him their life's savings, which often were calculated to be thousands of dollars. He then proclaimed he had received a call from God to move to Kirtland, where he and his supporters would soon witness the second coming of Christ on May 3 (Lundgren's birthday, no year specified) at the Kirtland Temple. Lundgren told his followers that it would be necessary to seize the Temple by force and hold it for the momentous event. The conspiracy involved burglarizing adjacent church-homes and committing murder as part of the takeover. He called the land around the temple "The Vineyards", which had to be "redeemed" or "cleansed" for him and his followers to take the temple. By this time, seven of Lundgren's twelve followers had moved into his family's farmhouse. The remaining five were members of Dennis Avery's family. Lundgren felt that the Averys were committing a sin by not living in his house. Avery, who had sold his Missouri house in order for his family to move to Ohio, believed in and trusted Lundgren. Lundgren, however, considered Avery to be weak and, when he was no longer useful to Lundgren, he began talking about Avery behind his back. Lundgren often used Avery as a scapegoat for the sect's troubles, even though he was one of its biggest financial contributors. Avery decided to set apart a relatively small amount of money for his family's use, with a bank account. Once again, Lundgren considered this a sin because he wanted all of his followers' money to be given exclusively to him. In time, Lundgren convinced his followers that they had to seize the temple, from which he had stolen about $40,000, and to kill anyone who stood in their way. He changed his mind, however, and started telling his followers that they had to kill a family of five instead if they wanted to see God. As punishment for their "disloyalty", he chose the Averys. At some point, he referred to the slaughter of the Avery family as "pruning the vineyard". Murders On April 10, 1989, Lundgren ordered two of his followers to dig a pit in the barn in anticipation of burying the Averys' bodies there. The expectation was that there could be five bodies buried in the pit. Lundgren told the rest of his followers, including the Averys, that they would go on a wilderness trip. On April 17, he rented a