Ron Lafferty's 1984 suicide attempt

Ron Lafferty's 1984 suicide attempt came amid escalating violence and religious torment in prison: after Ron attacked Dan Lafferty and then stopped, he received a revelation calling for another attempt, but Dan refused to submit. On December 29, with Dan away from their cell for questioning, Ron tried to take his own life. He was found without a pulse, but survived after hospital treatment, an outcome Dan later understood as part of the brothers’ unfolding history rather than an isolated crisis.

Background in the Cell

Before the suicide attempt, Ron had tried to kill Dan in their shared cell. Ron stopped when he interpreted Dan’s next breath as a sign from God that Dan was meant to live. Dan regained consciousness, injured but alive.

The next day, Ron paced and spoke of being given another chance and needing to do it correctly. A few days later, he handed Dan a revelation saying Dan was supposed to let Ron kill him again. Dan prayed and did not feel he should comply. He told Ron he would not submit to another attempt, after which Ron appeared increasingly tormented by what he described as personal demons.

The December 29 Attempt

On December 29, Dan was taken away from the cell for questioning. During his absence, Ron attempted suicide by hanging himself from a towel rack. The timing meant Dan might have returned to find him dead had he been away only a few minutes longer.

By the time paramedics reached Ron, he was not breathing and had no pulse. He nevertheless recovered in hospital. Dan described the recovery as seemingly miraculous and recalled that it prompted considerable discussion; he, too, wondered about its meaning.

Aftermath and Interpretation

The attempt followed a sequence in which both brothers treated religious revelations as instructions with immediate consequences, but Dan’s response marked a change: unlike the earlier decision to accept Ron’s interpretation of the command to kill, he rejected the new instruction to allow himself to be killed. The episode thus placed a limit on the authority Dan granted to revelation, even as Ron’s distress deepened.

Years later, Dan said he believed he understood at least part of why events had unfolded as they did. The book sets that retrospective meaning alongside the brothers’ later public reputations: during Ron’s 1996 retrial, the state persuaded a jury that he was mentally competent, while many observers suspected his religious pronouncements were insincere. Dan, by contrast, was widely regarded as a sincere believer, despite the horrifying implications of his theology.