The Kirtland Massacre: The True and Terrible Story of the Mormon Cult Murders - Softcover

Cynthia Stalter Sasse; Peggy Murphy Widder

3.57

54 ratings by Goodreads

9780821739860: The Kirtland Massacre: The True and Terrible Story of the Mormon Cult Murders

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821739867 ISBN 13: 9780821739860

Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp, 1992

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An account of the crimes of Jeffrey Lundgren and his family describes how Lundgren lured followers from the established Latter Day Saints and indoctrinated them into a religious cult practicing violence, sexual humiliation, and murder. Reprint.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Murder by scripture dominates this compelling if unevenly told story about kidnapping and mass murder performed by an extremist faction of Latter-day Saints. Sass‚ prosecuted the case; Widder is an Ohio attorney. Jeff Lundgren was a consummate religious demagogue, with charisma, physical prowess, a talent for seducing the insecure, and the zeal to be ``carnal, sensual and devilish'' under a holy guise. An avid follower of Mormon teachings, he eventually concocted his own theology, sect, and military arsenal to fulfill an apocalyptic mission: to sacrifice a family of recalcitrant followers in preparation for Christ's Second Coming to Zion, which would take place not in Jerusalem but near Lundgren's headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio. Sass‚ and Widder spin this ``baroque tale of religious and sexual perversion'' with legal savvy and a dominant tone of objective professionalism, but they indulge in graphic detail as a couple and their three young daughters are lured, blindfolded, bound, dragged into a barn, pushed into a pit, shot, and buried beneath piles of debris. The crime occurs at the book's midpoint, and is followed by an informative but anticlimactic account of subsequent arrests, exhumations, and the ``frantic scramble'' for evidence and other ``legal maneuvering.'' The narration becomes asymmetrical as Sass‚ breaks into the first- person to confess how her personal biases (especially a dislike of organized religion) affected her prosecution efforts. Stranger still was the defense, which attempted to show Lundgren not so much as a thief, wife-abuser, coprophile, and killer but as a misguided fanatic whose actions were ``logical extensions'' of Mormon doctrine. Ironically, this argument is obliquely reinforced by Sass‚ and Widder's digression into the history of Mormonism and its founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., who advocated ``blood atonement'' for sins. Choppily told, but well-researched and sufficiently bolstered by Sass‚'s insider's view of the case to appeal to anyone interested in keeping up with America's continuing cult-murder saga. (Photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

Those who do not follow a cult or believe in sadistic prophets may find it difficult to understand how over a dozen educated, seemingly decent people were able to assist in the murders of Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three children in Kirtland, Ohio. However, Sasse who prosecuted the perpetrators, and Widder make a strong attempt to explain how Jeffrey Lundgren gathered his followers in a bizarre Mormon commune, isolated from society. After the murders, Lundgren and his group went up into the mountains, where the women humiliated themselves by dancing naked for him while he masturbated into their underwear. With the discovery of the decomposing bodies, the faithful pointed without hesitation to Lundgren. None of those who bound the victims or stood lookout or ran the chainsaw to cover the noise of the shots felt any blame for the murders. This study in cult mentality and abdication of responsibility is a useful addition to true crime collections.
- Lois Walker, Winthrop Coll. Lib., Rock Hill, S.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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