OurBiography

Jeffrey Lundgren was an Ohio-based cult leader who murdered a family of five.

Synopsis

Born on March 3, 1950, in Independence, Mississippi, Jeffrey Lundgren would go on to join the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but was expelled. He, his family and a group of followers moved to a farmhouse in Kirtland where Lundgren headed a cult. He later murdered a family of five. He was executed by the state of Ohio on October 24, 2006.

Early Life

Cult leader and murderer Jeffery Don Lundgren was born on May 3, 1950, in Independence, Missouri. The son of a prosperous construction worker and housewife, Lundgren grew up in a strict and immaculate home where the family was active in the local Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, a splinter of the Mormon Church.

Ohio Cult

As he grew into adulthood, Lundgren became a religious fanatic, eventually ruling over a five-family cult in Ohio. Known for beating misbehaving children and for his strange and unsettling sexual appetites, Lundgren often preached of the coming apocalypse and trained his flock for war.

By 1987, Lundgren?s cult had settled on a rural farm in Ohio. It was there that he convinced his followers to murder the group?s five-member Avery family as a sacrifice to God for man?s sins. The family was shot and buried in a pit, and were not discovered until early 1990, after a disgruntled cult member reported the killings to the police. After his capture, Lundgren was sentenced to death; his wife and 19-year-old son received five consecutive life terms.