by Pete Earley
God had told him that if he wanted to be endowed with power, he had to kill.
God was now telling him to kill if he wanted to open the seven seals.
“I checked and checked the scriptures over and over and they all kept coming back to the same thing,” Jeffrey said. “There was absolutely no doubt whatsoever about what God was commanding me to do.”
Chapter 37
ONCE the first seal was opened, the clock was running. Richard Brand would later tell federal investigators that Jeffrey was required to perform the human sacrifice within six months. The rainbow had appeared in October 1988. That meant Jeffrey had until April 1989 to, as he liked to put it, “show blood.” The remaining seals would have to be opened during the six months that followed the human sacrifice if Jeffrey wanted to successfully bring the world to an end.
This one-year deadline for opening the seals was based on scriptures. Jeffrey had taught that a Hebrew named Enoch had taken one year to accomplish a task that God had given him. Jeffrey was expected to do the same. While Enoch was not a major character in most Protestant Bibles, in the RLDS inspired version, Enoch was a monumental figure. Most of his exploits were described in sixty-one verses that Joseph Smith, Jr., added to chapter 7 of the Old Testament book of Genesis. Although Enoch lived in the days described in Genesis, God had allowed him to see the crucifixion of Christ and the Millennium. Jeffrey told his followers that God had shown him Jesus dying on the cross and the earth’s final days, too. No one in the group had missed the similarities between Enoch’s life and Jeffrey’s claims, but rather than suspect that Jeffrey was imitating Enoch, they assumed God was treating Jeffrey in the same way. Picking someone to kill had been easy for Jeffrey. He had always detested the Averys and he felt that he could prove to the group that Dennis, Cheryl, Trina, Becky, and Karen Avery were “wicked.” The Averys had stopped attending Jeffrey’s classes shortly after they moved to Madison. Because of this, they didn’t have any idea that Jeffrey was going to offer God a human sacrifice. Jeffrey made certain that they didn’t find out. He instructed everyone in the group not to tell the Averys what was going on. At the same time, he began wooing them back to class. When the Averys did attend, Jeffrey taught token classes. He told them that the group was going into the wilderness to see God and he assured them that he wanted them to go too, but Jeffrey never mentioned that he planned to sacrifice them or anyone else.
By March, everyone in the group knew for certain that the Averys were to be killed, Richard later told investigators. Talk of a human sacrifice preoccupied the group whenever the Averys weren’t around. “We constantly talked about shedding of blood,” Debbie later testified. “That it had to be done, that we were going to the wilderness, we were going to see God there.”
Later, in interviews, Jeffrey would repeat much of what he told his group about Dennis and Cheryl and why God wanted them killed. He cited verse 17, in chapter 9 of the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon to prove that the family was wicked.
“And therefore he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God, until they know them in full.
“And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word, until they know nothing concerning his mysteries.
“And then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction.”
“By not attending my classes, the Averys have ‘hardened their hearts,’ to the word,” Jeffrey told his followers. “They are not interested in learning the ‘greater portion of the word.’ Instead, they have chosen to receive ‘the lesser portion.”’ Accordingly, the Averys had been “’taken captive by the devil and led by his will down to destruction.’”
“I told my people that they should thank God for the Averys. You see, God had provided the Averys to us to be used as sacrifices.” The only question in Jeffrey’s mind by mid-March was how he would kill them. Debbie would later recall a conversation that she had one morning in March while sitting in the kitchen with Alice. Jeffrey had come in with his scriptures and announced that he had discovered how to kill the Averys. Wicked men were supposed to be beheaded, according to the Old Testament. Women were supposed to be stripped naked and then split open so that their internal organs could be pulled out. Children, meanwhile, were supposed to be picked up by their feet and swung against a wall until their heads were smashed. Jeffrey was perplexed because he wasn’t certain whether Becky, who had just turned thirteen, was a woman or a child, Debbie testified later. It was Alice who came up with a solution.
“Alice said that it would depend on whether or not Becky had started her period,” Debbie recalled.
Jeffrey quickly agreed and asked if either of them knew if Becky had started menstruation. Neither did. Jeffrey put it on his list of things to find out.
As April approached, Jeffrey started assigning his followers different roles in the murders. He sent Debbie and Greg to a local library to find out how hot a fire had to be in order to cremate a body. At the time, Jeffrey was thinking about killing the Averys in their home in Madison and then setting their house on fire. Debbie told him that a house fire wouldn’t be hot enough to destroy incriminating evidence. Jeffrey rejected the plan. Damon, meanwhile, was told to familiarize himself with explosives. Danny was asked to forge birth certificates in case the group decided to change their identities.
While the murders were being planned, Jeffrey was also getting his group ready for the wilderness trek. He told his followers that each of them would be expected to learn a special survival skill. “Sharon liked to study plants so her assignment was to figure out what we could eat if we lived off the land,” Jeffrey said. “I would provide the meat by hunting, Sharon would provide the foliage.” One night during their scriptural class, Sharon served the group deep-fried dandelions. “They were delicious,” Jeffrey said.
Besides such duties, every man was to be a soldier in Jeffrey’s “Army of Israel.” Jeffrey declared himself the four-star general. Alice made him a flag. It was purple with a white star and a red eagle. By mid-March, Jeffrey had amassed more than four thousand rounds of ammunition and had added to his arsenal a forty-eight-pound, hand- made .50-caliber rifle that cost $2,700. He bought it because he wanted a gun capable of shooting down a helicopter.
On March 16, Jeffrey’s buddy from his college days, Keith Johnson, and his wife, Kathy, arrived in Kirtland. Jeffrey had been busy recruiting Keith for months. He’d even paid during February to fly Keith from Missouri to Kirtland for a three-day visit. Jeffrey had told Keith then about the opening of the first seal and had urged him to join the group when it went into the wilderness. Jeffrey needed Keith, he later said, because the scriptures required the rider of the four horses in Revelation to have seven servants. At the time, Jeffrey had only six—Danny, Richard, Greg, Dennis Patrick, Ron, and Damon. Keith and his family moved into the apartment rented by the Patricks. There was no sense in getting a place of their own since the group was scheduled to go into the wilderness during the week of April 17.
Jeffrey announced that everyone would be allowed to take six sets of warm clothing and six sets for summer weather with them. The rest was to be sold at flea markets. Jeffrey also ordered everyone to apply for as many credit cards as they could. Ron and Susie got the most—four. Running up large bills on credit was a way for the group, in Jeffrey’s words, to “spoil Babylon” by sticking the Gentiles with unpaid bills.
As March came to a close, everything seemed to be on schedule. And then Jeffrey made another discovery. It happened while he was teaching a scripture class. He was in the midst of diagraming a verse from the Book of Mormon when he came across a passage that told how a great Mormon general had lost ten of his men in combat. They had died fighting to protect the mysterious golden plates that Joseph Smith, Jr., would later find. Jeffrey didn’t say anything to his followers, but later that night, he reviewed the scriptures and interpreted them to mean
that he was supposed to kill ten persons—not just five. Jeffrey mentally ranked each group member according to their “sins.” He decided that he would sacrifice Dennis and Tonya Patrick and their daughter, Molly, and Richard and Sharon as well as the Averys.
During the next few days, word that Jeffrey had decided to kill ten, not just five, leaked out to everyone but those who were slated to be murdered. The Averys had never been liked, but the Patricks and Richard and Sharon were. Debbie Olivarez would later recall a conversation that she had with Alice while the two of them were driving to a local grocery store.
Why, Debbie asked, were Richard and Sharon to be killed? “I said, ‘None of us is perfect and I don’t understand what makes their sin different than my sin.’ And Alice said that they were ripened in iniquity and they couldn’t change. They were so sinful there was no help, no hope that they would change and repent.”
During the first week of April, Jeffrey began pressuring Greg to marry Debbie, and Richard to marry Sharon. He had told them earlier that they had to be married before the group left for the wilderness. On April 4, Greg and Debbie were married by Jeffrey. The next day, Richard married Sharon. The only difference in the ceremonies came when Jeffrey asked Richard why he was marrying Sharon.
“Because you want me to,” Richard said.
On April 10, Jeffrey took Ron Luff and Keith Johnson out into the barn at the farm. He had decided that it wasn’t practical to kill ten people by beheading the men and splitting open the women. Instead, he had found a verse in his Mormon scriptures that said: “I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass.” Jeffrey interpreted the verse to mean that he could shoot his victims with bullets because a .45-caliber cartridge had a brass shell and an iron slug. He planned to shoot all ten after they were put into a pit. Jeffrey showed Ron and Keith where to dig and told them how big to make the hole. Damon volunteered to help. The location of the pit was also scriptural, Jeffrey claimed. Moses had freed the Jews from captivity by leading them from Egypt across the Red Sea into the wilderness. Jeffrey was going to lead his people into the wilderness after murdering ten of his followers. “The barn was red,” Ron Luff later explained, “... and the barn has an area that floods every spring when it rains . . . so the area within the barn that floods was to be where the people were to be buried so they would be covered over within the Red Sea.”
Alice would later claim during testimony that she really didn’t believe Jeffrey was serious. She had simply been playing along. “I didn’t think he would kill anybody,” she testified, “because he would come up with these wild-haired plans all the time and he didn’t carry through with them. I thought this was just another one of his insane ideas. Like the Kirtland temple takeover, or like the obtaining of the golden plates, or obtaining the Sword of Laban, saying words and making an earthquake happen.”
Jeffrey knew that Alice doubted him. He suspected that others in the group did too. “I made it clear that I was serious about this and I was not joking, but I could tell that some of them didn’t take it serious. No matter how many times I warned them about God’s wrath and fury, they just didn’t get it. Even Alice didn’t understand that this was not a joke. That I was going to do exactly what I said.”
Chapter 38
CHIEF Yarborough was two steps behind Jeffrey. During the fall of 1988, while Jeffrey was busy deciphering the mysteries of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Yarborough was still investigating Jeffrey’s plans to take over the Kirtland temple.
Yarborough had telephoned FBI Special Agent Alvord in September when Shar Olson had come forward. The chief had told him that there were now two informants willing to testify that Jeffrey had planned an assault on the temple. The fact that Shar Olson corroborated Kevin Currie’s story interested Alvord, but he still felt the case was a local matter. The chief was investigating Jeffrey on charges of “conspiracy to commit murder,” and that was a state crime, not necessarily a federal one. There was another reason why Alvord was reluctant. Both informants had told Yarborough about Jeffrey’s plans to overthrow the temple on May 3, 1988. That was nearly four months ago. More important, Jeffrey hadn’t done it. If the chief wanted to make an arrest, he was going to have to come up with new evidence that showed Jeffrey was still planning an attack. Alvord wasn’t certain Yarborough could do that.
Still, Alvord wanted to help. He trusted Yarborough’s judgment, and if the chief felt that Jeffrey was dangerous, then Alvord wanted to get him locked up. But Yarborough was going to have to come up with some hook that would justify the FBl’s entering the investigation. Otherwise, Alvord knew his bosses wouldn’t go for it.
In October, Yarborough called Alvord with an idea. Instead of investigating Jeffrey on charges of “conspiracy to commit murder,” Yarborough suggested that the FBI go after him for possible violations of “domestic security” statutes and alleged violations of his followers’ “civil rights.” Both of those were federal crimes that fell under the purview of the FBI. Alvord liked it.
On October 13, Alvord telephoned Yarborough—the FBI was officially entering the investigation. Alvord had convinced his bosses that Jeffrey was a potential domestic terrorist.
Now that Alvord was authorized to investigate the cult, he told Yarborough that he wanted to talk to Shar as soon as possible. Ron Andolsek, who had befriended Shar, set up the meeting. Alvord was impressed with Shar. She was smart and articulate. She’d make a good witness. She was also cooperative.
During the interview, Shar mentioned that she still spoke regularly with Greg Winship. In fact, Shar and Andolsek had talked about the possibility of her wearing a concealed microphone to lunch one day with Greg. She felt that Greg would tell her if Jeffrey was still planning on taking over the temple in May. Andolsek was in the process of trying to borrow a “wire” for Shar to wear. The Kirtland Police Department didn’t own one. It had never needed such a device.
Alvord quickly nixed the idea. If anyone in the group thought that Shar was helping the FBI, she might be harmed. Instead, Alvord suggested that Shar give the FBI permission to monitor her telephone calls. She agreed, and on October 27, Shar telephoned Greg. At this point, Jeffrey had not completely discarded his plan to take over the temple, so Greg talked about it as if the group still might launch an attack.
At one point, Shar asked Greg if he really was willing to kill someone.
“If God can tell Nephi to go slay Laban, then He can tell me to go kill whomever,” Greg replied. He said, however, that he wanted to make certain that it was God giving the directions. “We’re talking ten years to life and I’m not ready to do that. I’m not ready to run out and kill somebody, but I’m definitely thinking about it, whereas I wouldn’t have even thought about it before.”
Did Greg know when Jeffrey might take over the temple? Shar asked.
“This May, who knows?” Greg replied.
Alvord had heard enough. He sent a reconnaissance team to fly over Jeffrey’s farm and take photographs of the route that Jeffrey and his group were supposed to use when they made their way through the apple orchard to the RLDS church. He dispatched a surveillance team to take pictures of Jeffrey and members of his cult. Alvord also contacted the FBI field office in Buffalo and asked that an agent there be sent to interview Kevin Currie. This time, the agent was to take whatever Kevin said seriously. Alvord then arranged to meet with Dale Luffman.
Within a matter of weeks, Alvord had become as engrossed in the case as Chief Yarborough and Andolsek. One night, he found himself driving by the farmhouse. He just wanted to see it. Like Yarborough, Alvord was trying to figure out how Jeffrey thought. He wasn’t having much luck.
Just before Christmas, the FBI set up another telephone call between Shar and Greg. But this time, Greg was guarded on the phone and refused to discuss the takeover. Jeffrey had told everyone that he had seen a strange van parked outside the farmhouse for long periods. He figured Yarborough was watching him.
On February 24, 1989, Alvord wrote a confid
ential report for his superiors. He concluded that Jeffrey was dangerous and was mostly likely planning to attack the temple on May 3, 1989. But, Alvord said, there was not sufficient evidence to file charges against him. The statements by Kevin and Shar were too old and they were about an event that hadn’t happened.
The FBI generally gives an agent sixty days to complete an investigation. After that, there has to be a good reason to continue spending an agent’s time and the government’s money. Alvord’s sixty days would end on March 3. He asked for an extension into April and got it. But Alvord was told that unless he came up with something concrete, he’d be ordered to close the case.
Alvord drove to Kirtland and conferred with Yarborough. They decided to ask the U.S. attorney in Cleveland for permission to search Jeffrey’s farmhouse. Maybe they’d get lucky and find something that would provide them with enough “probable cause” to arrest Jeffrey. Both men felt that if Jeffrey was taken out of the group, his followers would most likely scatter.
Alvord typed up a detailed memo and submitted it to the U.S. attorney. He also sent a copy to the FBI’s legal-review department. Both offices told Alvord that there was insufficient evidence to justify getting a search warrant.
Once again, Alvord drove to Kirtland to talk to Yarborough. “We both knew the guy was dangerous, but we couldn’t touch him,” the chief recalled. “It was frustrating as hell.”
The two investigators decided to take a risky step. They would confront Jeffrey at the farm without a search warrant. They would flood the area with officers: sixteen from the FBI and all six members of Kirtland’s police force. They had been told that they didn’t have enough probable cause to get a search warrant, but Jeffrey didn’t know that. There was always the chance that he might assume that they could get a warrant and simply give them permission to search in order to avoid a hassle. “To be truthful about it,” Yarborough later admitted, “we were going way, way beyond our authority.” Even so, both men wanted to do something.