note that she was not the one who called the tip into police nor did she
00:41:48
try to help the averies in advance of their murder so of course the judge was not impressed and Alice got five life
00:41:57
terms in prison well we have to again we have to remember that they sit there in the graves
00:42:06
for almost a year so it's not just that the murders took place and there was a couple days that
00:42:13
went by and and she didn't call in it's over eight months before and was called in now that's many
00:42:23
days and nights that you had freedom that you had a life that you were around your loved ones
00:42:31
where this family wasn't and Well on top of that three children it's there's no excuse and another
00:42:40
member of this Lundgren family of of the actual Lundgren family Damon Lundgren was only 19 at the time of the murders
00:42:48
he was charged with murder as well there was uh five over 500 people who knew him
00:42:57
from school that went on to sign a petition for leniency in his case stating that he was a good kid uh but
00:43:04
Witnesses testified that Damon was present during at least 20 different discussions leading up to the killings
00:43:12
of the Averys 20 different discussions this is 20 different meetings where Jeffrey
00:43:20
Lundgren's explaining to his group that or or small section of his group that we are going to kill these people
00:43:27
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
00:43:33
yeah this one this one's a little difficult for me because his parents were supposed to protect him supposed to
00:43:39
raise him obviously they were not doing that in a healthy environment if there's abuse happening
00:43:49
you could have I couldn't imagine where this kid's mindset was with all this abuse with all
00:43:58
this rhetoric of my father as a prophet I mean he had to be completely brainwashed well
00:44:08
in this case remember all the trials were separate in this case the judge was I mean you could view this
00:44:17
one of two ways that the judge was harsh on Damon or he was lenient on him he was
00:44:22
at least harsh on Damon with his words saying at trial to Damon you accept no blame you blame your father you claim
00:44:31
this was your father's doing and none of your own and the judge goes on to say Jeffrey
00:44:36
Lundgren could not have done any of this without the help and devotion of you and
00:44:42
his other followers Society cannot tolerate such excuses so the judge spared Damon from the death penalty so
00:44:50
that would be the leniency part of it the judge gave him 120 years for assisting in the murders and he would
00:44:58
not be eligible for parole for at least 80 of those 120 years for as for Jeffrey
00:45:06
Lundgren himself the prosecutor said that he kept waiting for him to plead insanity but that never happened
00:45:14
in fact Jeffrey Lundgren pled not guilty at his trial even with all these people
00:45:20
turning on him his trial started in August of 1990 and he offered up really no real defense as far as the courts
00:45:29
would be concerned he did testify about his beliefs and his visions and how they
00:45:34
led him to do what he did it's almost as though he was accustomed to people following him and
00:45:42
falling for his [ __ ] and maybe he assumed that his powers would similarly affect the jury yeah or the idea that I
00:45:51
tell myself [ __ ] lies and I believe them and look I was able to get a handful of
00:45:58
people to believe my [ __ ] he had to think on some level oh I can get this courtroom
00:46:07
to believe my [ __ ] NBC News described the defense or described Lundgren by saying at the trial Lundgren
00:46:17
was unrepentant and Resolute in his convictions afforded the opportunity to make an unsworn statement on the stand
00:46:26
Lundgren declared quote I cannot say that God was wrong I cannot say that I am sorry I did what God commanded me to
00:46:36
do in the physical act it's not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God I am a
00:46:45
prophet of God I am even more than a prophet I am not a false prophet therefore I am not worthy of the death
00:46:53
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
00:47:00
cut your mullet the prosecutor presented some of the remnants of the clothing that belong to the Avery family that was
00:47:09
found on the bodies of the averies when they were buried he presented this in court
00:47:15
This was later seen as a stroke of Genius because the stench of rot from the tatters
00:47:22
of this clothing overwhelmed the courtroom some of the jury had a visceral reaction to this
00:47:30
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
00:47:38
some sort of prophet with a direct line to the Almighty they saw him for what he was a murderer
00:47:44
and the jury dropped the hammer on Old Jeffrey Lundgren on August 29th the jury found longer and guilty of five
00:47:52
counts each of aggravated murder and kidnapping and then after the testimony in the sentencing phase it took them
00:48:01
just two hours to agree to recommend Jeffrey Lundgren to be sentenced to die by the state of Ohio they also found him
00:48:10
guilty of being a NAB a nerdy ass [ __ ] in 2006 Lundgren's appeals had all been
00:48:18
exhausted by this time and his time was almost up he was granted a clemency hearing which was held on September 26
00:48:28
2006. we don't need to get into all of the points that was made by the prosecutors
00:48:34
and opposing clemency look this dude killed a family of five with pre-planning and intent period
00:48:41
that's that's a fact in short the board did not find that there was any evidence presented that
00:48:50
was sufficient enough to Warrant a favorable recommendation for executive clemency in regard to Jeffrey Lundgren
00:48:58
on October 24 2006 Jeffrey Lundgren was executed by lethal injection at a Southern Ohio Correction Facility his
00:49:07
last meal was Turkey potatoes and gravy and a salad and pumpkin pie his final words as reported by the Cleveland Plain
00:49:16
Dealer were quote I want to profess my love for God my family my children and my beloved Catherine he said while
00:49:25
staring at the ceiling I am because you are from the News Herald as was his prerogative by law the
00:49:36
prosecutor in this case chose to be present when Jeffrey Lundgren was executed by
00:49:42
lethal injection he felt not one twinge of sympathy as Jeffrey Lundgren was strapped into the
00:49:50
gurney and administered the mixture of drugs that ended his life and he said the guy was a grifter and a
00:49:58
cold-blooded murderer he deserved to die later prison officials said that Jeffrey
00:50:04
Lundgren had been so certain that he would win a delay that he napped much of the morning
00:50:12
the self-proclaimed prophet who was once surrounded with loyal followers died with no family members or friends
00:50:21
among the witnesses no one claimed his body Jeffrey Lundgren was buried in a simple
00:50:27
ceremony in a prison grave in Chillicothe Ohio with convicts serving as his pallbearers
00:50:35
I think the reason why this case is so sad to me is normally there's one killer and in this case there's
00:50:47
multiple killers and multiple people that just stood by and did nothing and for whatever reason for their own
00:50:55
personal gain their own salvation that they thought they were more important than this family some of the
00:51:05
accomplices have now been paroled but still imprisoned are Daniel craft eligible for parole in 2024 Ronald luff
00:51:16
eligibility in 2048 Alice Lundgren parole eligibility for 2092 and Damon Lundgren
00:51:27
who will be eligible for parole in the year 20 98. [Music] want to thank you guys so much for
00:51:50
listening to our show our little garage show we would be nothing without you make sure you share these cases on
00:52:00
social media to spread the word Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this
00:52:07
week I'm very excited to be recommending I Don't Like Mondays the true story behind America's first modern school
00:52:13
shooting by n Lee Hunt guys and girls you're going to want to check this one out this is the story
00:52:20
about Brenda Spicer who was a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice Suburban neighborhood and she made and
00:52:28
executed plans that would Place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying National precedent this is considered to
00:52:37
be one of the first American modern school shootings check out the book I Don't Like Mondays by in Lee Hunt you
00:52:46
can find that great title and many more on our recommended page on our website truecrime garage.com and make sure you
00:52:53
are subscribed to the show many of you are listening and not subscribed so make sure you subscribe to the podcast and
00:53:02
until next week be good be kind and don't let him foreign [Music]