0:06

It's nineteen seventy four, a Sunday

0:08

morning in Charlotte, North Carolina. You

0:11

just woken up, poured yourself a big bowl

0:13

of pink panther

0:13

flakes, settled into your favorite chair,

0:15

and turned on the TV. Have PTO.

0:19

Television Network presents. Jim,

0:22

thank her.

0:27

Depressed the Lord Club or the PTO

0:29

club has just started. The

0:31

camera pans across the full orchestra and

0:33

quiet. A studio audience claps

0:36

vigorously as a well dressed and good

0:38

looking couple walk down to the stage.

0:52

Hello, everyone. Oh,

0:55

what a beautiful morning. Yes.

0:59

A beautiful day today. Right?

1:01

It's Tammy Faye and Jim Baker,

1:04

traveling pinna coastal evangelist healers.

1:07

They used to host a local TV show featuring

1:09

puppets. But now, they

1:11

have a new gig, an hour long

1:14

talk show modeled after the tonight

1:16

show with Johnny Carson. Jimmy

1:19

is dressed in a light brown blazer in time.

1:21

Tammy had what became her signature look

1:24

of big blonde hair, heavy mascara,

1:26

and bright makeup. They

1:28

greet everyone with warm charisma and

1:31

big

1:31

smiles. What you saw was

1:33

what you got with Tammy Fey. She

1:35

would be exactly what she saw

1:38

on TV. Fun, engaging,

1:40

sparkly. That's Mark Becker.

1:43

He's a retired journalist but was a reporter

1:45

for the local TV station, W

1:47

SoC, for forty years. Jim

1:49

Baker is one of the few people who I

1:51

don't think the camera translated.

1:55

He would be very reserved,

1:58

almost withdrawn,

2:00

until a camera came on, then he'd walk out

2:02

and he switched it on. Evangelical

2:05

religious programming had been around for a

2:07

while. By the time the bakers

2:09

launched their show, there were over a hundred

2:11

religious television stations in the US.

2:14

It was clear that TV was a great way

2:16

to spread the gospel and attract people

2:18

to the faith. And there were plenty

2:20

of early successes like the seven hundred

2:22

club, a show that Jim briefly co

2:24

hosted. But the PTO club

2:27

was intent on doing things bigger

2:29

and better. The

2:32

PTO club had popular Christian

2:34

music acts, guest ministers would

2:36

preach and talk politics. And

2:38

then, there were the celebrity guests,

2:40

like colonel Sanders. Ronald Reagan,

2:43

and the former Black Panther, Eldridge

2:45

Cleaver. Yeah. That's

2:48

confusing.

2:49

I saw the images that everybody else saw,

2:51

you know, this very produced show

2:55

with the glitz and the glamour and

2:57

the big hair and the cheesy

2:59

music and the fancy

3:01

guests and the adoring studio

3:04

audience. Jimmy Tammy brought

3:06

the full on band and singers and

3:09

and they took camera outside. They really brought

3:11

television into the

3:14

evangelism realm, the modern

3:16

television at the time they really

3:18

did revolutionize the broadcasting

3:21

business for evangelism and

3:24

televangelists specifically.

3:26

They made it fun. They made it

3:28

exciting. They made it entertaining. By

3:31

nineteen seventy eight, Jim and Tammy

3:33

had gone national. Spending million

3:35

dollars to set up their own satellite network

3:38

called PTL, the inspirational

3:40

network. They opened a recording

3:42

studio in an old furniture store and

3:44

started broadcasting religious content

3:47

twenty four

3:47

seven.

3:48

Is more of a prosperity type

3:50

of teaching?

3:52

That's Beth Arcel Lacey, a former employee

3:54

of the station. If you do this, you

3:56

give this, god is gonna give

3:58

back to you a hundred fold.

4:01

And people really believed

4:03

that and thought into that.

4:06

Tammy and Jim Baker told audiences that

4:08

God wanted them to prosper. That

4:10

if they just believed in the

4:11

lord, he would grant them the success

4:14

they craved. Their teachings

4:16

really resonated with the greed as good mentality

4:18

of the nineteen eighties. They would say

4:20

something like this on the broadcast from time to time.

4:22

Don't ask God for a

4:23

car. Ask God for the kind of car you want. You want a Mercedes.

4:26

Ask God for a Mercedes and you'll be blessed

4:28

with the Mercedes. Which isn't too surprising

4:30

given the economic boom the country was

4:32

undergoing. Practicing

4:35

what they preached The bakers quickly bought twenty

4:37

three hundred acres of land a little bit outside

4:39

of Charlotte and opened a crystal resort

4:42

called Heritage USA. It

4:44

had a luxury hotel, a huge television

4:46

studio, and a water park. Jim

4:48

had always loved Disneyland, and

4:51

this was his chance to have his own.

4:54

But a more wholesome version of it

4:56

and people loved it.

5:00

When I got to Charlotte in nineteen eighty

5:02

four, the big names, the big celebrities

5:05

were a few NASCAR drivers, a

5:07

few pro wrestlers, and Jim and

5:09

Tammy. There were people who knew of

5:11

Jim and

5:12

Tammy, and many of them made the

5:14

pilgrimage here to stay at the Heritage

5:16

USA or say nearby and

5:18

attend the show and just be close

5:20

to what was essentially Christian celebrity?

5:23

The couple used their television clout

5:25

to fundraise for the resort. And

5:27

pulled in millions of dollars in donations every

5:30

year. Followers prayed to God

5:32

to bless them with well.

5:34

Jim was very convincing in

5:37

his preaching and in his ministry.

5:41

And I think a lot of folks

5:43

got sucked into that

5:45

and, you know, I say, drink

5:47

the cooling.

5:48

But by nineteen eighty six, everything

5:51

the bakers had built was about to

5:53

fall apart. It

5:56

was the biggest scandal going, and

5:58

in some ways, the perfect scandal. You

6:00

had sex, you had money, you had

6:03

religion, it was all there.

6:06

I'm also

6:07

slain, and this is cheap. The podcast

6:10

where we ask, is it ever okay

6:12

to break the rules? In

6:14

this week's episode, the Broken

6:16

Promise of a Christian Disneyland

6:25

As if the Macrispy couldn't get any better,

6:28

Bacon and ranch just entered

6:30

the chat. The bacon ranch

6:33

with Crispy, available at participating

6:35

with Donald's for a limited time.

6:43

In the early nineteen eighties, Beth had just

6:45

moved back to her hometown of Charlotte. After

6:48

graduating from college with a degree in

6:49

communication. She was hoping Atlanta

6:52

job in television. Someone

6:54

had mentioned to me, have you ever

6:56

heard a PTO. I said, nope.

6:58

Never heard of

6:59

it. Even though I was, you know, born and raised

7:01

in Charlotte. Even though Beth had

7:03

never heard of the PTO up. He

7:05

had already taken over the town of Fort

7:07

Mill, South Carolina. I watched

7:09

a little on TV, see what I was getting

7:11

into, and then, you

7:13

know, so my friends started sharing

7:15

some information. Beth

7:18

felt like she had enough to go on. And

7:20

really it was the biggest opportunity around.

7:23

So I went out there to interview and

7:26

got the job. Beth

7:29

started out as a production assistant and

7:31

was quickly on her way to directing shows.

7:34

She was impressed by how Jim and Tammy approached

7:36

making

7:37

television. They were open to trying

7:39

new things? It was just

7:41

the top of the line equipment

7:43

and the things that you could do on

7:45

your

7:46

own. They kinda gave you carte box to

7:48

to create. The network had

7:50

a lot of programming. There was the

7:52

main state talk show, Jim Baker show,

7:55

and the real world of Tammy Fate,

7:57

where Tammy completely upended people's

7:59

expectations of a preacher's wife. She

8:02

wasn't quiet or obedient. She

8:04

talked about sex, flirted, and

8:06

covered difficult topics like HIV.

8:09

The network also aired music concerts

8:11

in international programming. The

8:14

shows aired in over forty countries.

8:16

As the network grew in popularity, the

8:18

bakers doubled down on telefunding efforts.

8:22

Jim would always have a lot of special

8:25

guests in to

8:27

help him raise money. They

8:29

would have let's come in and just sing,

8:31

make it really good and entertaining.

8:35

Here, we got a phone bank. We got a prayer

8:37

line. You can call if you need prayer. You can

8:39

call if you want to donate and have in our shots

8:41

to the people on the

8:42

phones, and it wasn't just a

8:45

one off thing. Often, they were

8:47

fundraising for Heritage USA. The

8:49

resort and theme park It had an amphitheater,

8:52

a luxury hotel, and their

8:54

twelve hundred seat barn that acted as a

8:56

recording

8:57

studio. It was unlike anything

8:59

anyone in the Christian community had ever

9:02

seen before. So when

9:04

people found out that I worked at PTO, they

9:06

were always very inquisitive. What's

9:08

it

9:08

like? What do you do? You met Jim

9:10

and Tammy. On their programs,

9:13

they were constantly soliciting donations

9:15

to help cover construction costs.

9:18

Then they had another great offer for PTO

9:20

members. For the low low price of

9:22

a thousand dollars, people could buy

9:24

a lifetime partnership with Heritage USA

9:27

that would entitle them to stay three nights a

9:29

year at the hotel for the rest of

9:31

their lives. If you gave thousand

9:33

dollars or more, you got three nights

9:36

a year for the rest of your

9:37

life. That's essentially a lifetime

9:39

partnership in the hotel. Thousands

9:43

upon thousands of people signed up.

9:46

Even more were eager to spend the day at

9:48

the resort. Jim often

9:50

liked to claim that Heritage USA was

9:52

the third largest theme park in the world,

9:54

second only to Disneyland and

9:56

Disneyland, and millions of people

9:58

wanted to see it. Jam had

10:00

been to, like, a Disney world and

10:03

really like the idea of

10:06

creating something like that

10:09

but, you know, in a a Christian community.

10:12

So a lot if you look at a lot

10:14

of the buildings, they kinda

10:16

have that feel of

10:19

a Disney World for Disneyland. They

10:21

had a big wave pool. They

10:24

had a train that went around the

10:26

lake for the kids. They

10:28

had a huge water slide. We

10:31

had the nice little sandy area

10:33

where people could lay out the sun

10:35

and it was just a

10:37

place to gather with family.

10:41

After Heritage's USA opened up,

10:43

Tammy and Jim's lifestyle started to change.

10:47

Tammy was always talking about shopping

10:49

therapy and her big Kmart shopping

10:51

sprees. But now, She

10:53

was walking around and fur coats and expensive

10:56

jewelry. She had a huge house

10:58

in Charlotte, a Florida Beach condo,

11:00

and two vacation homes. There

11:03

were rumors that Jim had chartered private

11:05

Gulfstream jet for a hundred thousand dollars

11:07

just to avoid flying commercial.

11:10

The press was starting to notice. Where

11:12

was all this money coming

11:15

from? And more importantly, where was it

11:17

going? And things

11:19

like a houseboat and fancy

11:21

cars and mink

11:23

coats. And even I believe

11:25

an airplane at one point, the

11:28

Charlotte Observer had assigned one

11:30

reporter and probably several

11:32

editors just to look

11:34

into Jim and Tammy and the

11:36

TTL

11:37

ministry. Because it just didn't

11:39

feel right.

11:41

But for folks on the inside like Beth,

11:43

it was hard to doubt the baker's intentions.

11:46

Jim, has a charismatic personality,

11:50

and people just flocked to

11:52

him. Whether that's good

11:54

or bad, they just seemed to trust

11:56

and believe what he has to say.

11:59

Jim was a man who always seemed ready

12:02

to move on to something bigger and better.

12:04

And with that megawatt charm of his,

12:07

he was about to convince people of his

12:09

grandest idea

12:10

yet. In fact, he always

12:12

had something planned. And whatever

12:14

else you say about Jim Baker. He

12:16

was a visionary. That's after

12:18

the break.

12:24

Our story begins with a phone call.

12:26

Voice on the phone said I was sexy.

12:28

He had made literally thousands those types

12:30

of calls.

12:31

He follows the women, gets to know them,

12:33

and then hit them. Then

12:36

Don't report nobody that I found.

12:38

Everything. There are a lot of missing girls

12:40

escalates.

12:41

She was beaten, stabbed until the knife

12:43

broke, and then shot twice in the head.

12:46

Sherry Warren disappeared in the fall of nineteen

12:48

eighty five

12:49

Her friends and family say she's not the type

12:51

to just run away. No one can say

12:53

just what happened to Sherry. No

12:55

one's faced charges for her disappearance. Not

12:57

her ex husband, Chuck Warren, and

12:59

not Sherry's boyfriend, Carrie Hartman.

13:01

He had two dispositions of doctor Jackal,

13:04

mister high. He could be the nicest guy you

13:06

ever wanted to meet, but he also

13:08

had that sinister sight. Cold

13:11

season three. Hey, Prime members.

13:13

You can binge all ten episodes of

13:15

cold, the search for Sherry, ad

13:18

free on Amazon Music. Download

13:20

the Amazon Music app today.

13:24

The war on drugs is the excuse our

13:26

government uses to get away with absolutely

13:28

insane

13:29

stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off, the cops,

13:31

aren't they just like? Looting. I

13:33

think it's just, like, pillaging. They just have way

13:35

better names for what they call, like, what

13:37

we would call a Jack

13:39

move, or being rob.

13:42

They call civil asset work.

13:46

Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on

13:49

the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

13:51

or wherever you get your podcast.

13:59

At a government office building near the border

14:01

of South and North Carolina, Mark

14:03

sat in the conference room with a bunch of

14:05

bureaucrats. I imagine

14:07

there was a big wooden table there

14:10

and at its head sat Jim

14:12

Baker. I attended a meeting

14:15

where he presented along

14:17

with others from the ministry a

14:19

plan to the local county

14:22

commissioners where he wanted to build

14:24

a Christian theme park. I

14:27

can see Jim quieting the room

14:29

as his assistant set up a projector and

14:31

turned down the lights. And

14:33

suddenly, everyone's eyes

14:36

were on gym as sketches of

14:38

a huge tower flashed across the screen.

14:41

Then Jim clicks a button and the next

14:43

light appears.

14:45

This light showed a giant roller

14:47

coaster. Very literally, he

14:49

talked about a roller coaster that would

14:51

go along the way,

14:54

pictures space mountain, and you'd have

14:56

prophets along the way who would jump

14:58

out and preach at you. And then, you know,

15:00

you'd get a little bit of fire in brimstone

15:03

as you went down the the big fall

15:05

and found out what was on the other side if

15:07

you didn't accept the gospel.

15:10

The commissioners were intrigued. And

15:12

they gotta say, so am I?

15:15

He said, look, just make sure that hell

15:17

part is on the North Carolina side of

15:19

the line and not South Carolina.

15:24

As for the huge tower, Well,

15:27

that building would hold thirty floors of time

15:29

shared, a new opportunity for

15:31

PTO members to buy it to Heritage USA.

15:35

But that's not all a gym had been cooking up in

15:37

the last few months. They

15:39

were already working on a five hundred room

15:41

hotel addition that would open in the spring.

15:44

And Jim had just broken ground on a

15:46

hundred million dollar replica of the

15:48

Crystal Palace in London, which

15:50

was a huge glass in steel exhibition

15:52

center. Only gyms would be

15:54

the world's largest church. It

15:57

would hold thirty thousand people with

15:59

a five thousand seat TV

16:00

studio. The hotel

16:02

itself was three or four stories tall

16:05

and It wasn't

16:07

until years later, I went to Opryland

16:10

in Nashville, Tennessee, and I could

16:13

kinda see where he came up with the

16:15

idea, the blueprint. Because

16:17

it's very much like that. It's like an indoor

16:19

mall and the ceiling would have clouds

16:22

that would go across it and, you

16:24

know, fancy stores and

16:26

coffee shops, and it was

16:28

all very nice. He

16:30

also envisioned championship golf course

16:33

and the county commissioners were ready

16:36

to sign off on it all. The

16:38

Crexendo really wasn't about nineteen eighty

16:40

six, when the tower

16:42

was under construction. But

16:45

almost immediately, there were problems.

16:47

The PTL was passed due on over five

16:49

million dollars in broadcasting fees.

16:52

To make up the cost, the ministry

16:54

laid off scores of workers. There

16:56

were pay freezes, and they cut

16:58

the staff's health benefits. The

17:00

PTL had also pulled out of a few land

17:03

purchases, and then

17:05

There were the lifetime partnerships. Those

17:09

one thousand dollar donations that bought

17:11

you a few nights a year at the whole tail.

17:14

Well

17:17

We had heard some rumblings that well,

17:20

they were already sold out. But

17:23

he continued to sell. But everyone's like, yeah,

17:25

that's not a good thing. And people won't be able to

17:27

come in and everybody will get

17:29

frustrated and that kind of

17:31

thing.

17:32

Followers send over a hundred and fifty eight

17:34

million dollars to become lifetime members.

17:36

That means one hundred

17:39

and fifty eight thousand people were planning

17:41

to stay in about five hundred

17:43

rooms. But Mark says that

17:46

even then, it didn't really damage people's

17:48

perception of the ministry. Look,

17:50

if I can't stay there every night, every

17:52

year for three nights that's okay because the we

17:55

trust Jim and Tammy in the ministry and

17:57

what they're doing. There were a lot of good

17:59

people who came and

18:02

absolutely

18:03

wanted to be part of it and would probably

18:05

do it again if given the opportunity.

18:08

At its height, the

18:10

park drew six point one million people.

18:13

Around the same time, the ministry also

18:15

took in a hundred and twenty five million

18:17

dollars in revenue, almost

18:19

all in contributions from viewers.

18:22

And then in nineteen eighty seven,

18:25

the lead investigator reporter at the Charlotte

18:27

Observer, Charles Shepherd, received

18:29

a phone call. A

18:32

woman told him that something had happened

18:34

between her and Jim Baker years ago.

18:37

The woman, Jessica Hahn, said

18:40

that while she was working as one of the church's

18:42

secretaries in nineteen eighty, she

18:44

had been flown to Clearwater Florida to watch

18:46

a telephone taping. Back

18:49

at the hotel, Jim showed

18:51

up at her room wearing a bathing suit

18:53

and asked Jessica for a back rub. Jessica

18:56

said that she was sexually assaulted by

18:58

Jim and another pastor John Wesley

19:00

Fletcher that day. Eventually,

19:03

the whole story came out. A few

19:05

days after the encounter, Jim called

19:07

her at home and asked her to promise that she wouldn't

19:09

talk about what

19:10

happened. His team offered her two

19:12

hundred and sixty five thousand dollars

19:14

to

19:14

ensure her silence. Now there's no other

19:16

way to put it. It was a bombshell. The

19:18

story completely shocked the evangelical community.

19:22

Jim accused Jessica of seducing him,

19:24

and people continued to scrutinize her

19:26

story. Jessica even went

19:28

on the Gerardo Rivera show alongside

19:31

her attacker John Wesley Fletcher.

19:34

The man's denials and accusations seemed

19:37

to placate their

19:38

followers, but

19:40

it was the bribe that really pissed people

19:42

off. The problem from

19:44

the fiscal side of things

19:47

wasn't necessarily that,

19:49

you know, he he he cheated

19:51

on his wife and had a one night stand.

19:53

The problem was This was ministry

19:56

money to the tune I believe

19:58

of about two hundred thousand dollars being paid

20:00

to a woman essentially as hush money.

20:03

And that's where the problem was. You're raising

20:05

this money to do what and you're actually

20:08

using it for

20:08

that? Pretty quick other

20:11

accusations came out in the press that

20:13

Baker had an affair with the male preacher

20:16

attempted to coerce aids to provide

20:18

physical favors, and asked colleagues

20:20

to help him arrange sexual encounters with

20:22

young

20:22

men.

20:23

There were many other rumors that circulated.

20:29

Once the news about bribing Jessica Hahn

20:32

came out, people started to question other

20:34

parts of Baker's finances.

20:36

Jim started looking to his community of celebrity

20:38

preachers to help figure out what to do

20:40

next.

20:41

When things were going down about G and

20:43

M and his relationship with just Kahan

20:46

and other indiscretion financially

20:50

with Heritage USA. When

20:52

that was coming to light, Jim

20:54

had called in his friend, Jerry Falwell.

20:57

He was minister at Virginia

20:59

Beach, had a school down there.

21:01

I think Jim looked up to him

21:04

and trusted him. And

21:06

that's why he went to him

21:09

for help. As

21:13

things heated up. Jim reached out

21:15

to his friend in Christ, Jerry Fallwell,

21:17

a popular televangelist. And

21:20

if Fallwell doesn't mean anything to you,

21:22

He's the one who came up with the name and political

21:25

organization, the moral majority, and

21:28

he has his own Baptist University. Fawell

21:31

is less flashy than Baker, but the

21:33

two men were longtime friends and

21:35

rivals. But

21:36

he trusted Jerry and confided

21:39

in him and said, basically,

21:41

can you

21:42

look over the ministry while we get

21:44

through this tough time?

21:47

But that's not what happened. Find

21:50

out more after the break.

21:54

This episode is brought to you by Amazon

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for a happy price. Alright. See

23:00

you. I'm off to Miami. No.

23:02

Actually, wow. Look at that. No. I I'm going to Hawaii

23:05

now. Oh. Cancun looks nice.

23:07

You know what? Belize looks pretty

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nice this time of year. Or Mhmm. Palm

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Springs. Happy

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days. For happy

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surprise. Go to your

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happy prize. Price line.

23:25

I can always remember in March of

23:27

nineteen eighty seven being in the newsroom and

23:30

We start getting phone calls from people saying,

23:32

hey, we hear Jerry Falwell has

23:35

taken over PTL.

23:38

We've heard Jerry Fawaz buying PTL

23:41

from Jim Baker. We heard

23:43

various explanations, but it was

23:45

about three or four in the afternoon. And

23:48

by five o'clock, news time,

23:50

we had confirmed that in fact, Jim

23:53

and Tammy had left. We're

23:55

in some place unknown

23:57

at the time. And that

23:59

Jerry Falwell and his ministry up

24:02

in Lynchburg, Virginia were taking over

24:05

on a temporary basis at least

24:07

the operation of Heritage USA,

24:10

and more importantly, the PTL broadcast.

24:14

And that was, like, unbelievable.

24:17

Jerry Fawell hadn't just offered Jim

24:19

advice. It was announced that Fawell

24:22

would take over the entire one hundred and seventy

24:24

two million dollar operation while things

24:26

got sorted out. Quickly,

24:29

Fallwell appointed an entirely new board

24:31

to the ministry, stacked with bachelors

24:33

like him. The

24:35

ministry then defrocked Jim and his

24:37

second in command. Rumors

24:39

started circulating that foul will had

24:41

misled Jim and Tammy about

24:43

what he plan to do with the

24:44

ministry, something the Baptist preacher

24:47

denied. I really believe that

24:49

Jim thought Jerry Farwell would

24:51

come in hold his coffee

24:53

for a

24:53

while, and then Jim would come back and take

24:56

it back. So once Jerry

24:58

Falwell came in the

25:00

morale just declined.

25:03

The staff became disillusioned.

25:06

It was not then

25:08

a fun place to work. Beth

25:11

says as Jerry Faulkull took over.

25:13

At first, it seemed like it might be temporary.

25:17

But pretty quickly, the

25:19

tone shifted. Jerry

25:21

thought it'd be best for the bankers to leave the

25:23

ministry, and he wanted to know

25:25

what they need to make that happen. Jerry

25:28

said he wanted. I need a list of

25:30

the things that you want, you

25:32

know, see if we can

25:34

do that for you.

25:37

The bakers made an extensive list.

25:39

And Jim and Tammy were like, this is just a starting

25:41

place. Ask for the world, here's what

25:44

we'd like, and then Jerry

25:46

Falwell turns it and says This

25:48

is

25:48

her

25:49

let her head card from the desk

25:51

of Tammy Baker. On the

25:53

back, wrote that Jerry Jim and Tammy

25:55

gave me this list of things they'd like to receive.

25:58

Jerry called a news conference and in a room

26:00

packed with staff and journalists, he

26:03

read a list of requests from the bakers, and

26:05

it was clear that they were looking to

26:07

be

26:08

blessed. Big time.

26:11

Hospitalization insurance, gym

26:13

salary for lifetime at three hundred

26:15

thousand dollars. Tam is salary for lifetime

26:18

one hundred thousand dollars annually. Rights

26:20

to books and records, stock

26:23

that is left, books and records secretary

26:26

for one year phone bill for one year house

26:28

on the lake and the furniture in it.

26:30

Two cars. I don't see any repentance

26:32

there. I really don't. I don't see

26:34

any concern for the welfare of this minister in

26:37

that kind of request. I

26:39

see the greed, I see the

26:41

self centeredness, I see

26:43

the avarice

26:44

that brought them down.

26:46

To beth, it felt like a power play.

26:49

And that was stunning to me

26:51

how he could

26:53

just I don't know the legalities of

26:56

all that. But once they got rid of

26:58

Jim's board and brought on Jerry's

27:00

board,

27:01

Later that day, Jim and Tammy

27:04

went on night line. As Ted

27:06

Koppel laid out the charges, the

27:08

couple seemed unable to address the

27:10

accusations. I don't know if you ever

27:12

have a positive down for the minutes again. I

27:14

never know another say have a positive. We're always

27:16

playing catch

27:17

up. I do not recognize these

27:19

figures. They're not correct. They're many incorrect

27:21

figures being given out. It was

27:23

the most watched night line ever

27:26

at the time. This is that train

27:28

wreck reality show we can't take our

27:30

eyes off

27:31

of, and nobody did at the time. It

27:33

was it was pretty huge. Less

27:36

than a month later, Jerry Falwell

27:38

announced that the US justice department,

27:41

the IRS, and the postal service

27:43

were all launching a criminal investigation

27:46

into the baker's handling of the ministry. Fallwell

27:49

hired an outside auditor to do their

27:51

own audit as well. The

27:53

end result was shocking. PTO

27:56

auditors found that the ministry owed

27:59

fourteen hundred creditors over sixty

28:01

million dollars. The

28:03

PTO network and Heritage USA

28:06

ran on donations from members, and

28:08

an incredible amount of that money seemed

28:10

to have disappeared or never wound

28:12

up with its intended project. In

28:15

the previous few years, the PTO

28:17

club had raised over a hundred million

28:19

dollars by selling timeshare partnerships

28:22

on their shows. They told

28:24

viewers that the real estate was a smart investment.

28:27

But only a fraction of that money went

28:29

into constructing the Time shares. As

28:32

a matter of fact, it came out that

28:34

around nine thousand seven hundred of these

28:36

timeshare partners had not

28:38

bought a stay in a luxury hotel, but

28:41

the right to stay in a single bunkhouse

28:43

with forty eight beds to a room.

28:47

Sounds like a holy hostel to me.

28:50

And it wasn't just misappropriating the funds.

28:52

It seemed like Tammy and Jim were infating

28:54

their own salaries and bonuses. Auditors

28:58

found that the couple had paid themselves millions

29:00

of dollars. Including multiple bonuses

29:03

that the board did not remember approving.

29:06

In the first three months of nineteen eighty seven

29:08

just

29:08

before resigning, the bakers pocketed

29:10

over a half a million dollar. IRS,

29:13

of course, had to do the the feds had to do

29:15

their own investigation. And and what

29:17

they found was

29:19

We was hiding in plain sight. The

29:21

IRS technically stripped the ministry

29:24

of his tax exempt status a couple years

29:26

prior. But never enforced the

29:28

chains. Now though,

29:30

a federal court was ready to get involved.

29:35

In August, a twenty three member

29:37

grand jury began investigating the PTO.

29:40

It took sixteen months, but Jim

29:42

Baker was indicted on eight counts of mail

29:44

fraud fifteen counts of wire

29:47

fraud, and one count of conspiracy

29:50

for overselling lifetime partnerships to

29:52

Heritage USA and misappropriating the

29:54

fund. When federal marshals

29:57

arrived at his lawyer's office, Baker

30:00

called under the couch to

30:01

hide. Yeah.

30:04

That's not gonna work. And

30:07

throughout all of this, both Heritage

30:09

USA and PTO Club

30:11

were struggling. Jerry Falwell was

30:13

a good and devout and very

30:16

convincing Christian, but he wasn't Jim

30:18

and Tammy. And that cultive

30:21

personality that surrounded Jim

30:23

and Tammy was gone. As

30:25

part of the bankruptcy proceeding, the

30:27

judge presented a reorganization plan

30:30

that would allow for the bankers to return

30:32

to PTO. Fall well,

30:34

his board and the cohost of the PTO

30:36

Club all resigned in protest.

30:39

Things just started kinda

30:42

closing down, I guess. People

30:45

weren't coming out to the theme park, weren't

30:48

a good attendance on the live

30:51

shows that they would do.

30:54

It just it kinda became a

30:56

ghost town.

30:57

The court sold off the properties in order to

30:59

pay creditors. And by the end of nineteen

31:02

eighty eight, the PTO network had

31:04

gone off air. After

31:06

a five week trial, the judge found

31:08

Jim guilty on all twenty four counts.

31:11

He was sentenced to forty five years in federal

31:13

prison in order to pay a five hundred

31:15

thousand dollar fine. The sentence

31:18

was reduced to eight years on appeal. Tell

31:20

me, Faye, she faced no

31:22

charges. But even as Jim

31:24

headed to jail, his followers stood

31:26

by him. You don't have people who

31:29

are really angry at Jim and Dammit. Not

31:32

many. They trusted Jim Baker and it's

31:34

very hard to turn back and say,

31:36

you know, I was wrong. Jim was wrong,

31:38

and I was wrong. Two wrote

31:40

book called I was wrong after he got out

31:42

of prison. And if you read the book,

31:45

it was really I was wrong, but and

31:48

most of it's the but An

31:51

explanation or excuse or

31:53

rationalization. In the end,

31:55

you either admit you're wrong or you're dumb. And

31:57

I think many people sort of still

32:00

don't want to admit that Jim was wrong.

32:05

In nineteen ninety two, Tammy

32:07

Faye filed for divorce. And soon after

32:10

married a contractor, she'd gotten to know

32:12

while he was working on Heritage USA.

32:15

Her new husband also eventually faced criminal

32:17

charges for his involvement with the resort.

32:19

Jim served five years of his

32:21

sentence. Married his second wife,

32:23

a youth minister, and moved to Branson,

32:26

Missouri. A few years

32:28

later, he restarted the PTO network

32:30

with his signature show. The new

32:32

Jim Baker show does have something

32:34

in common with his predecessor. There's

32:36

plenty of donation requests, but

32:39

Jim isn't preaching the prosperity gospel

32:41

anymore. Instead, his

32:44

teachings focus around prepping for the

32:46

apocalypse. So is

32:48

now the Jim Baker show with

32:50

the prophetic end of times news.

32:52

He's even built a new Christian community,

32:55

Morningside USA, This

32:57

time is nestled deep in the Ozark

32:59

mountains. There's cabin in condo

33:01

rentals, a state of the art television studio

33:04

where people can come and learn from preachers

33:06

and prophets.

33:08

It's just so hard to trust a

33:10

lot of the televangelists now.

33:13

They say one thing and do with another, and that's

33:15

frustrating. I

33:17

think it's human nature for

33:20

people to seek out community. And

33:23

if you grow up in a place like

33:25

the bible belt, then church

33:27

is probably one of

33:29

the places where community exists

33:32

in a very strong weight. But

33:35

someone has an idea. What

33:37

if we create a Disney World

33:39

for Christians? That way,

33:42

like minded individuals, like

33:45

me, my family, my friends that

33:47

go to church, we have a safe place to go.

33:50

Not to mention, this place

33:52

was founded by someone

33:54

that I trust, by someone

33:56

who has the trust of millions of other

33:59

Christian I I wanna

34:01

support that. I wanna contribute to that.

34:03

I wanna make this thing happen. And

34:06

by contributing to it, I'm also

34:08

getting blessed financially because

34:11

I see and hear what this

34:13

pastor is telling me and I believe

34:15

it. Hey

34:34

folks. Thanks for listening. Just

34:36

a reminder to follow cheap wherever you get

34:38

it. And please do leave a rating and

34:40

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34:45

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you can subscribe to Cheek plus. It's

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two ninety nine