Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 397 - Jim Bakker: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of an American Grifter

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Jim Bakker, and his wife, Tammy Faye, revolutionized tele-evangelism in the 1970s and 1980s. Their PTL Club, was, at it's height, pulling in millions a WEEK in donations to support their cause. But their cause was a lie. Jim was not who he claimed to be, and financial and sexual improprieties would send him to prison... before he got out and started running his scam all over again. Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VhHZaIOtbm8Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious Private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch-related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard? Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast.Sign up through Patreon, and for $5 a month, you get access to the entire Secret Suck catalog (295 episodes) PLUS the entire catalog of Timesuck, AD FREE. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. And you get the download link for my secret standup album, Feel the Heat.

Does God want you to have nice stuff? Not just nice stuff, but the most luxurious things the world has to offer. Does he want you to skip both coach and first class and fly on private jets to own not just your home, but multiple vacation homes and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on just your wardrobe? Jim Baker thought so. Or at least that's what he preached to he and Tammy Faye's many, many faithful followers. As the founders and leaders of the PTL Club, a Christian television show that ran from 1974 to 1989, the PTL supposedly standing for Praise the Lord, though that's since been disputed, Jim and Tammy Faye embodied this religious message.

Their television show and the broadcasting company that supported it was a mashup of evangelical religion and American pop culture. During its run, the show had illustrious and incredibly diverse guests like Colonel Sanders, Little Richard, former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, Watergate figure Chuck Colson, Apollo astronaut James Irwin, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flint, showing up in back-to-back weeks here, Maria Von Trapp of The Sound of Music fame, singer Pat Boone, and many others. They showed their viewers that religion didn't have to be the stuff of fire and brimstone.

It could be fun. It could involve singing and dancing, puppet shows, plays, costumes, and more. Jim and Tammy Faye were entertainers first, evangelists second, from the very beginning. They had long been members of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God's domination. In the 1960s, they joined evangelist and media mogul Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, where their puppet show for children made them an instant hit. Then in 1966, Jim Baker became the host of the 700 Club, a religious talk program that evolved out of a telethon.

The 700 Club would become the flagship program of CBN. When disputes with Pat Robertson forced the Bakers out, they started their own show, the PTL Club, which was launched in a small studio at WRET TV in November of 1974. The show expanded to a few other stations early the next year, and then shit blew up. It felt so much more than Christian entertainment. It felt to many like magic. When Jim and Tammy and their guests prayed, viewers reached out their hands towards their TV sets and prayed along with them at home.

For many, PTL felt more relevant than their local church. They watched the show to learn the true meaning of the scriptures and the condition of the church around the world, but also they tuned in for candid discussions about sex, marriage, parenting, substance abuse, diet and exercise, and dealing with depression and other psychological problems. The show became so incredibly popular and viewers sent in so much money that the bakers expanded their growing empire by building their very own Christian theme park, Heritage USA. Among Heritage USA's most popular recreational

attractions was the 13 million dollar water park, its signature ride, the 163 foot long typhoon, propelled swimmers up to 30 miles an hour before they plunged into the pool at the bottom. The water park also featured a football-sized wave pool and a sand beach with 1,400 pieces of beach furniture. It was incredible. A testament to their explosive popularity and the devotion of those who followed their teachings. For PTL's business partners, the dizzying pace of activity and growth only seemed to confirm that God was indeed on their side. But their empire was about to fall. Heritage USA was costing more money than

the television network could support. So Jim developed what seemed like the perfect plan originally to save it. In exchange for a contribution of $1,000. Lifetime partners would receive four days and three nights of free lodging at the Heritage Grand Hotel every year for the rest of their lives. That move brought in millions. This new partnership program also funded a wave of construction that continually pushed the ministry beyond its means. Despite appearances, PTL was nearly

always broke as Jim relentlessly, maniacally drew up more and more and more plans for newer buildings, bigger buildings, more facilities, more initiatives. Despite PTL's continuous money problems, the Bakers never appeared to be anywhere close to broke personally They were living the high life a high life funded by viewer donations a high life They did not hide from their supporters They got their followers to believe that God wanted them to be filthy rich He wanted you to be rich too and to get rich all you had to do was donate to PTL Give to the bakers and you will be blessed with even more riches in return. Makes sense? Made sense to the hundreds of thousands if not millions of their most devoted

followers who truly placed blind faith in the bakers claims. But it didn't make sense to any financial advisors. Donating your way to personal riches is not a tried and true wealth accumulation plan. It's a good way to go broke though. This scheme also didn't make sense to the prosecutors who would charge Jim Baker with 24 counts of financial crimes and send him to prison. I hope you find today's story as fascinating as I do. This week we wade into the confusing, perhaps hypocritical, very much Jesus loves me and if you're poor, he might love you less. Waters of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and the rise and fall of PTL and the rise again of Jim Baker, unfortunately a little bit later today on Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're Happy Monday and welcome to the cult of the curious.

I'm Dan Cummins, Succinator 5000, Winamucca Mobboss Jimmy Joe's all-white sandwiches protester. The world's leading Richard Bird biographer. That one's very true and you are definitely listening to Time Suck. Hail Nimrod, Hail Lucifina, praise B to good boy Bojangles and glory B to triple M. No announcements this week either. But I will say sharing some fun Dick Bird updates for the first time at the end of this episode. Don't let them spoil the Las Vegas Strip Strangler episode if you haven't heard it yet. You'll be really upset with yourself if you do. And now for our topic today, which touches on so many different topics. Religion, sex,

money, corruption. All of these themes would play big roles in the story of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. How they built an evangelical broadcasting empire, then a theme park, then watched it all crumble due to years of money mismanagement. Money mismanagement, that's putting it very lightly. Scamming the fuck out of their congregation would be more accurate. Almost the entire time Jim and Tammy Faye were preaching their gospel of Jesus and love, they were using money donated to PTL to fund an incredibly and increasingly lavish lifestyle. And while that may have squared with their prosperity gospel message, we'll get into exactly what that means today, one thing that did not align with the values they preached

was the sex scandal that came to light when news of a payoff made to a young woman who Jim Baker sexually assaulted hit the presses. And that news would lead to so many other very credible accusations of sexual impropriety. Jim Baker would have an epic fall from grace, one that many other evangelicals were all too happy to watch. They loved watching Jim and Tammy Faye fail. The world of televangelism in the 70s and 80s was definitely a world of Machiavellian power grabs. A game of thrones like fight to see who could bring in the most congregants,

who could raise the most money, who could live in the most luxury. All based around talking about Jesus Christ, the humble carpenter from Nazareth, who had forsaken a life of materialism, lived a life of simple and impoverished service. A man who was without a doubt much more of a communist than he ever was a capitalist. Let's dig in. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were for a time evangelical America's biggest celebrities. America has had so many evangelical celebrities and for so long, long before TV could put them in your living room. In late 1700s George Whitefield was a famous evangelist of

the Great Awakening. Talks about the Great Awakening. In many ways he became colonial America's first celebrity, delivering dramatic sermons outdoors to tens of thousands of people at a time when America's largest cities numbered fewer than 40,000 people. George was a rock star, a rock star who would have undoubtedly hated rock and roll, but a rock star nonetheless. The events he took part in were about entertainment, community, and excitement as much as they were about faith. In the 19th century, camp meetings pioneered by the Methodists invited the faithful to bring their wagons and tents sometimes by the thousands gathering festive atmosphere for preaching, worship, prayer, and fellowship. The theatrical nature of camp meetings with their nighttime preaching under the somber glow of torches,

accompanied by the shrieks and groans of seekers added to their appeal. And I get the appeal. Compared to life today, in many ways, 19th century America was boring as fuck. Much more fun to hang out with a bunch of people having weird supernatural experiences than to work on a farm, staring at the same field day after day, talking to the same handful of people

about the same shit over dinner night after night, seeing the same small smattering of neighbors once a week at church, week after week, month after month, year after year. A big theatrical gathering was an early Christian business model that Jim and Tammy would expand on by creating their very own Christian theme park Heritage USA. Then as 20th century consumer culture and entertainment took off, religious entertainment took off with it. People who combined religion with mass entertainment became bona fide celebrities like Billy Sunday, a former professional baseball player who traveled the country

and is widely considered the most influential preacher of the first two decades of the 20th century. Over the course of his career, which reached its height in pre-World War I years, Sunday preached to more than 100 million people, allegedly converting more than a million of them. And a lot of that was through the radio. If you're like, how the hell did he get to all those people? Sunday's career would also end in scandal and tragedy. His children rebelled against his strict teachings and hush money, sexual scandal, payoffs and suicide

would stay in his final years. Like Billy Sunday, Amy Semple McPherson preached intense early in her career before moving to Los Angeles and building a megachurch, Angela's Temple. It is still there in Echo Park, a beautiful building. In 1924 she started her own radio station, a technologically advanced 500 watt facility that cost $25,000, an equivalent would cost millions today. With few stations to compete against at the time, her broadcast could be heard for thousands of miles.

Which brings up an interesting point. For all that, evangelicals are theologically conservative, usually believing in strong gender roles, the Bible is the literal word of God, and so on, they've actually been on the cutting edge of communication technology for years. Very progressive in that respect. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's use of television was part of a long line of innovation, a heritage that dared religious entrepreneurs to think big. Preachers like Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and Katherine Kuhlman

pioneered religious broadcasting in the 1950s and 1960s. But their programs mostly looked like a church service. You know, classroom lecture, concepts developed before cameras were a consideration. On the other hand, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker envisioned a new formula, Better Student for Television, initially modeled after this night show with Johnny Carson. Before going further, I feel compelled to add that two of the four evangelists I just mentioned were involved in significant scandals. Oral Roberts claimed in 1983 that Jesus commissioned him personally to cure cancer, just cure it for everybody. He then opened up a hospital in Tulsa by

telling his followers that unless he quickly raised eight million dollars, God was gonna call him home. Right? Just send him money or he's gonna die. Just a wee bit manipulative. His hospital would close in less than 10 years and he would be sued for millions for making a lot of bogus medical claims. He also announced in the 80s that he could literally raise the debt. As in he had done that. He didn't. And he used millions in parishioner money to buy Beverly Hills mansion and many other luxuries. And I could go on and on he was a blatant grifter.

Catherine Coleman also a grifter another phony faith healer who paved the way for future phonies like Benny Hinn. She claimed to heal thousands and thousands of people during her long career. Some skeptics have looked into these old claims. None of them can confirm a single case of anyone actually being healed by her because she was not a healer. She was a fraud. One woman who said to have been cured of spinal cancer threw away her brace, ran across the stage at Coleman's command, and then her spine collapsed the next day and she died soon thereafter. Some miracle. She was also sued by a personal administrator and two former associates for taking Prischner's money and using it to buy herself luxurious gifts, over a million dollars in jewelry, and over another million dollars in fine art, and this is over 60, 70 years ago.

Jim Baker came from a long line of evangelical tech innovators and also a long line of people bilking the faithful out of their hard-earned dollars. Jim Baker pioneered the Christian talk show format in the 1960s and early 1970s, first with Pat Robertson at the Christian Broadcasting Network, CBN, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and then Paul Kraut to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, TBN, in Southern California. He was grimy, but he wasn't stupid. It wasn't a slouch. Finally, at PTL, Jim and Tammy created their own unique style, often doing two hours or more of live unscripted television a day in

front of a studio audience. They were grinders! That's a lot of production. A lot of pre-production hours I'm sure went into each and every hour of their live shows. Viewers came to believe that they were a part of PTL's mission and the drama of Jim and Tammy's personal life. The Bakers became their friends. PtL became their extended family. PtL's second innovation under Jim Baker was the satellite network launched in 1978. ESPN didn't begin satellite transmission until late 1979, more than a year after PtL. How crazy is this? Only HBO and Ted Turner station in Atlanta beat PTL into space. The PTL satellite network beamed Christian programming into millions of homes 24 hours a day,

allowing PTL to create a range of its own programming and sell airtime to other ministries. And of course, aggressively fundraise from their own viewers to the tune of tens of millions of donation dollars. from their own viewers to the tune of tens of millions of donation dollars. With a lot of that donated money, Jim and Tammy Faye bought expensive houses, luxurious cars, undertook state-of-the-art home renovations, chartered private jets. So how do they square all that with their conservative religious audience? How do they still come off as evangelicals while flaunting flashy jewelry, vacation homes, every luxury the world has to offer. They said, as I mentioned earlier, that God wanted them

to have it. They preached the prosperity gospel. And what is that? Well, the prosperity gospel is an umbrella term for a group of ideas. It's going to vary a little bit from denomination to denomination. Increasingly popular amongst charismatic preachers in the evangelical tradition of recent decades. And it equates Christian faith with material and particularly financial success. Basically, if you're poor, it's probably because you're just not as good of a Christian as the faithful live in that gated community across town. This reminds me of the late not-so-great Gwen Shamblin's belief, remember her from the remnant fellowship cult? That God loves his skinny congregants the most, more than the huskier members of his flock.

If you're fat and poor, ho ho, shit! He should probably stop praying altogether. I mean, why bother? God is for sure not listening to you. Now, he's busy answering the prayers prayers that ripped an affluent fitness influencer, living in a mansion you'll never even get to visit. What prayers that influencer even need answered? You might be wondering.

Well, you know, they've been frustrated. They've been really wanting to hit 5 million subscribers for like a year now, but they plateaued at 4 million. And that's, it's not fair. It's not fair. They're super ripped. They work so hard They invested in the best cameras and lighting kits and offer the most wonderful health advice for the world and they're just they're just sick of the devil

Keeping them from healing, you know more souls and stuff and buying Lamborghinis and also with another million followers Their annual income will finally hit eight figures now be so fucking sick Amen Anyway, the teachings of the prosperity gospel have some roots in the glorification of the Protestant work ethic. Written in 1905, Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism traced what he saw as the specifically Protestant approach to labor as integral to the development of capitalism and industrialization. Lofty claims.

In Weber's historical analysis, Protestant Calvinists, who generally believe in the idea of predestination, or that God has chosen some people to be saved and others to be damned, felt the need to justify their own sense of themselves as the saves, the saved. So they developed this idea that money was a good indication that you were saved. That the more money you made, the more it was clear, you know, it was a clear sign that God loved you. What a wonderful thing for the wealthy and the heartless to believe. Don't feel sorry for those poor, Alfred.

If God cares not for them, why should we? They must have done something to deserve this dreadful fate. Now give daddy a kiss and go pick out a new pony to bring home and amuse yourself with. The modern development of the prosperity gospel can be traced to the development of charismatic Pentecostal churches in America, churches that Jim and Tammy would grow up in. An umbrella term for a massive decentralized group of churches comprising over 700 denominations, Pentecostal churches are characterized by an emphasis on what is known as spiritual gifts. If you were a good enough Christian you might 100 denominations, Pentecostal churches are characterized by an emphasis on what is known

as spiritual gifts. If you were a good enough Christian, you might experience, for example, the gift of healing or may suddenly start speaking in tongues. If you haven't seen anyone speak in tongues in person, I highly recommend it. That shit's wild. My grandfather on my dad's side, Bill Cummins, was in Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal minister for most of his life. And his wife, my grandma Carol, oh, she loved to speak in tongues. God loved her a lot. And she also loved to interpret other people speaking in tongues. And also to be,

I think she would call it being taken with the spirit, where she would just speak in English, but she would claim that Jesus or the Holy Ghost was speaking through her, and they would share messages directly from God. Messages that would interrupt, you know, other pastor's sermons after my grandpa retired and they didn't seem real amused by it. It was, uh, it was something. Definitely not super embarrassing. God, he just, uh, you know, he loved using my grandma's bicycle, spread his word. Not that he was taking it for spins or jumping off ramps or riding down into ditches or whatnot. I don't think that their relationship was sexual, but it was definitely passionate. Anyway, this tradition of worship meant that for a believer, the idea is that God manifests

himself to the faithful in concrete, miraculous ways in the here and now, like through making sure that you have a lot of money. Throughout the 20th century, proponents of this particularly American blend of theology envision God as a kind of a banker, dispensing money to the deserving with Jesus as some kind of a you know business executive working for him. A real 1-800 business guy if you remember that incredible sponsor that we had a while back. Do you like business? Does Jesus love your business? What would Jesus do? He'd make so much money with business. 1-800-BUSINESS, give us a call.

So much business. There's profit, interest, tithing, investments, wealth, 401k tax-exempt donations. Oh, God's business, buy a yacht for Jesus. A Greek revival mansion on a double lot for Jesus. Jesus hates a civic, Jesus loves a Lexus. Holy, holy business, holy profits. Business, heaven has a CEO. His first name is Jesus and his last name is business. One eight hundred, business, salvation, business.

Profits are from heaven and losses are the devil. It is business. You know, you get it. Just a lot of business. I'm done. Central to the prosperity gospel is the idea of tithing or giving money to the church, ideally one's first fruits or initial earnings. This money many prosperity gospel preachers have promised is

an investment. By showing faith, parishioners can have a hundred-fold return on their investment, which is way fucking better than the stock market, by the way. A reference to a verse in the gospel of Mark about those who suffer for Christ receiving a hundredfold what they have lost. And that message very, very manipulated by this prosperity message. Oh yeah, Mark the Evangelist, disciple of St. Peter, big, big capitalist, big affluence, awesome guy. Jim Baker would tell his followers that people who donated to PTL saw their own incomes rise in the following years. He would also write checks for debts with money he didn't have and say that God miraculously put money in his bank account even though there was a much more much more reasonable explanation. He was just writing bad checks. He was letting checks bounce. But he would never say that to his audience. Instead he'd say stuff like, this is a quote,

don't pray, Lord, your will be done when you are praying for health or wealth. You already know it is God's will for you to have those things. When you want a new car, just claim it. Pray specifically. Tell God what kind you want and be sure to specify what options and what color you want too. Literally what he was telling people. 100%. 100%. Literally what he was telling people. 100%. 100%. That all those kids who died of starvation in the Middle East and Africa and India and elsewhere, well, Jim was preaching that message. If only they could have heard, received Jim's truth. They probably just weren't being specific enough. That's why a lot of these kids die.

They're not being specific enough when they pray to like, they pray to get some food, any food, so they just won't die. Why do they die? Well, A, they sucked from birth, not predestined to go to heaven, just slid right out of their loser mom's loser puss, right into the fuck that kid pile, and then B, they're too stupid to even bother learning how to pray right. Please God, please don't let my sister and mother die. Please give us enough food to live my Lord.

Idiot! They should have been praying like, Please God, please give us big juicy organic free range chicken breast sauteed in a non-stick pan sprayed with Pam Canola oil and also mashed potatoes oh Lord. Five pounds of Idaho Russets peeled and boiled in a large pot with a bit of sea salt sprinkled in then mashed up with two sticks of organic butter cup and a half of whole milk seasoned salt and pepper god and some organic carrots two pounds chopped up and boiled in another pot of water oh lord until they are soft enough to easily chew and digest amen

fucking boom not starving anymore uh Jim and Tammy to their credit, they did practice what they preached. By the mid-1980s, they enjoyed a lifestyle of conspicuous extravagance. They used PTL money to buy a 10,000-square-foot home near Heritage USA, a condo on the Florida coast, and vacation homes in Palm Springs, California and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. They traveled with an entourage, flew first- class or chartered, very expensive private jets, bought numerous luxury cars, boats, expensive clothes, showed off their wealth in their nouveau riche style. From 1984 to 1987, the bakers total compensation from PTO was $4.7 million. Adjusting for inflation is more like $15 million now. The desire to experience all that consumer culture had to offer was a powerful link between the

bakers and their audience. And their message of the prosperity gospel has endured. Back in 2006, New York Times poll found that 31% of American Christians espouse the idea that if you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money. Full 61% agreed with the more general idea that God wants people to be prosperous. But for Jim and Tammy, it wasn't God providing. It was donations. The donations made to PTL, donations often given to them by people with far smaller net worths than they had,

by people calling prayer lines because they had some terminal fucking disease, by people desperate for prosperity because they were going bankrupt and losing everything. Jim Baker, maybe not Tammy actually, was not a good godly shepherd guiding his flock. He was a fucking lion eating the sheep that gave him his opulent empire. Thankfully that empire would all come crumbling down if only another one would not have been built up in its ashes. Eager to dig into all of this right after today's first of two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thanks for sticking around. If you don't want to hear these ads, get the entire catalog ad

free and more by signing up to be a Spaces or on Patreon for five bucks a month. And now, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's weird-ass timeline. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marchin' down a time-suck timeline. January 2, 1940. Jim Baker. Jimmy Jimmy! Born in Muskegon, Michigan. Small city of about 30,000, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Only a 40 minute drive from downtown Grand Rapids. A popular vacation spot now. There's much more blue collar

when Michigan's automotive industry was rocking back in 1940. His parents are Raleigh Baker and Fernia Lynette Baker, known as Fern, maiden name of Irwin. His father Raleigh would work as a machinist in the sealed power corporation's piston ring plant for almost 50 years. That company designed and manufactured original equipment components for Detroit's largest car company starting in 1912 and quickly earned a reputation for quality products serving the rapidly developing automotive industry. Raleigh was a true company man, 50 years. Jim was born premature and left in the hospital in an incubator after his mom went home and then his foot got burned on the incubator, lengthening his stay at the hospital.

Too bad it didn't burn his fucking face off and kill him! When he finally came home, his parents thought Jim was so fragile that they rarely let him play with his siblings or other children. Although his father always had a steady job and made a decent living, Jim grew up thinking that they lived in poverty. Or at least that was the narrative he would later preach because he was full of shit. Wasn't true. Like many Americans in the post-World War II economic boom, they were actually moving from middle class to upper middle class, way upper. Their first house on Sanford Street in Muskegon Heights was made of cement block painted orange.

Kind of like a mid-century modern. They later moved to a house in a more fashionable neighborhood when Jim was about 15, moved into a former lumber era mansion on Webster Avenue. Beautiful home with a beautiful player piano, real impoverished. Also his dad Raleigh liked to drive in style. He preferred Cadillacs, which he would buy, you know, slightly used. When TVs first became popular in the mid-50s, Raleigh bought one over the objections of his more Pentecostal wife. Raleigh didn't think desiring luxuries like a TV were gonna send him to hell, like his wife apparently worried about. Some of Jim's spiritual development was fueled by his grandma, Ermilda Irwin.

He'd often spend hours at her house throughout the week. To him, she was a model of the proper follower, ideal follower of Jesus. He even put a huge portrait of her in his heritage village decades later. His parents also regularly attended church. Baker's grandpa, Joe Baker, had been one of the original organizers of the large Central Assembly of God church in Muskegon where the family attended. Excuse me, Jim was a stern and bitter man who was hard on his wife and kids. Jim was not a big fan of his grandpa. When he was young, his grandpa's church didn't give him a lot of comfort.

As a kid, he was terrified by a three-foot tall picture of a human eye hung on the wall of his Sunday school room as he and other children sang, his eye is watching you. Yeah, that's creepy. Nah, that's creepy. Let's him feeling watched and judged constantly. Like any mistake, it send him to hell. Soon he started skipping church. At Central Assembly, the young people sat in an addition

off the main sanctuary out of sight from their parents. During service, Jim and his buddies, including his cousin George and Sandy Tires, would regularly sneak out of back door, go across the street to a drug store that had a soda fountain. At the soda fountain, they would listen to music by like Fats Domino, careful to slip back into church before the service ended. Jim soon

had another reason to not like his grandfather's church. It was there where he met a pedophile who he will later claim would frequently molest him for years. As he would tell it in his post-prison autobiography when Baker was about 11, a young man from his church, who was in his late 20s or early 30s approached him one Sunday night after church Asked him if he would like to go to a drive-in for a hamburger after the eighth the man drove to the edge of town Then kept going drove down a deserted dirt road finally stopped The man assured Jim that everything was okay as he unzipped Jim's jeans and began to fondle him Afterwards this man was a frequent figure in Jim's life driving Jim to isolated areas and construction sites to continually molest him.

Jim wrote in 1996, I allowed Russell to do whatever he wanted to do to me, and I tried to comply with his request because he lavished attention and carrying touches on me. I do wonder, again, if this is true, I have a hard time trusting this proven liar, how much this shaped who Jim became. How different would he've turned out if this would have never happened? hard time trusting this proven liar, how much this shaped who Jim became.

How different would he have turned out if this would have never happened? Maybe Russell had something to do with Jim struggling in school as well, or maybe Jim just wasn't a great student. He was a slow learner, as his teachers put it. Jim eventually had to repeat his senior year before he could graduate. However, while never academically gifted, he did find some success in high school. He joined the photography club and the school newspaper, eventually becoming an editor. Using his tape recorder, he DJ'd at a photography club dance, discovered he liked it, and began

spinning records for other clubs' dances. He was also good at organizing events. That skill will serve him very well later on. Jim was so good at organizing that in the fall of 1956, he directed a 15-act vaudeville-style variety show as a fundraiser for the school newspaper. Headlining the show which took place on December 20th was Marlene Knucken who performed a Miss Elvis Presley act she had recently performed on Steve Allen's Tonight Show on NBC. There were pantomimes, singing, a piano solo, a French

horn quartet, a mambo combo, a German comic band, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, a comic reading, and Charleston dancers. The show sold out and was so popular it became an annual event. Jim would direct the show for the next two years. After the shows, 400 kids or up to 400 would come to Jim's house, the old lumber mansion on Webster Avenue for a party. 400 kids fit in the impoverished home of Jim Baker. By the end of high school, Jim had become a real popular kid, even if he did have to repeat senior year. Maybe that helped him become popular. He had more time to work on his social life in school. He finally had a passion for directing and performing, and

he even went out on a lot of double dates with his cousin George. But he still wanted to get out of his little industrial town. Backing up a bit to meet his future PTL cohort. Two years after Jim was born, Jim's future wife, Tammy Fay, was born, March 7, 1942. Her birth name was Tamara Fay Lavallee, and she was born in International Falls, Minnesota, to Pentecostal preachers, Rachel Minney and Carl Oliver Lavallee, who had married the year before 1941. Her upbringing could not have been more different than Jim's. She actually was impoverished. She grew up in a house without indoor plumbing that friends would describe as squalid. She was

the oldest to eight kids, two born before her parents divorced when she was about three, and six born after her mother remarried. Their house had three tiny bedrooms upstairs, one downstairs, a small living room connected to a dining room, and a kitchen with an outhouse in the back. An outhouse you'd have to brave the International Falls cold to use in the winter. And it gets damn cold in International Falls. It is the coldest city in the lower 48 states. Has an annual average temperature of 37.4 degrees Fahrenheit. The average low in January is negative 5 degrees. The record low? Negative 55.

Fuck me. Imagine walking out to an unheated outhouse to use a bathroom at negative 55 degrees. I would imagine your poop would freeze solid. Maybe even before it even left your body. And then would just shatter like glass when it hits more frozen poop below. You're welcome for that visual. The house was at least heated by an oil stove in the living room to give the kids a bath which typically happened on Saturday nights. Yeah, you got washed once a week. Tammy's mom would heat water on the stove and then pour it into a galvanized tub and then all

the kids would use the same bath water up to eight of them with the quote cleanest ones going first. Thinking too hard about being the eighth kid to get in that milky water actually makes me a bit nauseous. Imagine that just some of that water just getting in your mouth. While the kids bathed or stewed rather in their siblings filth juice, Tammy's mother would often make fudge and tune the radio to some Saturday night national barn dance broadcast. Listing on the radio to people dancing.

Uh, okay. Tammy and her family lived in a gritty working class neighborhood. Most of the men worked either at the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company mill or the fiber board factory. Sounds like a desolate place. A lot of women also worked at the mill or stayed at home with their children. While some homes did have indoor plumbing and appliances,

many others relied on outhouses, wood heat, and old fashioned ice boxes. Many men and women had drinking problems. Sex work, not uncommon. For the first year, a few years of her life, Tammy was essentially an unpaid babysitter and part-time mother. Well, I mean, probably past the age of like three or four.

I doubt she was a toddler watching kids. But she watched her siblings and other neighborhood kids. She made the most of it. With a friend, she got the younger kids to build a small library at one point and organized a reading club with assignments to read a certain number of books during the week, which is actually super sweet and adorable. Tammy, as you will see, often comes across as sweet and adorable. Very, very different than Jim. But for all this community, there was still one kind of community that Tammy longed to be a bigger part of in International Falls,

but she was largely excluded from it, and that was the local church. The local strict Pentecostal church viewed divorce as highly immoral. And when Tammy was very young, the church shunned Tammy's mom for getting divorced. Despite her family giving more than they could really afford to give to the church, pitching into church activities, the church still refused to let Tammy play the piano or even to kneel and pray at the altar, which was considered a sacred space. She had to pray at her pew instead. And sometimes the pastor and the pastor's wife would come over and berate Tammy's mother in front of Tammy, a bunch of self-righteous assholes. So for a few years, instead of attending her mother's church,

Tammy went to the Mission Covenant Church with her aunt, Virginia Fairchild. Auntie Jen became her second mom, giving Tammy the attention her own mom wouldn't or couldn't. Aunt Jen made her dresses, permed her hair, took her out to eat. Later when Tammy was 15, she even got Tammy her first job at Woolworth, where Aunt Jen would work for 44 years. When she was around 10 years old, Tammy returned to her mom's Pentecostal church, where she experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoken tongues at a Tuesday night prayer meeting, bringing her more fully into the Pentecostal fold. Then the church became more welcoming to her mom. By high school, Tammy grew to become popular both church and school. Two summers in a row she was elected Queen at Bible Camp. At

school she sang in the choir, got a part in the play Oklahoma. Starring in Oklahoma was also the first time she ever wore makeup. She occasionally experimented with a little eye makeup after that, but never, never wore lipstick again. Until she was married. Having been told that putting on lipstick before marriage could easily get one's soul sent down to hell. Wow, just putting on lipstick outside of marriage. That can get a gal sent to hell. What about sucking dick? That must definitely get you sent to hell. Like whether or not you have lipstick on when you do it.

Good thing young Tammy was careful. You got to protect that bike at all costs. Let no man outside of marriage ride it. And don't doll it up. Don't put tassels on the handlebars. Don't put a basket in front. Keep it plain and simple. Keep it humble.

In high school, Tammy also enrolled in a vocational program, which students went to school in the morning and then worked various jobs in the afternoon. Her business, her job being of course, being at Woolworth. And this Woolworth, for anyone listening in Australia or New Zealand, not connected to your Woolworths. In the States, these five and dime stores ran from 1879 to 1997. They were kind of like OG Dollar Trees or Dollar Generals. Let's check back in with Jim Dogg now. In the summer of 1959, Jimmy decides to attend North Central University, a Minneapolis Bible

college affiliated with the Assemblies of God. He feels ready. He should be ready. He's had two senior years to fully prepare. North Central Bible Institute, as it was originally called, opened on October 1st, 1930, which is 26 students, under the guidance of the North Central Bible Institute, as it was originally called, opened on October 1st, 1930, which is 26 students, under the guidance of the North Central District of the Assemblies of God Church. Name changed to North Central Bible College in April of 1957, two years before Jimmy arrived. So why did he go to a Bible college if he wasn't that religious growing up? Well, he recently became very religious. The turning point in his religious life, according

to Jim, was when he ran over three-year-old Jimmy Summerfield during the fall of 1958, the first semester of his second senior year. Jimmy would tell this story in a lot of his sermons. You know, he'd talk about how he skipped church services, you know, and he skipped again on this snowy Sunday night. He said he was driving his dad's 52 Cadillac with the girl he liked in the seat next to him, listening to devilish rock and roll on the radio. And then Satan got him! He felt a bump. The boy had slid down a snowbank in front of the car. The front tire rolled over his chest, crushed his collarbone, and punctured a lung. And Jim thought he killed Jimmy. He made a deal with God that if the boy lived,

he'd give his life to serving the Lord. Well, miraculously, the boy survived without any permanent injuries. He said that for the rest of his senior year, he wrote, Jesus became the only thing in my life. I knew I couldn't control my own destiny anymore. My future was entirely in the hands of God." The miracle of Summerville's recovery is what led him to attend North Central University. And that's a great story, but it's bullshit. Investigative journalists with the Chicago Tribune did some digging. Found out that Jimmy did hit Little Jimmy back in 1956, two years earlier, and no one would remember Baker suddenly becoming very religious after that experience.

He embellished his story quite a bit for a theatrical effect. At North Central, Jim became involved in the same kind of activities. He'd excelled at in high school. By his second year, he was co-editor of the school newspaper, The Northern Light. That November, Jim also acted in a school missionary play entitled The Return of Chandra. The plot revolves around a young man from India who comes to America to study medicine, becomes disillusioned with Christianity, but then of course returns to the church at the end. He also began attending an independent Pentecostal church, the Minneapolis Evangelistic Auditorium, MEA,

run by a husband and wife team of Assemblies of God preachers Russell and Fern Olson. A second Fern this week. It's not a name you hear very often. It would be here at the MEA that Jimmy Jam would be baptized and start speaking in tongues, cementing at least to him his dedication to God. And now Jim wants a wife to do what Fern and Russell were doing together, to preach and travel the world. And Tammy Faye is just about to enter his life. Toward the end of high school, Tammy had begun dating the preacher's son from her mother's church, Stanley Kramer. Oh, Stan! What are the odds? He was at least fingering the shit out of Tammy's bike!

Tammy never mentioned that for some reason. After graduation, these two got engaged, but Stanley said he didn't want Tammy to go to college with him at North Central because college, well, it's for men. Submit, Tammy! God damn it! First you put on lipstick for that play, now this. Are you trying to burn in hell? Tammy decided to enroll at North Central Bible College anyway. But once there, the two broke up. Then she met Jim Baker, old Jimmy Jam, Slim Jim, Jim-a-ling ding-a-ling. The two had a lot in common. Both grew up very poor. No, JK, only she did. Both grew up in Midwestern Pentecostal churches. Both felt for reasons never entirely explained, alienated from their families, and both loved the theater or at least the stage.

On their first date, they went to a Wednesday night meeting at the Minneapolis Evangelistic Auditorium, where Jim served as the youth director. They made a good couple even appearance-wise. Tammy just 4 foot 10 inches. Baker 5 foot 4. They went out the next night and the next and then on their third date Jim asked Tammy to marry him probably after they definitely at least did some fingering and she said yes. Over a long weekend in February of 1961 Jim and Tammy now visit Jim's family. Tammy was awed by the Baker home. It had two bathrooms, both indoors. No one's turds ever froze. Incredible. It had big velvet drapes, appliances she'd never seen before like an actual washing machine. The two spoke to Jim's parents about marriage and his folks made it clear that they did not want them to get married.

At least not until Jim finished Bible college. Back at school, Jim and Tammy's grades now plummet. Why? Well, that's never explained. Might have something to do with them doing an insane amount of fingering. You don't know! You weren't there! They could have been doing so much fingering that Jim couldn't write papers because his fingers were constantly cramping up. And Tammy could barely stay awake due to orgasm induced exhaustion. Hail, Hail, Lucifana. I'm just guessing. Since North Central didn't permit students to marry during the school term, they either had to wait to drop out. Excuse me, they either had to wait or to drop out. So they're gonna drop out. On

April 1st, 1961, Jim and Tammy Fay leave college, get married, prepare to set off on the road and become traveling evangelists. To save up some money for their new plan, Tammy works as a sales clerk at another Woolworth. Jim buses tables at the Fountain Room at Young Quinlan, an upscale department store near North Central. Jim's boss, actually that building is still there too, very historical building. Jim's boss helped them rent a third floor walk-up apartment for 60 bucks a month. Russell Olson, Jim's pastor friend, marries them. Tammy wears a mint green dress with white gloves. Jim wears a bedazzled banana hammock and a leather

get mask. I have no idea what he wore. Shortly after their marriage, the couple visited Tammy's family in International Falls. Tammy's family's poverty was a surprise to Jim. Yeah, Jim, that is what poverty looks like. When Jim wanted to bath, Tammy brought him two tubs of water and not knowing any better, he sat down in one and put his feet in the other. Tammy later said she laughed until she cried and then explained that one was for washing and the other was for rinsing. That is pretty funny.

Back in Minneapolis, the Bakers now served as youth ministers at MEA, Russell Olson's church. In the fall of 1961, a very interesting evangelist speaks at MEA about his ministry in South America. Dr. Samuel Coldstone spoke about how he planned to buy a yacht, formerly owned by actor Errol Flynn. He was going to cruise up and down the Amazon River, preaching to the natives. Coldstone was smooth, engaging, and the church reportedly contributed thousands and thousands of dollars to his ministry. Do we all see where this is heading? The Bakers were so captivated that they decided to join Coldstone in South America. That meant raising enough money to pay for the trip.

When a preacher from Burlington, North Carolina, Aubrey Sarah held a revival at MEA. The Bakers confided their plan to him and impressed Sarah invited them to preach a revival at his church and collect offerings for their trip. The bakers planned to take the bus to North Carolina but Russell Olson, no, he bought him first class plane tickets. It's not prosperity. Then they were in for a culture shock. In their North Carolina ministry, Tammy sang and Jim preached but his initial sermons flopped. Instead of results, people streamed into the altar to give their lives to Jesus. The congregation only sat and stared blankly.

But then near the end of their two week trip, a young Presbyterian followed his girlfriend to the altar, spoke in tongues, fucking boom! Actually rolled across the floor, and then others followed. And this convinced Jim that he had what it takes to become a preacher. However, he would not be preaching in South America.

Dr. Coldstone was full of shit. He collected all that money and then just fucking poof just vanished. He was not an evangelist. Probably not a doctor. Just a grifter who knew that faith can make some, you know, a real easy mark if they're desperate enough to believe and not be careful. We've seen that play out in just about every cult episode I've ever recorded. With nowhere else to go, the Bakers now decided to hit the road as traveling evangelists in a used Plymouth Valiant. For six months, they preached across North Carolina, sometimes getting paid as little as 30 bucks total for a week or two of meetings. One time they were paid with a live chicken, which instead of eating, Tammy kept as a pet, feeding it apples and breadcrumbs. And

that is, again, pretty adorable, Tammy Faye. After thirdly canvassing North Carolina, they kept their traveling show going for years, driving as far as Alaska with their preaching. Tammy's mother had taught her to play the piano and during their travels, she learned to play the organ and the accordion as well. She's also a great singer. She actually really was. After a couple years, they got tired of sleeping in musty churches and taking sponge baths

in the church kitchen or staying in the homes of pastors who would complain about how much hot water they used. So they bought a 28-foot holiday Rambler trailer to tow behind their 59 Cadillac they were now driving. When the hitch on the trailer broke, sending it careening into a utility pole and wrecking it entirely, the manufacturer replaced it for free. Proof that they were on the right path. Then they came up with the idea that would help make them big. A puppet show. Oh my, this is fantastic!

I would have loved to have been one of their puppets, ooh-hoo! I would have let Jimmy Diggaling stick his teeny little tiny man hands up my backside all he wanted. Whee! Get out of here, Woody! You're drunk again! Yeah, you're right. Bye! Sorry about that. I hadn't expected one of the suck versus oldest and most irritating characters show up this week He's a puppet if you're very confused right now The bakers really did put together a puppet show makes me very happy to think about it

Jim and Tammy wanted to broaden their audience not only engaging the adults that came to their meetings, but the kids too They made the puppets from the caps of bubble bath bottles which is adorable. They were shaped like animal heads creating a Susie Moppet and her family. Soon they added Allie Alligator. Tammy worked the puppets behind a small set using different voices while Jim stood out in the front playing the straight man and this show is a hit and it would get the attention of Mr. Pat Robertson. 1965 Jim and Tammy Faye Baker began working. Pat Robertson. In 1965, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker began working at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. Pat Robertson, huge

name in evangelical circles. You might know him because of his political aspirations. In the 1980s, Pat Robertson became increasingly involved in politics and subsequently resigned as minister in order to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. His campaign focused on conservative issues, notably opposing abortion and supporting school prayer. Beloved by many, he also said a lot of things many found infuriating and quite upsetting. Like the comments he made following the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, when he and fellow evangelist Jerry Falwell agreed on a broadcast the 700 Club that the tragedy was caused by the immoral practices of abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, and the ACLU. Yeah, okay. Then again in 2010

he would claim that the devastating earthquake in Haiti that January was divine retribution for a pact with the devil made in the late 18th century by enslaved black people seeking freedom, seeking liberation from French rule. What a character. What a man of God. But before that, he was a broadcaster and probably not that great of a boss. Pat Robertson, born Marion Gordon Robertson, grew up in 1930s Virginia and would go on to found the Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960.

Robertson, born into a political family, his father, Absalom Willis Robertson, served in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate. Pat also, seemed like he was on the secular path for a while. He served in the Marine Corps, then got a law degree in 1955 from Yale. But then he underwent a religious conversion, enrolled at the New York Theological Seminary, graduated in 1959, and became an ordained Southern Baptist minister in 1961. The year before he was ordained in 1960, Robertson started the country's first Christian television station in Portsmouth, Virginia, buying a defunct UHF station and began building it into CBN. When Jim and Tammy Fay arrived on the

scene premiering their puppet show in September of 1965, CBN was still real small. I'm talking an audience in the low thousands. But when they started doing their puppet show called Come On Over, CBN's growth skyrocketed. The name was eventually changed to the Jim and Tammy show to capitalize on the Baker's growing popularity. The set which became more elaborate over time, featured the front of a house complete with a little porch, front door, and picture window. Kids waited up to four weeks to get tickets and zippy the mailbox, a fixture on the program, sometimes we get 5,000 letters in a single week. That is some lightening in a bottle. The Bakers ad-libbed the

show, a pattern that continued for more than two decades of doing live television, giving the show a spontaneous and goofy feel. John Gilman, a director at CBN, did the voice of Zippy. Gilman and the show's crew staged pranks without telling the Bakers, like spring-loading Zippy so that the mail would shoot out at Jim when he opened it on air, or rigging Zippy to roll across the set when Jim approached. Once during mail time, as Jim and Tammy stood next to Zippy reading letters, Tammy gave a hint to the mothers who were watching. After buying bars of soap, they should take them home and unwrap them so that the soap would dry out and last twice as long, Tammy said. And it makes your clothes smell good if you like to put it in your drawers, Tammy added. Everyone in the studio laughed as Tammy looked around bewildered until she figured out why.

Spent the rest of the show giggling about how she just talked about underwear on a on a church show Tammy added. Everyone in the studio laughed as Tammy looked around bewildered until she figured out why. Spent the rest of the show giggling about how she had just talked about underwear on a church show. Heavens to Betsy! Ah, crazy times. The show was a little risque for evangelicals, showing a side of marriage that was less than perfectly harmonious. Sometimes the bakers continued off air arguments during the show, with Tammy using the puppets

voices to say whatever was on her mind. Suzy Moppet was the one who got mad at Jim while Allie Alligator acted as the peacemaker. They talked about a lot of interesting things. Talked about like prosperity stuff. Really kind of got going with that on their puppet show. I found some early footage of the puppet show on YouTube. Check out this little clip I found. Sing along with Suie Marpen! I'm gonna let it shine, cause I'm rich and God loves me the most All around the neighborhood, I'm gonna let it shine I live in a rich neighborhood, I'm gonna let it shine

My house is the biggest house, I'm gonna let it shine My rich house, cause God loves me the most poor people are going to hell they're not gonna shine poor people are going to hell they're not gonna shine poor people are going to hell. They're not gonna shine. They're gonna burn cuz they're poor and stupid and ugly Yeah, that's uh, that's that was that was me obviously not doing a good job Seeing I didn't know what putt muppet voice I was gonna do till I started but how great would that be if That was a shit. They actually sung Since I've already popped us out of how great would that be if that was the shit they actually sung? Since I've already popped us out of this narrative with that ridiculous shit.

Time for the second of our two mid-show sponsor breaks. And I'm back. Return to the fall of 1965 for more of Jim and Tammy Faye's puppetry, and I don't think I'm gonna be doing that voice anymore. The show made the Bakers local celebrities. Soon they were appearing to shopping malls and other events with their puppet cast. Over 200 children jammed into CBN's small building for a Halloween show in 1965 while their parents waited outside. The show had its own fan club with more than 3,000 members by 1967. Tammy mailed out dozens of membership certificates each week with Jesus Loves Me rings. Later she sent out decoders so the kids could decode secret messages Suzy Moppet would read

over the air and that is actually pretty awesome. Meanwhile, Jim was proven that he had a real knack for fundraising. The 1964 telethon, just before the Bakers arrived at CBN, raised about $40,000. 1965 telethon set a goal of $120,000. Very ambitious. And as the week wore on, it looked like they were not going to make it. And what was supposed to be the last night, they were still $40,000 behind. But then Jim Baker broke down, began sobbing on air.

He said, our entire purpose has been to serve the Lord Jesus Christ through radio and television. But we're falling far short. We need $10,000 a month and we'll be off the air. Listen people, it's all over. Everything's gone. Christian television will be no more. The only Christian television station is gone unless you provide us with the money to operate." That's actually what he said. It seems a little manipulative. But the guilt trip worked. Jim was supposed to get off the air by 11 p.m. but stayed on until 2 30 a.m. His calls continually jammed the lines. Callers not only made pledges, they also asked for prayer and got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, said Jim.

Phones were still ringing the next week. In the end, the 1965 telethon raised enough money to pay off all the station's debt and fund operations for the entire coming year. The 1966 telethon, equally successful, raised more than $150,000 over 10 days. So really more successful. Jim noticed that callers weren't just calling in with donations. They're also calling in for advice. So he got an idea. Why not have a late night call-in show like Johnny Carson?

Of course, this one would be different from the tonight show. This one will be all Christian. It wouldn't be filled with Johnny Carson's filth with his sick, dirty, disgusting, sexually new end of jokes. It wouldn't have lots of starlets, guests, showing all that filth skin. They wanted everyone in the studio to take a turn riding their dirty bikes off ramps. Jim's new show called The 700 Club. Yes, that's 700 Club.

The show became huge. Premiers in November of 1966, Jim hosted two or three nights a week while other preachers would pick up the remaining nights. With limited budget, Jim had to rely on local guests or the occasional celebrity preacher who happened to be passing through. The results were good, supernaturally good to some.

In late 1967, the Cameron Family Singers were performing when every single phone started to ring. The show continued until 5 a.m. The phones chimed in as people reported miracles and healings throughout the area. But then there was an internal dispute, a power struggle. Management wanted Jim and Tammy to develop another show to bridge the counterculture of the 1960s with CNB. Or CBN. Jim and Tammy, you know, didn't want to. They wanted to keep CBN 100% Christian and they wouldn't compromise. When the sound engineer brought a rock band into CBN studio to play Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, Jim Baker led a boycott along with the entire camera crew. Get out here!

Uh-uh! Not here, Dylan! Mm-mm! You take your Jewish Satan shit out of here! March 2nd, 1970. Actually, I can't remember if he's Jewish or not. The former puppeteers, sounds like something they might think.

The former puppeteers. The show is over now, unfortunately, but they expand their family. Tammy Faye gives birth to the couple's first child, Sue Sissy Baker, and the 700 Club continues to be a hit. However, by 1972, things at CBN are tense, more tense than ever, between the production crew, management, and bakers. In early 1972, CBN changes programming philosophy to attract a wider audience, according to a local newspaper story. They were soon airing reruns of proven network successes,

including the Dick Van Dyke show, Leave It to Beaver, the courtship of Eddie's father, Gilligan's Island, and the Bold Ones. Whoa! Bakers were losing their battle to keep CBN 100% Christian and they felt ignored by Robertson. I mean, did Robertson even watch Gilligan's Island? Hello? The skin-tight, revealing outfits that Ginger would wear on a regular basis? She was practically sin personified. A red-haired, long-legged, small-waisted, firm-tittied harlot taking straight to hell! Hail, Josephina. She was fucking hot as shit. Jim resigned in November of 1972. Same month, the Bakers formed a non-profit corporation, Trinity Broadcasting Systems, TBS. Very different than the TBS that's out there now, to house their now unaffiliated ministry. They sold their house in Portsmouth, bought another trailer, hit the

road again, traveling from station to station, stations that are broadcasts or former show, introducing their new show, holding telethons to help these stations raise money to air it. In Los Angeles they met Paul and Jan Crouch. Paul had been assistant pastor at Jim's church in Muskegon and was now the general manager of a Christian television station, Channel 30. Together they hatched a plan to rent and eventually buy an LA area station, Channel 46 under TBS. this was approved to operate in California in June of 1973. The plan was for Crouch to run the business, Baker to handle the production.

As you'll soon see, this did not go exactly as planned. Initially, the Bakers and Crouches got along fantastically, as Tammy later put it. Tammy and Jen were particularly close, but Jim and Paul had a more strained relationship. Jim's inability to share authority soon began to rub Paul Crouch and his backers the wrong way, particularly the pastor of Santa Ana's First Assembly of God Church, which had given TBS a lot of money. Even though they were Pentecostals, Crouch's supporters thought that Jim Baker's demeanor was too flamboyant for Christian television. And within just a few months, the partnership dissolves. By the end of November 1973, the Bakers once again unemployed and now they're broke. Fortunately, or actually maybe unfortunately, considering where this is all headed.

Supporters gave them money and food. Donations totaled more than 6,000 by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Jim created yet another new ministry, Dove Broadcasting Corporation, and he and Tammy schemed to launch another Christian television station in Southern California. Then in January of 1974, Jim and Tammy drove to Charlotte, North Carolina to conduct yet another telethon. The Charlotte group booked the Ovens Auditorium to kick off the fundraising effort. An enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,400 people welcomed the Bakers back there. I don't believe I've ever had as exciting a night as that, Baker told a reporter from the Charlotte News. "'The tumors and cancers just dropped off bodies that night as we prayed. It was as if God had said, how much clearer can I make it, Jim?

Stay here.'" Tumors and cancers? Dropping off bodies? Does he actually believe that bullshit? Or is he already straight up grifting? If it's not clear, I fucking hate faith healers who make these claims. And why? Because they get people literally killed. Their bullshit discourages people to seek conventional medical treatment and people die who would have otherwise lived had they sought proper treatment. If you want to add faith healing on top of more conventional

treatment, yeah, please do. Go for it. It certainly can't hurt. Maybe it can really help. I don't know. It's just that it's never been proven to help and I'm convinced that a lot of faith healers 100% know that they are scamming a very desperate scared and vulnerable population. If I was in charge, a lot of faith healers would end up finding out if their faith healing could save them from a fucking firing squad. Following this hit performance, Jim immediately called the crew he'd left behind in California, told them to drop everything and head to North Carolina. The California production crew arrived in Charlotte in early February 1974. Jim and Tammy gave broadcasts in another go, rent a studio. It was less of a studio, more of a warehouse. Initially they only had six employees. No sooner

were they on the air than the control of the ministry became an issue, just like at CBN and in California. As it happened in California and would happen again and, then the control of the ministry became an issue, just like at CBN and in California. As it happened in California and would happen again and again in the future of PTL, Jim bristled at any effort to control his spending. Jim didn't care about spending. He thought God would provide money, or at least that's what he said. Jim Baker would write in 1977, just as PTL was taking off, some people think you need plenty of money in the bank before you can begin to operate in faith.

I never have. Are you currently debating over taking a step of faith in the Lord or are you waiting until it looks safe to move? Remember, facts don't count when you have God's Word on the subject. Facts don't count. How many people took that advice and then had their lives ruined, soon finding themselves buried in crippling debt Yeah, things don't always just work out by January of 1975 The ministry was pulling in more than a hundred and forty thousand dollars a month, but their managers were alarmed at how much Jim was spending

Despite concerns on October 30th, 1975 builders for PTL break ground on a 54,000 square foot studio called the International Counting and Broadcast Center. The new facility cost three million dollars to build compared to the $1,800 a month PTL had paid to rent the warehouse. 1870. Baker named the new complex Heritage Village, built on the publicity surrounding the nation's bicentennial. The front of the broadcast center was modeled after the famous Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg built back in 1677. Baker's new studio had 9,000 square feet of floor space

with 208 theater style seats for the live audience, the cameras, recording equipment, audio, lighting, all state of the art, all primo stuff. Hidden inside the steeple was a massive broadcast antenna. And the big project would be finished in just 33 weeks. Pretty impressive. December 18th, 1975, Tammy Fay gives birth to their second child, a boy named Jamie Charles Baker.

By January of 1976, the Baker's new show had 60 or 70 employees, mostly young, energetic, captivated by the vision of broadcasting the gospel to the ends of the earth. And the show had a new name, the PTL Club. Praise the Lord. It was a smash hit. In the last years of the 70s, PTL's network of affiliate stations rapidly expanded. They created, as I mentioned earlier, a satellite network, purchased new properties, even launched additional overseas ministries in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The staff expanded from half a dozen in 1974 to 700 by the end of 1979, and the money poured in. By November of 1979, PTL's network had expanded

to 218 stations, most of which were not in the Bible Belt. They stretched from Bangor, Maine, to Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, to Bellingham, Washington, and everywhere in between. Texas led with 18 affiliates. California had 15 and Pennsylvania had 10. The network eventually included over 600 stations, more than 80% of them network affiliates of ABC, NBC, and CBS, the big three. And how do they get financing for this massive operation? From sponsors? From ads? No. for this massive operation from sponsors? From ads? No! From the faithful. From more telethons. Oh, Jimmy Jango's! Bread and butter. Baker and his staff initially relied on semi-annual telethons conducted at the affiliate stations to raise money. As the network expanded, Baker turned the traveling telethon hosting over to others. They created two telethon teams, sometimes adding a third which traveled from one affiliate to the next. Within a year the teams were traveling by air spending five to seven weeks on

the road before returning to Charlotte for a week or two then setting out again. Weekend telethons were a staple of the schedule. Often they arrived at the affiliate station on a Friday held the telethon from 1 p.m. to midnight on Saturday and again 4 p.m. to midnight on Sunday and packed up moved on and took that money. So many people called in. They were able to reach so many homes. So many people were watching live TV back then. Television defined American culture during the 1970s in a way it had never done before. Most of this was due to three major

networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, which saw the revenues increase from a billion to three billion over that decade. For some comparison in 1970, the cost of a 60 second ad on a primetime program ran about $60,000. By the end of the decade it was up to $200,000 and the success is you know going along with just a massive increase in the amount of people who are having TV in their homes as TVs get cheaper. Despite this success the networks hegemony was about to be tested by an alternative to broadcast television, the cable satellite network. Those who got in first had a significant advantage, early adopter benefit, and PTL was there from the start. PTL had several advantages as

it entered the cable market. Its growing staff of young people had a clear sense of why they were there and were willing to work long hours on the cheap. They thought of themselves more as missionaries than upwardly mobile professionals. They were not sophisticated, but they were bright, flexible, and didn't feel like they had to stick to the old modes of making television. Whatever worked, worked. And there was nothing quite like PTL for anyone to compete with.

The Daily Show was the centerpiece of PTL's programming through the 1970s, broadcast live and recorded on tape to be rebroadcast again and again, five days a week from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of a studio audience. By the end of the decade, PTL's audience would grow into the millions. Unlike other talk show hosts, including Johnny Carson, who worked from a carefully prepared script at questions and jokes, Jim never used a script and rarely pre-interviewed guests. Jim did two hours of live television a day, deciding on the spur of the moment what he and his guests were going to talk about and for how long. He would decide when the musical acts

would perform, sometimes what they would sing. People watching had never seen anything like it. Making so much on the fly could be nerve-racking for the production crew, but also exciting. People tuned in just to see what would happen next. Once when Jim and Tammy were hosting a show together, they brought a live camel onto the set they had just acquired for the ministry's dramatic productions. As they discussed how magnificent the camel was it proceeded to piss a healthy yellow stream all over the stage On another occasion Tammy did an entire show on a merry-go-round One of the cast threw up inside the dog costume he was wearing

In another show Jim beat the fucking shit out of Tammy for wearing a skirt that didn't fall below her knees. Slapped her around, then he grabbed a ping pong paddle, spanked her bare bottom in front of the studio audience, while screaming stuff like, I thought this is what you wanted! To show everyone what is mine! To show everyone my wife's, my property's sacred bits! Tammy bawled her eyes out while the audience laughed and cheered.

Great entertainment. One of their most popular and most memorable episodes. Kidding. No, it never got that dark. Not that I'm aware of. Celebrities who agreed to appear in increasing numbers as the viewing audience grew gave the show cultural weight. Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, who he sucked at the end of 2023, appeared on the show in December of 1979 dressed in his trademark white suit with a string bow tie, of course, and carrying a bucket of his fried chicken. Sanders, who was 89 at the time and hard of hearing, described how God had delivered him from the habit of cussing. Fantastic. Astronaut James Irwin also appeared on the show, describing his experience aboard Apollo 15 that led him to put Christ first in my life. his experience aboard Apollo 15 that led him to put Christ first in my life. 50,000 miles out in space, he said he sensed a deep change taking place inside of me as I felt the undeniable nearness

of God. I don't doubt that. Walking on the moon was a spiritual experience for Erwin, who later wrote, I can't imagine a holier place. Erwin was subsequently part of several expeditions to find Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, first in 1982. Eldridge Cleaver, another guest in the show, was famous for something a little less grand. A shootout with Oakland police in April of 1968, two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. As a Black Panther, Cleaver fled the country in November of 1968, first to Cuba, then Algeria and France. Tired of life as an exile, Cleaver returned to the US in 1975 to face trial

and became a born-again Christian while in jail in 1976. When Cleaver appeared on the PTL club shortly after publicity declaring his newfound faith, Jim Baker appealed to viewers for money to pay Cleaver's legal expenses. Little Richard appeared on the show in April of 1978. Like many musicians, Little Richard had begun singing in church. But unlike his evangelical hosts, he was gay with a huge sex drive. Little Richard, such an incredibly talented and equally confused soul. Guy struggled mightily with his sexuality, how to reconcile it with his faith. He was both flamboyant and faithful. Sometimes he was openly gay, other times he would renounce his homosexuality and say that God had cured him of it.

While touring for many years, he held legendary orgies, even by rock and roll standards. He liked to watch his girlfriend, stripper Lee Angel, have sex with other men while he masturbated. He would also have sex with these men, yet the morning after the wildest party imaginable, friends might find Richard reading the Bible, or wake up to find him quoting scripture. Richard opened his appearance on the PTO club with the stayed gospel song, It's No Secret What God Can Do. He refused to do any of his rock and roll hits. He said, that's dead. Let it stay dead. He'll go back to rock and roll soon after this. Instead, he wanted to talk about how God had delivered him from alcohol, drugs, and a gay

lifestyle. He would later return to all those things. Richard declared, any man that participates in homosexuality doesn't know Jesus. I don't care who he is. But then, I mean, he was mercurial. Like 30 seconds later, he had his tongue two inches deep in Jimmy Baker's butthole. And Jimmy was jerking off and begging male members of the studio audience to give that quote, good old down home bukkake special Another hit episode. You have to forgive me, I'm insane. The Baker's hit show showcased a crossroads of American life. An intersection, sorry, thinking about that fucking ridiculous scene I just threw out there, is an intersection where evangelicals and non-evangelicals could meet. This was new for Christian programming. Tammy Fay embodied this new direction. She was noted for her candid discussion of topics considered taboo amongst many of her evangelist peers ranging from penile implants to acceptance and compassion for

the LGBT LGBT. That's what they call it that time community. Good on her. Jim ended almost every show by looking directly into the camera smiling and saying, get the fuck out of it. Just give me your money. No, he said said God loves you. He really does May of 1977 the bakers after PTL had been broadcasting from the warehouse for just over a year They bought a three-story Georgian house on 25 acres located at 72 to 4 Park Road on Charlotte South Side The mansion formerly owned by millionaire contractor FN Thompson was modeled on the Carter Groves plantation house near Williamsburg, Virginia N. Thompson was modeled on the Carter Grove's plantation house near Williamsburg, Virginia. Carter's Grove. The owners sold the estate to PTL for $200,000 plus a letter stating they had donated $150,000 to PTL, presumably to reduce their taxes. But then PTL quickly outgrew even that mansion. By the end of 1977, some of PTL's 400 employees were already working off-site in

temporary rented facilities. In response, PTL now purchased a 1,200-acre wooded track straddling the North and South Carolina border to develop as the ministry's new massive headquarters. So much telethon dollars funding all of this. January 2, 1978, his birthday, Jimmy Baker broke ground on the first building of what he was now calling Heritage USA. When the ministry bought the land, most of the staff, including PTL's Senior Vice President Roger Flessing, initially sought his way to support the TV show, which had always relied on counselors working the phones to take prayer requests and contributions. Early on, the counselors used color-coded forms to keep track of calls.

A blue prayer form recorded what callers needed quote to be healed of or delivered from. And that is pretty gross. All of this entertainment and expansion being fueled by dollars from the sick and the desperate. The blue form listed 42 problems with a box next to each, everything from arthritis to hemorrhoids along with the line for other. Even though they were on the phone, counselors often prayed with their eyes closed while raising a hand over their head. Callers were urged to call back to report healings and other answers to their prayers. This would trigger a pink praise report on which counselors were instructed to explain healing in detail.

The final form was a salvation report for those who prayed with a counselor to be saved. This kind of real-time contact with callers was essential to PTL's ministry concept and fundraising, but syndicating the show made it more difficult to keep an adequate number of people on site to take calls day and night. In January of 1976, about a dozen people answered the phones while the show was on the air. But by June, the number of phone counselors had increased to about 30. By the end of the year, there were 60. In 1977, PTL received about 600 calls a day.

By late 1978, the number of phones on the set had increased to about 100. The answer to the need for more phone counters was a campground where people would be available at all hours. Instead of 100 phone lines, Heritage USA would accommodate 1,000. They would use all those phone lines. So many scared, sad people wanting God to fix what ailed them and thinking a phone call to PTL and a cash donation could accomplish that. And then PTL would keep expanding. As the ministry expanded, new construction now included recreational facilities. There was an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a sauna, hot tub,

and the basement of the ministry center at Heritage Village. By the late 70s, PTL's vision, or excuse me, version of the abundant life had evolved to include a holistic approach to physical, mental, and spiritual health that included diet, exercise, even sex. Jim and his guests did not shy away from frank discussions about sex. Among evangelicals, there was a new openness towards discussing the pleasures of sex by the late 70s, though they were quick to stress that this only applied to married couples. Larry Flint, the publisher of Hustler magazine, he would appear on the PTL Club. Did you know that the publisher of Hustler magazine was a born-again Christian for a while? Flint's conversion occurred aboard his jet on a flight to LA.

As they prayed, Flint had a visionary experience in which God appeared to him, he said, and he had a premonition of myself in a wheelchair. Weird to be talking about this, just after covering the guy who shot Larry Flint and put him in that wheelchair, Joseph Paul Franklin last week. For the next several months, the experience changed the direction of Flint's life. At the Hustler Christmas party in December of 1977, he announced he was starting a new profit sharing program for employees and a free daycare center so working parents could have lunch with their kids. Flint wrote in the March 1978 edition of the magazine, many of you have read that I've been born again. It's true.

Just know that we are working for God. I love, sorry, I just love that he actually did publish this in like a magazine with like, you know, somebody getting just aggressively fucked. Not that that's not with God, it's just not what you typically connect to, but he said, just know that we are working for God. We will try to do what God would approve of in our stories and pictures.

There's going to be less titty fucking, we're going to fuck more pussies. Less cum shots, more attempts at procreation. No, he didn't say that, but I feel like he could have. He said, my aim is to address my hustler readers in the language they understand best. Fucking anal. No, he said to answer many of their problems in dealing with deep-rooted religious convictions. On February 3rd, 1978, Flint flew to Charlotte aboard his four million dollar jet, formerly owned by Elvis Presley, which he was now calling God Force One. Flint and Jim taped a 50-minute interview, which ran as part of the PTO Club's regular broadcast,

Monday, February 6th. When Jim asked what it was meant to be born again, Flint replied, it means just that, but it means more than just becoming a new person. I've also set a new standard of morality for myself. I've obtained a higher level of consciousness and relationship with God. Jesus, Flint said, was a renegade rabbi with a police record. He was not a religious person. He had no religion. He had a philosophy of unconditional love. I actually do like that. Anytime I get mistreated, whether it's by a Christian or non-Christian, I just pray for them. And I think that this love, it's not just total love, but unconditional love. We have to be able to love our enemies, he would add. He actually would embody that later on, you know, he was not too hard on the guy

who shot him. All the evangelicals though, quick to criticize the Bakers for having Flint on the show. In response, Jim wrote to Flint, offering to give him the entire staff of PTL's action magazine to help turn Hustler, which had a circulation of two and a half million, into a new magazine for Jesus. But that wouldn't happen because people did not want to see, you know, nude kind of sex spreads featuring the Lord. That would happen for other reasons. Joseph Paul Franklin, white supremacist serial killer, shot Flint in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where he'd gone to face obscenity charges.

Shooting left him partially paralyzed, in a wheelchair, and in constant agonizing pain. He later wrote, I didn't have room for God in my pain-ravaged daily existence. Now he's no longer a Christian. I began to think that I wasn't particularly interested in the kind of God who would let people suffer as I was. Meanwhile, the bakers kept going and growing,

expanding to new markets, breaking down evangelical boundaries to include people who had formerly been left out of the conversation. Reverend Evelyn Carter Spencer, a black female preacher, was a frequent guest on the show beginning in the 1970s, served on PTL's board of directors beginning in 1985. PTL's relaxed attitude towards race often surprised reporters and outsiders who ventured onto the ministry's grounds. Appearing on the PTL club and similar shows was a boost for Black preachers, who were fighting to get in on the predominantly white-controlled televangelist circuit, but it was also an

expression of genuine shared beliefs. Like Evelyn Carter, Dr. James Johnson, the grandson of a slave and a former undersecretary of the Navy, became a member of PTL's board of directors. Dozens of Black singers and musicians performed on the PTL club. Black preachers, entertainers, and athletes or regular guests. In the late 1970s Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and their staff were using television in revolutionary ways attracting an audience in the millions. And if they had just stuck to the show maybe they wouldn't have faced all the trouble they had down the line. But they wouldn't.

By early 1978, excuse me, by early 1978, the network was spending about a million a month for airtime on 198 different affiliate stations and the duplication of tapes used to distribute the show. However, the same time revenue was about four million dollars a month. Four million a month in 1978. That's equivalent to just under 20 million today, which would be almost a quarter of a billion dollars a year in donations The television network easily turned to profit even after accounting for payroll facilities other related expenses But Jim Baker wanted more he was dreaming bigger

The 38 year old wanted to expand Heritage USA further and he wanted to do it real fast and his ambitions would put a tremendous Strain on ptls accounts that would end up bringing it all down. On the land alone, PTL spent about 1.5 million for that first 1,200 acres straddling the North South Carolina border. The cost of the first major project at Heritage USA, the total living center, TLC, which initially included plans for university, campground, and day school, was pegged at $100 million. That spring, the Bakers began taking weekend trips to Disney World, in part so that Jim could get ideas for developing Heritage USA as an amusement park. Eventually, Baker planned to add a hospital and a nursing home as well. In order to push construction along as quickly as possible,

Jim Baker looked for a loan for about $50 million. For a guy who was a slow learner in high school, who had to repeat his senior year, he's playing with a lot of big numbers right now. And his lack of education might end up revealing itself in the way those numbers will bury him later. PTL hired the same general contractor that had built the Heritage Village Complex, Laxton Construction Company, the oversee construction of the TLC. Laxton, excuse me. Construction began picking up steam in early March.

Also in March, Tammy launched her own show for women, the Tammy Faye Show, as Tammy put it. It will be a show for the average American woman. The woman who has to live on a budget. The woman whose children are following her around all day crying mommy. The woman who washes her own clothes and seldom gets that much long four trip

to the beauty parlor. The working woman, the mother, wife, chauffeur, maid and sometimes queen. The show will deal with the real world we live in, real problems and practical solutions. We will cook, sew, have fashion and makeup classes, decorate the house in a cake, do some canning, make homemade bread and ice cream, visit with moms and their kids. I gotta say, I think Tammy had a lot bigger brain than Jim did. I struggle with him, but I

get why she was so popular. I hear that and while it's obviously not something catered towards me, I get it. You know, like what she just said. Sounds like a very helpful show. Unlike Jim's show, there was almost nothing in the way of overt of overt religious content. Jim and Tammy Faye's business interests are now starting to kind of grow apart. A reflection of the two growing apart in their marriage. By the late 70s Tammy Faye is feeling shut out of a lot of PTL business decisions and starts putting more of her energy into her show and into recording and producing Christian records. She changes

her image as well. Within just a few years Tammy would dramatically transform her appearance. She would start wearing the heavy eyeliner and mascara with short puffy hair or a Dolly Parton wig that she'd become known for. Excuse me. By June of 1978, PTL, despite taking out the big $50 million loan, owed more than $2 million in unpaid construction costs. Baker pleaded with his TV audience now that he needed at least a million more by the end of the month to keep going.

Right? He's used to this grift. Right? You start crying, get emotional, and more money will come in. PTL not only ran up construction know, more money will come in. PTL not only ran up construction debt, it also fell behind in many of its other accounts as it struggled to pay for the massive building project. The network began to miss payments to affiliate stations now for airtime and to employees retirement funds. Also went back on promises to support missionary groups operating abroad. Money that's supposed to go to them is not going

to them now. As PTL slides into financial crisis, the board of directors meets June 20th, 1978. Those present include Jim Baker, Jim Moss, you never have too many Jims, Roger Flessing, James Johnny, but could also be Jimmy Johnson, former undersecretary for the Navy under Richard Nixon, A.T. Lyne, a local business owner, Forbes Barton, that sounds like a local business owner, Charlotte Surgeon, an attorney, Q. Harold Cavaniss, and Herb Moore, PTL's financial director. Jim Baker told the board that he planned to fire 60 employees that week and another 40 in two weeks. At the time, the ministry had 690 employees on the payroll. At that meeting, James Johnson brought up Baker's salary, which was $700 a week, and he felt it was way too low. In most organizations, the size of PTL Baker would be making $500,000 a year, Johnson argued.

Johnson made a motion to raise Baker's salary to $1,000 a week, retroactive to May 15, 1978. Flesing's second in the motion, and the board unanimously approved. Flesing and Moss also got raises to $600 a week. No one questioned the logic of firing 60 employees and giving executives a raise at the same time. After the firings, a number of former employees complained that they had been forced to work overtime without pay. Jim Baker was unapologetic. He took millions and millions from his scared and desperate followers on a regular basis, money he rationalized as God's will being done. Why should he have a problem with fucking over some employees? Now you can say that was God's will as well. And he did.

fucking over some employees. Now you can say that was God's will as well, and he did. The Lord spoke to me and advised me not to be slothful in business, he told a reporter. Meanwhile, Jim more passionate than ever about Heritage USA. He often stays up sketching new buildings until two or three in the morning. Then the next day he'll tape the show in the morning and spend the rest of the day out the site slogging through mud as he comes up with bigger and bigger projects. The 400 acre campground Fort Heritage, part of the original plan for Heritage USA, opens on July 4th, 1978, at first without electricity because PTL had yet to secure county and state approval to occupy most of the complex. Jim opens the campground by cutting a log instead of a ribbon.

At 25 feet tall, or excuse me, a 25 feet tall plastic moose stands next to the general store and a sign on the winding two-mile road leading to the campground reads speed checked by God Okay July 14th 1978 a few weeks after the June board meeting Jim Baker sends a memo to herb more herb herb more With the demand that you only pay me a $600 a week rather than the thousand the board approved in June. He wrote that PTL is in no financial condition to pay this additional increase in my salary and I therefore request that it be accrued on the books until such time that our cash flow is in a positive position.

Makes him look like a real nice guy, so humble, so self-sacrificing. But really, what does he care how much money his actual salary is? Because if he needs money, he just takes it. Three weeks after that memo, he used $6,000 of PTL's money for a down payment on his houseboat, a 43-foot drifter with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, TV, and a gas grill. Total price for the houseboat was $30,000. Very soon, everyone knows all about this. When news breaks of the purchase this same summer, as well as many other

questionable PTL expenses, coverage of the Baker's empire turns negative. That summer, Alan Cohen, a reporter at the Charlotte Observer, had teamed up with veteran reporter Frye Gallard to publish a series of articles reporting on PTL's troubled finances. Charlotte's other newspaper, The Charlotte News, also began printing a series of hard-hitting stories about the ministry, beginning in the summer of 1978. By that time, Jim Baker was using the emergency financial crisis to plead for more money from PTL supporters through its mailing list, which now consisted of more than 700,000 followers. Around that exact same time he was buying that houseboat, he was also pleading for money from fans of his ministry to cover the construction costs for Heritage USA. Give, give, give!

And they did. By early July contributions were running at an all-time high of 1.5 million a week. A week! And now PTL hired back 22 of the 60 employees that fired the month before. In September of 78, the Charlotte Observer reports that the ministry had four million in bills due immediately Too many of those who worked within the ministry. This was shocking right cuz they're getting all that income How the fuck are they owe so much between January 1st and May 31st? 1977 before purchasing the land for heritage USA PTL had taken in more than 8 million in contributions

But on May 31st, it only had less than six thousand dollars in cash And now with the bills for Heritage USA piling up, it once again owed far more than it was making. Jim now claims to have traced PTL's 4 million debt to a computer problem, which left up to 400,000 letters sent by contributors unanswered. In the middle of these financial problems, PTL's grade school manages to open September 6, 1978.

Twenty-one teachers will teach 250 to 300 students, most of them kids of PTL staffers. Delays in construction of TLC force classes to initially meet under shady trees, in trolley cars and in tents. This school project will be a disaster. It'll close down completely by 1980. Meanwhile, in late 1978, PTL's financial problems continue. November 3rd, PTL announces it will not be able to meet its payroll about 500 grand every two weeks for approximately 800 employees. The Charlotte Observer, they continue to report on them, they now

report that PTL is behind more than 6 million in current bills and has a debt that exceeds 1313 million. Man, this is just proof. It doesn't matter how much money you make. If you spend more than you make, you're going to have problems. Money problems can affect anyone, even the wealthy. The Observer reported that PTL owed the company that duplicated his tapes, Net Television of Ann Arbor, Michigan, more than a million dollars, jeopardizing its ability to distribute the show nationwide.

But there's some discrepancy here. Also reported that the ministry had been given a $195,000 house for the Bakers to live in rent-free. The 10-year-old 4,500 square foot home had four bedrooms, three and a half baths, a playroom, den, and two fireplaces. The November 14th article pointed out that at the time of the gift, PTO was six million behind in current debts. Not a good look. Just a few weeks later in December, Jim pledges that PTO is on its way to put his financial troubles behind. He announces that the ministry will begin 1979 by making a surprise payment of a million dollars to the contractor who stopped work on the

total living center when PTO fell $2.5 million behind in his payments previous summer. That's so fucked up. Their financial crisis was not over however and internal conflict was now divided the management team. By the end of 1978 PTL had about a dozen vice presidents in charge of various aspects of the ministry. Within just one year almost all of them would be gone. On top everything else plans for the university are unraveling. Heritage University had been the centerpiece of Jim Baker's plans for

the new complex from the very beginning. A university meant status and respectability. More importantly, it meant more opportunity for fundraising. It had opened in September of 1978 with 300 students in makeshift facilities, and just four months later, in January of 79, students were told they had to transfer if they wanted a degree. It's a fucking mess. Despite this, television promos aired at the end of the PTL club in the summer and fall of 1979 still offered prospective students internships in eight areas. TV production, broadcast technology, writing, graphic arts, performance, music, counseling, and missions. But there would never be more than a couple hundred students. Jim Baker celebrated his 39th birthday, January 2nd, 1979, by paying nearly $660,000 in overdue bills and promising financial conservatism for the Charlotte-based religious television ministry, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Now their debt was less than $2 million. Seemed like everything was looking up, but then suddenly it wasn't. January 18th, the Observer runs two feature articles by Alan Cohen and Frye Gallard accusing PTL of deception and fraud. Specifically, they claimed that PTL had diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars contributed for specific overseas mission programs, using the money to finance other projects and pay its bills at home. They noted that employees were allowed to write IOUs and borrow money from PTL donations, which is illegal. Employees also took collections home to be counted.

The ministry had 24 petty cash accounts, including one in Baker's office, which his wife Tammy used at times for personal expenses, which is also illegal. Jim Baker looking more and more like a scammer by the day. As bad as all of this is, legally, the more damaging information had to do with diverting contributions. Over the course of 18 months, beginning in the summer of 1977, PTL reportedly diverted $337,000 in donations that were earmarked for mission projects in Korea, Cyprus, and Brazil.

They never sent equipment for TV broadcasts to the countries, yet told viewers and contributors that's what they needed the money for. They'd scammed them. As the controversy over diverting funds unfolded, Jim consolidated his control over PTL. On February 14th of 79, he fired Executive Vice President and Board Member Jim Moss, and within weeks, PTL was sliding back into financial disarray. In a staff meeting on Wednesday, March 7th, Baker announced that he would now lay off as many as 200 employees, a quarter of the workforce.

Contributions had fallen dramatically following all this negative press. On March 14th, news broke that the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC baby, was launching an investigation into whether PTL had diverted approximately $337,000 raised for missions to pay other bills. This was a big charge. It's against FCC rules to raise money over the air for one purpose, then spend it on something, anything else. Jim responded to the FCC investigation by denouncing the lies propagated by the enemies of the ministry, including the media. I believe if we have forced off the air,

it will be the saddest day in the history of this nation, he said. Wow, the saddest, the saddest day in the history of the nation, sadder than December 7th, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Saturday, the day the Great Depression began with a stock market crash of October 24, 1929, Black Thursday. Saturday, even the D-Day, June 6, 1944, when over 2,500 American soldiers died in France fighting Nazis and over 6,000 more were wounded. It was so much Saturday, it was Saturday than all that combined, or it would be.

In a newsletter to supporters mailed out in 1979, Jim Baker compared the FCC to Hitler and Communist Russia. He said, they gain control because the good people, the Christians, don't take a stand. There are leaders in our country today that would want to bring all religion under government control and take everything that speaks of morality and decency off of television. He's such a slimeball. He's such a just classic grifter. Jim kept appealing to viewers to support him and sadly they did. From June to August of 1979, the network took in just over 8 million and more donations. That's so much fucking money.

Its immediate bills totaled nearly 6.5 million while its short-term assets, those that could be easily converted into cash, were slightly less than $2.2 million, not including uncollected pledges. PTL's total assets, including buildings and property, totaled more than $27 million. PTL went to court in July in an attempt to block the FCC investigation. The ministry's lawyer, John Midland, argued that the ministry had not committed fraud because it had a good reason to divert the funds US District Court Judge George Hart Jr. Literally laughed out loud in court at that statement Hart told Midland a bank robber might have a good reason to

So good the judge dismissed PTL suit in a proceeding that lasted only 45 minutes. I love a lot of the judges We've come across here lately love how they just cut through people's bullshit like get the fuck out of here and have the power of the law behind them. Jim Baker's testimony before the FCC began November 14th 1979. He'd appear several more times over the next seven months. Everything we have ever done at PTO we have never had the money in the bank. You can't measure faith in dollars and cents. I'm not a businessman. I'm a minister and faith is what motivates us, not fact," Jim told the FCC. That's an interesting explanation to a government official. Outside the hearings in front of his own cameras, Baker lashed out at the FCC. It seems like they're trying to trick me, he said on a segment aired on the PTO

club on Friday, November 16th. He had testified for six hours that day and now on air he broke down crying. I really think it's a witch hunt. It's a fishing expedition. We'll make it. If I don't, every broadcaster in every church that uses the media can then be destroyed through government regulation. Jim and the FCC are now at war. The ministry refused to comply with the November 21st, 1979 subpoena asserting that the information is protected by the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion. Also in the fall of 79 Jim and Tammy began co-hosting the PTL club in an effort to make Tammy feel more like a part of the ministry. Why? Because in the middle of all this their marriage continues to fall apart. Tammy is now spending much more time with their

record-breaking team. Jim rarely ever with his family. In the spring of 1980 they get two weeks of marriage counseling in a hospital in Palmdale, California. In an interview of November, in November of 1980, Tammy confesses that when construction began at Heritage USA in 1978, at first it was fun. But as the weeks began to turn into months with Jim gone all the time, overseeing every tree that was cut, every road that was put in. My enthusiasm began to sour. Would this never end? For Tammy Fay, she doesn't know it, but her pain just beginning.

December 6th, 1980, a young woman named Jessica Hahn flies from Long Island, New York to Tampa, Florida. John Wesley Fletcher, a minister she knew from her home church, purchased the ticket so that she could come to Florida and babysit Jim Baker's daughter, while Jim and Fletcher did a telethon for WCLF, a local Christian station. She was 21 years old, watched Jim every day on TV. He was her idol. After high school, Jessica

had become the full-time church secretary at her local church in Massapequa, counting the offerings, praying with people on the phone, doing the many small jobs that kept the church running. Her entire life revolved around church, so she was thrilled when Fletcher asked her to babysit for her idol no less. According to Jessica, when she arrived in Tampa in December 6, 1980, she thought it was odd that only Fletcher came to the airport to pick her up. He said it was because he wanted to talk to her alone. Jessica would later tell her story of what happened next at the hotel in great detail to Playboy. She'd actually

be a cover girl for Playboy and to reporter Art Harris, who would publish his story about this in Penthouse. That's when things started to sound weird, she said in the interview. Fletcher told her about the FCC investigation, how the newspapers were tearing Jim a new one. Fletcher went on to say that Baker was suicidal and then he described difficulties in Jim and Tammy's sex life. Jessica was confused, but hoped things would clear up when they reached the hotel, where she expected to see both Jim and Tammy.

When they arrived at the Sheridan Sand Key Hotel in Clearwater Beach, according to Jessica, Fletcher grabbed her bags, told her to walk behind him to the lobby, saying, this way people don't get the wrong idea. He already had the key to her room, number 538. Once there, Jessica tried to hang up her things, but there was something wrong with the closet door and Fletcher said, fuck the closet. Jessica said she was shocked. He was a pastor. He'd never used that language around her before.

She said he then gave her a glass of white wine. She was nervous, hadn't slept much the night before, hadn't eaten much that day. Later on, she think that the white wine was drugged with something because she started to feel sick. Fletcher took her onto the balcony, which overlooked a large pool, had a view of the beach and the ocean. They waved Jim and his daughter, Tammy Sue, who were at the pool. Jessica took a quick shower while Fletcher went down to get Jim. When they came back, Jim was barefoot, wearing only a tiny white terry cloth bathing suit. I didn't know women from New York were so beautiful, Jim allegedly said. When Jessica

asked where Tammy was, Baker told her that she was in California, that they were going to a separation. Jessica now was feeling increasingly dizzy, but Jim kept talking about stuff, stuff she didn't want to hear, how Tammy Faye belittled him, how she couldn't satisfy him sexually. As he sat on the bed rubbing his thighs, Jim said he needed a woman to help him. He said, Jessica, how shall I say this? I need a, I so desperately need a bicycle to ride. It can be used, but it needs to be new to me. I want to try some tricks. I can't do them on my old bike. I want to try this 360 move I've been thinking about.

I want to ride it off a ramp and do a tailwhip again. I want to pop some wheelies. I want to grind some rails. He didn't say that, of course. He will say worse shit than that. Fletcher chimed in saying, Jessica you're gonna do something tremendous for God. Fletcher handed Jessica a bottle of Vaseline, intensive care lotion, telling her Jim Baker loves back rubs. This is fucking weird if this all happened like this. I don't know why Jim couldn't say that about himself. Jim continued telling Jessica that without her help he'd be finished. But she said that she didn't

feel right about the situation. She was a virgin she said, and if he wanted someone to have sex with why didn't he hire a professional? Jim replied the you just can't trust everybody as he tried to undress her She tried to push him away saying you have to leave Jim replied Jessica by helping the ship and you're you're helping the sheep If you really did this with a fucking monster, I would never go to civil trial, but there will be a I'm sorry it'll never go to like court, but there will be a but there will be a, I'm sorry, it'll never go to like court, but there will be a, I guess it is a civil trial. She'll get a, sorry, I don't know why I'm going off script right off my notes. He will pay hush money to keep her quiet about this later. That's what I'm trying to say.

He now allegedly sexually assaulted her for over an hour. Jessica remembered it. There was no kindness, no tenderness. She cried throughout the entire thing. Jim whispered in her ear about how much, or how he had so much money at his disposal. He could make arrangements to be with her whenever they wanted. You really ministered to me, he allegedly added just before he left. Jessica said she then got in the shower and curled up in a fetal position in the room's unused bed, and then Fletcher came back in the room and he sexually assaulted her. Her back burned from rubbing on the carpet, soon began to bleed. When she dug her fingernails into Fletcher, he seemed to enjoy the pain, she said. When he was done, she crawled back into bed. There's blood from her back staining the sheets. Before he left

the room, Fletcher turned on the TV to the station broadcasting the telethon, and Jessica would see them appear a little while later, smiling broadly, asking for donations as though nothing had happened. As though she was nothing. In the ensuing legal debacle, Jim, Fletcher, and PTL will say everything went down differently. One PTL employee said that Fletcher and Jessica seemed very relaxed and comfortable together when they were in the lobby, and he believed that Fletcher and Jessica had some sort of arrangement regarding the affair. Jim would say that he had agreed to have sex with Jessica in order to make Tammy jealous and win her back.

For fuck's sake, like this was a good thing he was doing. He would write, we had a 15 to 20 minute tryst, a quick, furtive sexual encounter. We did not drink wine, as was later reported, nor did I imply that by having sex with me, she was serving God somehow. Most of all, I did not rape Jessica Hahn. Foolish and sinful as it was, the sexual encounter for which we are both infamous was completely consensual. Jim later told the press that Jessica was the one who pressed him to have sex

and that she was quote, a professional who knew every trick of the trade. Jessica would contend that it was rape. When Fletcher returned to the room after the telethon, Jessica begged him to help her leave. Fletcher gave her $129, the exact amount she needed for airfare home. Despite all that she'd been through,

Jessica initially did not want to expose Baker or PTL, she said. She said she still believed in the church and the ministry too much for that Gonna stray away from Jessica Hahn for a little while now, but her part to play in this timeline far from over a Week after Jim returned from Florida and his sexual encounter with Jessica Hahn The Baker's in a large group of PTL staff left for Hawaii to shoot a series of the shows on location in Honolulu They'd be gone for nearly a month. Jim and Tammy stayed in a $350 a night suite at the top of the Ilekai Hotel overlooking the beach, but slept in separate rooms, spent much of their time together

yelling and arguing. The tension between them becoming too much to bear. Soon after, Tammy told Jim that she did not love him and that she was moving out and wanted a divorce. And it seemed like Tammy was preparing for life as a single woman. She had lost 35 pounds and had gotten breast implants. God wanted her to get some new titties. She prayed about it. And the Lord said, Girl, get them titties. Get them titties and shake them, girl. Shake them silicone rocks. Pop that pussy too. You deserve to have some fun girl.

Yeah, that's how God spoke to her. Uh, I'm not sure that she prayed about it. I assume she did though. Feels on brand. When the Hawaii trip ended, Tammy refused to go back to Charlotte. Her initial plan was to move to California and become a nurse. Instead, she agreed to rent an apartment in Palmdale and undergo more counseling. Back home, Jim and the kids moved out of their house in downtown Charlotte and into a double

wide mobile home in Heritage USA. Jim also changed the name of the show from the PTO club to just Jim Baker. Jim told his audience that Tammy had simply been working too hard, needed some rest. He probably prayed about that too, and God wanted him to lie to his people. He also blamed the FCC, his scapegoat for nearly everything that was going wrong now. In the early 1980s though it seemed like PTL despite all these problems was in a semi-stable position by the summer of 1980. Contributions were double what they'd been the year before allowing Jim to revive some building projects he put on

hold for the past two years. So he did. September 1st 1980 40,000 people turned out celebrate the opening of a 3,000-seat barn auditorium on the Heritage USA grounds. The barn provided the space to start a church, something PTL had never had before. By March of 81, the church had 600 members. Sunday attendance averaged about 1,000 people, mostly PTL employees. Jim preached whenever he was in town. And it seemed like the baker's marriage was back on. Tammy resumed co-hosting the show with Jim during the first week of February, 1981, although to viewers it didn't really look like she was herself. That same month, the Bakers moved into a new $350,000 home paid for by PTL

in the stylish Tega-K development on Lake Wiley in an attempt to restore their marriage and family life. Jim would extend the same renovation projects he had done at Heritage USA to their new house. When they moved in, the house was 7,000 square feet. Over the next six years, they continually remodeled it until it sprawled to more than 10,000 square feet. That's absurd. At a total cost of a million. The master bedroom originally had two walk-in closets

on either side of the bathroom. Then they added another 600 square foot closet just for Tammy. The house would eventually have 25 closets. The redesigned master bedroom had adjoining bathroom suites with a sunken whirlpool tub between them. They expanded the deck area around the fish-shaped pool, added a hot tub and an outdoor kitchen area with the grill. At the end of the renovation, the house had three kitchens, one with commercial appliances. The living room was remodeled several times, including the addition of a catwalk with a spiral staircase, interior brickwork, and built-in bookcases.

All this funded by donations. They also added a safe room measuring 9 by 16 feet with the door hidden behind a swing away bookcase in case of an attempted assassination or kidnapping. The Bakers' kids were trained to run to the safe room. And to boost the safety even more, over the next several years, PTL bought half a dozen neighboring homes to create a security perimeter around the Tega K House.

In September of 1981, a year after the barn dedication, another Victory Day celebration and parade marks the dedication of the World Outreach Center, the WOC. The three-story pyramid-shaped building became the ministry's main administrative headquarters. At about the same time the WOC was dedicated, Baker and his staff created a new television program, Camp Meeting USA. Now Jim begins to see Heritage USA as less of a campus for evangelicals, more of a theme park and vacation destination. He also rededicates PTL to charity. By April 26 of 82 PTL opened its first People That

Love Center at Heritage USA. By December there were 550 People That Love Centers scattered around the country from Florida to Texas, California to Wisconsin to New Hampshire and in just about every state in between each run by local church and staff by volunteers. And these centers would distribute food, clothing and children's toys to those in need and help the unemployed pay their rent and find jobs. So that's good. At least something nice is coming out of all this mess. The Bakers make another big purchase in October of 1982. They picked out a beach front condo on the Gold Coast. 2727 South Ocean Boulevard in Highland Beach, Florida.

Still under construction. Priced $375,000. To complete the transaction, Peter Bailey, PTL's accounting manager, transfers $222,000 out of accounts designated to pay vendors who were supplying gifts that the PTL would send to donors. He was like, nah, fuck it, we need to beach condo. The transfer required the suppliers to wait at least five or six more weeks to be paid for bills that were already overdue. Condo was in a brand new high rise and had three bedrooms and a total of nearly 3,000 square feet, about seven stories up on the most desirable northeast corner of the building

with a wraparound terrace that overlooked the ocean. And all PTL spent more than $150,000 extra decorating this condo with special drapes, panels that had to be hoisted up to the side of the building, and headboards that cost $40,000. What the fuck were those headboards made out of? Solid gold? The Bakers only stayed in the condo for about three weeks. But they would continue hosting the show together throughout 1982, 1983. Jim admitted on air that he had neglected his family in the past as he struggled to

build Heritage USA. Now he talked about how comforting it was to know he and Tammy would grow old together. At the December 17th, 1982 board meeting, Jim Baker's salary was raised from 102,000 to $195,000 a year. Tammy's has increased from 52 to $80,000 a year. Lucifina, not a big fan of that number of discrepancy. At the same meeting, the board gave Jim a $75,000 bonus and Tammy a $40,000 bonus. Lucifina is still pretty upset.

bonus and Tammy a $40,000 bonus. Lucifina is still pretty upset. June of 1983, PTL completed construction of a 96-room motel, the Heritage Inn, designed to supplement the 325 campsites now available to visitors and also continued the construction of housing developments on the grounds for permanent residents and vacation rentals, beginning with the Dogwood Hills condominiums. There's so much shit. Then expanded to include the Mulberry Village single-family homes, the Woodridge duplexes, the Lakeside lodges, timeshare apartments, Heritage

Farm located in the grounds now has a petting zoo with goats and other small cuddly creatures has horses has a farm with eight horses, which are available for trail rides, winding through the property for $5 a piece. There are also three restaurants at Heritage USA, a hamburger stand called McMooses, the Wagon Wheel Inn cafeteria, and the Little Horse Restaurant which provided sit-down dining at its best. At its peak, PTL had more than a thousand volunteers serving in various capacities making all this shit run. My God. Many of the paid staff at PTL began as volunteers. Of course they did.

Leave it to these fake-ass religious con artists to exploit everyone around them and leave the exploited feeling like they've been lucky to have been taken advantage of. Elaine Sinclair, 57, moved from Boston to Charlotte after her husband's death. She began answering phones as a volunteer, then was hired to work in food services at Heritage USA. I wouldn't be anywhere doing anything else, she told a reporter in June of 1980. Every day I come to work I get a lump in my throat. I get the same feeling that I get when I see the United States flag because I know all this property is anointed by God. Okay, July 4th 1983 the board gave Jim and Tammy bonuses of $100,000 and $50,000 then gave them

those bonuses again in September living the high life Also in September they buy Billy Graham's childhood home the PTL does Graham was born in 1918 fairly moved into the house in 1928 PTL planned to disassemble the 3,000 square foot home brick by brick and then reconstructed at Heritage USA total cost over $200,000 But for Baker small price to pay for a chance to be so closely associated with America's most famous evangelist. Wonder what Billy Graham thought about that. He's still gonna be alive for another 35 years. In late 1983, PTL began construction of a home for unwed mothers at Heritage USA,

called People That Love Home. The home, which opened on July 1st, was designed to provide an alternative to abortion. It was intended to, July 1st,. Intended to accommodate about 30 pregnant women and new mothers in a bright attractive setting with a central living room, complete kitchen, laundry facilities, and a supportive staff. Mothers also had access to accredited high school classes and vocational training. At the televised dedication for the center, Jim explained that these mothers would be helping him too, saying,

I love pregnant young women because for as long as I as long as they're pregnant you can't get them pregnant again. And he laughed really hard for too long and then he delivered a really creepy prolonged just hard wick just right into the camera. I'm not sure what he did. Soon after it opened the home was at full capacity and had a waiting list. PTO also had its own adoption agency, the Tender Loving Care Adoption Agency. The agency allowed birth mothers to help choose the families for their babies by giving them access to non-identifying information about prospective parents. None of these new buildings and facilities came cheap. By the end of 1982 PTL now needed about a million a

week to stay afloat. This would only get worse in 1983. With new buildings, Jim's latest purchase, a fucking train now, why not? Bought a miniature train for $133,000, not including track and stations. Had eight cars and a locomotive. Tracks eventually will run around Lake Heritage on the Heritage USA ground. The locomotive was named and modeled after CP Huntington, used during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s and kind of looked like the little engine that could. To purchase the train, 133 families in the Heritage Village Church gave a thousand dollars each which made them owners of the railroad with the right to ride free for life. What a deal! On November 24th, Baker appealed on the air asking for

another 200 donors to contribute a thousand dollars each to complete the construction of the railroad which would allow them to become owners as well. All they had to do was dial 1-800-CALL-GEM just constantly asking his followers for more money. He also started selling subscriptions. For much of 1982 and 1983 the theme of the show was You Can Make It complete with the theme song by the same name. Partners aka people who donated received a You Can Make It," complete with the theme song by the same name. Partners, aka people who donated, received a You Can Make It lapel pin and placard. There was also a You Can Make It license plate and refrigerator magnet. For a $15 a month pledge, Partners got Jim's latest books,

Revival, Unite to Live, Tammy's book Run to the Roar, a subscription to Together magazine, and a membership card that entitled them to 10% off everything at Heritage USA when they visited. For $25, contributors received Baker's six cassette tape sermon series, How You Can Guarantee Success. Well, you can't, but okay. And for $50, donors could get cassettes of Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. reading the Psalms and Proverbs in his magnificently rich voice. And of course, the telethons continued. PTL would hold at least one major telethon a year, sometimes more. Jim would tell people on air that people who donated would see a 23% increase in income the next year.

I almost forgot about the prosperity angle. Also focus on people wanting their illnesses cured, whatever. The prosperity angle, it's really a better grift. Because only some people are sick or suffering Everybody wants more money, right? Give me your money so I can have money and you can have more money God loves a fool who throws away their money on dipshit like me thinking they'll get more money. Also 23 That's a very specific number. How did he come up with that?

Did he just throw a fucking dart at a board full of random numbers? Ptl was bringing in more money than ever but it was still never enough to keep up with the pace of construction. On June 20th 1983, Jim held an impromptu telethon from the unfinished broadcast center. The building was originally supposed to cost 2.5 million, but the bill had ballooned to 5 million and it was still not done. It was scheduled to open up the very next day, but Baker had run out of money and the contractor now refused to resume work until they were paid. Somehow Jim managed to get enough money to finish the broadcast center in time for its July 4th dedication before immediately moving to his next project. What is wrong with this dude? Where was this all

supposed to end? It's like he has an addiction just to continually spending continually pushing things further and further and further. Just can't let things be. But you know God's gonna fix it all. By the end of 1983, Heritage USA was getting more attendees than ever. 1.8 million, according to PTO. The problem was that there was not enough rooms. Not everyone wanted to camp. And the 96-room Heritage Inn and other rentals on the grounds

did not nearly meet demand. The inn was turning away 125,000 people looking for a room in 1983. That's nuts Jim's solution was to build a partner center that included a 500 room hotel the Heritage Grand Baker later said that the vision for the partner center came to him in the middle of the night You know from God, of course God is a hundred percent behind God's like more hotels God build build Jimmy build Jim drew up plans that included a 504 room hotel at one end of the Partner Center complex, a mall called Main Street USA. Yeah, they're going to mall now. And a 650 seat Grand Palace cafeteria, a 14,000 square foot conference center.

There's going to be stores, you know, kids stores, restaurants, boutique, you name it. It's all going to be in this new, you know, they're adding more and more and more. At the time Jim presented his new vision to his staff in late 1983, PTL's finances are stabilizing, but there's not room for these projects. In November of 83 PTL took in 4.7 million in contributions, but spent 6.8 million that same month. More debt was the last thing PTL needed.

It was at exactly this moment that Baker decided to launch his biggest construction project ever, that 25 million dollar partner center and Grand Hotel. And Jim comes up with a plan to finance it. The plan was to offer 25,000 lifetime partnerships in the Heritage Grand for a thousand each. In return for that contribution, each lifetime partner guaranteed four nights, three days a year free in the Hotel for Life. The partnerships would generate 25 million, enough to completely pay for construction of the new complex under the original estimates, providing each partner would stay, they would still have

you know around 50% of the hotel's annual occupancy to rent out. To make more profit. It seems so simple. Jim and his staff broke grand on the Grand Hotel, December 7th, 1983, a month before they began to promote it to PTL supporters. The first brochure announcing the Lifetime Partnership Program went out to 140,282 people on their mailing list January 7th, 1984. Higher-ups at PTL worried that the contract contained securities violations under the South Carolina Timeshare Act and recommended holding off sending it until those issues could be resolved but Jim didn't want to wait. Jim began to promote the Grand Partnerships on air February of 1984. At that point PTL has assets totaling almost 8 million but liabilities of almost 20 million. Every month PTL is continually spending still more than it takes in. Lifetime

Partners will also receive a masterpiece sculpture of David Slayne Goliath created for PTL by Yakov Heller, sculptor and artist born in Cleveland who moved to Jerusalem in 1972. Supporters who did not want to become Lifetime Partners could get one of the sculptures for a gift of $125. These sculptures cost PTL 10 bucks. Jim Baker later claimed that the inflated price he placed on the sculpture derived from its spiritual value. Okay, meanwhile Jim and Tammy keep spending personally, right? June 6, 1984 the Bakers fly to their new home in Palm Desert. They flew to California in a chartered Gulfstream jet at a cost of over a hundred thousand dollars per round trip. For fuck's sake.

On the trip Jim bought a 1953 Silver Dawn Rolls Royce for almost 60 grand. Also bought a second Rolls, a 1939 Phantom 3 for 35 grand and paid another almost 28 grand to have it restored. Jim also bought Tamiya New Mercedes 380 SEL for just under 50,000. By July 7th, 1904 PTL has received full payment now from 25,303 lifetime partnerships, plus partial payment on an additional 1,568 lifetime partnerships, and they have another 13,102 pledges. They don't give a fuck that they were supposed to stop at 25,000. I just keep selling them. They won't all show up. This guy has no integrity. And they need more money still. The cost of construction had steadily risen past the 25 million dollar figure.

The final price tag rose to 35 mil. Jim also was not using the money he got to build a hotel. Rather, PTL was using it to pay their operating costs. It's a fucking Ponzi scheme at this point. In the end, only 52.8% of the money raised through grant partnerships actually was spent on building the grant like it was said to supposed to have been spent on Despite robbing Peter to pay Paul PTL still spending like fucking crazy Between December of 1983 and November of 1985 the ministry pays nearly nine million for 793 additional acres adjoining Heritage USA

Now the parks 2300,300 acres roughly. And if that's not enough, when the Grand Hotel was a little more than just a foundation, Jim began construction on a massive five acre water park opposite the hotel. Dude's out of control. He'll just steadily keep adding rides to the park. By 1986 it'll attract nearly 6 million visitors a year, but that still won't be enough to pay for everything. Like the hotel, Baker wanted to open the water park July 4th, 1984. After a series of cost overruns and lawsuits, the water park will end up costing PTL 13 million

when it opens in July of 1986. Sucking up even more money that was allocated for the hotel. To keep all this going, Baker turns to an old trick he'd used many times in the past. Launch another new project. Use the funds raised for the new project to pay old debts. Ponzi scheme 101. More Robin Peter to pay Paul. It was like getting a new credit card to make payments on an old card that was maxed out. Though the Heritage Grand was still several months away from opening, in September of 1984 Baker announces a new lifetime partnership program for another massive hotel, the Heritage Grand Towers. The 21-story 500-room towers will be built adjacent to the Heritage Grand with a walkway connecting the two. The original terms of the deal were the same as for the Heritage Grand

partnerships. For a gift of a thousand bucks, lifetime partners receive four days, three nights for free for the rest of their lives. Promotional literature also included a clause stating that lifetime partnerships were non-transferable, non-inheritable, and non-tax deductible. By October 17th, 1984, PTL had collected $5.2 million in Towers partnerships. Of that sum, $2.6 million were spent on the Grand, $1.2 million for TV time, $450,000 on a water park, $450,000 on payroll, and that left 500,000 to build this tower. Just a little bit short. And Jim will keep heightening these membership levels, level here, reward there for months, building further atop his pile of lies.

Meanwhile, during the summer of 1984, PTL is also conspiring to keep Jessica Hahn quiet. Now we're back with her. Took a while to return. The two sides go back and forth through the summer of 84 exchanging phone calls. Jessica wants an apology, her name to stop being traded around in evangelical circles, and money to start herself a new life. Baker wants her to sign a document that says in essence she raped him. Wow. Jessica finally signs the document for a hundred grand but then the very next day is like nope, nope, forget that, fuck that. she cancels the agreement, hires a lawyer.

To get Jim Baker's attention, her lawyers decided to draft a lawsuit and send it to PTO with an offer to negotiate a settlement before a public suit will fucking destroy him. The Heritage Grand Hotel finally opens with fireworks and fanfare. In the middle of all this, December 22nd, 1984, all financed by other people. Of course, by April 11th, all financed by other people of course. By April 11th, 1985 PTL had received full payment on 34,983 lifetime partnerships. Almost 10,000 more than the original limit of 25,000. Between April

11th and July 8th when Jim once again announced that the Heritage Grand Partnership Program was closed PTL received full payment for another 23,765 lifetime memberships for a total of almost 60,000 Heritage Grand partnerships. It was supposed to be 25,000. In addition, PTL received partial payment for just over 2,000 partnerships and pledges for an additional almost 16,000. My God. At this point, Jim had sold enough lifetime partnerships to fill every room in the Grand every night, but. My god. At this point Jim had sold enough lifetime partnerships to

fill every room in the Grand every night but still not enough. And even though he's doing the dumbest most financially reckless shit in the world, he still has to keep up appearances and to do that he has to overspend even more. A lavish 45th birthday party is held for Jim. January 2nd 1985 in the four-story lobby of the hotel with dozens of out-of-town guests, Jim dresses in a tuxedo. Tammy wears an elegant long white dress. Nine days later, January 11th, Jessica Hahn's lawyers write a letter to the PTL demanding $12.3 million. Charges Baker with battery assault and false imprisonment.

The two sides will eventually work out a settlement of $265,000 for Jessica's silence. But this payoff will not make the scandal go away. Before we get into that, what's Tammy Faye up to? November of 1985, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Tammy Faye emotionally interviews Steven Peters, a gay Christian minister with AIDS, on Tammy's House Party, a segment of the PTL club, during which they discuss his sexuality, coming out, diagnosis with AIDS, and the death of his partner. During the program, Tammy Faye emotionally addresses her viewership saying, how sad that we as Christians who are to be the salt of the earth, we who are supposed to be able to love everyone, are afraid so badly of an AIDS patient that we will not go up and put

in one arm around them and tell them that we care. Throughout the AIDS epidemic, Tammy Faye will advocate for viewers of the PTL club to follow Christ and show compassion and pray for the ill, and also invited drug addicts onto the show to interview them about substance abuse. I gotta say, I did not expect to end up liking Tammy Faye so much in this episode, but I do. I doubt she was the one pushing to spend all the money and live so lavishly. I know she didn't stop Jim, but I don't think all the grifting was her doing.

I could be wrong, but I think she actually might have been a very loving, faithful Christian who got caught up in Jim's greed and bullshit. January 26 and 27, 1986, more bad news. The Charlotte Observer publishes a collection of a dozen articles written by reporter Charles Shepard on the FCC investigation of PTL which ran from March 1979 to December of 1982. Over 1986 Jim will keep trying to expand the park using new made-up programs to finance projects that were behind schedule. Jim and Tammy also buy a mountainside house for themselves on two acres near Gatlinburg, Tennessee for just under $150,000. They'll renovate it at a swimming pool deck with a spa, new heating system, an additional room, guest house. The renovations will cost $341,000.

Why? Why can't you just stop spending all this fucking money? Did Jim really believe that no matter how much he spent, God would make it all okay? He might have actually bought into his own bullshit. In late 1986, Baker created the 1100 Club, another new membership program, involving lodging in the farmland section of Heritage USA, where the bunkhouse development is planned. For a contribution of 1100, members would receive free lodging in a bunkhouse or in one of the new housing projects that Baker planned to add to the development. The Country Inn, the 1100 Club Mansion, and the 1100 Club Campground. With each new project, PTL sinks further into debt. Jim Baker is the financial planner's worst nightmare.

January 2, 1987, Jim Baker now stands before a crowd of supporters and prepares to break ground on the Crystal Palace Ministry Center. Something else new. It's his biggest project to date. Intended as a replica of London's famed 19th century Crystal Palace, Baker's version called for a glass structure 916 feet long, 420 feet wide. The complex would enclose 1.25 million square feet, including a 30,000 seat auditorium, a 5,000 seat TV studio, and it just costs 100 million dollars. More like 275 million today. It would be the largest church in the world.

He doesn't have money for it. And by this time, plans were already in the works to develop a 31-story glass condominium tower as part of a Crystal Palace complex, an 18-hole golf course lined by a billion dollars in condominiums, a village called old Jerusalem with its own 200 room hotel, and a variety of other lodging, including bunk houses, country mansions, and campgrounds. This is all feeling more and more like a Greek tragedy. So much magical thinking going on. So much, I don't worry about it. Just have faith.

Just keep marching forward. God will provide. Nope. Now God's going to let this motherfucker crash and burn pretty soon. Jim wanted to make Heritage USA as much of an all-inclusive community as it was a theme park. He hoped that it would eventually have 30,000 full-time residents. Tammy will not attend the opening of these new things.

January 13th, Tammy is admitted to the Eisenhower Memorial Hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, their Palm Desert where the Baker's still owned a home. She was hospitalized for pneumonia and for complications caused by medications, according to a PTL statement. In fact, to cope with the stress of all this madness, this constant spending and scandal, Tammy is mixing Ativan and Aspergum and Valium. Before she was hospitalized, she hallucinated pink elephants falling from the sky and demons lunging at her with huge pitchforks.

I didn't know you could trip that hard with that stuff. PTL higher-ups chartered a business jet to fly from Knoxville to California for her at a cost of almost $37,000. On the flight, Tammy saw an orchestra on the plane's wing and then a cat was out on the wing. Sounds kind of amazing actually. She also put on her coat at one point and tried to open the door and just walk off the plane, which sounds less amazing. Once at the hospital in California, doctors loaded her system at one point and tried to open the door and just walk off the plane, which sounds less amazing.

Once at the hospital in California, doctors loaded her system with Valium in order to calm her down and wean her off the other drugs. One of the doctors later told Jim, we gave her enough Valium to kill a truck driver. It took three weeks for Tammy to detox at the hospital. Then Jim and the PTL entourage checked her into the Betty Ford Center next door. For more than two months, Jim and Tammy are now absent from Charlotte and their daily TV show. While bills are piling up, then on March 8th they use a videotape message to refute persistent rumors that Tammy has died or that they had divorced. Instead, they reveal that Tammy was being treated for drug dependency. Maybe surprisingly, everyone seemed very compassionate regarding Tammy's illness,

with calls coming in to support her and a write-up in the Charlotte Observer wishing her a quick recovery. But then shit really hits the fan. During the first months of 1987 while Tammy is being rushed to California for treatment for drug dependency, reporter Charlie Shepherd finally putting together all the pieces connecting Jim Baker, Jessica Hahn and PTL hush money. Jessica might not be looking to publicly shame Jim anymore. She took her hush money but now but now reporters found out and he doesn't have to keep her a secret. He tracked down Jessica's lawyers, got confirmation that there had been a payoff. And then the Charlotte Observer notified PTL they're about to break the story.

This will have serious consequences, not only for Jim Baker's reputation, but for the very thing that kept PTL afloat, all those donations. According to a Gallup survey at the time, 40% of American adults had less confidence in the ethics or honesty of Christian fundraising than they once did. Then with the news of Jessica Hahn and the payoff, they would have much less confidence than that. On March 19, 1987, after the disclosure of a payoff to Hahn, Jim Baker resigns from PTL. He hopes his fall from grace is temporary.

That he'll be on the sidelines just a little while until the scandal dies down. But it's not gonna die down. The morning after Baker resigns people line up as early as 4 a.m. to buy a copy of The Observer. The newspaper sold the most copies it had sold in 10 years the most since the day after Elvis died. The presses had to be restarted three times to keep up with demand. Eventually churning out an extra 20,000 copies. Lead stories appeared in USA Today, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and in other papers across the nation. The Charlotte Observer covered the story relentlessly for the next year and will win a 1988 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting. And on April 18th, the Charlotte Observer reported that Jim and Tammy had been paid $1.6 million in 1986 and that between January of 84 and March of 87

they drew another 4.8 million. Amidst all this the information about Jessica Hahn, the misuse of the money, the Baker's lives are rapidly crumbling. Jim tries to do something to save PTO. He decides on a replacement a man named Jerry Falwell, leader of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Jerry Falwell, another big name evangelist. June of 1956, at the age of 22, Jerry had started Thomas Road Baptist Church in his hometown of Lynchburg, which is 35 members. Same year, Falwell began the old-time Gospel Hour, a nationally syndicated radio and TV ministry. By the time of the PTL collapse, Falwell was well known as leader of the so-called Moral Majority, the group that

chose California governor Ronald Reagan as their candidate for the 1980 presidential election and registered millions of new voters and mobilized a national evangelical political effort. Jim chose Falwell as his successor because he feared that popular fellow televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who had initiated an assemblies of God investigation into Baker's sexual misconduct, was attempting to take over his ministry to dethrone him, to destroy his empire. Tammy Faye stood by Jim publicly throughout the scandal, despite being crushed about Jessica Hahn news. She reminded Jim she had never denied him anything, not even sex. Jim Baker believed that Falwell would temporarily lead the ministry until the scandal died down.

He's wrong. April 28th, 1987, Falwell bans Baker from returning to PTL ever, after learning about allegations of illicit behavior Which went far beyond the Hawn allegations The rumor mill is now spending full time with everything or everyone from PTL members to executives to competing televangelists chiming in about Jim Baker's shady sexual past. They accused Jim of visiting prostitutes, engaging in homosexual acts, condoning wife-swapping at PTL. A prostitutes, engaging in homosexual acts, condoning wife swapping at PTL. A local Charlotte TV station aired a story about a Wilkerson Boulevard prostitute who claimed Baker visited her in the late 70s.

Penthouse Magazine published an interview with another Wilkerson Boulevard prostitute who claimed Baker paid for her services five times, beginning in early 1980. She said Baker was show up in a white Oldmobile, wearing an ill-fitting blonde wig as a disguise. The two discussed biblical prophecy as she gave him her special peppermint French, a blowjob with a peppermint in her mouth. He also left a generous tip on his way out, she said, but the most damning allegations were about gay sex. Austin Miles was a former circus clown and frequent guest on a television show in the early days who claimed to have stumbled upon Baker and three male staffers, quote, frolicking in the nude in the sauna room at the Heritage Village Complex and this

is what he said. Ha ha ha! That was really something! First I thought Jimmy was down on his knees praying. Well then I wondered why was his head bobbing around so much? I didn't hear any music. But then I did hear someone moan. Ha ha! He wasn. Oh, he was performing Felicia he was playing the devil's flute

Then I noticed that Jimmy was using his free hand to give the other fellow a prostate exam, but it wasn't an exam He was ailing pleasure than playing a little game of stinky finger happy face Right now therefore those demons pulled me into some kind of sin trust. That's not that's not what he said. That's not how he talked. But he did say that another former male executive had asked the gym had asked him for a massage and then to give him a handjob. Excuse me another former male executive said the gym had asked him for a massage. He only carried away with the clown stuff. And then to give him a hand job. And the man freaked out and left. And yet another PTL staff member, Jay Babcock, great name for this, told reporters that

he and Baker had a long running sexual relationship that began in mid 1983. Jay had moved to PTL in September of 79 to attend the Heritage School of Evangelism and Communication. After finishing his studies in May of 1980, Babcock took a job as a groundskeeper at the park. By mid-1983, Babcock had divorced his wife and worked his way up to producing Jim's show. And one evening when Tammy and the kids were out of town, Jim invited Babcock to his home and asked for a back rub. Babcock did it, then came back a couple weeks later. This time as Babcock rubbed him down, Jim suddenly turned over began pulling off the younger man's clothes.

And then, in awkward silence, the two men jerked each other off. Right after Jim asked Jay if he didn't mind helping him push his sister's hairbrush up his ass. Jay obliged. JK, they did jerk each other off, allegedly, but there was no hairbrush. My mind just drifted back to serial killer Dick Byrd for a second. For the next three years, according to Babcock, he and Jim Baker would trade sexual favors backstage on the show. Taking together all these stories painted a picture of Baker as not just bisexual, but

as a sexual predator, taking advantage of employees who depended on him for their livelihood. And so, Jim was dismissed as an Assemblies of God minister outright May 6, 1987. And all of the sexual misconduct is of course on top of the insane amount of financial misconduct that's been going on for years. Falwell and his team quickly discovered that PTO was 65 million dollars in debt now and bleeding money at the rate of adding two million dollars more to that debt every single month. And now of course donations have trickled up because millions are waking up to the fact that Jim Baker is no man of God. He's a fucking snake oil salesman,

a con artist, and they've been swindled. That summer, workers boarded up the unfinished Towers Hotel, which will never open. Later that summer, as donations continued to decline sharply in the wake of Baker's resignation and the end of the PTO club, Falwell, still able to raise $20 million to keep Heritage USA solvent.

And the new king of the PTO grift took a promised waterslide ride at the park to celebrate. Okay you can watch on YouTube if you want. This PTO victory is short-lived. Falwell and the remaining members of the PTO board resigned a few months later in October of 1987 stating that a ruling from a bankruptcy court judge made rebuilding the ministry impossible and now it seems that everyone hates Jim Baker, at least a lot of other televangelists. Falwell called Baker a liar and embezzler, a sexual deviant, and quote, the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history. And during an interview on CNN, Jimmy Swagger stated that Baker was a cancer in the body of Christ. However, the PTL faithful are about to find out that the new Jimmy know

better than the old Jimmy here. In February of 1988, the public learns of Swagger's own sexual improprieties when that self-righteous phony cunt of a man got caught in a sex scandal of his own after being caught paying 20 bucks for sexual acts to prostitutes in New Orleans. I think I'm more upset that that douchebag was only paying them 20 bucks. You know, these working girls. Then I'm about him throwing Baker under the bus for doing the same shit he was doing at the same time. Condemning premarital sex and abortion and feminism and the liberals, etc, etc, from the pulpit, while riding the fuck out of women's bikes during his off hours, jumping him hard off any ramp he can find, and if one of them would have told him they were pregnant with his baby,

oh, he'd been racing to an abortion clinic. Fuck Jim Baker. Fuck Jimmy Swaggart. Forever. They can both burn in hell. I know I'm hard on Christianity sometimes, but I have also long felt very protective towards good, hard-working, humble Christians. Great meat sacks, spiritual seekers, being so grossly taken advantage of by these human spiders weaving their disgusting hypocritical webs. Fucking with someone's salvation. Doesn't get much lower than that. The Baker and Swaggart scandals had a profoundly negative effect on the world of televangelism, causing greater media scrutiny of TV ministers and their finances. But not according to Jerry Falwell, who said that the scandals had strengthened

broadcast evangelism and made Christianity stronger, more mature, and more committed. broadcast evangelism and made Christianity stronger, more mature, and more committed. Did it! I will say if Jerry was ever involved in any improprieties like these, he was able to keep them hidden. Also in 1988, Jim now has to pay the piper for his financial infidelity. After a 16-month federal grand jury probe, Jim Baker is indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, and 1 count of conspiracy. I'll get to a sentencing soon. The following year, accusations of Jim Baker's homosexuality continue. A man named John Wesley Fletcher claimed in a 1989 Penthouse article that he and Baker first had sex in the Heritage Villa sauna, which would have been sometime before the

spring of 79. According to Fletcher, in early November of 1980, a few weeks after Smith left PTL and a month before Baker's encounter with Jessica Hahn in Florida, Fletcher, Baker, and David Taggart flew to Bermuda for an impromptu break. There Fletcher claimed that he walked in on Baker and Taggart in bed. And then Taggart later pleaded the fifth when asked under oath if he had had sex with Baker or not. Not a good look for a man of God who had preached that homosexuality was a sin.

Fletcher said that his sexual encounters with Baker continued until 1981. In October of 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28th in Charlotte, North Carolina, a jury finds Jim Baker guilty on all 24 counts of those financial inforprieties. The trial unfolded in a strange, almost comic atmosphere before US District Judge Robert Maximum Bob Potter. Potter got that Maximum Bob nickname because he was known for sentencing convicted defendants to long-terms at or near the maximum. A witness collapsed on the stand and Baker himself had some sort of breakdown. He literally crawled under his lawyer's couch as federal marshals came to get him. It's a little bit embarrassing.

Baker was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison and had to pay a $500,000 fine. At the Federal Medical Center Rochester in Rochester, Minnesota, he'll share a cell with activist Lyndon LaRoche and skydiver Roger Nelson, but not for long. In February of 91, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld Jim Baker's conviction on the fraud and conspiracy charges, but voided the 45-year sentence and $500,000 fine and ordered a new sentencing hearing. Why? Because the court ruled that Potter's sentencing statement about Baker that those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests.

That was evidence that the judge had injected his religious beliefs into Baker's sense. For fuck's sake, this slimeball will now get a sense greatly reduced over this bullshit technicality. In 1992 while Jim Baker was still in prison Tammy Fay files for divorce saying in a letter to the New Covenant Church in Orlando Florida, for years I've been pretending that everything is alright when in fact I heard all the time I cannot pretend anymore. I genuinely feel bad for Tammy Fay in this episode. I continue to think that she actually had a good heart.

Jim Sends Reduction Hearing is held November 16, 1992 and he only gets 8 years now. In August of 1993, Jim is transferred to a minimum security federal prison in Jessup, Georgia. October 3, 1993, Tammy Fay marries property developer Roe Mesner in Rancho Mirage, California after he divorces his own wife. They had met long before. Roe Mesner had a contracting business that had built a lot of the Heritage USA building. He'd

been a friend of the Bakers for years and was one of the ones who gathered the money for PTL's payoff to Jessica Hahn, which I don't like. Was Tammy Fay attracted to corrupt dudes? Was she trying to save him? Later he'd bill PTL for work never completed on the Jerusalem Amphitheater at Heritage USA. He'd also testify for Jim Baker's defense at his fraud trial, saying that Jerry Falwell had pressured Jim to keep quiet about what was going on at PTL. They moved to the Charlotte suburb of Matthews, North Carolina, where they were the neighbors and friends of Christian recording star David Cooke.

Jim will be paroled July of 94 after serving less than five years. His son, Jamie, spearheaded a letter writing campaign advocating leniency. Your dad's a turd on two legs, Jamie. Celebrity lawyer, Alan Dershowitz acted as Baker's parole attorney, having said that he would guarantee that Mr. Baker would never again engage in the blend of religion and commerce that led to his conviction. That's bullshit.

That won't happen. Jim Baker was released from federal Bureau of Prison's custody December 1st, 1994, owing $6 million to the IRS. Two years later, another trial will shake up Tammy Faye's life. That year, Roy Mezger in 96 was convicted of bankruptcy fraud, having claimed to owe nearly $30 million to over 300 creditors in 1990. As he faced sentencing in 96, he said he could not afford to treat his prostate cancer because he lacked health insurance.

He sentenced to and serves 27 months in prison. Tammy did like a grifter. That same year Tammy publishes her autobiography, Tammy, telling it my way and co-hosted a TV talk show titled the Jim J and Tammy Faye Show with Jim J Bullock, her longtime friend. Meanwhile in 96 Jim reveals that he had been sexually abused as we mentioned earlier and that that left him with a confused sexual identity and deep sense of guilt and inferiority. I don't doubt that it happened but did it make anything he did all right? No. Then in March of 1996, I don't really doubt that happened, I think he was telling the truth there, in March of 1996 with her husband in prison Tammy Faye is now diagnosed with colon cancer. The disease will go into remission later that year. In 2000, a biographical documentary of Tammy Faye's life hits the scene.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye, narrated by drag queen RuPaul, not to be confused with the 2021 film of the same name starring Jessica Chastain. Despite her background in Christian fundamentalism, Tammy Faye is becoming a gay icon, appearing in gay pride marches with popular drag queens, you know, with popular drag queens, promoting kindness, inclusion, and tolerance. Tammy Faye comes across to me as the best Christian by far out of this lot. Hail, Tammy Faye! In 2003, Baker is back on the religious scene. If I can do more grifting, of course that lowlife is.

He begins broadcasting The Jim Baker Show daily at Studio City Cafe in Branson, Missouri with his second wife, Lori. Baker now vehemently condemns the prosperity theology in which he took part and now has embraced the apocalyptic strain of Christianity. He's worse than he was before. His show has a survivalist focus and his new scam is to sell buckets of overpriced freeze-dried goods to his audience in preparation for the end times. And then a complete fucking idiot named Jerry Crawford who credited Baker with saving his marriage, invest 25 million in another new ministry for Baker in Blue Eye, Missouri, named Morningside.

Production for the Jim Baker show moves to Morningside in 2008. Baker's revived show features a number of ministers who build themselves as prophets. Dear God, he now says that PTL stood for prophets talking loud. He now says that PTL stood for profits talking loud. Fuck this guy forever. In early 2004, Tammy Faye appears on the second season of the VH1 reality TV series, The Surreal Life. The show chronicled a 12-day period wherein she, porn star Ron Jeremy, rapper Vanilla

Ice, Baywatch actress Tracy Bingham, washed-up actor Eric Estrada, and actress and Playboy model Trishel Canatella lived together in a Los Angeles house and were assigned various tasks and activities. Together the six did shit like put on a children's play and manage a restaurant for a day. At the end of the show Tammy Faye said she thought of Vanilla Ice and Trishel Canatella as her children and could relate to them deeply because she had similar feelings and problems when she was their age. I fucking love Tammy Faye. But then Tammy Faye's cancer is back, right in the middle of what she considered her comeback.

Why did she have to get cancer? Why didn't Jim get it? Because the prosperity gospel is bullshit. God does not consistently take care of the righteous and punish the wicked. Never has, never will. Ruthless dictators often live long, happy, healthy lives and far too often the good die young. Not saying God isn't real, but I am saying God is not going to make sure that you're

well taken care of as long as you're faithful. There's an abundance of evidence proving that belief is patently false. Enjoy the days you have, meet Sacks. The world is beautiful, but it has never been nor will it ever be fair. If you woke up today and you have anything good at all going on in your life, consider today a win Try and enjoy it. We all have a limited number of wins a lot of to us. So suck them up March of 2004 Tammy Faye makes an appearance on Larry King live

Announces she has inoperable lung cancer and will begin chemotherapy She receives can team chemotherapy throughout May 2004 that November also on Larry King live She announces she's cancer-free once again describes the details of her chemotherapy, continues to appear on King's show. But then two years later it comes back and it's worse. I hate this. I did not expect to feel so bad for Tammy. March of 2006, Tammy Faye appears again on Larry King Live to say she's continuing to suffer from lung cancer, which has reached stage four. She's trying to get, you know, treatment. It's not going well. She mentions having difficulty swallowing food, suffering from panic attacks and enduring substantial weight loss.

She does not look well. By December, she'll be a guest via phone on Larry King Live because she is getting hospice care. July 18th, 2007, Tammy Faye makes her final appearance on Larry King Live. She weighs only 65 pounds, can't eat solid food. Roy Mesner will later say that he believes she chose to do this interview to say a final goodbye to her fans. Ugh, fuck cancer.

July 20, 2007, Tammy Faye dies at her home in Lockloyde near Kansas City, Missouri after an 11-year bout with cancer. She was only 65. Family service held the morning of July 21 at the Mesner Family Plot in Waldron, Kansas, ceremony officiated by Reverend Randy McCain, pastor of the Open Door Community Church in Sherwood, Arkansas. According to CNN, the family requested Larry King officially report the news of her death. That's actually pretty sweet how she was so loyal to Larry King.

Her remains were cremated, her ashes returned to Waldron Cemetery where they were subsequently buried and she now has a very modest tombstone you can look up. Very humble, low profile. She says Tammy Faye Mesner, March 7th, 1942, July 20th, 2007. And I wonder if the girl from International Falls, Minnesota, who had to bath in her bath and her siblings dirty bath water, who loved making kids smile with her puppet voices, who loved the marginalized members of society,

much like the biblical Jesus, I wonder if she ever really cared about all the money and the riches. For some reason, and I'm 100% speculating here, I don't think she did. I think she was a beautiful soul who wanted to make people feel like God loved them, who never wanted to make people feel like the leaders of her church made her and her mama feel when she was a little girl. Now a little more insanity.

Jim Baker, unfortunately, still very much alive. In an October 2017 video, the 77-year-old Baker said that God will punish those who ridicule him. I fucking doubt it, Jimbo. I think you're a clown, real skeevy, slimy pile of shit. I mocked you pretty hard today, and I've privately mocked you for years. And I'm doing great, buddy. He'd also say that Hurricane Harvey was a judgment of God.

He blamed Hurricane Matthew on then-President Barack Obama. Jim predicted that if then-President Donald Trump was ever impeached, Christians would begin a second American Civil War. He also compared the 2017 Washington train derailment to the sinking of the RMS Titanic and stated that the Amtrak train derailment was a warning from God. And he claimed that he predicted the 9-11 attacks. He said that there would be terrorism and bombings in New York and Washington DC, but he didn't fucking tell anybody. A few days after the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting, he stated that God came to him in a dream

and he was wearing a camouflage hunting vest at an AR-15 strapped to his back. Also said God supported Trump's plan to arm teachers. Luckily, far from all evangelicals are with Jim at this point. Christianity Today, a magazine, one you might be surprised to hear I have a subscription to, I've used them as a source for a lot of different episodes, they write great articles, they criticized Baker's show for preying on the most vulnerable kinds of people and claimed that it had no place on our TV screens. Yeah, bingo. Then in early 2020, like so many fear-mongering grifters, Jim Baker would find opportunities

during the COVID-19 pandemic to take advantage of more people. He sold colloidal silver supplements that he advertised as a cure-all. Truly a snake-well salesman. March of 2020, the Office of the Attorney General of New York ordered Baker to cease making false medical claims about his supplements, about their ability to cure COVID. And the FTC and the FDA also sent a warning letter to Baker about his claims regarding the supplements and coronavirus. Missouri, eternal Missouri, what attorney general Eric Schmidt and Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge filed lawsuits against Baker for allegedly

pushing the supplements as a treatment for the virus and the state lawsuit against him. Jim was represented by former Missouri governor Jay Nixon, who argued for the suit to be dismissed. Nixon said the allegations made in the lawsuit were false, stating Baker is being unfairly targeted by those who want to crush his ministry and force his Christian television program off the air. No Jay, you dumb shit. Baker is being targeted by people who are sick of his con artist bullshit. In April of 2020, prohibited from receiving credit card transactions, Baker disclosed

to his viewers that his ministry was on the brink of filing for bankruptcy and urgently petitioned them for, can you guess, more donations. He just doesn't quit. He's like the Energizer Bunny or the Terminator of Grifters. Dude should have a wing in the Grifters Hall of Fame. Following months, GEB America and World Harvest Television dropped Baker's program from their networks. May 8, 2020, Lori Baker announces that Jim has suffered a stroke.

And that's fucking great. Hallelujah. Laurie stated that he would be taken a sabbatical from the program until he recovered. She blamed the stroke on Jim's hard work on his show and wrote that he had described the criticism against him as the most vicious attacks he's ever experienced. Baker returned to his program for the first time following his stroke on July 8th, 2020. That's a bummer.

Hopefully he can listen to this episode and have another stroke. June 23rd, 2021, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmidt announces the settlement of the state's lawsuit against Jim. Jim and Morningside Church will be prohibited from saying his silver solution could diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat, or cure any disease or illness. Restitution of about $157,000 would also be paid to those who bought Silver Solution between February 12, 2020 and March 10, 2020. Now for one more note about Tammy. In the 2021 movie The Eyes of Tammy Faye, based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, Jessica Chastain plays Tammy Faye, Andrew Garfield plays Jim. This opened September 17, 2021

and Jessica Chastain won a Critics Choice Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Academy Award for Best Actress. It's on Hulu. You can also rent it on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, a bunch of other platforms. I haven't seen it but I'm gonna watch it tonight with Lindsay on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience approval rate 86%. Now before we bounce out of this timeline, what's Jimmy Jango Baker up to these days still fucking grifting? Oh, he grifts until he dies, baby. When you go on the 84 year old's website, jimbakershow.com, the title of the site is actually prophetic end time news, do the same shit he's always done.

He has a prayer hotline where you can call in to get your prayers answered for a price. If the Christian God is real, do you really think he approves being pimped out like that? There's a big donate button on the homepage and he still has his show, The Jim Baker Show, which he co-hosts with his wife Lori. On the About Us tab it says, The Jim Baker Show is an hour-long daily broadcast featuring prophetic and biblical revelations brought to light in today's world. In these end times, God has provided answers and wisdom to be revealed at just the right time.

And that time is now. Give me your fucking money host Jim and Laurie Baker Welcome amazing biblical teachers and prophets to explore and challenge your heart mind and spirit as they examine the world today and God's loving promises How do we prepare for what is to come? What does God tell us about our future? What is your calling during these times join us as we discover the next supernatural piece of the puzzle? Give me your fucking souls, the devil will eat them. Filmed at Morningside in the beautiful Ozark Mountains, Jim Baker's show is aired through multiple broadcasts on DirecTV, Dish Network, and other worldwide satellites. We're also available through Roku on the PTL television network. You can also

watch the Jim Baker show on demand in the video on demand section of your website. Give me your fucking money or God will smite you to hell. Maybe I added the demon talk to his website. Maybe not. In his story, he's also selling subscription packages where you can get more content for a hundred bucks a month. Why would anyone still trust this dumb fuck for salvation after all he's done? It's beyond me.

At this point, if you still give this weasely fuck your money, don't you kind of deserve to be grifted? Let's get out of this timeline. Good job soldier you made it back. Barely. What another ride this story was. A wild ride. How are some people like Jim Baker so good at conning so many people and avoiding punishment for it? I mean, he did go to prison for almost five years, but other than that, for the most part, he just kept getting away with his shit. He's still a multimillionaire today. Has been for most of his life. I hate to say it. He also looks great, especially for an 84 year old.

What a bummer. What a weird way to live your life as well. To just spend like there's never going to be consequences. No matter how much you spend like there's never going to be consequences. No matter how much you spend, more is just going to show up. And it'll just be fixed. God will provide. I hate Frank that he's still alive. I wish he would have died penniless, pennilessly. Or penniless?

Pennyless? There we go. I wish he would have died penniless. Lived on the street his last few years. It would have just provided a much more satisfying ending to the story, like with a better sense of justice. But that's not how the world works, right? It doesn't work according to prosperity gospel teachings. Sometimes really good people do succeed. Other times their life is a constant shitshow.

You can do a lot to increase the odds that your life will work out how you want it to. A lot. But you can never guarantee any outcome, Right? All that simple slogan motivational poster bullshit is garbage. Sometimes really bad people are punished. Other times, oh they just keep winning. They just keep getting away with their bullshit for their whole long lives. Long healthy lives. Despite that reality, I do still like to try and live a good life. To not scam others. I know it won't guarantee me avoiding a horrible fate, but you know what? It feels good. I sleep easier at night You know than I did back when I was a teen delinquent causing mayhem just being an asshole Best little nugget of advice my pop award ever gave me was when I asked him how he can always fall asleep at the drop

Of a hat whenever he wanted and he said clean conscience Let's hope even if we're kidding ourselves. Let's hope that Jim Baker never truly gets a good night of sleep. That his terrible, disgusting lies and scams keep him up at night. That he is, at the very least, haunted by all the horrible shit he's done. Time now for today's takeaways. Number one, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were the driving forces behind PTO, a television show that eventually expanded into a network, a ministry, a theme park named Heritage USA with so many building projects.

My God. As natural entertainers and celebrities, they endeared themselves to millions of fans around the world, but not everything was picture perfect. PTO was almost constantly broke due to constant aggressive maniacal expansion. Number two, one thing that contributed to the fall of PtL besides the massive appropriation of donator funds was Jim Baker's sex scandal. On December 6, 1980, something went down in a hotel room between Jim, John Wesley Fletcher, and a young woman named Jessica Hahn.

Jessica was paid $265,000 to keep silent, but a couple intrepid reporters, already clued in to PTL's bad finances, discovered the story and took it public. After that, numerous PTL employees and higher-ups accused Jim Baker of engaging in other illicit sexual behavior, including with other men, sometimes his employees, sometimes threatening their careers if they didn't have sex with him. Jim responded to the controversy by denying it, then saying he was confused about his sexuality because he'd been molested as a child. But confusion doesn't mean it's right to sexually assault people. And Jim definitely did not live by the love thy neighbor paradigm advocated by Christianity.

And that does make Jim Baker a massive hypocrite. Number three, Tammy Faye Baker. A bit of a confusing figure in all this. She was instrumental in bringing Jim and herself up through the entertainment industry. In an amazing performance in her own right, she pushed the envelope by interviewing people normally left out of the evangelical community, like a gay pastor with AIDS, and encouraged kindness and compassion. She also benefited greatly from all the misappropriated funds. Flying in luxury planes, living in nice houses, having everything she could want at her disposal.

However, she also seemed to crack under the pressure, like when she was hospitalized for nearly overdosing. And then after Jim went to prison, she'd become a gay rights icon. So maybe she was very different than Jim, someone who genuinely believed in the religion she advocated for and wanted to extend love as far as she could. Number four, Jim continued his insanity after getting out of prison, becoming an apocalyptic doomsday fear-mongering asshat who tried to make money off the COVID-19 pandemic. He's still a piece of shit. And number five, new info, it has been estimated that if the PTO club had not toppled Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's empire would have been worth more than a billion dollars by the year 2000. But today Heritage USA remains in a state of decay. Aside from a couple of projects

on portions of the land that have been developed since, the abandoned 21-story Heritage USA hotel stands as an eerie and empty shell looming over the suburban landscape. Only one of its former attractions is still standing and operating, as originally built. The upper room chapel was modeled after a church in Israel, complaining to be the site of the Last Supper. After sitting vacant for years, it was bought, renovated, and now hosts nightly church groups and is open to the public on the weekends. It's celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2021. The current owner seems to think that the reason these structures still remain and not the water park and entertainment facilities is, well, God didn't like those other buildings. So that's cool. Sounds like another

very solid mind is keeping a portion of Heritage USA alive and running. What a weird world we live in. Time Suck Top 5 Takeaways Jim Baker, the rise and fall and rise again of an American grifter has been sucked. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help in making Time Suck. Like Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsay Cummins, Runnin' Operations, Logan Keith recording this episode and designing merch. You can find it at badmagicproductions.com.

And thank you to Sophie Evans who did a great job providing initial research. Thanks to the all-seen eyes, moderating, the cult, the curious, private Facebook page, the Mod Squad making sure Discord keeps running smooth, and everyone over on the Time Suck subreddit and Bad Magic subreddits. And now let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker Updates, which I'm very excited to share with you. Updates? Get your Time Sucker Updates! Okay, last chance to press pause or stop and go back and listen to the Richard Bird Las Vegas Trainger episode before I ruin it for you. Massive spoiler alert coming in 3, 2, 1. Holy shit.

Do we get the most messages we have ever gotten from an episode because of the April Fool's episode that I wrote? And yes, Space Lizards, there was no tech glitch that prevented the episode from coming out early. That was my idea as well. I wanted to reduce the odds of anyone spoiling it for anyone else. And I wanted you to hear it on April Fool's Day. Thank you for all the comments on Patreon, by the way, about how yes, I tricked you, but also how you were very entertained by the trickery. I love that this is a lot of people's favorite episode.

So now for some messages from suckers who got duped. Starting in Winnemucca with Caleb Miller actually got numerous emails from people who either live in Winnemucca now or were born and raised in Winnemucca. Which I did not expect. I didn't know that there was much fans there. So whoops no one seems mad though. This written in. Caleb writes Dear suck master I'm emailing you this because well I have to. Episode 394 hit close to home. Let me explain. My name is Caleb and I have a coworker that turned me on to your podcast about two years ago.

We work 14 hour days and both have most likely listened to every episode of Time Stuck twice. We both work for a large equipment manufacturer as service mechanics. Just so happens to be servicing mining equipment in Northern Nevada and both live in Winnemucca. Headed to work at 4 a.m. in the morning the day after the release of episode 394. We got about an hour and 40 minutes in. Had to pause it. During the whole drive to a mine site between Winnemucca and Lovelock, Nevada, he was absolutely dumbfounded and kept repeating how crazy it all was.

Then to top it all off, during our morning safety meeting, my coworker, Derek, was asking everyone if they've heard of Richard Bird and explained to them the things that he had done. Nobody knew anything about him. Yeah, of course not. And everyone started asking everyone they could and it just started spreading across the mind like COVID. He continually questioned to himself of how strange it felt that he worked and lived in the area we know so well. I was having a hard time thinking that I went to and graduated from Laurie I thought it was strange that I had never heard him before

I was trying especially hard to follow last names because a lot of names have been here for a long time We both fell for it, but at least I was silent about it a few hours later I finished the episode alone and we all know how it ended I could not stop laughing and I plan on keeping it a secret and hope my co-worker does not finish the episode So I can watch the Cummins law continue. I instantly thought I finally have to reach out to Sir Suckington and let him know that you're making an entire mind sight have a Cummins law. I'm absolutely not sorry about the long message considering I listened to two hours of your made-up story and

truly believed it. You got us both. If this makes an episode could you please give a shout out to Derek for introducing me to my first cult and ask if he's mad at me He'll get it Love the podcast can't stop listening and laughing three and a three out of five stars for the podcast five out of five for the cult Sincerely winamucca listener Caleb P.s. Your winamucca slams in the dillinger suck didn't cause you to lose your two winamucca listeners I walked to the same casino thinking holy shit. Maybe the same people that founded this town are the only ones gambling Pps. I did go to winamucca, Lori, Lori High, so my grammar is terrible and I'm not sorry.

Caleb, your grammar is actually great and I love this message so much. It reminds me of another one I got from a guy who wrote in talking about how he's also in Winamucca and how he had been to most of the places I referenced in the episode and was about to drive over to the address I gave for Richard Byrd, his childhood home, which is a real Winamucca address, to check out Dick Turd's old house to see if the shed room was still there when he found out it was all bullshit. I love that this spread all around a mine. I hope some miners there will think Dick Turd was a real serial killer for the rest of their lives. I hope this keeps spreading. So glad you had fun with this and thank you, Derek, for dragging Caleb into this nightmare.

Are you mad at him yet? Are you mad at me yet? Next up, duped sucker, Katie Mays, wrote in with some shed room talk. She wrote, hi Dan, great job on the April's Fools episode. Unfortunately, some butt munches in the Facebook group ruined the surprise for me, but I still enjoyed listening. Your depraved imagination knows no bounds.

I'm writing in because Dick Bird reminds me of my cousin. Not the murder or hairbrush stuff, or even the pancake batter, but the shed room part. I won't name my cousin or the town on the very small chance they listen. You see, my aunt and uncle technically squatted in a little rundown farmhouse on the outskirts of town. They never fixed it up. This is so crazy. They never fixed it up even though they both made good money. Actually, they refused to do repairs on the off chance someone would claim the property. In their minds they would have had to waste their money if they were kicked out. The house had a kitchen, dining nook, family room, one bedroom, and a screened in front porch. My aunt, uncle, and my three cousins all lived there and squalled her for years. All three kids shared the only

bedroom and my aunt and uncle slept in a double bed squished into the bedroom closet. My cousin, let's call him David, was the youngest and the only boy, so when he came of age he could no longer share a bed or bedroom with his sisters in order to avoid issues that are more prevalent in West Virginia. So my aunt went to Home Depot and bought a 10 by 12 shed. My uncle cut a hole in the side of the house, stapled the shed to the hole. That is where David spent the next six years, until he graduated from high school and moved out. He had enough room for a single bed, his x-box, a couple bins of clothes, and a string of mini lights. He had a space heater for the winter and a fan for the

summer. He was living the dream. Not my dream, but a dream nonetheless. Didn't you have a sort of shed room at one point? Am I remembering that correctly? I just wanted you to know that you and Dick Bird aren't the only shed people out there. Ha ha! There was an entire community of at least one real person and one imaginary person who are just like you. I'm sending a pic of my cousin. He looks eerily like you.

You have a long lost shed son. Anyway, thank you for all the great content. You keep me sane when my hump trophies slash kids are out of control. Sending lots of love to you and Lindsey Katie. Katie, I laughed so fucking hard when I first read hump trophies. That's maybe the best nickname for kids I've ever heard. That's golden.

And my God, your shed room cousin does look a lot like me. That is hilarious. Also, your aunt, uncle are fucking crazy. But also maybe geniuses. I mean, I'm sure they saved so much money and clearly no one cared about that house because no one kicked him out. Who owns that place? Like who just doesn't care about it? Does no one pay property taxes? Or I guess it went into foreclosure and it's just totally abandoned. I'm confused. And yes, you're correct. I

did stay in a shed room the last two years of high school. That's definitely what inspired that little twist with Dick's upbringing. And again, so glad you enjoyed it. Now a Dick Turd update from the real Detective Bowen who writes, good evening you ravenous pack of assholes at TimeSuck. My name is CJ Bowen and I've been a cop for 18 years in the city of Yonkers, New York. Think Son of Sam and DMX. Great references. A few years ago I was promoted to detective and I'm currently in charge of missing persons investigations but I'm also responsible for a few other things like youth arrests sex offender management Please just kill them all and community outreach events among others

I've been listening to your show pretty much since it started and I have never for one second fall in front of your bullshit before And then this episode comes out and it is totally 100% Believeable it even features a guy named detective Bowen I was ready to tell everyone I've ever met about this hero, Detective, you piece of shit. Even the hairbrush and the ass stuff seemed plausible. I guess I should have surmised, after all the Sparta buttfucking, that it was still rattling around in your brain. Extremely well done, you fully got me.

Anyway, while I have you below, I've included a Dropbox link of a talk I gave a couple years ago about the serious damage that being a police officer does to people. Part of what I do in my unit for community outreach is to go around and give talks on various topics like cyberbullying, edibles, vaping, heroin, opioid awareness. My department, which is relatively small compared with large cities, still has more than 600 members and it has lost an average of an officer a year to every single cause of death that pervade law enforcement. Drug, alcohol abuse, suicide, heart disease, car accidents, COVID, etc. I try to share this information with every single new officer that gets hired and also

to any local groups, organizations that I can. On that video is a mix of people from a non-profit and members of various departments from around the country. I know you've covered this topic to some extent before, but if you can give it a watch, I think it'll resonate with you. I also highly recommend you read the book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Dr. Kevin Gilmartin. He was a therapist at the same time as he was a police officer and he actually studied his colleagues. He's been an expert on the topic for something like 50 years. I feel like after I tell people this info, it provides some insight into what we go through and it has literally changed some of the negative opinions they hold out there today. Thanks for making learning entertaining

enough that it consistently appeals to wide swaths of people each week whether you read this on the show or if it even meets your eyes just know I appreciate your hard work and either way go fuck yourself. Thanks Detective Bowen. Detective Bowen, the real Detective Bowen. First off thank you for the link I did click and watched a bit. I haven't had time for all of it. I love that your wife attended wanted to listen in to your presentation. Thank you for what you do. And thank you for pointing out how emotionally and mentally exhausting performing a public service that has become so fashionable to hate on is.

We hear so much about how officers need to focus on the mental health of the people they deal with, but very little about the mental health of the officers themselves. Like you're not fucking people too. And so glad I finally got you. We had a lot of messages from others who have never fallen in front of my bullshit but ate this one up. Stay safe out there. Thanks for listening and thanks for what you do. And finally a message from Jennifer Bird.

I was really hoping to also get some messages from meat sacks who did not listen all the way to the end. Who were not paying attention when I said I made this up. Jen is one of these people. I could have replied to her and shared that I made it all up, but where's the fun in that? And she wrote, hey, suck master, loyal spaces are here, Jen Bird. I'm used to hearing you make fun of my husband's first name, so many dicks, but I never expected to hear my husband's

first and last name on an episode. Thank Nimrod, no relation. When we got married, I didn't expect to have to spell my new name as often as I do. And I've been annoyed at times, but now I'm expect to have to spell my new name as often as I do, and I've been annoyed at times, but now I'm thankful for having to spell my last name to distance myself from this week's psycho. My Richard goes by Rich, but his grandpa went by Dick Bird. My husband loves to tell the story of asking his grandma if she loved her husband, and she replied, Oh, I love Dick. So glad serial killer Dick isn't well known. Yeah

that would have made the jokes about my husband's name so much worse in college and he's only weird because I made him that way. I pulled it out of him. Seriously this marriage better continue going strong for many moons because he cannot be released back into the wild. I'm also glad you're taking care of yourself. Burnout's a terrible feeling. Oh yeah I feel so much better now. All my best to you and the rest of the Bad Magic crew. Three out of five stars. Wouldn't change a thing. Jen. Jen, I love that you actually married Dick Bird. And yeah, the serial killer name, you know, is not well known. No one had ever heard of him before April Fool's Day. Thank you for this message. Thanks for all the messages, everyone.

They continue to pour in and they have been so enjoyable. They made spending all the many hours pulling that joke off so worth it. Thanks, Time Suckers. I needed that. We all did. Thank you for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast. Scared to death and Time Suck each week. Short Sucks, a nightmare fuel on the Time Suck and Scared to Death podcast feed some weeks. Please don't spend money you don't have this week because you think that God will just make it okay. And then when things aren't okay you just ask for donations

to fix your fuck-ups. How about you at least try to live inside your means? I mean you know I don't know about you but I would eventually break down like Tammy Faye did under the stress of constantly putting myself deeper and deeper in debt because I just won't quit trying to create and buy more shit I don't actually need. Also, pretty cheap to just keep on sucking. TARAS SUCKING Ad Magic Productions Sing along again with Suzy Moppet! and magic productions sing along again with Suzy Moppet This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine Cause I'm rich and God loves me the most

Jimbo's got a real naughty dick He's gonna let it shine That motherfucker is out of control He's gonna let it shine Pretty sure he's fucking the crew He's gonna let it shine Pretty sure he's fucking the crew He's gonna let it shine He's gonna keep on fucking Cause God loves him the most Poor people are going to hell They're not gonna shine

Poor people don't even have souls They're not gonna shine You're gonna fuck poor people whenever you want They're not gonna shine, they don't have souls So fuck them whenever you want Woohoo!