Lundgren, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Don Lundgren was born on May 3, 1950 in Independence , Missouri , USA . His parents were members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and raised in severity. His father beat him for almost any fault, and his mother turned a blind eye to all this. As a young man, his mother died, and after that, his father settled in the countryside on a farm and went hunting, Jeffrey often helped him on the hunt and began to understand small arms well. At school, he was a secluded loner and almost did not communicate with anyone. In high school he became interested in technical sciences and mechanics. In 1968, Lundgren enrolled at Central Missouri State University, and in the same year he began attending meetings of the youth wing of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There he met Alice Kipper and two years later they got married. In the same year, Lundgren left the university, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

December 2, 1970 the couple had a son. When in 1974 his wife gave birth to Lundgren's second son, he retired to the reserve from the fleet. After that, the family moved to San Diego , where she lived for 5 years, until Lundgren began to have financial difficulties and problems with work. In 1979 , shortly after the birth of his third child, Geoffrey and his family moved back to Missouri. According to the stories of the neighbors, shortly after this, Lundgren became aggressive and irritable, often quarreled and beat his wife. In 1980, a fourth child appeared in the family. In 1987, Lundgren created his own sect where he began to preach his own teachings. In the same year, more than 20 people became members of his church. They all lived in Ohio near their teacher, and a particularly religious Everly family of five settled right on the preacher's farm. In 1988, neighbors called the police four times to the Lundgren's house. In the end, Lundgren was tired of living with the Everly family, and he began to be very annoyed that the members of this family did not carry out religious rites enough. After that, he convinced the rest of his followers that God wants them to get rid of this family and then everyone will go to heaven .

On April 10, 1989, Lundgren ordered two members of his sect to dig a hole in the barn with a depth of more than 3 and a width of more than 5 meters, which was done. On the afternoon of April 17, 1989, in turn, under various pretexts, he lured all five into a barn, where he shot in cold blood from a pistol. After that, other members of the sect helped him dump the bodies into the pit and bury. On April 18, 1989, Lundgren and his family hid in an unknown direction. His sect disbanded. On the same day, police found out about the massacre and put Jeffrey Lundgren and his family on the wanted list. Within 9 months, the police established the whereabouts of all his followers, and one of them issued Lundgren. In February 1990, he, together with his wife, was arrested. Also 13 of the 20 members of his sect were also arrested. Subsequently, 11 were released.

The farm where the massacre took place was demolished on November 13, 2007 . ^[one]

In the same 1990, a trial was held at which Geoffrey Lundgren declared that he did not repent of anything and that he had committed his crimes on the orders of God and the Bible. Finally, Jeffrey Don Lundgren was sentenced to death with the right to appeal the sentence. His wife Alice Lundgren was found guilty of harboring a husband and aiding, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the right to release. Two members of his sect, digging a hole, were found guilty of complicity in the crime, and received 15 years in prison. On August 2, 2006, the US Supreme Court for the last time refused Jeffrey Lundgren to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, and set the execution date to October 18, 2006 .

The day before the execution, obese and diabetes 56-year-old Jeffrey Lundgren, along with five other inmates sentenced to death, filed a lawsuit about the inhumane way of executing. In this regard, Judge Gregory Frost, who was considering the Lundgren case, ruled that the execution should be postponed, however, according to the judge, difficulties similar to those that arose in Ohio can be easily prevented. “Therefore, the postponement of the execution of Lundgren must and can be minimal,” the judge concluded. The Cincinnati State Attorney General is going to appeal the court ruling. On October 23, 2006, the Ohio state court dismissed the lawsuit of the convicts.

On October 24, 2006, Jeffrey Don Lundgren was executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

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