As one of the most notorious figures of the
'80s, televangelist Jim Bakker re-emerged from a headline-making scandal to stir the
pot with multiple other controversies over the next few decades. This is the shady side of Jim Bakker. Back in the late 1970's long before fellow
televangelist Joel Osteen founded his megachurch — Jim Bakker and then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker
were traveling Pentecostal preachers who created an evangelical puppet show for a Minnesota
TV station. Their modest production caught the eye of
popular televangelist Pat Robertson and, as Christianity Today reported, he helped launch
their own talk show, The PTL Club. An acronym for "Praise the Lord," The PTL
Club was compared by some to The Tonight Show, but for Christian audiences. As the series' popularity grew, so did viewer
donations. The show's former security chief, Don Hardister,
recalled to Christianity Today, "We had a cash office and at times there was
certainly more money in than [...] I could imagine. People would send us mink coats, diamond rings,
deeds. I mean, we got all sorts of donations." For their part, the Bakkers didn't necessarily
try to conceal their newfound wealth. By the consumeristic 1980's, their purchases
rivaled those of the Trump family, with The Los Angeles Times reporting on, quote, "gold-plated
swan-shaped bathroom fixtures" and "an air-conditioned dog house." "And I said 'Oh God'...you know I couldn't
figure out if I wanted a swimming pool or a lake. But I knew we'd never had either and I wanted
one, please Lord!" Suddenly swimming in cash in 1978, Jim Bakker
saw an opportunity to rake in even more dough with a faith-based theme park, and opened
Heritage USA nearby Charlotte, N.C. As Religion & Politics recalled, the project
amounted to a 2,300 acre-sized, Christian version of Disneyland. 10 times larger than Walt Disney's original
park, Heritage USA boasted attractions like the childhood home of evangelist Billy Graham,
a glitzy Vegas-style dramatization of the life and death of Jesus Christ, and a $12-million
water park. There was also a campground, hotels, and even
condos. To fund construction, the Bakkers ended up
selling timeshares or, in The PTL Club lingo, "Lifetime Partnerships", costing $1000 each. Lifetime Partnerships offered fans a few nights'
stay at the park each year. At the time, critics joked that PTL actually
stood for "Pass the Loot." But what the Bakkers' followers didn't know
was that more Partnerships had been sold than could actually be accommodated. Reporter Mark Becker told ABC News, "Problem is, there were way too many people
giving $1,000, not nearly enough hotel rooms." He went on to reveal that the Bakkers had
sold more than 66,000 Partnerships...for a hotel with only 500 rooms. Yikes! "4 days and 3 nights, every year, for the
rest of your life." In 1987, reports emerged surrounding an intimate
encounter Jim Bakker admittedly had with church secretary Jessica Hahn, who was 21 at the
time of the incident, seven years earlier. Washington Post uncovered evidence that Bakker,
who was 20 years Hahn's senior, spent about $265,000 in hush money to buy her silence. She was reportedly even forced to sign a confession
admitting it was she not Bakker who was the aggressor. John Stewart, Hahn's attorney in the federal
court case that followed, said: "That was essentially the straw that broke
the camel's back. She didn't want to live a lie." The media outlet detailed how Hahn eventually
went public, telling her side of the story in a blockbuster interview with Playboy and
then testifying before a federal grand jury. According to her account, she was lured to
Bakker's hotel room by evangelist John Wesley Fletcher, who reportedly told her, quote,
"You're going to do something tremendous for God." Author John Wigger later told ABC News that
Hahn's description of the encounter sounded like it happened without her consent. Jessica Hahn's hush money claim captured the
attention of federal investigators, leading the IRS to poke around into Jim Bakker's finances
in 1987. They uncovered an incredible trove of questionable
deductions, reported The Los Angeles Times, which ranged, "... from a $592,000 oceanfront condominium
in Palm Beach, Fla., to $67,000 in women's clothes and an $800 Gucci briefcase." IRS investigators also questioned a Hawaiian
vacation taken by the Bakkers, which included deductions like, quote "a $350-a-night hotel
suite... a $120 Gucci pen, a $74 toilet kit and a $70 address book." Meanwhile, that Florida condo was purchased
by the ministry for $390,000 in 1982, with an added $202,000 spent for furniture. All told, the IRS called into question more
than $1.3 million worth of improper deductions. If you ask Jim Bakker, his adulterous encounter
with then-21-year-old Jessica Hahn was nothing but a setup. According to The Charlotte Observer, Bakker
alleged that he'd been "wickedly manipulated by treacherous former
friends [who] conspired to betray [him]." But as the scandal caught fire, the disgraced
televangelist stepped down from PTL, handing over control to Reverend Jerry Falwell. While Bakker saw his resignation as a temporary
measure to keep him out of the spotlight until the scandal blew over, things didn't turn
out that way. The Washington Post reports that Falwell dug
into the ministry's finances and was shocked by what he supposedly found. He claimed of the financial discrepancies,
quote, "We don't know the depth of the problems." Fearing there would be, quote, "staggering"
revelations to come, Falwell confirmed that $265,000 in hush money was indeed given to
Jessica Hahn, paid out of church funds. In light of this new information, Falwell
took permanent control of PTL and removed Bakker from his own ministry, barring him
from ever returning. A shocked Tammy Faye Bakker told The Post, "We don't know what we're going to do with
our lives. Jim's almost numb." Things were about to get even worse for Jim
Bakker in the late '80s. As The Washington Post reported, Bakker was
indicted by a federal grand jury on 24 charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiring
to defraud the public in 1988, following a 15-month investigation. "The more you give to the church, the richer
you'll become. God bless you, praise the Lord." Also charged in the indictment was former
PTL Executive Vice President Richard W. Dortch. Meanwhile, a separate indictment charged Bakker's
former special assistant, David A. Taggart, and his brother, James H. Taggart, who was
described as an interior designer for the ministry. Each was charged with 11 counts of tax evasion
and conspiracy to impede the IRS. In its indictment, the grand jury accused
Bakker and Dortch of conspiring to fund their, quote, "lavish and extravagant lifestyles". Stating that the case, quote, "has nothing
to do with religion," the chief of the Justice Department's fraud section, William E. Hendricks
the Third, told The Post that it was rather about, quote, "the fraudulent sale of spaces
in hotels and other lodging." In 1989, The Charlotte Observer reported that
Jim Bakker was found guilty of all 24 counts of fraud. According to The Los Angeles Times, the disgraced
televangelist received a sentence of 45 years in a federal prison, eligible for parole after
10 years. The sentencing memo requested that Bakker
be ordered to pay restitution, with unsettled claims adding up to about $100 million. He was ultimately fined $500,000. Bakker told the judge ahead of his sentencing, "I'm deeply sorry for those I have hurt. I have sinned. But never in my life did I intend to defraud." As stiff as the sentence was, Jessica Hahn
still felt it wasn't severe enough, saying to The Los Angeles Times, "In my opinion, I still feel like it won't
add up to the years that people worked to save up money to give to PTL." While Jim Bakker was serving his time, his
lawyer successfully waged a campaign to reduce his sentence to 18 years in 1991, reported
The Los Angeles Times. Bakker said at the time, "I ask all that I have hurt to please forgive
me. I have asked heavenly God to please forgive
me and now I ask this court for human forgiveness." One person who wasn't feeling so forgiving,
however, was the televangelist's wife, Tammy Faye Bakker. Eleven months after her husband's initial
sentencing, she issued a statement to People: "I AM EXPERIENCING MANY EMOTIONS as I write
to you today. Great sadness, fear of your rejection, and
relief that I am able to be totally honest with you. I do not expect your understanding, but please
try not to react cruelly. Jim and I are getting a divorce." On Mar. 14, 1992, the Bakkers were officially
divorced.Tammy Faye was granted full custody of their then-16-year-old son, - future “liberal
preacher” Jay Bakker. According to The New York Times, Jim Bakker
was released from prison in 1994 and placed on parole after serving just about five years
of his 18-year sentence. Having lost his ministry, his wife, and his
reputation, Bakker decided to write a book. Two years later, he released I Was Wrong:
The Untold Story of the Shocking Journey from PTL Power to Prison and Beyond. For Bakker, it seemed the book represented
a dual opportunity: a chance for damage control and a quick profit. He claimed to have atoned for his many sins,
alleging that prison had given him time to contemplate the error of his ways. Money, he said, had corrupted his soul. Bakker wrote that he became physically nauseated
while studying The Bible behind bars, when he realized that the prosperity gospel he'd
been preaching was actually, quote, "contradicting Christ." The book, ABC News later noted, also saw Bakker
insisting that his encounter with Jessica Hahn was consensual, despite her insistence
that it was anything but. According to The Jim Bakker Show's website,
Bakker had been doing, quote, "inner-city outreach" at a Los Angeles church in 1998
when he met fellow minister Lori Graham. They got married less than two months later,
after which Graham, who took Bakker's last name, told The Charlotte Observer the couple
was initially broke. In the early 2000s, Bakker and his new wife
launched The Jim Bakker Show. Originally broadcasting from a converted Branson,
Missouri restaurant, Bakker launched a new ministry, The Morningside Church, where local
members and viewers alike were invited to donate online. As Bakker rebuilt his brand, Lori told The
Charlotte Observer, "People are smart enough to know he went to
prison for a crime he didn't commit." "I'm not going to let people turn me back. I'm not going to let...you can make fun of
me, that's OK. That's your problem, that’s not mine." The Charlotte Observer reported that the Bakkers
had moved their modest operation in Branson to the small Missouri town of Blue Eye in
2008 but a major expansion was underway. Millionaire Jerry Crawford bankrolled the
Bakkers, allegedly paying $17 million to buy 800 acres of land, as well as for the construction
of the Morningside Church, from which The Jim Bakker Show would broadcast. The ambitious project, in addition to the
main building, also included 100 condos. That's right: condos. Sound familiar? According to The Jim Bakker Show's website,
this new venture Morningside USA wasn't just a worship center, but also included shopping
facilities, a camping and RV park, restaurants, hotels, and cottages. Also onsite was the Morningside School of
Media, presumably set up to train the next generation of televangelists. With his new TV show came a new shtick: "Judgment is coming...it's coming…" Jim Bakker went from telling his followers
that God wanted them to be wealthy to sharing dire warnings that humanity must prepare for
the looming apocalypse. The Charlotte Observer reported in 2018 that
his new message was, quote: "We are in the final days." Of course, Bakker offered a solution: buckets
of freeze-dried food and survival gear. As The Daily Mail reported six years earlier,
these products ranged from generators and vitamins to a, quote, "Silver Solution" enema
kit. The items Bakker pushed the hardest, however,
were his food buckets. One of these included 60 freeze-dried meals,
with dishes like black bean burgers and buttermilk pancakes all for the not-so-low price of $2,275. While the CDC has instructed that one of the
best lines of defense against coronavirus is washing your hands, Jim Bakker made headlines
when he offered another remedy. According to CBS News, The Jim Bakker Show's
website offered a pseudo-scientific product called "Silver Solution" sold in four 4-ounce
bottles for $80. This product sold in February 2020 was promised
to diagnose and even cure COVID-19. Naturally, the FDA caught wind of this phony
coronavirus treatment and sent a letter warning that these unproven claims were in violation
of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. After receiving the FDA's notice, Bakker and
Morningside Church Productions were sued by the state of Missouri for being in violation
of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. The lawsuit also pointed out that there is,
quote, "no vaccine, pill, potion or other product available" to treat the virus . Bakker's
not the only celeb to dish out unhelpful advice amid the coronavirus pandemic, but he at least
heeded the FDA's warning to take the liquid silver solution off his website. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your
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