Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods

Jeffrey Don Lundgren, Prophet of Death

Acceptance of Fate

Alice, Sharon, Debbie and Susie are currently serving their sentences at the Marysville, Ohio, prison for women. In 1991, Alice filed for and was granted a divorce from Jeff based on irreconcilable differences and imprisonment. Jeff and Damon currently reside at Mansfield Correctional Institute in Ohio. Jeff spends his free time on death row working on his appeals and writing letters to whoever will correspond with him. Most of his letters are filled with "biblical proof" of his viewpoints.

On April 11, 1999, some of the cult members decided to break their silence. "I've been through that scenario a hundred times or more," Ron Luff told the Cleveland Plain Dealer during a prison interview. "I could have put them in a car and taken off. But was that a consideration? A viable option? No." Ron says he was so thoroughly brainwashed by Lundgren that he never even considered helping the Averys.

"I still don't know what happened," says Susan Luff, Ron's estranged wife. "Something went terribly wrong."

"I didn't understand any of it, we were supposed to help the hungry. We were supposed to help the poor," recalls Susan at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. "Of course, none of that happened."

"I do not want to just be a survivor, but I strive to be a phenomenal woman ready for any task, job or opportunity that comes my way," Susan Luff said. "I know I can give a great contribution to society as I'm doing everything I can here to give back to society."

Ron Luff still refers to his now estranged wife as "my Susie."

Though they have not spoken in seven years, he is convinced that she has not come to terms with what happened or her. Moreover, he is bitter that his in-laws are raising their children. "I get Christmas cards, birthday cards, that sort of thing," Ron said. But, "I really don't have a relationship with my kids anymore."

Like Susan, Ron has made a new life behind bars, earning an associate's degree in Christian ministry.

"God had become so ugly I couldn't go any further," Luff said. "I just kind of had to take everything that I ever thought I knew about Scripture and put it completely out of my mind and start over."

"Hatred is the truest definition of murder," Luff says. "I know that I did not hate the Avery family...In that sense I feel that I'm pretty much at peace with them."

"I have more freedom here [in prison] than I did while in the group," former cult member Sharon Bluntschly said in a letter from prison. "I think that Jeff was merely a monster that, like Frankenstein, took on a life of his own."

Bluntschly, Luff, Alice, and Deborah Olivarez - all live at the same facility where, officials say, they have been model prisoners.

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