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- [00:01]
Heidi Wong
Crime House has the perfect new show for spooky season Twisted Tales. Hosted by Heidi Wong, each episode of Twisted Tales is perfect for late night scares and daytime frights, revealing the disturbing real life events that inspired the world's most terrifying blockbusters and the ones too twisted to make it to screen. Twisted Tales is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes out every Monday.
- [00:41]
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This is Crime House.
- [00:47]
Vanessa Richardson
This week in crime history, we're discussing two diabolical cult leaders and their dedicated followers. On October 23, 1982, Frances Thomas instructed her extremist Christian cult to open fire on police officers in Arizona, sparking a devastating shootout. 24 years later, a different violent group finally faced justice. In 2006, Mormon cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren was executed after telling his followers to murder a family of five foreign welcome to True Crime. This week part of Crime House Daily, I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Sunday we'll be revisiting notorious crimes from the coming week in history, from serial killers to mysterious disappearances or murders. Every episode will explore stories that share a common theme. Each week we'll cover two stories, one further in the past and one more rooted in the present here at Crime House. We know none of this would be possible without you, our community. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts and for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily + exciting bonus content. Subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. This week's theme is Cults First. We'll start on October 23rd, 1982, when about 150 members of the Christ Miracle Healing center and Church attacked two Arizona sheriff's deputies with rocks, pipes, garden rakes and guns. It was the brutal final chapter of a years long power struggle between the county sheriff and the cult's leader, Francis Thomas. Then we'll jump ahead to 2006, when Doomsday Prophet Jeffrey Lundgren was executed by lethal injection. For two years he ran a small fundamentalist Mormon cult from his Ohio farmhouse. This was where he convinced his followers that the only way to ignite the apocalypse was to murder. Both of today's cases highlight just how far certain people are willing to go for absolute control. Cult leaders Francis Thomas and Jeffrey Lundgren systematically broke down their followers through a combination of isolation and fear mongering. Then Francis and Geoffrey carried out the worst manipulation of all, convincing their loyal disciples to kill for them. All that and more coming up.
- [03:34]
Heidi Wong
I cover some horrendous true crime stories every day, but there is something about the paranormal that terrifies me, and Shelby Oakes grabbed me from the first scene and did not let go. It's about a woman desperately searching for her sister, and the deeper she goes, the more she starts to realize that the demon they thought was imaginary as kids might not be imaginary after all. No spoilers, but let's just say I was glued to the screen. Critics are raving about it, calling it deeply wicked and downright evil. Truly terrifying, and the Blair Witch Project meets Hereditary. And honestly, they're not exaggerating. What makes it even cooler is that it's written and directed by Chris Stuckman, a YouTuber turned filmmaker, and it's executive produced by Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind some of the best horror in recent years. Shelby Oaks is one of the most unnerving films I've seen this year, and it's meant to be experienced in theaters, so don't miss it. Shelby oaks hits theaters October 24th on.
- [04:38]
Vanessa Richardson
The morning of October 23rd, 1982, two Cochise County Sheriff's deputies drove into a small, dusty subdivision in the Arizona desert called Miracle Valley. This isolated cluster of single story houses was home to the Christ Miracle Healing center and Church, a Pentecostal religious group of around 300 black Christians from Mississippi and Chicago. The deputies had come to arrest two of the church's members. As the deputies began knocking on doors looking for their targets, a car pulled up alongside them. A moment later, a group of angry church members leapt out of the vehicle and some wielding lead pipes. Over the next few minutes, more followers joined the crowd. As the mob closed in, the deputies called for backup. Fortunately, help wasn't far away. 35 sheriff's deputies had been waiting just up the highway, and they rushed over in a convoy of patrol cars. They were met by more than 100 men, women and children armed with axe handles, hammers, baseball bats, nunchucks and rocks. Meanwhile, church members with rifles and shotguns stood in the windows, ready to fire out of the houses along the street. As the outnumbered police tried to fend off the wave of attackers, one member of the church screamed, you've got to kill us if you want us, man. Minutes later, the shooting began, and it wasn't going to stop until Francis Thomas said so. To understand what brought Francis Thomas and her followers to Miracle Valley, we have to first talk about another religious leader with a large flock, A.A. allen. Allen was a Pentecostal preacher and faith healer in the 1950s who traveled the country holding lively tent revival sermons. There, he claimed, to heal people's illnesses and injuries through the power of prayer. As his popularity grew, Allen began broadcasting his sermons on radio and tv, making him one of America's first televangelists. It's important to note that Allen, who was of white and native American ancestry, was an early and vocal proponent of racial integration. Black and white people prayed and sang together in his TV broadcasts, and he recorded sermons about the importance of racial equality. His progressive stance earned Alan more followers, which was important because, like many televangelists, he made money from donations. And in 1958, one generous gift changed his ministry forever. At a revival meeting in Phoenix, a new convert gave Allen over 1200 acres of land in rural Cochise County, Arizona, just a few miles north of the U. S. Mexico border. Allen named this remote patch of desert Miracle Valley and turned it into the headquarters for his ministry. Over the next few years, he built dozens of houses, a 3,000 seat church and a Bible college on the property, where he trained thousands of ministers to become faith healers just like him. By 1969, Allen's business manager claimed the ministry was making 2 million million a year. Allen died of alcoholism in 1970 at the age of 59. The religious empire he'd built at Miracle Valley fell apart in the years after his death. By 1975, another church was leasing the property. But four years later, in 1979, one of the faith healing ministers who'd trained at Allen's Bible college came back to Miracle Valley. Her name was Frances Thomas, and she was determined to return the site to its former glory. Most of what we know about Frances Thomas before she arrived at Miracle Valley comes from her own autobiography, so take it with a grain of salt. Regardless, she was a black woman born in Tennessee sometime in the 1920s or 30s. As a young adult, she moved to Chicago in hopes of becoming a famous singer, and instead she apparently got married and had 10 children. When they were older, she formed a band with some of her kids, which she called the Miraclets. According to Frances, they recorded many albums. But her music career was sidelined when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. That's when she found religion. Rather than seek treatment for her cancer, Frances says she left the hospital and pledged her life to God. Three days later, she claimed she was cured. After this brush with death, Frances traveled to A.A. allen's Bible College in Miracle Valley to learn how to heal through the power of prayer. It's not clear how Frances first heard about Miracle Valley, but she was eager to bring Allen's teachings back to the Windy City as soon as her religious education Was complete. She opened the Christ Miracle Healing Center Church, or cmhcc, in a storefront on Chicago's west side. Over the next few years, her ministry followed a similar path to A.A. allen's. She held regular sermons where she prayed over sick and frail attendees, supposedly healing their illnesses. Word of her miracle cures spread in Chicago's black community, and her congregation started to grow, eventually expanding to a second church property on the south side. As she grew more popular, Frances held tent revivals in other states and began broadcasting a weekly local radio show. By 1979, Frances decided it was time to lead her people to the promised land. She made an offer to buy the Miracle Valley Bible College in hopes of restoring the institution to AA Allen's former glory four years after his death. But the building's new owner didn't want to sell. So Frances did the next best thing. She bought up all the houses in an empty subdivision on the other side of the highway and told her followers that God had commanded them to move there. Roughly 300 of them listened to her selling their homes, quitting their jobs, and moving to a tiny desert town halfway across the country. For the second time, a faith healing community had set up shop in Miracle Valley, but their presence would be anything but miraculous. For the first several months, Frances managed the church from afar while she maintained her Chicago operation. During that time, relations between the all black CMHCC members and the all white residents of Cochise county were friendly. Many of the locals had been followers of A.A. allen and were initially welcoming to the influx of black people moving into the community. Children played together, regardless of race, and members of the CMHCC remodeled an abandoned restaurant on their property and turned it into a worship space. All that changed in 1980, though. That year, Frances Thomas closed up her Chicago church and joined her flock in Miracle Valley. As soon as Frances arrived, the vibe shifted. Church members abruptly cut off all contact with the rest of the community. One resident reported being scolded by two church members for wearing slacks, which were ungodly. Locals suspected that Francis was responsible for the new, more confrontational tone, and not everyone was happy about it. Not long after Francis arrived, someone vandalized the CMHCC church and broke into one member's house. There were also reports that some white residents of the surrounding communities donned white hoods and cloaks to intimidate CMHCC members. It seems like Frances followers reported the incidents to police, but it's not clear how or if they responded. And In December of 1980, after four months of conflict, Frances took matters into her own hands. She had her son and second in command, 31 year old William Thomas, organize an armed security force dubbed the Commandos for Christ. But the Commandos for Christ didn't just patrol the CMHCC's property. Cochise county residents reported that the commandos, armed with rifles and shotguns, would sometimes linger outside other neighbors homes late at night. More than once, the commandos set up roadblocks on the highway through town to stop and harass passing drivers. By the summer of 1981, the commandos for Christ had stirred up enough trouble that Cochise County Sheriff Jimmy Judd stepped in. He ordered his deputies to arrest some commandos for traffic violations. But when Frances had her followers surround the deputies, they were forced to retreat. At that point, the only thing Sheriff Judd could do was set up a command post just outside Miracle Valley to monitor any comings and goings. In statements to the press, Frances maintained that she and her followers were simply trying to defend themselves from racial prejudice. And she wasn't entirely wrong. Sheriff Judd and his deputies frequently used racial slurs to refer to Frances and her followers, and racist caricatures and cartoons were pinned up on the bulletin board at the command post. With so much tension brewing, local residents started arming themselves, keeping their children inside and not leaving the house after dark. Everybody in Miracle Valley could tell a conflict was brewing. In an interview, one resident said, quote, I'll tell you how it's going to end. It's going to end in death. Sadly, they were right.
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Vanessa Richardson
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- [14:55]
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Vanessa Richardson
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- [15:47]
Vanessa Richardson
In 1980, cult leader Frances Thomas joined her 300 followers at their compound in Miracle Valley, Arizona. In response to what she claimed were racially motivated burglaries and vandalism of church property. She ordered her followers to arm themselves and set up roadblocks on the highway through town. Church members challenged sheriff's deputies when they tried to intervene. And by the summer of 1981, everyone living in and around Miracle Valley knew a showdown was imminent between Francis and county sheriff Jimmy Judd. Tensions between the church and the outside world were high. But life inside Frances's compound wasn't the utopia she'd promised either. Her followers had left their lives in Chicago and Mississippi behind to come to Miracle Valley, where there were no jobs and limited resources. Frances held church services that often ran all night and into the day. She even had assistants walk up and down the pews with long sticks, striking anybody who fell asleep. Teachers in the local schools noticed that children of church members appeared to be suffering from from extreme sleep deprivation. Frances's belief in the power of faith healing also made life harder for her followers. In 1981, six year old Teriel Drew died from a massive infection caused by a hernia after Francis refused to let his parents take him to a hospital. That same year, three other children would die of preventable illnesses on the church's property because Francis insisted on praying for them instead of letting them see a doctor. State officials wanted to remove the rest of the children from the compound, but Frances sued. Eventually, the courts took her side, citing her followers right to religious freedom. For a while there, it seemed like Frances Thomas and her flock were untouchable. But that changed in the fall of 1981. On September 7, a group of church members attacked a car that was passing through their compound. After the driver yelled a racial slurp, sheriff's deputies intervened to break up the crowd and let the driver go. Then they arrested two of Frances followers for assault and took them to the county jail in nearby Sierra Vista. Three days later, on September 10, a van carrying four CMHCC members exploded a few miles outside of town, killing one and badly injuring the others. When police inspected inspected the wreckage, they found three undetonated dynamite bombs. Investigators eventually came to believe the van's occupants had been on their way to Sierra Vista to blow up the jail and free their friends until one of the bombs detonated early. Despite these suspicions, police knew there was no way to question Frances without facing the wrath of her followers. So the uneasy stalemate between Francis and the authorities continued. Little did the police know, the cracks were already beginning to form within the walls of the church. By the beginning of 1982, relatives of some members were trying to get their family members out of Miracle Valley. But they knew it wouldn't be easy. One member's former husband got a court order to have his teenage child removed from from the church and reunited with him. When he arrived at his daughter's high school in the nearby town of Sierra Vista to pick her up, the teenage children of several other church members attacked him. When sheriff's deputies responded to the disturbance, the children attacked them as well. Hostilities between the church and the locals continued to spill over into the high school. In April, a massive fight broke out between a group of teenage church members and other students. The church aligned students then fled the scene of the fight in a car, leading police on a high speed chase back to the CMHCC's compound. Once the students made it onto the church's property, police had no choice but to turn back or face Francis army of followers. Days after that, a news crew from Tucson came to Miracle Valley to shoot a segment about the ongoing conflicts between the church and the town. While the crew was filming at the edge of the Miracle Valley compound, several female church members began throwing claw hammers at the camera crew. The footage from this attack was later broadcast nationally, giving the whole country a taste of the chaos that had descended on Cochise County. Tensions cooled slightly after the hammer throwing incident, and throughout the summer, an uneasy peace held. Francis used the break in physical conflict to launch a legal one instead. In June 1982, church members filed a $75 million civil rights lawsuit against Sheriff Judd and seven other county officials for racial discrimination. In 1985, the lawsuit was settled for $500,000. To try and defuse tensions, white sheriff's deputies were paired with black officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety when they patrolled the town. Even so, the stalemate was taking its toll on other residents of Cochise County. In early October, a group of concerned white citizens calling themselves the Committee for Equal justice met with Sheriff Judd. They were tired of the chaos and lawlessness that had turned Miracle Valley into a national news story. And they told Sheriff Judd that they wanted him to prove nobody was above the law. Sheriff Judd agreed. Just after 9am on October 23, 1982, he sent two deputies into the CMHCC compound to arrest two church members for traffic violations. He kept another 35 deputies staged at the command post just outside the property in case trouble erupted. It Wasn't long before that happened. The two deputies knocked on a few doors in Miracle Valley, looking for the men they'd come to arrest. Soon, a group of angry church members surrounded the deputies. Swinging pipes and other blunt weapons, the deputies struggled to fight off their attackers and called for backup. Moments later, the other 35 deputies rushed onto the church's property. They were joined by Paul Brinkley Rogers, a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, who recorded the chaos that followed. The newly arrived deputies tried to rescue their fellow officers, but men, women and children swarmed them. They were armed with anything they could find, from baseball bats to brooms to rocks. The angry mob soon grew to over 100 people, with each deputy being attacked by three or four of Francis's followers at once. One church member, Robert Luckett, taunted the officers as he swung a pair of nunchucks at them, yelling, come on, fight me. Kill me, Paul. The reporter spotted a woman he knew among the mob. Her name was Sister Minnie Ray, an elder of the church. He'd interviewed her several times about the church. In the past, she'd laughed with him and quoted scripture. But now she was running back and forth, attacking deputies with her bare fists. When she recognized Paul, she began to chase after him, shouting, you're writing your last story. If I don't kill you today, I'll kill you tomorrow. The deputies had only been brawling with the mob for a few minutes when the shooting began. Gunshots ricocheted from windows, starting with the home belonging to William Thomas, leader of the Commandos for Christ. Deputies tried to take cover and return fire, but it was hard when they were locked in hand to hand combat with other members of the church. Paul saw one deputy struggling to subdue a woman with a rake. As bullets whizzed through the air. She pulled the deputy to the ground, where more church members surrounded him. One woman smashed a rock against the officer's riot helmet while a group of children jumped on his back and tore at his clothes. Two more deputies were arriving on the scene when a church member opened fire on their truck, badly wounding one officer. At the same time, William Thomas Jr. Francis son, ran towards another deputy with a cocked rifle in hand. The deputy shot William four times, killing him on the spot. Another church member, Augusta Tate, was also killed by police. After about 15 minutes of fighting. Both sides had taken enough casualties that they decided to retreat. The deputies collected their injured allies and drove back to the command post by the highway. And while church members dragged their dead and wounded back into their houses, two members of the CMHCC had died in the battle. Later, another member, as well as a sheriff's deputy would die from injuries sustained during the fight. Dozens more police and church members suffered cuts, bruises, broken bones and shattered knuckles from the side of the highway. Several hundred feet away, Cochise county residents gathered to stare at the aftermath of the shootout. For years, they'd been predicting bloodshed. Now their worst fears had come true. As the dust settled after the deadly shootout, state authorities got involved. While they set up a roadblock around the compound, Sheriff Judd and other officials spent hours trying to negotiate with Francis. She was uninjured and didn't seem to have been involved in the battle. Instead, she let her followers fight for her. By the end of the day, both parties came to an agreement. The Police entered the CMHCC's compound and arrested church members who had taken part in the brawl. Eventually, 19 of Francis Thomas followers would be indicted for their role in the shootout. Though all charges are eventually dismissed, Frances Thomas herself would never face any charges. However, in early 1983, she and her remaining followers packed up and returned to Chicago to reopen the church. There, they said that Cochise county was not a safe place for black people anymore. She and her congregation certainly faced racial prejudice in Miracle Valley. Her civil rights lawsuit against Sheriff Judd was later settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. And at the same time, the CMHCC sowed chaos and disorder throughout their time in the county. Francis Thomas died in 1995, but the Christ Miracle Healing center and Church is still operating on the outskirts of Chicago with Frances daughter Margaret Thomas at the helm. Fortunately for their new neighbors, the church has kept a lower profile ever since. Up next, the story of another explosive cult leader who led their followers down a murderous path.
- [27:12]
Heidi Wong
So good, so good, so good.
- [27:14]
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- [28:08]
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- [28:52]
Vanessa Richardson
N rakuten.com 24 years after Frances Thomas led her followers in a violent shootout, another dangerous cult leader made front page news. But unlike Frances, this phony guru wouldn't emerge from the battle unscathed. On the morning of October 24, 20 2006, 56 year old Jeffrey Lundgren was led to the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Jeffrey was a former cult leader who had been convicted on five counts of kidnapping and murder. Three of his victims were children. He'd been on death row for 17 years, and yet he still seemed surprised by the proceedings hours earlier. Jeffrey was confident that he would be spared. He'd sued the state in federal court. He claimed to have a medical condition that made lethal injection painful enough to count as cruel and unusual punishment. Although he'd lost the case, Jeffrey was convinced he'd receive a last minute stay of execution. On the morning he was slated to die, he ate a big breakfast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, salad and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and took a nap. Afterwards, his lawyer called to tell him his stay had been denied. Jeffrey hadn't been prepared for that. During a phone call with his wife, he repeatedly broke down in tears. Jeffrey Lundgren was executed at 10:26am no one claimed his body and he was buried in a cemetery on the prison grounds. It seems seemed his life had ended the same way it began. Sad and alone. Jeffrey was born on March 3, 1950, in Independence, Missouri. His parents were members of an offshoot of the Mormon Church known at the time as The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or rlds. While the RLDS has more progressive views on certain social issues, both groups consider the Book of Mormon to be gospel and share many of the same sacred figures and holy sites. For Geoffrey, the church was his only salvation. His father was physically abusive and it took a toll on Geoffrey's development. His grades were poor and he stayed away from his classmates, preferring to spend his time alone. His only hobby outside of religion was hunting, which led to an early fascination with guns. In 1968, 18 year old Jeffrey was ready to leave home. That year he enrolled at Central Missouri State University. It was there that he met his wife, Alice Keeler. A year later, Alice became pregnant and in 1970, Jeffrey enlisted in the Navy in hopes of supporting his young family. He was discharged in 1974 at the age of 24 and now with two children. After a brief stint in San Diego, he and Alice moved back to Independence. Still, Jeffrey had a tough time finding a new career after the Navy. Mostly, he did odd jobs and maintenance work at local businesses around Independence and spent much of his spare time volunteering at his local RLDS church. All the while, his family continued to grow. By 1980, he and Alice had four children. Sadly, at this point, Jeffrey had begun to follow in his father's violent footsteps, physically abusing his wife and children whenever he was in a bad mood. On one occasion, his young daughter was hospitalized after he pushed her down the stairs. It might come as a surprise that Jeffrey Lundgren, an antisocial loner who beat his kids and could barely hold down a job, would become a charismatic cult leader. But thanks to some major changes in the RLDS church, that's exactly what happened. In April of 1984, 34 year old Jeffrey moved his family to the small town of Kirtland, Ohio. It's not clear why Geoffrey focused on Kirtland, but it's a sacred place in the Mormon faith. In 1830, the religion's founder, Joseph Smith, claimed that God told him to move move there with his followers. In 1833, Smith built the first ever Mormon temple in Kirtland. Although Joseph Smith and his flock would later leave Ohio due to religious persecution, the temple remained active and has been a major tourist attraction for members of both the LDS and the RLDS Church ever since. Geoffrey had used his church connections to get a job as a tour guide and Sunday school teacher at the Kirtland Temple. The job only paid a small weekly stipend, but church officials allowed Geoffrey and his family to live for free in a house on the temple property. There were other perks as well. As a tour guide, Geoffrey had access to the temple's donation box and the cash register at the gift shop. Over the next few years, he embezzled around $40,000 from the church. The job also gave him a platform where he could preach his own version of church doctrine to the guests. On that was important because there were a lot of big changes in the RLDS church at the time. The same year that Jeffrey moved his family to Kirtland, leaders of the RLDS church started allowing women to become priests, something that the regular Mormon church still doesn't allow. This was a seismic change, and it didn't sit well with more conservative members of the church. Geoffrey Lundgren, in particular, wasn't happy with the church's progressive, national new direction. And neither were many of the people who took tours from him. At the Kirtland temple, Jeffrey saw how well his doctrine was received on his tours and started delivering sermons from his home. There, he promoted his own interpretation of LDS scripture. His unique reading of the Book of Mormon was based on a method called dividing the Word. Jeffrey would read scripture three sentences at a time. If the first sentence and the third sentence were consistent with one another, Jeffrey said that meant the sentence in the middle was true. But if the first and third sentences were in conflict, then the center sentence was a lie. This allowed him to pick and choose which parts of the Book of Mormon he wanted to believe. Eventually, this led Geoffrey to another conclusion. That one third of the world was made to live with Christ, one third was made to fight for Christ, and one third was made to be destroyed. Although Geoffrey claimed he had invented the concept of dividing the word, it's actually a long established form of literary analysis. But the people taking Geoffrey's tours and listening to his sermons didn't know that. And some of them found his interpretation of their faith's holy texts to be very compelling. Over the next few years, Geoffrey became known for his unique sermons. So much so that a dozen people he knew through the temple moved to Kirtland to be closer to him. This included an entire family of five from Missouri. 48 year old Dennis Avery, his wife Cheryl, 41, and their daughters Trina, age 15, Rebecca, age 13, and Karen, age 6. But by 1987, 37 year old Jeffrey's teachings had grown more extreme. He wasn't just taking a unique interpretation of the scriptures anymore. Now he was telling his followers that God was giving him direct orders on how to bring about the biblical end of days. According to Geoffrey, God said the only way to bring about the apocalypse would be to kill anyone. 10 people. And that list of 10 people included a number of local officials in the RLDS church. By then, Jeffrey had plenty of reasons to be mad at his superiors in the RLDS church. Some people who'd followed Jeffrey to Kirtland had actually moved into the small house where he and his family were staying on church property. They were also financially supporting him by giving him their entire paycheck each week. Court documents show that some of Jeffrey's followers even started calling him dad. When church officials heard that Jeffrey was letting all these random people stay with him on church property, they kicked everyone out. To make matters worse, they also fired him from his tour guide job after learning he was stealing money from the gift shop. With so many strikes against him, church officials were eager to get rid of rid of Jeffrey for good. In January 1988, he was formally excommunicated from the RLDS church. But by then, Jeffrey didn't need the RLDS. He was the center of his own religious movement. Jeffrey rented a farmhouse eight miles away on the outskirts of Kirtland and moved there with his family and seven of his 12 to 20 followers. Once they were settled in their new home, his sermons grew even more militaristic. He instructed his followers to dress in military outfits and led them in combat drills on the front lawn. They were training for a holy mission. According to Geoffrey, God had told him that in order to initiate the end of Days, his group had to capture the Kirtland temple by force. The attack was set to begin on May 3, 1988. That was Jeffrey's 38th birthday, and he was looking forward to an explosive gift. The detective said missing kids usually come home. What happens when they don't? Based on a true story Police looking for John Gacy. We discovered bodies. By the looks of it, they're younger men. The things he did to those kids. He's sick. The system failed these families. Devil in disguise John Wayne Gacy Streaming now only on Peacock. Do you know how many there are? Up to you to find out.
- [39:22]
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- [39:49]
Vanessa Richardson
Cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren used his job at the Reformed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints temple in Kirtland, Ohio, to preach his own version of the Mormon gospel. And by 1988, he had amassed a small but dedicated group of followers who believed in his message. These people gave him their money, moved into his house, and even called him dad. After he was kicked out of the rlds church, Geoffrey told his followers that God had instructed him to storm the Mormon temple in Kirtland. But not everyone was on board with his plan. One follower was so disturbed that he fled Kirtland and contacted the FBI to warn them about the plot. The FBI got in touch with the local police, who brought Jeffrey down to the station. Immediately after his conversation with the police, Jeffrey went back to his followers and informed them he'd received a new prophecy. God had told him that May 3, 1988, wasn't the right time for them to storm the temple. So the attack was called off. Geoffrey was furious that his plan had been foiled, but he wasn't giving up yet. He was determined that he and his followers would reach paradise. And he still believed the only way to get there was through violence. Now he just needed to find a new target. Many of Jeffrey's followers did as he said, no questions asked. But not everyone was willing to follow him blindly. In Jeffrey's eyes, this was the biggest sin. And there was one group of followers that Jeffrey believed was disloyal. Dennis Avery, his wife, and their three daughters who had joined him in Kirtland just over a year earlier. Jeffrey claimed that Dennis had begun to question his his teachings and was trying to undermine him. But there were other, more practical reasons that he held a grudge. Dennis and his family didn't live in the country house with the rest of the cult. Instead, they rented a house elsewhere in town. This gave Jeffrey less direct control over them. What's more, the Averys had sold their house in Missouri when they moved to Kirtland. But instead of giving Jeffrey the full $19,000 they made from the sale and they only gave him $10,000, Jeffrey believed he deserved it all. For months, Jeffrey griped about the Averys behind their backs, using them as a scapegoat for all the cult's misfortunes, he made cruel jokes about them to other members of the cult, calling Dennis a miserable excuse for a man. He even told his wife that the only reason he let the Averys join their culture was because he wanted to get their money by the end of 1988, Geoffrey began telling his followers, everyone except for the Averys, that he had received a new vision from God to bring about the end times. They wouldn't need to kill 10 people or overrun the Kirtland temple. They'd just have to prune the vineyard, as he put it, and get rid of the Averies once and for all. In the spring of 1989, Jeffrey told the Averys to prepare for a trip into the wilderness to seek salvation. He said everyone in the group was going and they were all giving him their credit cards to buy the supplies they'd need for their journey. In April, Cheryl Avery began making arrangements to pull her three daughters out of school for what she thought would be a long trip to Wyoming with the culture. On April 12, Jeffrey ordered two of his followers to begin digging a grave inside a barn on their property. On April 16, Jeffrey used Dennis Avery's credit card to buy a Colt.45 pistol. And then on April 17, he invited the unsuspecting Avery family over to the house for dinner. After everyone had eaten, Jeffrey had his wife Alice take his three youngest children all off the property. Then Jeffrey, his 18 year old son Damon, and four of his followers invited Dennis Avery to join them out in the barn. Dennis's wife and kids stayed in the house. Once Dennis was in the barn, one of Jeffrey's followers attacked him with a stun gun, hoping to knock him out. Instead, he started yelling and cursing. The rest of the men tackled Dennis to the ground, bound and gagged him and dragged him into the into the grave they dug. Another follower began revving a chainsaw to cover the sound of gunshots. And then Jeffrey shot Dennis twice in the back with the pistol he'd bought on Dennis's own credit card. Dennis was killed almost instantly. Afterwards, members of Jeffrey's cult lured the rest of his family out to the barn. They told Cheryl that Dennis needed help with something and then bound and shot her when she arrived. They did the same to his 15 year old daughter, Trina. 13 year old Rebecca was invited out to the barn to see the horses and was shot to death when she walked in. The same horror was inflicted on seven year old Karen. Afterwards, all five of the Averys were dumped in the same grave. When the massacre was done, Jeffrey and his followers filled in the grave with lime dirt, rocks and trash, then went back inside to pray. The next day, April 18, local police and FBI agents showed up at the farm with a search warrant. Jeffrey was petrified. He was certain that this was the end of the road. But once he started talking to the investigating officers, Jeffrey realized that they weren't there because of the murders. And as it turned out, his neighbors had told the police there was a cult operating out of the farmhouse. By sheer coincidence, the authorities had chosen this day to investigate. Police interviewed Jeffrey's followers to make sure nobody was being held against their will, and they insisted they weren't. Then they searched the barn for any stockpiled weapons or suspicious items, unknowingly walking over the graves of the former five people who'd been murdered less than 24 hours before. When they didn't find anything suspicious, the investigators packed up and left. But Jeffrey was spooked. Not long after, he and his followers abandoned the farmhouse and set out into the wilderness to seek salvation. When Jeffrey first told the group about the trip, it seemed like an excuse to get Dennis Avery's credit card. Now it was the perfect excuse to run from the police. For the next several months, Geoffrey and his followers lived in tents in the mountains outside of Davis, West Virginia. While they were camped out waiting for the end times, Geoffrey put another one of his plans into motion. He decided that like many of the original leaders of the Mormon Church, he should take additional wives. He approached one of his followers, Catherine Johnson, and told her that it was her destiny to become his bride. Even though Catherine was married to another cult member named Larry Johnson, she was open to the idea. And so she separated from Larry, then became Jeffrey's second wife. In late 1989, Jeffrey led his cult out of West Virginia and resettled them in Missouri. But the newly single Larry Johnson didn't go with them. After Jeffrey had taken Catherine from him, Larry was furious. He left the church and called the police. He had some very important information for them. Jeffrey had murdered five people back in Kirtland, and Larry knew exactly where they were buried. On January 3, 1998, months after Jeffrey and his cult disappeared into the wilderness, Kirtland police found the Avery family buried in Jeffrey's old barn. Right away, investigators announced a nationwide manhunt for Jeffrey Lundgren. When Jeffrey and his family heard the news, they immediately abandoned their cult and fled to California, hoping to sneak across the border into Mexico. But on January 7th, police arrested 39 year old Jeffrey at a hotel south of San Diego, where he was holed up with with his wife and four kids, as well as a small arsenal of weapons. Jeffrey, his wife Alice, his now 19 year old son Damon, along with 10 other members of his cult, were indicted on five counts of murder for killing the Averys. Larry Johnson received immunity in exchange for turning in his former fellow cultists. Eventually, most of Jeffrey's other followers agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for lighter sentences. But Jeffrey was unrepentant during his murder trial. He told the jury, quote, it's not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God. Jurors didn't find this convincing. It took them just two hours to find Jeffrey guilty on all five counts of murder. Weeks later, they handed down a death sentence. Jeffrey was killed by lethal injection in October 2006 at 56 years old. His wife and son also received life sentences for their roles in the killing, while several other members of the cult served 20 years. As of 2025, five cult members have been paroled while four others remain behind bars. Jeffrey Lundgren claimed that his unique interpretation of Mormon scripture would lead his followers to the Promised Land. Instead, it led them to prison and him to death row. Looking back on this week in crime history, we can see the power and danger of a good story. For Frances Thomas, her story of redemption in Miracle Valley was enough to convince convince her followers to wage war against local authorities. For Jeffrey Lundgren, his story about the end of Days was powerful enough to kill an innocent family of five. Both cult leaders benefited from these tall tales, while their followers and everybody in their path paid the price. Foreign thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is True Crime this week part of Crime House Daily. Crime House Daily is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House House Daily. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly matters. And for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back tomorrow. True Crime this week is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the True Crime this Week. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Stacy Warrenker, Truman Capps, Beth Johnson, and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.
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