by Pete Earley
By the end of July, Yarborough was insisting that Thompson visit Jeffrey’s camp. Yarborough had started receiving telephone calls from the worried relatives of various group members and he wanted to know for certain who was living in the camp. Even Alice’s mother, Donna Keehler, had called and demanded to know where Jeffrey had gone.
In early August, Thompson decided to visit the camp on the pretense that school would be starting soon and West Virginia required all children to be enrolled. He decided, however, that before he hiked into the camp, he was going to buzz over it in a state-owned helicopter. That way he could see how Jeffrey and his band were going to react before landing. If the group started shooting, then Thompson could retreat and call in reinforcements.
Thompson telephoned Yarborough and explained his plan. The next day, Yarborough called Thompson. The chief had discovered that before Jeffrey left Kirtland, he had bought a .50-caliber rifle capable of shooting down a helicopter.
“I just wanted to warn you,” said Yarborough.
“Oh, Christ,” Thompson replied sarcastically. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.”
Chapter 45
BY the end of July, the group had been in the wilderness for nearly four months and everyone was becoming depressed. No matter what they did, Jeffrey claimed that there was still too much sin for his followers to go before God. Jeffrey was still meeting God on a regular basis. He would ride the ATV off to a nearby mountain and return several hours later with a new revelation or commandment. But he always told the others that they would be destroyed by fire if he took them along.
The biggest problem, Jeffrey said, was the women. They were “filled with pride.” During the first week of August, all of them were hustled into the Lundgren tent for a private meeting with Alice. They were told that Jeffrey had decided that they had to be literally “stripped” of their pride. Kathy Johnson, Debbie Olivarez, Sharon Bluntschly, and Susie Luff were each going to have to humble themselves by performing a striptease in front of the “God of the whole earth.” Because Tonya was Jeffrey’s second wife, she did not have to perform. Neither would Alice.
Alice warned the women not to tell their husbands about the dances. No one was to know but them and Jeffrey. Alice would tell them when they were to come into his tent and perform.
Susie Luff was upset after the meeting. She was devoted to Ron and didn’t understand how taking her clothes off in front of Jeffrey was going to free her from sin. Within an hour, she had told Ron everything that Alice had said.
Of all the men in the group, Ron was the strongest. He was also not afraid of Jeffrey. Ron found Jeffrey lifting weights and demanded to know what Alice was talking about. Jeffrey assured him that Susie had misunderstood Alice’s instructions. He had no intention of asking the women to perform a strip show for him. He promised to explain everything that night at scripture class.
When the group got together later that evening, Jeffrey put a completely different spin on the story. He said God was disappointed with the group, so much so that He had even considered destroying everyone except for Jeffrey and starting over. But Jeffrey had come up with a way to appease God.
With his scriptures firmly in hand, Jeffrey explained that in Moses’ day, a wife could “intercede” on her husband’s behalf whenever he fell into disfavor with his lord and master. “The wife could beg the lord to spare her husband and family.” That was still true today, Jeffrey said, and that was what God wanted the women in the camp to do. They were to “intercede” on their families’ behalf with God’s representative on earth—Jeffrey.
Jeffrey then moved on to the next part of his explanation. He told everyone to read verse 21 in chapter 28 of Isaiah, which said that the “Lord” would perform a “strange act.” Jeffrey explained that he was the “Lord” mentioned in this verse and that God had ordered him to perform this “strange act.”
Once again, Jeffrey referred everyone to the scriptures, this time chapter 32 of Isaiah, verse 11. It read:
Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
Jeffrey said that this verse defined the “strange act.” Each woman in the group was to come into Jeffrey’s tent and strip. They were to dance in front of him completely naked for one hour. That was scriptural, Jeffrey said, because the word for “tremble” in verse 11 also meant “to dance” in ancient Hebrew, and the verse clearly stated that the women were to strip and be bare when they danced. While the women were dancing, they would become humble and their sins would be transferred onto Jeffrey because he was the “God of the whole earth.”
“Christ took on the world’s sin when he shed his blood for us on the cross,” Jeffrey said. “I will do the same thing for you. I will take on your sins.”
Jeffrey had already told everyone that he was immortal. “Obviously,” he said, “I can’t be crucified or shed my blood, but God has shown me a way that I can shed my blood symbolically and wash away your sins.
“In a rape case,” Jeffrey continued, “a man’s semen can be used to identify him, just as his blood type can be used to positively identify him.”
In God’s eyes, Jeffrey proclaimed, “blood and semen are the same.”
While each woman was dancing naked in front of him, Jeffrey would masturbate and ejaculate his semen into each woman’s panties, he said. “This will be the same as when Christ shed his blood.”
After he had “soiled” each woman’s panties with semen, he would hand them back and she would be required to wear them the rest of the day. This would fulfill verse 11, which said that the women were to “gird” their “loins” in “sackcloth.”
Jeffrey said that he would be “loaded down” with the sins of the group after the dances. He would ride the ATV up to the mountaintop, where he would meet God and be purified by His presence. The group’s sins would then be wiped clean.
There was only one catch, Jeffrey announced. If he did not ejaculate during a dance, then that woman’s sins could not be cleansed and she and her family would have to be destroyed.
It took Jeffrey nearly two hours to explain his scheme. When he finished, no one objected. “Once everyone understood the scriptural basis for it,” Jeffrey later recalled, “then no one had any trouble with it because they could see that it was not a sexual act at all and not some weird fantasy of Jeffrey’s. Instead, it was a very loving and a highly spiritual undertaking.”
Even so, Ron and Keith approached Jeffrey after class and told him that they were worried about sending their wives alone into his tent to strip while he masturbated. While neither wanted to come out: and say it, Jeffrey knew why they were upset. They were afraid that Jeffrey was going to take their wives away from them just as he had taken Tonya away from Dennis. Jeffrey assured Ron and Keith that the scriptures said a man could have only two wives, no more.
To further calm their fears, Jeffrey announced that Alice would be beside him during the entire ritual and that he would keep a sheet in front of him so that the women wouldn’t see his penis while he masturbated. Alice, he said, would be in charge of preparing the women. “I wanted them to know that this was all aboveboard,” Jeffrey later explained, “so I put Alice in charge and they accepted that.”
Alice was certain that Jeffrey had concocted the entire “intercession” scheme that afternoon after he had been questioned by Ron about having all of the women perform strip teases. “He was using the scriptures to get what he wanted,” Alice said, “which was to see all of the women’s vaginas so he could find the one in his dream.”
Later, when she was asked why she hadn’t debunked Jeffrey, Alice claimed that she was scared. “Jeff made it perfectly clear to me that if this was not successful ... children were going to die,” she testified.
Others in the group would recall Alice’s demeanor somewhat differently. “Alice said that Jeff was afraid that we were going to mock him,” Sharon later testified, “that we were going to make light of it,
and Alice said, ‘You’re not going to do that to him.’ She said, ‘If I have to, I’ll beat you to make you do this and I don’t care if it takes hours and hours, you’re going to get through it.’”
Debbie described Alice as an enthusiastic partner when Jeffrey first explained intercession. She quoted Alice as saying that women were “created with three holes in which they could be pierced by men—orally, vaginally, and anally.” The women were to show Jeffrey each of these areas during their dance. Alice also suggested songs that were Jeffrey’s favorites for the women to play while dancing.
On August 14, Tonya took all of the children out of camp so they would not know what was going on. Susie reported to Jeffrey’s tent at 9:00 A.M. As instructed, Ron stayed in his own tent, reading scriptures and praying. Alice, who was wearing the sexy pink pajamas that Jeffrey had bought her, greeted Susie at the entrance and hugged her. She slipped Susie’s hour-long tape into the stereo player, flipped it on, and then sat down beside Jeffrey. He was perched on the bed and was completely naked but was covered from the waist down by a sheet. Jeffrey nodded and Susie began to slowly undress. Alice had told the women that they were supposed to be cheerful and seductive. The striptease was supposed to be pleasing to Jeffrey and their panties were supposed to be the last piece of clothing to be removed. The women were also to be nude by the time the first song on their tape finished.
After Susie had removed her clothing, she handed Jeffrey her panties. He quickly wrapped them around his penis and began to masturbate while Susie went through the various moves that Alice had told her were required. Alice would later claim that each woman was also told to masturbate while she danced. This was a new twist that Jeffrey had added that morning.
“The night before the dances, when we were having sex, Jeffrey told me that he wanted to fantasize, and he asked me to tell him what Susie was going to do when she danced in front of him the next day,” Alice said. “I said Susie was going to masturbate, and then the next day, he made me tell each woman when they came in that they were going to have to ‘come unto the Lord’ literally.”
After Susie had danced for about forty-five minutes, Jeffrey ejaculated into her panties. He waited for several minutes and then slipped on his purple sweatpants and stood up.
“Are you stripped of pride, my daughter?” he asked.
As instructed, Susie replied: “Behold!” She then fell on the tent floor, facedown at Jeffrey’s feet.
“Arise and come forth,” Jeffrey declared.
Still naked, Susie stood and walked to Jeffrey, who was bare-chested. He opened his arms and while he embraced her, Alice darted behind Susie and held up a statement for Jeffrey to read. Alice had written it.
“Unto thee, I have shed my blood for thee,” Jeffrey read. “I have bought you with a price. I have washed thee and sanctified thee. This day, thou has preserved thyself, and thy seed through my blood forever.”
Susie had been told by Alice to reply by saying: “Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth.”
Jeffrey then released Susie and handed her the panties. “Susie was told that she could get dressed,” Alice recalled. “All of the women were to dress slowly in front of Jeff because you neither rushed into the presence of the Lord or rushed out of His presence.” Before Susie left, Alice gave her a short statement that was nearly identical to the ones that she and Jeffrey had exchanged. Susie was told to go directly to her tent and read the first statement to Ron. He was then to come to the Lundgren tent, dressed in full military gear, and swear his allegiance to Jeffrey, which he did.
After Susie’s dance, the adults had lunch. Later that afternoon, it was Sharon’s turn. “When Sharon was completely undressed,” Alice said later, “Jeffrey whispered to me: ‘Richard’s got nothing to complain about.’ There was one song on the tape, I think it’s called ‘Only for You,’ and Sharon sat down naked on the floor and spread her legs open wide and held her breasts in her hands and the singer was saying, ‘Only for you, only for you,’ and Sharon leaned back and began to masturbate but Jeffrey didn’t find her stimulating so he signaled me to go under the sheet. I got under the cover and began licking and kissing him on the testicles while he masturbated.”
Sharon later testified that she had watched Alice go under the sheet and that Jeffrey had ultimately ejaculated. After going through the same ritual that he had with Susie, Jeffrey sent Sharon back to her tent and Richard appeared in full military gear and swore his allegiance to Jeffrey.
Kathy danced the next morning at ten o’clock. From the moment that she entered the tent, Alice was jealous. Kathy rarely wore dresses, but had one on that morning. She had fixed her long brown hair so that it was on top of her head. As she danced, she undid her hair, letting it fall to her shoulders. Alice quietly started to smolder.
“This feeling washed over me as I watched Kathy dance,” Alice later claimed, “and I looked at Jeff and he was totally enthralled by her dancing and when she got to the point where she was completely naked, she turned her back toward us and bent over at the waist and I heard Jeff say in the faintest whisper, ‘There it is.’ I knew he was talking about the vagina in his dream—the one that God had ordered him to find—and I said to myself, ‘Take a good look, Alice, because this is your competition.’
“When it came time for him to masturbate,” Alice continued, “Jeff obtained it rapidly and when he was all done, and she had fallen on her face on the tent floor, he told her to arise and come forth, and Kathy looked up from the floor and said, ‘My Lord, may I kiss your feet?,’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and she kissed his feet and he took her in his arms and read her the message, and then she got dressed—but she stayed in the tent like they were old college buddies, just chatting away.”
That day at lunch everyone in camp knew something had happened during Kathy’s dance to irritate Alice. “Alice was pissed and I began to worry,” recalled Debbie, “not about Jeffrey, but about what Alice would do if Jeffrey really liked my dance. I was more afraid of her than him at that point.”
Debbie’s turn to dance came that afternoon. She had dressed in several layers of clothes and each was a completely different outfit, including one with suspenders. Even Alice later admitted that Debbie’s dance was “really cute” but she remained irked after Debbie’s performance. “I was still angry about Kathy,” Alice recalled, “because I knew that Jeffrey was going to come up with some reason to bed her.”
Jeffrey stayed in his tent for two days after the dances. Alice told everyone that he was physically ill because of the sins that he had taken on from the group. Only on the third day was he strong enough to come out of his tent and ride the ATV to the nearby mountain where he met God. When he returned to camp later that day, Jeffrey was chipper and in perfect health. God had cleansed all of the sins.
Shortly after he returned to camp, Jeffrey approached Keith in private. “He told me that Dennis had to die,” Keith recalled. “I asked how much time Dennis had, and Jeffrey said, ‘Not long.”’ Jeffrey told Keith that Dennis was doomed because he didn’t have anyone to dance on his behalf; therefore, he was still filled with sin. Tonya couldn’t “intercede” for Dennis because she was now Jeffrey’s wife. All of the other men in the group had been saved, he explained. Susie Luff had danced for Ron. Sharon had danced for Richard. Debbie had danced to save Greg. Kathy had danced on behalf of Keith. Jeffrey had told the group that his son, Damon, and Danny Kraft, Jr., were okay because Alice was their mother. [Although Danny was not part of the Lundgren family, he had never been married; therefore Alice was his true ‘mother.’ Jeffrey said.] That left Dennis Patrick.
Months later Keith would look back on his conversation with Jeffrey and realize that he was being set up, but at the time, he didn’t sense what Jeffrey was pulling into play.
As soon as Jeffrey left him, Keith hurried to his tent and told Kathy that Dennis was going to be killed. “I didn’t want Dennis to be destroyed,” Kathy said later, so she told Keith that she was willing to dance naked ag
ain on Dennis’s behalf if that would save him.
Keith and Kathy went to see Jeffrey. They found him exercising in the weight-lifting area. Alice was sitting next to Jeffrey reading scriptures out loud as he lifted weights.
“Kathy wants to know if she can intercede for Dennis,” Keith said.
Jeffrey bolted upright from the weight bench. He appeared angry. Dennis’s fate was none of Keith’s business, he said. “You are peradventuring!”
Alice was just as outraged. “Why are you asking questions about Dennis?” she demanded. “Don’t you know that you can’t just throw out a question like that? You know Jeffrey will have to act on it. He’ll have to do something.”
The penalty for trying to second-guess God was death, Jeffrey declared. Keith was going to have to be “pierced” either with a sword or bullet. Keith was dumbfounded. He immediately began apologizing.
“There is an alternative,” said Jeffrey. Kathy could intervene on Keith’s behalf once again. But this time, dancing naked in front of Jeffrey wasn’t going to be enough. “Someone must be pierced. God demands it,” Jeffrey said. Rather than shooting Keith, Jeffrey could use his penis to pierce Kathy.
“Alice was livid,” Kathy said later. “She said, ‘Didn’t you realize what you were setting yourself up for?,’ and I said, ‘Well, no, I thought if anything it would be another dance experience.”’
“Well, now that you understand what you must do,” Alice asked Kathy, “how do you feel?”
“Alice, if it saves a man’s life, then I’ll do it. I don’t hold this flesh that precious,” Kathy replied.
Alice stormed off to her tent. But Jeffrey stayed at the weight bench. He would give Keith one week to consider his options.