Jeffrey Lundgren - Prophet

Prophet

While Lundgren was living in a church-owned home, located next to the Kirtland Temple, on Chillicothe Road, in Kirtland, Ohio, he volunteered as a tour guide of the historic Kirtland Temple, for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (since 2001, the Community of Christ). He began to teach the concept of "dividing the word," known as "chiastic interpretation" or "chiasmus," to interpret scriptures. Lundgren falsely claimed to have created chiastic interpretation. The foundation was that in everything created by God, the right side is a mirror image and, therefore, scripture had to be interpreted using that same method. He cited the Kirtland Temple as an example because the right side was a mirror image of the left side. To apply this concept to scripture, one takes a sentence from scripture; if the sentences before and after are consistent, the center sentence is the "truth"; when the sentences before and after conflict, the center sentence is a lie. His teaching of scriptural interpretations attracted his followers. Lundgren claimed that he moved to Ohio from Missouri because the word, "OHIO" is "chiastic". About 1987, Lundgren was asked to leave the church-owned house and his job as tour guide was terminated due to suspicions of theft.

In 1987, Lundgren and his family moved to a rented farm house, located at 8671 Chardon Road on U.S. Route 6 (aka: Euclid-Chardon Road), east of Ohio State Route #306. Some of the followers knew Lundgren in Missouri while others were attracted to Lundgren when they were exposed to his teachings when he was working as a Temple tour guide. At that time, some followers started to move into his home. Those who moved into the house were Kevin Currie, Richard Brand, Greg Winship, Sharon B. Luntschly, Daniel Kraft, and Debbie Olivarez. Ronald and Susan Luff; Dennis and Tonya Patrick; and, Dennis and Cheryl Avery maintained their own residences. There were others whose names were not made public because they were not significant to the criminal investigation (conspiracy to deprive civil rights, the Kirtland Temple Takeover, and multiple homicide of the Avery family.). While Lundgren was living at the farm house, Lundgren's teachings continued and he began to practice methods of "mind control," which were consistent with Robert Lifton's Criteria for Mind Control. For example, cult members were forbidden to talk amongst themselves; doing so was a sin, called "murmuring." He would eavesdrop on cult members to cause them to believe that he could read their minds.

On April 23, 1988 a neighbor told Kirtland police officer Ron Andolsek that she suspected that a cult was living at the farm house and that Lundgren's son warned the neighbor's children that on May 15th the earth would open up and demons would emerge. On April 28, 1988, a former cult member, referred by the FBI, called Kirtland Police and reported the cult's conspiracy to take over the Kirtland Temple to Chief Dennis T. Yarborough. Yarborough did not believe the informant's information and on May 2, 1988, Chief Yarborough confronted Lundgren at the Kirtland Police Station. When Lundgren left, Yarborough said that he "Neutralized the situation" by warning Lundgren that there were complaints about gun fire on Lundgren's property. Lundgren went back to his followers and told them that the May 3rd Kirtland Temple Takeover was off because he had spoken to a higher power. The Kirtland Police iniitated surveillance of Lundgren's residence and of church-owned properties. In September 1988, a second informant came forward. Officer Andolsek cultivated the informant and made contact with the ATF and the FBI. The FBI initiated a domestic terrorism investigation.

On October 10, 1988, the day that Lundgren was dismissed from the RLDS church, there was a thunderstorm at the South end of Kirtland. When the sun emerged, a large rainbow appeared to the East. Lundgren told his followers that the rainbow signified the opening of the "Seven Seals." Lundgren and his family soon abandoned the religious group, and Lundgren began to feel a call to teach the Bible in the way he understood it. He formed his own sect soon after. Membership never exceeded more than twenty. These were some of the most conservative members of the RLDS who believed that God communicated through regular revelations although some members admitted that they claimed to have revelations even when they did not. The conservatives were also opposed to more liberal rights for women. This was during a rift with the more liberal members of the church. Alice Lundgren often acted as a cheerleader to Jeffrey Lundgren. She had claimed she had once had a revelation that she would meet an important leader of the RLDS. She later concluded that this alleged revelation referred to Jeffrey.

Lundgren began to offer Bible study services at his home. Lundgren would dominate the services himself and he would intimidate anyone who didn't agree with him. He would later encourage others to intimidate those who disagreed as well. He sought to convince his congregation that he was God's last prophet. He asked for money from his supporters, and some would give him their life's savings, which often were calculated to be thousands of dollars.

Lundgren then proclaimed he had received a call from God to move to Kirtland, Ohio, a Lake County suburb, located twenty (20) miles east of Cleveland, Ohio. According to Lundgren, he was told by God that he and his supporters would soon witness the second coming of Christ if they moved to Kirtland. Lundgren was attracted to Kirtland because it was the home of the Kirtland Temple, built by Joseph Smith and Smith's followers. Lundgren would tell his followers that on May 3 (no year specified - May 3 was also Lundgren's birthday), that the "second coming" would happen at the Kirtland Temple and that he and his followers would have to seize the Kirtland Temple by force and hold it for the second coming. The conspiracy involved burglarizing adjacent church-homes and committing murder as part of the "Kirtland Temple Takeover." Lundgren called the land around the temple, "The Vineyards," which had to be "redeemed" or "cleansed" for he and his followers to take the temple.

By this time, seven of Lundgren's 12 followers had moved into the family home. The remaining five were members of Dennis Avery's family. Lundgren felt that the Averys were committing a sin by not living in his house. The Avery family father, Dennis, sold his Missouri house in order for his family to move to Ohio. Dennis Avery believed in Jeffrey completely and trusted him. Jeffrey, however, considered Dennis Avery to be weak and, when Dennis was no longer useful to Jeffrey, he began talking about Dennis behind his back. Jeffrey often used Dennis as a scapegoat for their troubles even though Dennis was one of the leading contributors. Dennis Avery decided to set apart a relatively small amount of money for his family's use, with a bank account. Once again, Lundgren considered this a sin, because Lundgren wanted all of his followers' money to be given exclusively to him.

In time, Lundgren convinced his followers that they had to seize the temple, from which he had stolen about $40,000, and to kill anyone who stood in their way. He changed his mind, however, and started telling his followers that they had to kill a family of five instead if they wanted to see God. As punishment for their "disloyalty," he chose the Averys. At some point, he referred to the slaughter of the Avery family as "pruning the vineyard," most likely a reference to the allegory of the olive tree found in chapter 5 of the Book of Jacob, part of The Book of Mormon.