SPOKANE, Wash. -- In 1978, Immanuel David, 39, a cult leader who told devotees he was God, drove a truck into a canyon in Utah and took his life by piping exhaust into the vehicle.
Three days later, his wife and six of their children also were dead. Authorities say the mother, Rachel David, 38, took the seven children to the 11th-floor balcony of a Salt Lake hotel and threw or coaxed them over the railing, one by one. Then she jumped.The deaths didn't stop Immanuel David's cult. About a dozen members of the Family of David live in Spokane and Aurora, Colo.
They told The Spokesman-Review newspaper for a story published Sunday that they still believe Immanuel David was God and they're preparing for his Second Coming.
One member is the only child of Immanuel and Rachel David to survive the 100-foot plunge from the balcony.
A daughter, also named Rachel and now 38, was 15 at the time of her fall, which left her with brain damage and other injuries. She uses a wheelchair and lives with remnants of Immanuel David's flock in Aurora, a Denver suburb. The members there and in Spokane all have changed their last names to David.
A "testimonial letter" the group's leaders signed three years ago outlines their doctrine, including the belief that they are reincarnated biblical figures -- Moses, Abraham, Adam, Eve and others.
In the letter and in interviews with the Spokane newspaper, the members say white people are the real Israelites and true children of God. The Star of David belongs to Immanuel David and not to Jews, they say.
The testimonial letter is given to those who ask about the group's beliefs. Members say they aren't proselytizing.
"We are regular Christians," Jacob David, the 64-year-old brother-in-law of Immanuel David, said at his Aurora home. "We are Israelites, from the Lost Tribes of Israel."
Another leader, Matthias David, 56, of Spokane, said the group's remaining members will not repeat the suicides and murders that occurred in 1978 -- deaths he does not consider crimes.
"What I believe in is David and Rachel and their family," he said. "They could not be apart. When David left, they left with him. That was their choice, and a shock to us."
The Spokesman-Review said the Family of David has tried to recruit back two former followers in Utah and Kentucky who say they want nothing to do with the group, which they regard as dangerous.
The brother of Immanuel David, whose birth name was Charles Bruce Longo, is the police chief in Auburndale, Fla. Dean Longo was a police officer in Vero Beach, Fla., when his brother became Immanuel David.
"I think my brother actually believed, in his own mind, that he was God," Longo said. "He was that far off base.
"He was a very flawed mortal, so for him to have gained this kind of influence over people is amazing, particularly for it to still exist."
After surviving the balcony fall, Rachel David was released to a foster home. Eventually, she began living with Jacob David, her uncle, who had joined the cult.
Jacob David, now Rachel David's legal guardian, lives with her in a rented home with his three sons and Ruth David, Matthias David's former wife.
The members in Spokane and Aurora are in regular contact and frequently meet during campouts at Priest Lake in northern Idaho.
Matthias David owns a martial arts studio in Spokane and is an accomplished karate instructor who helped train a Spokane police SWAT team.
Spokane police say they only recently found out Matthias David was convicted of federal wire fraud when he went by his former name, Sterling Peacock, in Utah in 1978.
The charge stemmed from fund raising he had conducted on behalf of Immanuel David, a former LDS missionary who was excommunicated from the church in 1969.
His friends stood by him and also were excommunicated.
They lived a communal lifestyle in Manti before they began traveling in Nebraska, Washington and Montana.
In 1977, FBI agents investigated the group's fund raising, and Peacock and another member were convicted of wire fraud.
Investigators have said they were moving toward indicting Immanuel David on either tax evasion or wire fraud when he committed suicide.
Afterward, authorities said they believed David had been aware his arrest was pending.