by Pete Earley
Now that the trial was over, God expected Jeffrey simply to wait, he said. “At some point, He will free me.”
“I used to wonder,” Jeffrey continued, “when this first began to happen—‘Why me?’ I think the simplest answer is that there was no one else to do it. It is what I was created for. I was created to put my life on the line. I was created to love the truth.”
The convictions of Jeffrey and Alice left only one more major case. LaTourette had offered Damon Lundgren a plea bargain that would have required the nineteen-year-old to serve thirty years in prison, but Damon rejected the offer and instead insisted during his trial that he was innocent. Damon’s lawyers claimed that Damon was dominated by his father and learned about the killings just hours before they were to occur. They said Damon did not participate directly in the shooting deaths. Prosecutors countered with testimony by Sharon, Debbie, Greg, and Richard. After deliberating for eight hours, a jury found Damon guilty of aggravated murder. During the mitigation stage, the defense called sixteen witnesses, including Bill Lord, Dale Luffman, and Donna Keehler. All three claimed Damon had been subjugated by his father. “He didn’t have a chance,” Bill Lord testified. “His father was over him all the time.” In a fifteen-minute statement that caused many in the courtroom to weep, Damon begged the jury not to sentence him to death. “My whole life has been doing what my father told me to do. . . . I just want to tell you that I don’t want to die. I have a whole lot of things I can contribute to society. . . . I’d like a chance to make up any way I can for some of the things my father did.” The jury recommended that Damon be sentenced to life in prison.
Jeffrey’s other followers, except for Ron Luff, agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in order to avoid trials. Susan Luff pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to murder, the same charges that Sharon and Debbie had accepted. Because Kathy Johnson was pregnant with Jeffrey’s baby, her case was delayed during the summer. She was released on bond five months after her arrest. In June, Kathy gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Rasia, the Hebrew word for “rose.” Kathy later pleaded guilty to obstructing justice. She had not been at the farm during the murders, but prosecutors said she was liable because she had not told anyone about the killings afterward. At her sentencing, Kathy was defiant. “I’m guilty of loving Jeff Lundgren,” she said. “I’m not guilty of having assisted with anything he carried out.” Kathy was sentenced to one year in prison.
Dennis and Tonya Patrick pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, the same charge as Kathy. But they were put on one-year probation and released. The difference between their sentences and Kathy’s, Assistant Prosecutor Karen Kowall said, was that the Patricks “are very remorseful for what happened.”
Danny Kraft, Jr., agreed to plead guilty to ten counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping after Jeffrey met with him privately in the Lake County jail and assured him that it was not necessary for him to stand trial. “Jeff is not a false prophet,” Danny proclaimed during a two-hour speech that he delivered at his sentencing. “I understand how the killing of the Averys looks to people, but they are wrong. I cannot apologize for my assisting the prophet of God.” Psychologist Paul R. Martin told Judge James W. Jackson that the twenty-six-year-old Kraft had been “brainwashed” by Jeffrey. In exchange for Danny’s guilty plea, LaTourette recommended that Danny be sentenced to life in prison, rather than death. “He did fall under the spell of Jeffrey Lundgren,” LaTourette said. “You’re not going to get any argument from me that Jeffrey Lundgren is the most evil, vile, fat, smelly person ever to come into Lake County.”
On December 5, Ron Luff’s trial began in Toledo. Judge Parks had granted Luff a change of venue in October after Luff’s attorney successfully argued that an unbiased jury could no longer be found in Lake County. Luff was found guilty of aggravated murder and kidnapping. However, the jury voted to spare his life and he was sentenced to 170 years in prison.
Before Alice and Jeffrey were sent to prison, they both asked Judge Parks to let them meet face-to-face in the Lake County jail one final time. Parks refused. Alice was sent to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. Jeffrey was taken to death row at Ohio’s maximum-security prison in Lucasville. Neither had regular access to a telephone, but they continued to correspond. Some days, Jeffrey would write as many as five letters to Alice. He was upset that she had described him as a “cold-blooded murderer” after her trial. She was irritated because he refused to “divorce” Kathy.
“Alice will not accept the fact that Kathy is my wife,” he later explained. “She is angry. She is attacking me and rejecting the truth.”
In order to placate Alice, Jeffrey told her in a letter that he was ending his relationship with “Mrs. Johnson.” He was lying. He continued to correspond faithfully with Kathy. “If Alice repents, I will tell her the truth about Kathy, but if a lie is what will make her happy right now, then that’s what I will give her. I will use delusion to tell her whatever she wants to hear. What is important is that she continues to believe. I love her and my job is to get her to the mountain [of the Lord] with Kathy and me.”
Alice was skeptical when she got Jeffrey’s letter. Not long afterward, she received a love letter from Jeffrey that contained vivid descriptions of various sexual acts that he wished they could engage in. In that letter, Jeffrey mistakenly referred to Alice at one point as Kathy. “He’s writing that bitch the same love letters that he is sending me,” Alice charged.
During Ron Luff’s trial in December, Alice and Jeffrey were both called as potential witnesses and transferred from their respective prisons to the Lucas County jail in downtown Toledo. Both of them had access in the jail to telephones that were not routinely monitored by jail officials. They quickly arranged a conference call through an acquaintance outside the jail.
On the night before Jeffrey and Alice were scheduled to talk, Alice’s opinion of her husband flipflopped by the minute. “Kathy is a bitch and Jeffrey is a liar,” she said. “Everything he’s ever told me is a lie. . . .”
Minutes later, she said, “You know, I’m still madly in love with that jerk. I always will be. There is nothing he could ever do to make me not love him.”
Later, Alice was in tears. “Why doesn’t Jeffrey ever tell me the truth? What am I, some kind of animal he keeps on a leash? I feel like a half-dead mouse that the cat keeps batting around. . . . I can’t figure out why I still care. How can you continue to love a person who hurts you so much?”
On December 12, at 6:00 P.M., Alice and Jeffrey spoke for the first time since their arrest nearly one year earlier. They talked for nearly one hour, and afterward Alice felt triumphant. “I let him have it,” she said gleefully. “I really grilled him about Kathy. I called him a liar.”
Alice said that Jeffrey had assured her that he no longer cared about Kathy. In fact, he had agreed to write Kathy a “Dear John” letter and divorce her as his wife. Jeffrey had even offered to send the letter to Alice so that she could edit it and then mail it herself to Kathy.
“I really believe he is going to sever the tie this time,” she said. The thought that Jeffrey might tip off Kathy beforehand about the letter apparently hadn’t entered Alice’s mind.
“Jeff told me that an angel had visited him in prison. It touched him and gave him a message from God,” Alice explained. She had memorized what the angel had said: “Truly I say unto you, as a mongoose would rise against the cobra and consume it as its prey, so shall that which has come, rise against that which seems certain death. For I will turn your mornings into noonday . . . great shall be your joy . . . saith He that was and is and is to come. Lift up your voice in great joy for thou hast prayed mightily before my throne. Behold the measure is full, the hour of your deliverance by my hand draweth nigh.”
On December 13, at 6:00 P.M.. Alice and Jeffrey talked again, and during their conversation, Jeffrey assured Alice that he loved only her, not Kathy.
On December 16, Jeffrey and Alice talked once more. Afterward, Alice
was ecstatic. Jeffrey had recited a love poem to her:
“Do you think I’m horny?
I think you make me wild,
And when the Lord does free you,
I will make you big with child.”
God was going to release Jeffrey from prison within two years, Alice said. As soon as he was freed, he would come rescue her from Marysville and they would go see God together.
“He wants me to have another baby!” she gushed. “He is telling me the truth this time. I know it. I can feel it. He loves me. He loves me!”
On December 17, Alice and Jeffrey spoke for the final time. The next day, Alice was scheduled to be transferred back to Marysville prison. Jeffrey would leave shortly thereafter. They spoke for about an hour. All of the anger that Alice had felt earlier toward Jeffrey was gone. She apologized for calling him a “cold- blooded murderer.” She had “gone to pieces,” she explained, during her trial.
“I doubted you.”
Alice told Jeffrey that she had gotten down on her knees in her cell after she had first arrived in Toledo and had prayed. “I was at the end of my rope. I told the Lord that I needed some proof, some evidence, that you were who you say you are. I said that I wanted to hear a voice.” Alice was watching television later that same night in jail when she saw a news bulletin about Jeffrey. The reporter said that he was being brought to Toledo for Ron’s trial. “I knew God was answering my prayer,” she said. “Seeing something on television is just like having a visionary experience, isn’t it?
“And now,” Alice continued, “I have heard your voice on the telephone. You see, God answered my prayer. He gave me proof that you are who you say you are!
“I want you to know that I know you are right now, and I have never been so sure, and it feels so good.”
“I understand,” said Jeffrey.
The prophecy that the RLDS patriarch had made in 1969 about Alice had finally come true, she said.
You shall marry a companion whom I have prepared to bring forth my kingdom and he shall be great in the eyes of these people and shall do much good unto the children of men, for I have prepared him to bring forth a marvelous work and wonder.
“I am so ashamed of myself for doubting,” Alice said.
Seconds later, she giggled. If she sent Jeffrey a pair of her panties would prison officials let him keep them? she asked.
No, Jeffrey replied, but he would have enjoyed receiving them. “Something like that would get me into a lot of shit.”
“Well, we certainly both know what being in shit is like,” Alice said.
They both laughed.
“Alice,” he said. “I will come for you. I promise. You got to believe me. I am who I am. I am God’s chosen one.”
“I know you are,” she said. “I do believe, Jeff. I really do.”
“Hang in there, sweetheart,” Jeffrey said.
“I will,” Alice replied. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore. . . . I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to quit. I’m not going to stop watching for you.”
“Okay.”
“And I’m not going to stop loving you.” “Thank you.”
“I love you.”
“Me too.”
“I want you to know something.”
“What?”
“I’d do it all again,” Alice said. She was sobbing now. “Thank you,” he replied.
“Please take care of yourself.”
“Hey, I can do it. You see, I’m unlike other people. I’m still just the same—big and strong. Okay? My faith never has wavered. “
“I’m with you one hundred percent now,” Alice said.
“Thank you.”
“I’m very proud of you.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I’m very proud of you too.”
“Oh, I’m so proud of you,” she repeated. “I really am. . . . I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I guess we should hang up now.”
“Okay.”
“Jeff,” she said, her voice now a whisper. “I love you with all my heart.”
She quickly got off the line.
“Alice?” Jeffrey replied. “Are you still there?”
He called her name once again.
“Alice?”
And then, after hearing no reply, Jeffrey began to cry and slowly hung up the phone.
Epilogue
JEFFREY D. Lundgren. Still on death row in Lucasville, Jeffrey continues to study his scriptures in search of a way to open the remaining seven seals in Revelation. Even though he is in prison, he continues to recruit new “disciples” by corresponding with people who have read about his case and expressed an interest in learning about the pattern. He has sent letters to some of his former followers warning them that when Christ returns to earth, He will free Jeffrey and encourage him to take revenge against those who have betrayed him. His case remains on appeal.
Alice Elizabeth Lundgren. When Alice returned to the women’s prison in Marysville, she discovered that Jeffrey was still corresponding with Kathy Johnson. In March, Alice contacted the warden at Lucasville and had him add her name to a list of people whom Jeffrey is prohibited from contacting. She subsequently filed for a divorce. “I have a serious addiction problem,” Alice said. “Jeffrey is as deadly to me as cocaine or heroin to some women. . . . I will never be completely free of what haunts me until I can stand over his grave—then it will be over, buried forever.” Alice’s case is currently under appeal. She continues to insist that she was powerless to stop Jeffrey because of years of emotional, sexual, physical abuse. Unless her conviction is overturned, she will not be eligible for parole until she serves 115 years.
Damon P. Lundgren. Currently serving a 120-year sentence, Damon will first be eligible for parole after 108 years. His tearful plea for mercy at his trial prompted an angry letter from Jeffrey, who told his son that he needed to worry more about what God thought of his actions than what jurors had to say.
Jason, Kristen, Caleb Lundgren. The minor children of the Lundgrens were placed under the care of Alice’s parents, Ralph and Donna Keehler. Donna has forbidden her son-in-law to mention his religious beliefs in letters to his children.
Kathy Johnson. Kathy was scheduled for release from prison during the summer of 1991. For a short period, she was housed in the same women’s prison as Alice in Marysville, but was later moved to a halfway house in Cleveland. The two women avoided each other while in prison. Kathy plans to move to Lucasville when she is freed so that she and Rasia can visit Jeffrey at the prison. She continues to insist that he is a prophet.
Keith Johnson. During Alice’s trial, a BATF agent told the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office that Keith was telling people that he was a prophet. The agent quoted Keith as saying, “If Jeff isn’t the prophet, maybe I am.” Keith later denied making such a claim. Keith lives with his parents and four sons in rural Missouri.
Richard Brand. As part of the deal that his attorney negotiated with prosecutors, Richard pleaded guilty to five counts of murder, but he was sentenced on only one of those counts. He received a prison term of fifteen years to life and will be eligible for parole after serving ten years.
Greg Winship. Greg also received a plea bargain, but it wasn’t as good as Richard’s even though Greg pleaded guilty to complicity to murder, a lesser charge. Richard’s attorney had specified in his deal that his client could be sentenced on only one count. Greg’s plea bargain did not contain any such limit. Because of this, Judge Mitrovich was free to sentence Greg to fifteen years to life in prison for each of the five counts levied against him. That came to a total of seventy-five years to life in prison. Greg will not be eligible for parole until he serves a minimum of twenty years.
Daniel D. Kraft, Jr. Currently serving a fifty-years-to-life prison term, Danny will not be eligible for parole until he serves thirty-seven years.
Debbie Olivarez, Sharon Bluntschly, Susie Luff. Because Debbie and Sharon cooperated fully with the pr
osecution and provided damaging testimony against Alice and Jeffrey, they expected to receive a lenient sentence from Judge Mitrovich. Instead, the judge sentenced them to the maximum prison term that he could: seven to twenty-five years in prison. Susie, who refused to cooperate with the prosecution, received the same sentence. All are housed in the same women’s prison as Alice and will be eligible for parole in five years.
Ron Luff. Ron will not be eligible for parole until he serves 130 years.
Dennis and Tonya Patrick. The Patricks have returned to Independence, where they are trying to rebuild their lives.
Steven LaTourette. Although his willingness to grant plea bargains was criticized early on, LaTourette’s handling of the Lundgren cases was widely praised. A political editor for a local newspaper predicted that LaTourette would be unbeatable in 1992 if he seeks reelection.
Dennis Yarborough and Ron Andolsek. Officer Andolsek prepared most of the evidence and testified at all three of the Lundgren trials. The stress of helping prosecute the cases caused him to suffer severe depression, he said, to the point that he felt suicidal. After the cases were resolved, Andolsek complained publicly about Judge Mitrovich’s refusal to show leniency to Debbie Olivarez and Sharon Bluntschley. He also complained about the unequal treatment that Greg Winship received in comparison to Richard Brand. Andolsek has since returned to his regular duties on the Kirtland police force. In January, a local civic group honored Andolsek and Chief Yarborough with an award for distinguished public service. Yarborough remains Kirtland’s police chief. He has declined offers from publishing houses and movie companies interested in telling his story. On May 3, 1991, he spent the night watching the Kirtland temple. He was afraid that pranksters or new followers of Jeffrey might attempt to deface it.
Reverend Dale Luffman. Shortly after Jeffrey’s arrest, someone painted YOU’RE DEAD on the picture window of Luffman’s home. Despite the threat, Luffman continues as RLDS stake president. When asked by a reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer if Jeffrey should be executed, Luffman said: “From a theological perspective our church believes life is sacred, but death is a part of life.” In the case of Jeffrey, Luffman added, the death penalty was justified.