By Scott North, Herald Writer, MSNBC
May 3, 2001
This 2001 case—Christopher Turgeon claiming God ordered murder—is religion’s dark edge. As a Classical Deist in 2025, I reject it outright. Faith doesn’t trump reason or nature’s laws; Turgeon’s a deluded tyrant, not a prophet. His cult’s violence—killing Dan Jess, robbing “sinners”—shows dogma unbound from sanity. Reason, not divine whispers, should rule us. His 2004 apocalypse flopped, yet such zeal still festers online today. Faith’s fine—murder’s not. —Lewis Loflin
EVERETT, Wash.—Christopher Turgeon says he listened when God spoke. He crashed churches to attack their teachings, prophesied an Apocalypse, and formed The Gatekeepers, a small religious group in Snohomish County and later Southern California.
He listened when God allegedly commanded him to kill. The 37-year-old, self-styled modern Elijah, went on trial Wednesday in Superior Court for the March 1998 murder of Dan Jess in Mountlake Terrace. Co-defendant Blaine Alan Applin, 30, a fellow Gatekeeper, faces the same charge.
In a jailhouse interview last month, Turgeon expressed no remorse, insisting God ordered it. “I can’t question God’s methods—I obey,” he said. His lawyers claim insanity, arguing his belief in a divine decree overpowered his ability to follow the law—a rare defense allowed in Washington. The case tests faith’s legal limits, where belief becomes madness or murder.
The trial, expected to last three weeks, began with Deputy Prosecutor David Kurtz arguing the killing was premeditated. “They may be fanatical, but they’re not legally insane,” he told jurors. Defense attorney Royce Ferguson won’t dispute Turgeon’s faith or divine messages. “It’s not what he believes, it’s that he believes,” said co-counsel Guss Markwell. Applin also pleads insanity.
Prosecutors say Turgeon and Applin drove from San Diego to Jess’ home—a former Gatekeeper who’d split with Turgeon. On March 29, 1998, Applin allegedly lured Jess out, shooting him with a 9mm handgun. Turgeon drove the getaway car. Applin’s lawyer, Pete Mazzone, said Applin once saw Turgeon as a prophet but now thinks the “voices” were the devil’s through Turgeon.
Mazzone called Turgeon a “slick-talking, charming psychopath,” planning to use a cult expert to show how he manipulated Applin. Arrested in July 1998 in California after armed robberies, the pair carried the murder weapon. Their spree hit adult businesses, with disguises evoking Jim Morrison and Bob Marley. Convicted of 17 felonies each—including attempted murder of a cop—they got 100-year sentences, now under appeal. California rejected their insanity pleas tied to faith.
Turgeon justified the robberies as biblical “plundering” of the unrighteous. “I judged pornographers and evil-doers,” he said. “When God commands judgment, I enforce His law.” A former Oregon clarinet prodigy, he quit a University of Oregon music scholarship for Bible studies. In 1993, he preached church arsons as divine wrath, drawing scrutiny. In 1996, he was arrested in Everett for defying a female 911 operator—his beliefs barred women in authority.
He declared war on a government he says defies God with abortion, pornography, homosexuality, and “witchcraft.” All deserve death, he claims, and Jess died for calling him a false prophet, citing Deuteronomy 18. “God told Blaine to be His assassin,” Turgeon said. Ferguson expects Turgeon’s testimony to rile jurors—God does kill, he’ll argue, citing wars and disease. Mazzone highlights Turgeon’s control—starving followers, arranging marriages, beating kids with a “judgment” paddle.
Applin regrets the killing, hoping for a mental hospital over prison. Turgeon predicts conviction, seeing the trial as a pulpit. He foresaw the world ending March 22, 2004, with half dying in disasters. “Call me Chris, Elijah, whatever—just not late for dinner,” he quipped.
Source: MSNBC
Acknowledgment: Written by Scott North for MSNBC, hosted and updated by Lewis Loflin with thanks to Grok (xAI) for assistance.
