FILE 670 / 31 January 2026 / 72 MIN / express

Cult Of The Naked Truth

Grants Pass, OregonListen

The town

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We're going to look Grants Pass, Oregon... down in southwestern Oregon... This is in Josephine County. about 0:03:33

History, in brief

Town note

The town motto is 'live rogue', because the Rogue River is nearby; another local saying is 'it's the climate'.

about 0:04:55

1863

Named Grants Pass after a stagecoach stop on the Sacramento to Portland route named Grant, honouring Ulysses S. Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg.

about 0:05:25

Town note

The word pass was added to distinguish it from Grant County.

about 0:05:53

Town note

The area grew a lot after the railroad was completed to Medford and it became a shipping hub.

about 0:06:05
All 7 history facts

Town note

The town motto is 'live rogue', because the Rogue River is nearby; another local saying is 'it's the climate'.

about 0:04:55

1863

Named Grants Pass after a stagecoach stop on the Sacramento to Portland route named Grant, honouring Ulysses S. Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg.

about 0:05:25

Town note

The word pass was added to distinguish it from Grant County.

about 0:05:53

Town note

The area grew a lot after the railroad was completed to Medford and it became a shipping hub.

about 0:06:05

Town note

By the 1880s the town had a railroad depot, a courthouse and a jail, an old West town.

about 0:06:10

Town note

The town was originally part of Jackson County and was later moved into Josephine County.

about 0:06:18

1874

In 1874 Elijah Davidson discovered the Oregon Caves, 24 miles south-west of Grants Pass; they became a national monument in 1909.

about 0:06:23

The figures, as told

Money

Median home value$376,000
Median household income$49,355
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2026

Population

"38,902"

No direction stated.

As told in 2026 about 0:04:17

Median household income

"$49,355"

Comparison: "$20,000 under the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2026 about 0:04:29

Median home cost

"$376,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2026 about 0:04:43

The reviews

4.0 / 5 · average of 3

5 stars

“Grants Pass is the perfect town to raise kids in, start a career or retire; loves the nature, hiking and all sorts of other things to do.”
about 0:06:55

3 stars

“A nice enough town if you're looking to retire in a rural area; people enjoy football, hunting, mudding, the dunes and fishing, and if that doesn't sound like you it can feel too small with not much else to do.”
about 0:07:18

4 stars

“Don't get sick, healthcare is crap, had to go out of state for specialists, everything takes time and you will die before doctors figure out the problem.”
about 0:08:47

In Oregon

Closest episodes

  1. Pig Farm MurdersWimer, Oregon · 17 April 202520 km / 12 miShow on map
  2. Throw Momma In The HoleWolf Creek, Oregon · 22 April 202230 km / 19 miShow on map
  3. Too Many Dead NeighborsKerby, Oregon · 7 December 202437 km / 23 miShow on map
  4. Pollinations & DecapitationsCave Junction, Oregon · 11 October 201839 km / 24 miShow on map
  5. The Bart & Milhouse Ritual KillingSpringfield, Oregon · 17 October 2019183 km / 114 miShow on map

The story

Grants Pass sits in Josephine County in south-western Oregon, about forty minutes from Medford. In 1988 it was home to Lynn Ann Green and her husband David Green Jr. Lynn was born in 1957 into a Catholic family and became a special needs teacher. She met David, also born in 1957, at La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist college in Riverside, California. He came from a strict Adventist family; his father, David Green Sr., led a prayer group, wrote his own doctrines and, by some accounts, believed angels spoke to people. Lynn converted, and the couple married on 12 April 1981. Their son Nathaniel was born in 1985.

David's father's prayer group became the New Light Bible Study Group. In 1983 the Greens joined forces with a group led by Jean Ketzner, who claimed to cast out demons and speak directly to God. Members claimed to see angels, read minds and travel in spirit. Lynn became a leader, and others began saying she was a conduit to God whom Jesus visited at home.

The s were old friends from southern California who followed the Greens to Grants Pass. Lynn urged her to leave Tex because demons were inhabiting him; her brother Michael helped her escape with the boys.

By 1988 the group had a book of more than 160 named angels, the black book of angels, which Lynn kept, and a nine-year-old prophet. The angel declared people totaled, meaning wholly possessed by demons, and after seven doors they had to be eliminated. The Greens, who had wanted only a prayer group, left.

In the summer of 1988 Gentry reported that Leo had told him he had gone through four doors and would have his throat slit.

On 3 November 1988 Michael came home to his apartment on the Phoenix horse farm in Yamhill County to find it ransacked and messages written on the walls. He went to find the caretaker, 58-year-old Marston Mike Lemkey, and found him in bed shot three times, in the back, the shoulder and the neck. A red truck, a horse trailer, a horse and about $50,000 of equipment were gone.

On 5 November 1988, David Green Jr.'s birthday, the family visited his parents and came home. After half an hour of whispering the boys asked to use the bathroom together. Lynn found twelve-year-old Harry finishing Trust in Jesus on the wall in red lipstick and told them to leave. He collapsed at a neighbour's door and Evelyn Drake called the police. Officers found Lynn dead on the floor, shot once in the chest and once in the head at point-blank range, and Nathaniel shot in the face in his high chair. The toddler survived, spent days in critical condition and was left paralysed from the chest down. David survived with bullet fragments still in his chest.

The scene held pools of blood and .38 casings. A search turned up Lynn's 175-page diary and the black book of angels, and the stolen truck was traced to Lemkey; a .38 round matched the farm killing. Leo later said he had never claimed to hear angels; the women had told him he could.

She never admitted guilt, saying only that she felt bad about Nathaniel, and on the findings of fact she believed that if she did not obey her son she would be possessed by demons. The Seventh-day Adventist Church excommunicated the sisters.

David Green Jr. remarried, stayed in Grants Pass and spoke of his survivor's guilt. Nathaniel was 24 and at Southern Oregon University by 2012.

The case

Murder of Mike Lemkey

Victims

Marston 'Mike' Lemkey (58). caretaker and horse wrangler at the Phoenix horse farm, shot three times in his bed

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 31 January 2026.

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Tex Shively. ex-husband, whose .38 revolver and truck were stolen; questioned and alibied

The timeline

  1. 1952 , eldest of the three children, is bornabout 0:23:18
  2. when she was twenty-seven elopes with Tex Shively, a blacksmith in his early sixties, against her family's wishesabout 0:24:19
  3. 1984 divorce from Tex is finalised and she moves to Grants Pass to be near her parentsabout 0:29:29
  4. about 1985 John Gentry, an early member of the prayer group, moves in with about 0:30:22
  5. 1988 Nine-year-old Leo becomes the group's prophet, relaying messages from his angel, the Naked Truthabout 0:37:55
  6. the summer of 1988 John Gentry says Leo told him he had gone through four of the seven doors and would have his throat slitabout 0:41:39
  7. October 31st, 1988 drops Harry and Leo at Tex's and has them steal a .38 revolver from his collectionabout 0:45:16
  8. November 3rd, 1988 Michael comes home to his apartment on the horse farm to find it ransacked, his belongings destroyed and 'you are dead, Mike' written on the walls (Phoenix horse farm)about 0:45:32

Murder of Lynn Green and shooting of Nathaniel Green

Victims

Lynn Ann Green. born 1957, special needs teacher, David's wife and a leader of the prayer group; shot in the chest and then the head at point-blank range
Nathaniel Green (2). their son, shot in the face while sitting in his high chair; survived and was left paralysed from the chest down
David Green Jr.. shot in the back near the left shoulder as he fled; survived with bullet fragments left in his chest

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 31 January 2026.

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

David Green Sr.. David's father, who led the original prayer group
Jean Ketzner. led the separate group the Greens joined forces with in 1983
Tex Shively. ex-husband, whose .38 revolver the boys stole

The timeline

  1. 1957 Lynn Ann Sapienza is bornabout 0:17:22
  2. 1957 David Green Jr. is bornabout 0:14:07
  3. April 12th, 1981 Lynn and David Green marry; she converts to Seventh-day Adventismabout 0:17:19
  4. 1983 The Greens join forces with a group led by Jean Ketznerabout 0:22:31
  5. 1985 Their son Nathaniel is bornabout 0:18:46
  6. 1988 Nine-year-old Leo becomes the group's prophet, naming people 'totaled' through his angel, the Naked Truthabout 0:37:55
  7. the summer of 1988 John Gentry reports that Leo threatened to have his throat slit and told him he had gone through four doorsabout 0:41:39
  8. 1988 The Greens, alarmed by Leo's messages and the group's behaviour, leave the group; the s disappear for about a weekabout 0:44:36
  9. October 31st, 1988 drops Harry and Leo at Tex's; they steal a .38 revolver from his collection for herabout 0:45:16
  10. November 3rd, 1988 The boys go to the horse farm to kill Michael , find him away, ransack his apartment and shoot Mike Lemkey instead (Phoenix horse farm)about 0:59:51
  11. November 4th, 1988 The s return to Grants Passabout 0:47:44
  12. November 5th, 1988 On David Green Jr.'s birthday the family visits his parents' house and then comes home (David Green Sr.'s house)about 0:47:59
  13. November 5th, 1988, 9.40 p.m. , , Harry and Leo arrive at the Green home; Leo has delivered a message that the Green family is totaled (Green home)about 0:48:16
  14. November 5th, 1988 Lynn finds twelve-year-old Harry writing 'Trust in Jesus' on the bathroom wall in red lipstick and tells them to leave (Green home)about 0:49:56
  15. November 5th, 1988 takes the phone, pulls a gun and Harry says it is loaded; David runs for the sliding door and is shot in the back (Green home)about 0:51:02

Last meals

  • Nathaniel Green. a pre-bed snack in his high chair minutes before he was shot, 5 November 1988about 0:48:11

Places and phrases

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Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode