by Pete Earley
“Why does he see revelations in the scriptures that no one else sees?”
Later, Tom would blame Alice for Jeffrey’s belief that he was a prophet. “She pushed the idea, but she would never come out and say it. That was typical. Alice loved secrecy. She’d tell us, ‘I know something you don’t know about Jeffrey, but I’ve sworn that I can’t tell anyone.’”
At home, Alice posed similar questions to Kevin Currie, Richard Brand, Danny Kraft, Jr., and Sharon Bluntschly during Jeffrey’s classes. “Isn’t it strange that God is revealing all these things to Jeffrey?” she’d say.
Jeffrey was more subtle. He would describe what a prophet did and then he would describe what he was doing.
Even Eleanor, who had come to look upon Jeffrey and Alice as if they were her own children, felt the two of them were acting strange. “Jeffrey became more and more arrogant,” she said. “He would never come out and say to me, ‘I am a prophet of God,’ but I knew that was what he thought. At first, I wanted to take him aside and say, ‘C’mon Jeffrey, get real!’ But then I thought, ‘Who am I to say whom the Lord might raise up to be a prophet?’”
Kevin Currie felt differently. He had known Jeffrey the longest of any group member, and when Jeffrey explained the pattern, Kevin was skeptical. “Jeffrey was basically developing his own language,” Kevin said. “He would diagram a verse and then he would say that the words that he had placed opposite each other were synonymous. Oftentimes, they clearly weren’t. Sometimes they were antonyms. But he didn’t care. He would say, ‘Well, these words might appear opposite to you, but in God’s eyes they are exactly the same.’ I just didn’t see any point in it because he had basically come up with a way for him to say anything that he wanted to say, interpret scripture any way that he wanted to interpret it, and if you disagreed with him, he told you that you were wrong and didn’t understand the pattern because you weren’t the seer.”
Jeffrey knew that Kevin didn’t believe him. One Sunday afternoon, the men in the group played a game of touch football. Afterward, Kevin complained that his shoulders were sore. Richard began to rub them. They were sitting in the living room, and when Jeffrey and Alice walked in, Jeffrey quickly called Richard into the kitchen to talk. The rest of that night, Richard avoided Kevin. “Jeffrey and Alice told Richard that I was gay and that he should be careful around me,” Kevin remembered. They had told Richard that Kevin was trying to seduce him. “That’s when I first began to realize that they were splitting me away from the others.” Kevin felt Jeffrey and Alice were playing different group members against each other, in his words, “creating an environment of fear so the only people you felt that you could trust was them.” Kevin decided to move back to Buffalo.
Jeffrey didn’t try to stop him. “Jeffrey told me that it was good that I was going because I had a spirit contrary to the spirit of God and I had brought this evil spirit into the house.’’ As soon as Kevin left, Jeffrey called Richard, Sharon, and Danny into the living room. “The real reason why Kevin left,” he said, “is because he’s fallen in love with another man.”
At about the same time that Kevin left, Jeffrey received a letter from Dennis and Tonya Patrick. He had written to them about the pattern and his discoveries. “We’re moving to Kirtland,” Dennis announced in the letter. Dennis explained that he had used Jeffrey’s pattern to make some exciting revelations of his own. Dennis also said that a voice had told him to move. “It was an audible voice,” Dennis later recalled writing to Jeffrey. “The voice said, ‘It is my will and my desire that you sell your house and move to Kirtland.’ Then it told me how much I should sell my house for.” Dennis had resigned from his job at Bendix Aerospace and would move as soon as he and Tonya sold their house, the letter said.
Jeffrey was outraged. “Who does Dennis think he is?” Jeffrey asked Alice. “There is only one person God speaks to and that is His prophet and I am that man, not Dennis Patrick.” For more than two days, Jeffrey fumed. “God told me this would happen,” he said. Jeffrey reminded Alice of his vision, the one where he was given gold plates to interpret. “Dennis tried to wrestle those plates away from me and that’s exactly what he is trying to do now . . . seize all the glory for himself.”
Jeffrey wrote the Patricks a scalding reply. “You are not welcome here. . . . You are not coming to Ohio for the right reasons.” The Patricks were devastated. Dennis telephoned their realtor and stopped the sale of their house. He called Bendix, but someone had already been hired to fill his old job. Dennis called Jeffrey, but that didn’t help. “I’m not inviting you up here,” Jeffrey scolded, “until you are ready to learn the truth.”
Meanwhile, Jeffrey was pressing Greg Winship to join his group. He had come to Kirtland to visit his pal Richard Brand. Greg had first met Jeffrey during the Memorial Day trek that Richard, Shar Olson, and he had made earlier that year. Since then, Richard had written Greg letters about Jeffrey and his discovery of a “perfect way to find the truth.”
“Greg was very sharp when it came to the scriptures,” Jeffrey said. “I liked him.” Greg also came from a wealthy family. During his weekend visit, Jeffrey and Alice pumped Greg for personal information. They learned that he was the middle son in a family with three boys. His father, Gerald, was a former Missouri state senator and owner of Winship Travel, a thriving travel agency, where Greg worked. His mother, Carol, had stayed at home and raised the boys. Greg had never been in any serious trouble. He had received good grades at Harry Truman High School where he had been the drum major for the marching band, a member of the school choir, and active in school plays. After graduation, he had attended Graceland College where he was co-captain of the cheerleading team and on the junior varsity volleyball squad. Greg was twenty-six years old, slender, and meticulous in his appearance and habits. Each night he faithfully recorded all of that day’s activities in a diary.
Greg’s life sounded idyllic. But the more Jeffrey probed, the more certain he was that Greg was unhappy. By Saturday night, Jeffrey knew what was wrong. While Greg was in college, his parents had divorced. The split had badly shaken Greg. “He thought they had a perfect marriage,” Jeffrey later told Alice. Part of the reason why Greg was upset was because of his interpretation of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 35 and 36, which quoted Jesus Christ as criticizing divorce:
... whosoever shall put away [divorce] his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.
Not only was Greg worried about his parents’ divorce, he was worried about his own failing marriage. Greg had married Anna Marie Crownover in Independence after he returned from college, but the relationship was a disaster.
The next day, before Greg left, he asked Jeffrey for advice. “Greg was trying to decide whether or not he should get a divorce. What he wanted to know was . . . if he got divorced and then remarried, would he be committing adultery?”
Jeffrey told Greg that God had created Eve by taking a rib from Adam. “Flesh was taken from flesh to create flesh,” he said. God had used Adam’s rib to create a “perfect companion” for Adam. God had, in fact, created a perfect companion for every saint. “Greg, there is a woman in this world who is flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone,” Jeffrey explained. “She was created specifically for you so it doesn’t really matter if you are married or you are divorced. If the woman that you are living with right now isn’t your true companion—the one that God made for you—then you are committing adultery and you will continue to commit adultery until you are paired with your perfect mate.”
Was his wife this perfect companion? Greg asked.
“Greg, I can’t tell you right now who your perfect companion is,” Jeffrey said, “but I can tell you that the woman you are now with is not the one.”
Shortly after Greg returned to Kirtland, he filed for divorce and made plans to move to Ohio to join Jeffrey’s group.
Besides the Patricks and Greg, Jeffrey had notified three o
thers about the pattern. Jeffrey had told his old college chum Keith Johnson and Dennis and Cheryl Avery. The Averys had visited Kirtland earlier in the summer, and during that visit, Jeffrey had found out something about Dennis that had made him friendlier toward him. Dennis had mentioned that his mother had died and left him several thousand dollars. Rather than spend the money on new furniture, a better car, or a vacation, Dennis had used it to pay off the mortgage on his house. Even then, Dennis still had a few hundred dollars left over, which he had used to buy a nine-year-old Toyota sedan as a second car.
“I don’t owe a penny to anyone,” he bragged to Jeffrey. “I consider that part of being a good steward.”
Jeffrey thought Dennis was stupid. But he didn’t say so. Instead, he massaged Dennis’s ego and he gradually moved the conversation from the Averys’ finances to his own. Jeffrey explained how he and Alice were completely dependent on the Lord to take care of them.
“We don’t even have a car,” he explained. The station wagon that the Lundgrens had driven to Ohio in 1984 had long ago been junked.
Dennis felt sorry for Jeffrey, and when he returned to Independence, he telephoned Jeffrey. “We want to give you the Toyota,” Dennis announced. He and Cheryl had discussed it on the ride home.
Since that time, Jeffrey had gone out of his way to write letters to Dennis and Cheryl, even though he loathed them. “Jeff and Alice didn’t have a phone so they would get calls at the visitors’ center,” recalled Tom Miller. “The Averys would call up and Jeffrey would be really nice to them, almost encourage them, and then after he had hung up, he would deride those people something terrible and make fun of them. He and Alice both would. I kept thinking, ‘Well, if he really despises them, then why is he so friendly when they call?’”
Tom had met the Averys. They seemed pretty ordinary. He began to suspect that Jeffrey was scheming to get something from them. But he couldn’t figure out what it was.
Chapter 24
JEFFREY would later claim that he had never encouraged Dennis and Cheryl to move to Kirtland. But they certainly felt that he did. In February 1987, an excited Dennis stopped at the home of his younger brother, Tim, in Independence. Dennis and Cheryl were returning home from a weekend visit with Jeffrey and Alice.
“I know you won’t understand this,” Dennis declared as soon as he walked into Tim’s house, “but we are moving to Kirtland.” Tim began to object, but Dennis cut him short. “We are firm on this and we’re going to leave as soon as possible.”
Why now? Tim asked.
The answer was simple. Jeffrey had told them it was time. Dennis had been taught by the church that he was to help build
Zion. Section 6 of the Doctrine and Covenants admonished the saints to “seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion.” Previous generations had succumbed to sin and failed. Now it was his generation’s turn. As they talked that night, Dennis explained how Jeffrey had discovered the pattern, a revolutionary way to interpret scripture. Based on what Jeffrey had shown him, Dennis was convinced that Jesus Christ was about to return and he was going to appear at Kirtland.
At one point, Dennis took a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to Tim. Jeffrey had given it to him. It was a chiastic diagram. Tim recognized a few of the lines. “Dennis tried to explain it to me.” According to Jeffrey, the diagram proved Zion was in Kirtland. “Dennis said that he and Cheryl had to go to the Kirtland temple if they wanted to see Jesus.” After his brother left that night, Tim got out his scriptures and looked up the verses that Jeffrey had diagramed. “Why, they didn’t say anything at all like what Jeffrey said they meant. He was twisting the scripture all around.”
Although Dennis was nine years older, Tim knew that he was gullible. He was afraid that he was being conned.
Dennis and Cheryl were so eager to move to Kirtland that they didn’t bother listing their house for sale with a realtor. Instead, they sold it for $20,000 to some people that they knew.
“Your house is worth much more than that,” Tim complained.
Dennis didn’t care. “All that matters is that we get to Kirtland.”
On February 19, Dennis gave notice at Centerre Bank. After seventeen years, he was resigning. In March, he and Cheryl drove to Kirtland to find a house. Realtor Margaret Mitchell took them around. Jeffrey tagged along to make certain, as he put it, “you don’t get taken in.” They rented a modest house just down the street from the Kirtland temple. As soon as they got back to Independence, they began packing. Dennis asked Tim if he’d help load the U-Haul truck that they had rented. Tim tried to talk his brother out of moving.
“I’m afraid you think Jeffrey is a prophet,” Tim said. “I’m afraid you’re making a big, big mistake.”
“I’m trying to keep an open mind,” Dennis snapped. “Maybe he is a prophet, maybe he isn’t.”
Tim knew he couldn’t change his brother’s mind. “He felt Jeffrey had discovered this great truth, this pattern.”
It took only a few hours to load the Averys’ meager furnishings. Tim waved goodbye when they drove away. In Kirtland, Jeffrey was waiting. “They came right to my house. I had all the guys in my group go to their house, help them unpack the U-Haul, and get everything into place,” said Jeffrey. “Alice took them meals and helped Cheryl get their three girls enrolled at school. Dennis and Cheryl were both so helpless that if we hadn’t led them by the noses they would have been lost.”
During the Averys’ first two weeks in Kirtland, Jeffrey and Alice stopped by to check on them every day. One afternoon when they came by, Cheryl was chatting with one of her neighbors. Cheryl introduced Jeffrey and Alice to her as “our best friends.”
On May 4, Dennis opened a bank account at the National City Bank. Jeffrey had recommended it. Dennis deposited $20,532.55, which included his savings and the money that he was paid for his house.
The smiles that Jeffrey and Alice put on when they were with the Averys quickly disappeared whenever they weren’t around. “Jeffrey went to great lengths at the visitors’ center to say that he wished the Averys hadn’t come,” recalled Eleanor. “He and Alice both used to mock them something terrible behind their backs.”
Inside the Lundgren house, the Averys became the butt of every joke. “The Averys were called lazy. . . . Jeff called Dennis a wimp,” recalled Sharon. “Everything was backward. Cheryl was the one who made the decisions. She was the one that wore the pants.”
But whenever the Averys came to see Jeffrey and Alice, everyone in the group was friendly, so much so that Cheryl invited the group over for dinner after she and Dennis got settled. Richard and Sharon refused to go, but Danny said he’d go with Jeffrey and Alice. When they arrived, Alice went into the kitchen to talk to Cheryl.
“I’m making a special pizza tonight!” Cheryl said.
“C’mon, Cheryl,” Alice said, “what are you going to put on the pizza?”
Cheryl grinned and took a jar of dill pickles from the refrigerator. She diced a couple and spread them over the sauce and dough.
When Alice walked into the living room, she whispered to Jeffrey: “You aren’t going to believe what’s on this pizza.”
Jeffrey thought it tasted terrible, but worse was yet to come. Cheryl had made rhubarb pie and she cut Danny a huge slice because she knew it was his favorite. He took a bite and nearly gagged. Alice almost burst out laughing. Danny fidgeted until Cheryl left the table to get something from the kitchen. When she returned, Danny’s piece of pie was gone. Alice knew that he hadn’t eaten it, but she didn’t see where he could have hidden it. A short time later, Jeffrey, Alice, and Danny left. As soon as they were outside, Danny pulled off his boot.
“He had dumped the pie inside it,” Jeffrey recalled. “He’d been walking with rhubarb pie in his boot since dinner.” Everyone at the house thought the story was hilarious.
A few days later, Richard overheard Alice and Jeffrey talking. “Why are the Averys here?” Alice asked.
“So I can have their mo
ney,” Jeffrey replied.
Chapter 25
WITHOUT explanation, Jeffrey invited Dennis and Tonya Patrick to move to Kirtland in January 1987. He didn’t mention the couple’s aborted attempt some three months earlier. But he did suggest that Dennis and Tonya sell their house and bring the proceeds with them. Two weeks after they listed their home for sale, they had an offer. It was the exact price that the “voice” had told Dennis to ask for. Dennis saw it as a sign. On February 28, they drove into Kirtland in a rental truck filled with their belongings and stopped at the Lundgrens’ house. Dennis knocked on the front door. Tonya and Molly, the Patricks’ six-year-old daughter, stood beside him. Jeffrey greeted them with an icy stare. “Jeff and Alice didn’t want to have anything to do with us,” Tonya said later. “Jeffrey had ordered Alice not to even talk to me.”
“What’s going on, Jeff?” asked Dennis.
“There are things you have to learn,” Jeffrey replied. “Until you do, you are not part of the family.”
Dennis was dazed. Tonya was in tears. Molly was confused. They got back into the truck and drove down the street to the Hilltop Apartments. That Sunday, the Patricks sat by themselves in church. The Reverend Dale Luffman was thrilled when he spotted Dennis. He had known Dennis and had been good friends with his parents when they lived in Oregon.
“We’ve been praying for a priesthood member to come in and help us clean up this mess at the church here,” Luffman earnestly confided to Dennis after the service.
“What’s the problem?” asked Dennis.
“Real simply—a man named Jeff Lundgren.”
“Jeffrey is why we’re here,” Dennis replied.
Luffman was disappointed. “I knew right then and there that I had lost them,” he said. “They were part of this group of dissenters that Jeffrey was building around himself.”
Besides the Patricks and the Averys, Greg Winship had moved to Kirtland to study with Jeffrey. He had gotten a job as a tour guide at the temple. Jeffrey had also started to recruit another couple, Ron and Susie Luff, who had gone on a tour of the temple with him. They lived in Springfield, Missouri, and Jeffrey was corresponding with them.