Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings By Pete Earley William Morrow, 1991. Hardback: 448 pages. ISBN: 0-68810-584-X
Reviewed by: Jeff Needle

Prior to writing this review, I spent some time going back in my memory, trying to remember when I had last been traumatized by a book. I've read my share of "scary" books -- from time to time, I enjoy a good horror tale. Sometimes I have to put the book down because I'm just plain frightened. Other times I put it down because it's just plain boring. But this book, Prophet of Death, well, it's a whole other story.

Earley's book documents the rise and fall of Jeffrey Lundgren. Lundgren, a layperson in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (now Community of Christ), found himself in strong opposition to the "liberalization" of his church. The decision to ordain women was the last straw for him. He, and a handful of his friends, formed a small group that separated from the RLDS community to pursue what they considered pure religion.

So far, so good. But Lundgren, an unstable, egomaniacal extrovert, began to consider his own role as leader, elevating himself first to prophet, and finally to "God of the whole world." His followers were transfixed by his dynamic personality, ultimately abandoning their own wills to his.

Lundgren turned deadly when he perceived one of the families in his group, the Avery's, as enemies. He hatched an elaborate plot to entice the family, one by one (parents and three children), into a barn where a special pit had been dug. There Jeffrey executed the entire family.

Jeffrey's sexual habits are a strong theme in this book. His wife, Alice, was forced to endure the most humiliating and degrading practices I'd ever read. And it didn't end there. Jeffrey determined to take a second wife. He admitted to homosexual attraction to at least one of the men in his group. And at one point, he forced all the women to perform a strip-tease in front of him and his wife, in search of the one who would be his next wife.

Crucial to Jeffrey's credibility was his command of the Scriptures. Early on he was taught the idea of chiasmus, that ordering of scriptural thoughts in a variably symmetrical pattern. He learned to use this technique to find the central thought in a section of Scripture. But he soon learned to twist and turn the Scriptures to his own advantage, "proving" the correctness of his murderous, licentious lifestyle. The extent to which his followers were willing to obey him was disconcerting.

I had a particular interest in this book because Lundgren was finally apprehended just a few miles north of my home, in National City, California. I remember reading the news coverage. I did not, at the time, understand the depth of the sickness of this individual.

Earley does a fair job of documenting the Lundgren story. From time to time he reveals his lack of acquaintance with Mormonism. His use of the term "testimonial meeting" for "testimony meeting," for example. And his statement that the Doctrine and Covenants contains "all" the revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith adds to the impression that Earley isn't intimate with Mormonism.

He does take great pains at the beginning of the book to point out the distinction between the Independence RLDS Church and the Utah LDS Church. But this distinction is blurred as the reader progresses through the book. I found myself wondering if readers will understand that Lundgren's concept of blood atonement, and his practice of polygamy, had no basis in RLDS history. It certainly didn't help matters by subtitling the book, "The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings." It is unlikely that non-Mormon readers will make the distinction between Lundgren's roots and the Utah church.

Several times I wanted to close the book and never open it again. The crime scenes are described in gory detail. Lundgren's megalomania sent chills through me. That such evil really does exist in this world is something I don't like to think about very often.

In the end, of course, Lundgren is apprehended. Justice has had the last word. With this I should be satisfied. But I'm not. My great fear is that another Jeffrey Lundgren is out there, just waiting for the vulnerable and the weak to come to his side. Prophet of Death is a grim reminder of the evil that can so easily beset us. We need to be vigilant.