Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings
Earley, Pete. 1998. Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings. Replica Books.
Rating:
7
Introduction:
There is a weird story that goes along with this sordid tale. I was recently in Portland, OR (October 2006) at an academic conference. I stopped by Powell’s, the famous, mega bookstore. Feeling lost, I looked for the section on religion and eventually ended up staring at an entire section devoted to Mormonism. I’m a sucker for books, especially cheap, used books. I grabbed two and ducked out of that bastion of reading gluttony. One of the books I picked up was “Prophet of Death” by Pete Earley. I had a floating memory of hearing something about this story. And, wanting to read something slightly off topic from what I generally read these days (academic papers), I thought a true-crime novel might be fun.
I was reading a different book on the way to Portland, but Prophet of Death looked so interesting I put the other one on hold and read Prophet of Death, finishing it just before I touched down in Cincinnati. When I finished the book I was saying to myself, “Jeffrey Lundgren should die…” Mind you, I’m not a fan of capital punishment (though I have some mixed feelings on it)… Even so, after reading about all of the things Jeffrey Lundgren did, I was okay with him dying (see the summary below). Now jump to October 25th, 2006, several days after I finished the book. I open my email to find a news alert from CNN – Jeffrey Lundgren was killed on October 24th, 2006 by lethal injunction. What a coincidence! I doubt anyone else was reading Prophet of Death for the first time as Jeffrey Lundgren sat days away from paying the ultimate price for his crimes. Anyway, just thought I’d share that to begin this review…
Summary:
The book tells the story of Jeffrey Don Lundgren, from his earliest days until he was convicted of murdering a family of five. Jeffrey grew up in Missouri as a member of the RLDS religion, i.e., the Re-Organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is now known as the Community of Christ. Jeffrey’s parents were not super-rich, but were financially well off. Supposedly Jeffrey felt like he never really met his father’s expectations, which his lawyers later claimed led to his homicidal and sexual tendencies. In reality, Jeffrey was just a lazy, selfish jerk who liked to manipulate people. He eventually met a woman named Alice who also had an RLDS upbringing and basically stalked her until she agreed to marry him. Alice’s parents were not as wealthy as Jeffrey’s, but they gave what they could to the couple and were also devout RLDS.
After a stint in the military, Jeffrey returned to the work-a-day life and began a long series of jobs as an electronics specialist, primarily fixing medical machines. His inability to keep jobs was primarily, at least according to the book, due to his ever-present greed – he kept stealing stuff from his employers. He also fit in an affair here and there, though at this point he tried to hide them from Alice. Additionally, Jeffrey was awful at managing his own money and kept his constant over-spending and debts somewhat secret from Alice. For about 10 years Jeffrey moved from job to job, abusing Alice and his employers’ trust and increasing his debt.
During this time he began studying the Book of Mormon and Bible intensely. His religious studies eventually turned into fanaticism. Using some devious machinations, Jeffrey eventually was ordained as an Elder in the RLDS religion. He then used his connections with the RLDS religion to begin developing a following. His push into religious fanaticism coincided with the transition of the religion from a sect-like close cousin of mainstream Mormonism to a more denomination like liberal Christian religion. That transition led a lot of people to question their affiliation with the religion, in particular, the more conservative members of the religion who were particularly appalled at the increasingly inviting position the religion was taking toward women. Jeffrey was preaching a very chauvinistic gospel and that appealed to a lot of people, men and women alike.
Through a series of twists and turns, Jeffrey landed a job as a tour director at the Kirtland Temple, in Ohio. The temple was the first one built by Joseph Smith and the Mormons. Jeffrey used that position to gain followers of his religious perspective and to enrich himself. It was in Kirtland that Jeffrey really began pushing toward an actual following. He also convinced a number of people to begin supporting him by giving him their paychecks while he basically sat around making stuff up. It was also around this time that Jeffrey hit upon chiasmata, an idiotic approach to interpreting and prooftexting scripture. Jeffrey claimed it allowed him to understand scripture as god intended, but what he really meant was that it allowed him to say whatever he wanted and claim it was god’s will.
He eventually lost his tour guide position after the RLDS leadership found out he was stealing money from the tour office (to the tune of about $20,000). But he had built up a large enough group of followers by that point that he didn’t need the job anymore. Finding an abandoned farm not far from the temple, Jeffrey moved his family (three or four kids) and his followers to the farm. Living lavishly, Jeffrey and Alice continued to abuse their followers, living off their incomes while the followers slaved away. Jeffrey continued claiming revelation and continued to indoctrinate his followers. It was on the farm that he hatched the plans that ultimately led to murder. He initially planned a violent take over of the Kirtland Temple but chickened out (kind of like Joseph Smith’s failed Zion’s Camp march). Then, having gained almost complete power over his followers, Jeffrey launched his boldest plan yet – he decided he was going to kill some of his followers, claiming god demanded a sacrifice in order for them all to be cleansed of their sins. Choosing some of his more docile followers, the Avery family – father, mother, and three young girls – Jeffrey planned and carried out their murders with the help of his other followers. Jeffrey shot them in a barn on the farm and had his followers bury them. A few days later they skipped town and camped in rural West Virginia.
They stayed in West Virginia for several months, during which Jeffrey began experimenting sexually with his followers (as all cult leaders eventually seem to do). He started taking the other men’s wives as his own and even demanded that they do strip teases for him while he masturbated into their panties. When their accumulated money ran out, Jeffrey decided it was time to head back to Missouri and put his followers back to work, supporting him. But his sexual forays ultimately were his undoing. He stole one man’s wife, and when they disbanded, the man, wanting his wife back, contacted the FBI about the murders, beginning an investigation. It only took a few days until they found the bodies and then rounded up the members of the group.
Jeffrey had, by that time, abandoned his followers and struck out for California, hoping to escape. To no avail, though, as the authorities quickly caught him. As my introduction indicated, Jeffrey was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His wife, Alice, who was a willing accomplice to much of went on (not the sexual forays, she hated him over those), was sentenced to life in prison, as was one of the main followers and Jeffrey’s oldest son, Damon. The rest of the followers received varying jail sentences or probation, as not all of them were directly involved in the murders.
I have, of course, glossed over many of the details. The big thing I left out, though, is Jeffrey’s sexual fetish – feces. He was fond of smearing his own feces on himself and his sexual partners. A real winner that Jeffrey!
Review:
The book is, for the most part, well-written. While the story basically tells itself (who doesn’t want to read a story like the one above), the author does an admirable job of piecing everything together to build a coherent framework that explains how a relatively normal young man went from model military recruit to abusive husband to self-proclaimed prophet to murderer to rapist to polygamist. The book, unwittingly I believe, makes some very good points, but also has a few flaws.
The main flaw I noticed was in the author’s understanding and knowledge of Mormonism. I noticed two mistakes that made me wonder if the author had missed other things in the book. First off, Earley claims that Sidney Rigdon was “one of the most influential preachers of the time” (p. 32). Rigdon was an influential preacher in Northeastern Ohio, but the way the line reads you’d think his fame was national, not local. Rigdon was a well-known preacher in a few counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but he wasn’t really famous like we understand famous today. Second, Earley claims Emma Smith took over the leadership of the RLDS religion until Joseph Smith’s oldest son came of age (p. 35). He also implies that the RLDS religion was organized right after Joseph Smith’s death. Neither claim is true. A period of years elapsed before the religion was formally organized and Emma was never the leader of the RLDS religion, even though she supported it.
Another small issue with the book is that it started one particular plot, the attempt to get Jeffrey excommunicated from the RLDS religion but never finished it. It is implied that he was excommunicated but it is never stated outright.
Despite these small problems, I am particularly fond of one aspect of the book, and it isn’t even so much the book’s doing – it’s Jeffrey’s doing. Jeffrey is, in many ways, very similar to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism. The book just happens to highlight some of the clear similarities:
-Like Joseph Smith, Jr., Jeffrey fancied himself a military genius, “Most days, Jeffrey wore a .45-caliber pistol on his belt. By this time, he had promoted himself to the rank of five-star general in the Army of Israel” (p. 309). Joseph Smith Jr. was completely ignorant to military philosophy but liked playing army as well. He even made himself the leader of the Nauvoo militia despite having no military training whatsoever.
-Jeffrey claimed to be “God of the whole Earth,” (p. 309) which is just a bit higher than Joseph Smith’s claim of being “King of the whole Earth.” Jeffrey also one-upped Smith by claiming he was immortal and invincible (he got this idea from the movie The Highlander).
-Jeffrey used his claimed authority and indoctrination to seduce women and other men’s wives, “Tonya believed Jeffrey. She was also frightened of him. Within a week, the two of them were having sex” (p. 314). Joseph Smith used similar manipulative tactics to seduce young women and other men’s wives.
-Jeffrey abused his wife, sexually, physically, and emotionally. While there is no evidence that Joseph Smith abused Emma sexually or physically, he certainly abused her emotionally. Both men slept with other women then, when their “first wives” became unhappy as a result, they came crawling back to them, groveling for their forgiveness. Here’s Jeffrey’s approach, as described by Alice, “I began telling him what a lousy provider he had been for me and the kids, and all of a sudden, he became extremely kind and compassionate and he started crying. He said, Alice, I haven’t treated you as I ought. I haven’t provided for you as I ought. And he began to beg me for forgiveness. He said, Please let me make love to you… Alice, if you ever left me, I’d die. You’ve got to believe in me. You’ve got to believe I am who I say I am, otherwise I can’t go on. I need you” (p. 385). Joseph Smith behaved the same way with Emma, claiming he could do whatever he wanted with other women and she wouldn’t mind, but when she did, he groveled for her to forgive him.
-Prosecutors of Jeffrey argued that he was basically forced to kill the Averys by his own actions and claims. He had set himself up to do it and if he had not he would have lost control of his followers, “If he didn’t kill the Averys, his followers would stop believing in him. He had ordered them to quit their jobs. He had told them that the Averys had to be sacrificed. He had already lost face because he had backed down from taking over the Kirtland temple” (p. 279). Joseph Smith was forced into an action that ultimately led to his downfall – destroy the Nauvoo Expositor’s press – because of his own actions. He did not want it to get out that he was sleeping around. In order to maintain his followers, who, like Jeffrey’s, supported him, Smith had to keep his polygamy on the lowdown.
-Both Jeffrey and Smith had followers so loyal that they stuck with him even when he threatened to kill them and slept with their wives. This speaks not to the persuasiveness of these two men but rather to the ability of humans to believe things that are clearly detrimental to themselves.
-Both Jeffrey and Smith figured out ways to convince their followers that they were the only ones who could receive revelation from god. Smith claimed a direct link to god, Jeffrey claimed “the code” revealed all to him, “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” (p. 193).
-Both Smith and Jeffrey claimed that you knew they were true prophets by their “fruits.” For Smith this was the Book of Mormon. For Jeffrey this was “the code,” “”Ultimately, anyone who believed in the pattern also came to believe in the seer who brought it forth,” recalled Ron. “And since the pattern could not err, they came to believe that the seer could not err either”” (p. 220).
-Finally, as a capstone, Jeffrey claimed to have seen Joseph Smith in a vision in the Kirtland Temple (p. 190). In that vision, Smith smiled at Jeffrey and passed on his mantle of authority. While I know the vision never occurred (a hallucination, maybe, a vision, pshaw), I don’t think the assertion is that off the mark. Jeffrey really was something of a successor of Joseph Smith – he basically used the same con artist techniques and engaged in the same debaucheries. If there ever was a successor to Joseph Smith it was Jeffrey Don Lundgren.
This may come back to haunt me, but in a sick and twisted way I have to thank Jeffrey Lundgren – thank him for showing that such behaviors are typical of cult leaders. Joseph Smith and Jeffrey Lundgren are two peas from the same pod. If you think Jeffrey Lundgren was a creep, why you would view Joseph Smith, Jr. any differently is beyond me. I don’t know that drawing these similarities was the goal of the author; either way, I believe the similarities are shockingly obvious. Both Jeffrey Lundgren and Joseph Smith were religious frauds. Joseph Smith just happened to give it a go when people were a bit more gullible. Even so, I think it says something that both ended up meeting the same fate – death as a result of their deeds. Smith died at the hands of a mob (not that I condone his death; he should not have been killed like that); Lundgren at the hands of a state-sponsored executioner.
I have to point out one more incident before I wrap up this review. If you are wondering whether Jeffrey’s followers were guilty considering how indoctrinated they were, consider this incident that involved Jeffrey’s wife, Alice. The youngest daughter of the Avery’s, who was, I think, 5 at the time she was murdered, really liked Alice. On the night of the murder she arrived at the farm and told Alice that she forgot a picture she had drawn for her. The picture said, “To Alice, I love you – Karen.” Alice later helped clean out the hotel room where the Averys were staying prior to their murders. She saw the picture of a rainbow Karen drew for her and, well, was basically unmoved. She stuffed it into a garbage bag with the rest of their stuff. Later, in getting rid of the evidence, Karen and Jeffrey burned the picture. It takes a very twisted mind to be able to participate, even if your participation is just not stopping a murder when you can, when you know one of the victims is a completely innocent five year-old girl who loves you.
While this may not be the most eloquently written book and it may also have some errors, it is a shocking story that had to be told. If you’re squeamish when it comes to sexual fetishes and murders, you may want to skip this one. But if you’re interested at all in how cults function and how cult leaders are able to maintain control over their followers, this is a must read.