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In the 1980s, televangelism was reaching its peak, and Rev. Peter Popoff was one of the best.
He traveled from town to town preaching to packed auditoriums and performing miracle healing acts where he would select random members of the live audience, channel the spirit of God, and cure them of their ailments. "God told me, he said you smite that cancer with your fist." Cancer, arthritis, diabetes, thyroid problems, Popov could cure it all with just the shake of a fist or pat on the head.
People watched in amazement as he would snatch the cane from an old lady's hand, throw it onto the stage, and demand her to walk. And so she would, and the crowd would go wild.
At one point, Peter Popoff was performing these miraculous feats in front of millions of people on more than 90 television channels and radio stations across the country.
He was collecting more than half a million dollars per month from the astonished onlookers willing to support the cause and the hopelessly destitute searching for a miracle. Popoff's new methods afforded him a lifestyle that was a far cry from his meager beginnings as the son of a German preacher, but it wasn't entirely out of character for the man he claimed to be.
In his 1980 memoir, Thor tells of how he had dropped styrofoam-wrapped Bibles into the Black Sea in hopes that they would wash up on communist shores, and how he would use balloons to deliver gospel pamphlets from the banks of Finland to the people in the Soviet Union. He also tells a story of how people in Eastern Europe would walk 150 miles just to hear him preach. Clearly, Peter Popov is not a man afraid to exaggerate, but if somehow, someway, he truly has the gift to heal people, maybe we should just let it slide.
In 1986, Peter Popoff's ability to heal caught the attention of a magician named James Randi. Randi was a well-known skeptic who, in the previous decade, had exposed a mind-reading, spoon-bending psychic named Uri Geller as a fraud.
Randy debunked Geller's telekinetic powers on national television, revealing the feats to be nothing more than simple illusions, and he had a hunch that Peter Popoff's healing powers were no different. James Randy began hanging around Peter Popoff's live events, hoping to gain some insight into the preacher's mystique and the people who came to bear witness. In a piece he wrote for Wired magazine, Randy recalls a heartbreaking scene of one family who had driven eight hours to attend one of Peter Popoff's events.
The family was hoping to meet the reverend and ask that he heal their disabled son who was unable to walk. Randy describes watching security deny entry to the family because as Randy theorizes, the son was not the kind of disabled person who could demonstrate even the slightest sign of recovery, unlike the obvious plants who were routinely chosen to participate. So they were turned away and barred entry from the event again. This was the fifth pop-off event that the family had tried to attend and it would be their last.
because they had spent every last dollar following Peter Popoff around the country trying to receive a miracle for their son. James Randi remembers seeing the family return to their beat-up car with tears streaming down their faces with their defeated son falling closely behind on his worn-out crutches. It was that scene that confirmed James Randi's suspicions. Peter Popoff was a fraud, and he came up with an idea on how to prove it.
At a later Popoff revival event, James Randi and his team snuck into the venue carrying a radio scanner and a tape recorder. They listened as Popoff launched into his act. He had received word from the heavenly spirit that there was a woman in the audience in need of help. When the radio scanner was powered on, James Randi switched through the frequencies until he heard a voice, but it wasn't the voice of God. Hello, Petey, can you hear me? If you can't, you're in trouble. John, is it... John? John?
Dearie Johnson. She wants to get rid of the walker. You want to get rid of this walker, sister? Oh, glory. How long have you been walking on that walker? About three years. Three years. She lives at 1627 10th Street. 1627 10th Street? Is that right? That's right. She has arthritis all over. Burning this arthritis!
That voice belongs to Liz Popoff, Peter's wife.
Peter's wearing a tiny radio receiver in his ear, and Liz is feeding him information from the prayer cards that the congregation filled out before taking their seats. The random names delivered straight from God's mouth to Popoff's ears weren't random at all. This was not divine intervention, just devious, unabashed deception. And James Randi had it all on tape, a tape which he eventually played for the world to see on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Popoff defended himself by claiming that he was only wearing the earpiece because he was filming for television and that it's typical for a host of a TV show to wear one. But his reasoning fell on deaf ears. Public opinion had soured. His organization filed for bankruptcy and about a year later, Peter Popoff disappeared.
Peter Popoff wants you to know that God can reverse every negative verdict in your life. You don't have to live a life sentence of lack and defeat. You can be free to enjoy all of God's richest blessings. That's why he wants to send you your free packet of Miracle Spring Water, your point of contact for the miracle you need. Now in a larger size. Call the number on your screen today and get your free packet of Miracle Spring Water.
Isn't it amazing to see what God is doing? In the past decade, if you've ever spent a sleepless night on the couch, mindlessly flipping through channel after channel of late-night television infomercials, you've probably come across Reverend Peter Popoff hawking his wares. He's back, peddling everything from Revelation stones to gold-colored ribbon bracelets to essential oils.
all of which have been anointed by Popoff himself, blessed by God, and endowed with the power to straighten a crooked spine or erase a mountain of debt. And Peter Popoff wants to share these gifts with you. If you'll call during this program, I want to send you this beautiful...
And the best part? It's free.
but not really. In exchange for a clean bill of health and unending riches, Popov asks for a quote "gift of love, faith, and obedience to God," otherwise known as a donation. In fact, the donation is actually a requirement if you want the prosperity and healing powers to work. Popov claims that if a donation is not received, Jesus will revoke his blessings like some kind of spiritual repo man.
Recently, Peter Popov has been buying airtime to promote a product called Miracle Spring Water, which he claims was bottled from a spring in southern Russia that the Christians drank from after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl. According to Popov, those that ingested the water from the spring were protected from the fallout. None of them died or suffered any illness as a result of the radioactive contamination. And if you drink the water from that same spring, you too will be blessed. All of your dreams will come true.
you can get rid of that wheelchair and start walking again and you'll finally be able to afford that new car that you've had your eye on and that drug addiction that will become a thing of the past
All you have to do is pick up the phone, give Reverend Popoff a call, and send him $19. Four years ago, I sent and seen you on TV and I sent for your water. And I drunk your water. God took care of all. I don't take no medication no more. And what about your cocaine addiction? I don't even smoke cocaine no more. Four years later. But wait. Before you dial that number, you might want to hear this.
A former donations processor who worked for Peter Popoff named Crystal Sanchez unveiled the true origin of the Miracle Water in her 2013 book titled "The Real Truth Behind People United for Christ." That's the name of the organization that Popoff owns and operates. According to Sanchez, the Miracle Spring Water does not originate from a magical spring somewhere in Russia. No, the Miracle Spring Water originates from Costco.
Sanchez knows this because she worked at Popoff's organization for almost five years, and she witnessed Popoff's daughter make the trip to Costco every week. The Miracle Spring Water is nothing more than Nestle-owned, Poland Spring brand ordinary bottled water, which is repackaged into plastic pouches and shipped to the most vulnerable members of our society in exchange for their hard-earned dollars. And those hard-earned dollars come pouring in. Crystal Sanchez recalls counting as much as $30,000 in one day.
and that's just what she counted by herself. She worked in a room with 20 other donation processors who were tallying similar amounts. Sanchez describes removing money and gold and anything else of value from envelopes, sorting it by type, and discarding the rest. Anything that wasn't valuable was shredded without hesitation, including handwritten pleas for help, prayer requests, and the occasional bag of dog shit. In 2006, Peter Popoff and the People United for Christ were generating more than $35 million a year.
He drives around in a Bentley, which he parks at his $4.5 million home in Bradbury, California, a home which is conveniently owned by the church, resulting in Popoff not paying a dime in taxes. Popoff still holds revivals all across America, but they aren't publicly advertised. Only those on his mailing list are given notice when he's coming to a town near them. This ensures that the crowd will be full of believers, full of easy money, and the skeptics will be left out in the cold.
Popoff arrives to these towns with his wife and kids in tow and performs the same old tired act, except now he relies on his magical products more than his magical hands. "I took your holy water and I put it in my son's shoes. I put it in his bed, I put it on his pillow, and my son joined the church and he got saved and he's still in the church. And then I got $3,800 and new furniture."
If you were to attend one of Popoff's events, you would hear testimonial after testimonial of people drinking magic water and randomly receiving a check in the mail. And believe it or not, those checks are real. Popoff believers actually do receive money in the mail because Popoff is the one sending it to them. You gotta spend money to make money. That's the cost of doing business. And it's not like his audience doesn't know about his previous scandal. They know, but they forgive him.
Forgiveness has always been a major tenet of Christianity, a tenet that's been routinely abused by charlatans and manipulators to get right back into the good graces of audiences, and subsequently right back into their wallets. It's a tenet that's been routinely abused by hypocrites and liars to pick the pockets of those who have nothing there to begin with. And the worst part about it, it's not illegal, unless you get greedy, which is exactly what happened to Reverend Jim Baker, a false prophet in search of profits.
falls from grace as a result of his involvement in fraudulent activities and multiple sex scandals on this episode of Swindled.
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From this moment on, the PTL Television Network plans to broadcast television and radio nonstop 24 hours a day until the second coming of Jesus Christ. In less than 10 years, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker went from college dropouts to owning their own television network.
The couple met at a Bible college in Minneapolis in 1960, got married, and began traveling the country as Pentecostal evangelical preachers, a life that seemed to suit them well. Tammy had grown up poor with seven brothers and sisters, a single mother, and no running water. She was used to getting by with very little. And Jim, he enjoyed the entertainment aspect of preaching. He liked to put on a show.
As a teenager, he would produce variety show style fundraisers and DJ the high school dances. In 1965, the Bakers travels landed them in Virginia, where they joined Pat Robinson's Christian Broadcasting Network to host a puppet show for children. Jim's talent and ability to fundraise were immediately recognized.
The success of the puppet show led to Jim being handpicked to host CBN's primetime talk show called The 700 Club.
Jim hosted the show for about five years, but after repeated disagreements with network owner Pat Robertson, Jim resigned from his duties, and he and Tammy packed their bags and headed for Hollywood. A year later, in 1973, the couple launched their own version of the 700 Club called the Praise the Lord, or PTL Club, which included Jim and Tammy's daily religious talk show.
The show debuted on Channel 46 in Los Angeles, and in less than two years, almost 50 television networks nationwide were broadcasting the show. The PTL Club was exploding in popularity. You're watching PTL, The Inspirational Network.
By 1978, less than five years after the show's debut, the PTL Club was collecting more than $120 million a year from its 13 million dedicated viewers. This rapid growth allowed the Bakers to expand their budding Christian entertainment empire, and they launched their own PTL satellite network, which broadcasted 16 hours of new television every week, and they built a brand new headquarters called Heritage Village on 2,500 acres of property in North Carolina.
PTL immediately became the second largest employer in Charlotte, employing almost 3,000 people. The rapid growth of PTL also allowed Jim and Tammy Faye to live an extravagant lifestyle. The couple owned matching Rolls Royces. Tammy alone spent thousands and thousands of dollars on clothes, and they traveled by private jet with an entourage to their various vacation homes, which included a $375,000 condo in Florida, where the Bakers had reportedly stayed for less than three weeks in total.
Even though it was obvious to everyone around them that the Bakers were living a life of excess, Jim would routinely take to the airwaves to assure PTL's viewers that any profit generated by the network would be reinvested to spread the word of God. Well, the PTL television network is growing every single day. And I believe God has established this network as a base to reach the world. I believe every penny...
that comes in over and above the actual minimum cost to keep us on the air and the budget needs to go to world evangelism and world missions. But the hundreds of millions of dollars that PTL was generating would not be enough to cover the cost of implementing Jim Baker's ultimate vision, a vision that would ultimately lead to his downfall.
No matter where you're from or what you like to do, if you're looking for fun, excitement, or just relaxation, ask somebody how to get to Heritage USA. Heritage USA?
In 1978, Jim Baker unveiled his plans to build a premier destination spot for Christians called Heritage USA. It would be a Christian-themed amusement and water park with a residential community and hotels, motels, and campgrounds. It would be built in Fort Mill, South Carolina on 2,300 acres with the total projected cost of $25 million. $25 million that Jim Baker's nearly billion-dollar organization apparently could not afford without some help from his loyal viewers.
He sent a letter to past donors detailing his plight to fund the construction of his dream. He offered what he called lifetime partnerships to 25,000 people in exchange for a $1,000 donation. These lifetime partners would receive guarantees of up to three nights of free lodging at Heritage USA every single year for the rest of their lives, which seems a bit overly generous, but Jim Baker was desperate, or so he claimed.
Part of the letter read, quote, End quote. Every penny, huh? That's interesting. Because the same week that that letter was sent out, unbeknownst to his audience, Jim Baker had purchased a brand new houseboat for $30,000.
But in a matter of days, all 25,000 lifetime partnerships had been purchased and the Heritage USA project was fully funded, or was it?
God doesn't want us to turn back now. We've come too far by faith. $24 million has already been paid out there for the greatest Christian center, retreat center, conference center, never anything like it ever been built in history. Now, what do you do? Well, when in doubt...
Build something more. Well, 30,000 more lifetime members will bring in $30 million. The $9 million we need, let's just round it out because my math is not real good. We'll just round it, $10 million to finish the grant. We've come this far by faith. Why can't we finish it and see a miracle in 30 days? Oh, hallelujah!
Surprised by the response of the initial offer and ignoring advice from his counsel and business associates, Jim Baker announced that he decided to build an additional hotel at Heritage USA. He raised the additional $10 million easily, so he kept going, and he didn't stop until PTL had raised over $158 million for more than 150,000 people.
Meanwhile, the local media had begun to scrutinize the Baker's fundraising and management tactics. In 1979, the Charlotte Observer published multiple stories questioning the funding or lack of funding of PTL's international commitments. Baker had promised to provide the audio and video equipment needed to create a TV station in Korea, and he raised $350,000 specifically for that project. There were similar promises made to Brazil and the Middle East, and Jim Baker never delivered on any of them.
We found that he had said that $350,000 was sent overseas when in fact we could find no trace that any of that had been sent overseas. That's what the FCC began investigating at first. These allegations got the attention of the Federal Communications Commission who subpoenaed Baker for questioning at a closed hearing. The FCC had the power to revoke PTL's broadcasting license and without a license, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's money stream would dry up.
Needless to say, this was a very serious matter. In response, Jim Baker accused the FCC of having an anti-religious agenda. What we want is what every American wants, a right to worship our God as we want to do. We do not want this church or any other church destroyed or intimidated by the government.
and in order to protect America's freedom of religion and to help protect Jim Baker from the harassment inflicted upon him by the government. He held a telethon on his network and raised $22 million from his viewers. The closed hearings lasted weeks. Jim Baker spent a total of 11 days on the stand. Under cross-examination, the FCC reported that Baker's versions of events were contradicted 81 times, 36 of which were cases where he had contradicted himself.
Baker accused the FCC of trying to trap him into misspeaking. Today I spent...
I'd guess over six hours on the stand. So what areas were covered today in the hearings? Mainly the missionary projects. They talked about Korea. It would seem to me that we talked mainly about Korea, Asia for Christ for much of the day. We just go from one thing to another just hour after hour after hour after hour of answering questions until...
It seems like they're trying to trick me, trying to get me to say something. And then after they question all these things and they throw a paper for me to verify, and it has the answer on it that they were trying to get me to state. Jim Baker ultimately ended up blaming PTL's failure to promptly and properly fulfill its overseas commitments on former missions director and PTL vice president Robert Manzano. And even though he threw his friend under the bus, Baker at least felt a little bad about it.
I did something today that I've never done before. I betrayed a Christian brother because the judge ordered me to. He killed me. I will never publicly betray an enemy, let alone a friend. The hearings adjourned, and FCC Commissioner Larry Bernstein submitted a report that contained evidence of false testimony, misstatements in testimony, possible perjury, and a recommendation for public hearings.
The report was sent to the desk of new FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, where it sat for weeks before being returned to Commissioner Bernstein with requested changes. In total, nine passages were revised, 134 sections were deleted entirely, and the entire report had become completely watered down. When it came time to vote on conducting public hearings on PTL, the commission voted no, with one commissioner changing her vote at the very last second, and Larry Bernstein resigned in disgust.
He had a feeling that this was going to happen, considering Chairman Fowler had been appointed by Ronald Reagan, who had just been elected by relying on the support of American evangelicals, a sect seemingly willing to believe anything as long as it's what they wanted to hear, a sect who appeared to be immune to skepticism, and by all accounts, still are. Jim Baker escaped the FCC investigation scot-free, and he returned his attention to his true passion. Hello, everyone. No, not her.
Yeah, that's it. Although the construction of Heritage USA had not been completed, the park opened to the public and was attracting nearly 6 million visitors per year. Jim Baker was thrilled with the results and spent much of his time working on the project. Tammy Faye joked, quote, Heritage USA has become Jim's mistress. I wish there were another woman. I could at least compete with that.
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In 1981, another government agency came knocking on PTL's door.
This time it was the IRS, and they wanted to perform an audit on Mr. Baker's books. That's why an audit of Jim and Tammy, you know, if that's necessary, we'll have one. History will prove the Bakers were honest people. The audit revealed that over $13 million in revenue had incomplete accounting records, and that Jim Baker's salary was doubling every year, along with massive bonuses. When faced with the evidence, Baker wondered if maybe, quote, the devil got into the computer somehow.
Well, we've paid millions of dollars in income tax. I don't know how they can get income tax evasion. But again, because of the Republican administration's close relationship with evangelical Christians, nothing happened. It would take over six years before any action was taken, and many surmise that the only reason any action was taken at all is because something happened that forced both Republicans and Christians to distance themselves from Jim Baker.
In 1987, reports surfaced that Jim Baker and fellow preacher and colleague John Wesley Fletcher contacted a 21-year-old church secretary named Jessica Hahn on December 6, 1980, to hire her for a babysitting job in Florida. Baker and Fletcher paid for Hahn's flight from New York to Florida and met her at a hotel. The report states that while at the hotel, the two preachers drugged Jessica Hahn and raped her for 15 minutes. She was then forced to sign a statement denying the attack.
and was paid $265,000 in hush money from PTL's funds. Jim Baker admitted to the affair but denied the rape accusations. He claimed that the sex was consensual and he was able to keep the story buried for almost seven years. Once the scandal became public, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker resigned from their positions at PTL and went on the air to announce their departure. "Tammy and I are so very glad that we've been granted this opportunity to talk with you today."
And we want to say to you that we are so very, very sorry. People standing with us all over and saying, "Jim, we do forgive you. We forgive Jim and Tammy of all of their sins. And we're so thankful that God has forgiven us." We don't know what the future holds, but I can assure you Jim and Tammy someday
Two months later, Jim Baker was defrocked by the Assemblies of God and the PTL Ministry filed for bankruptcy. Other televangelists from around the country jockeyed to fill the vacuum that Baker's absence had created in the industry. Stepping out of the shadow of Jim Baker was a huge opportunity. And where there's opportunity, there's money to be made.
One of the preachers who spoke out was Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, who claimed a moral superiority over Jim Baker by telling an interviewer that the only woman he had ever kissed was his wife. Then we got this soap opera that's being carried out live down in South Carolina all under the name of God. And my business is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm not in the amusement park business. I'm not in the live soap opera business, and I'm not in the water slide business. Less than a year later, Jimmy Swaggart was photographed standing next to a prostitute outside of room number 7 at a cheap motel in New Orleans. The son of Marvin Gorman had taken the photographs. Marvin Gorman was a preacher whom Swaggart had exposed for having several extramarital affairs, affairs which led to Gorman's defrocking by the Assemblies of God.
Catching Swaggart in the act was Marvin Gorman's retribution. When the photos were released, the prostitute Deborah Murphy began to reveal details about her relationship with Jimmy Swaggart. She claimed to have seen the preacher over 20 times, with him paying her no more than $20 per session. She said her initial encounters with the preacher were very vanilla in nature.
he would masturbate in the car in front of her or encourage her to do different poses while he watched he would just well he more or less do the same thing you just want to watch me pose do different poses for him he would want me you know just right at first that was about all it was was posing then later he wanted me to start using a sexual toy and on myself and he'd want me to
Debra might not have known anyone that could join in on the fun.
But it turns out, Jimmy Swaggart already had another woman, or child rather, in mind. You know, I mean, a lot of things he wanted to do was normal, because a lot of guys like that. They like for you to pose and stuff like that. The only thing that wasn't was when he started to get my daughter involved. He had seen a picture of her, you know, because I always kept my room. He had seen a picture of my kids, and he'd start off asking me questions like, he'd say, well, you have a nice family, and he would say,
"Well, can I meet her sometime?" At first I didn't really say too much to him, you know, because I just thought he was just being nosy. And then he started asking me questions like, "Has she started to develop in her private parts?" And I said, "Well, no, she's only nine years old." And then he started asking me questions like, "Well, can I meet her and tell her, and we tell her that he's a photographer, and maybe I'll take pictures of you, and then she'll get, you know,
How do you say it? Used to them. Comfortable. Yeah. And maybe participate in it. And I just, you know, when he started bringing that up, you know, I said, hey, don't talk about my daughter. Usually, allegations of attempted prostitution of a child would be enough to destroy any career. Unless you're a preacher, apparently. Without revealing any details of a scandal, Jimmy Swagger gave a tearful and televised confession of his sins. I have sinned against you, my lord.
And I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgetfulness. Thank you. Thank you. And God bless you. And it worked. His congregation forgave him. And Swaggart maintained control of his $12 million a year church until he was eventually defrocked three months later. But even that wasn't enough to stop him.
Swaggart was still a preacher, still making money, and still picking up prostitutes. A vehicle that Swaggart was driving was pulled over in California on October 11, 1991. There was a prostitute named Rosemary Garcia in the passenger seat, but this time Jimmy Swaggart had no interest in confessing his sins. He told his congregation, quote, The Lord told me it's flat none of your business, and he refused to hand over control of the Sun Life Broadcasting Network, which he still owns and operates to this day.
While the hypocrite Jimmy Swaggart and his congregation were busy demonizing innocent sex workers back at PTL, Jim Baker and the new head of PTL, Jerry Falwell, were busy demonizing each other. The media frenzy surrounding the rape scandal involving Jessica Hahn unearthed some interesting dirt on Jim Baker. Allegations of wife swapping and homosexuality had come to light, as well as illegal acts such as embezzlement.
A grand jury was convened to determine if there was probable cause to prosecute Jim Baker. Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell, who was handed temporary control of PTL until Baker's return, was thrown fuel onto the fire and banned Jim Baker from ever returning to the network. He called Baker, quote, "...the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history."
In response, Baker accused Falwell of organizing a coup to take over the PTL ministry. We hope that that will be, that investigation will be extended to take in the illegal takeover of PTL. They actually literally, the con game that was used to deceive us and to steal PTL from us. Falwell denied attempting to take over PTL, and he responded by holding a press conference of his own.
Jerry also used the press conference as an opportunity to give Jim Baker some advice. He needs to come clean about Jessica Hahn and repent. He needs to acknowledge that
These homosexual problems dating back from 1956 to the present time as they've been alleged to us. And he needs to return the millions of dollars. And he wasn't finished. Falwell then read a list of demands dictated by Tammy Faye Baker in response to the ouster of her husband from the network that he had created. This is dated May 6th. From the desk of Tammy Baker. This is her letterhead card from the desk of Tammy Baker.
On the back, Rose said, "Jerry, Jim and Tammy gave me this list of things they'd like to receive: hospitalization insurance, Jim's salary for a lifetime at $300,000 per year, Tammy's salary for a lifetime $100,000 annually, rights to books and records, stock that is left, books and records, secretary for one year, phone bill for one year, house on the lake and the furniture in it, two cars, security,
attorney fees for our internal revenue service problems. Suggest that James Robinson be the host, keep the marriage workshops, and we want a maid for one year. I don't see any repentance there. I really don't. I don't see any concern for the welfare of this ministry in that kind of request. I see the greed. I see the self-centeredness. I see the avarice that brought them down.
And for the grand finale, Jerry Falwell went into detail about the allegations levied against Jim Baker and the decision to ban him from the network. Jim Baker called me on the phone Sunday night, May 17th. Two months had passed. He said, Jerry, I want to ask you to hand the ministry back to me, as you promised, in Palm Springs on March 17th. I said, Jim, assuming it was being taped or someone might be listening in and it was for the record, I said, Jim, here's what I want to say to you.
when I was there March 17 and confronted you with the story I had heard that you had raped some girl in Florida in a hotel. You advised me in a private meeting that you did not rape anyone, but that in fact your wife at that time was in love with another man. And you were trying to win her love back and hoping to make her jealous. John Wesley Fletcher, per your request, brought a 19-year-old girl down from New York named Jessica Hahn.
You told me that when the door was closed and you and Jessica were in that room, that if anyone raped anyone, she raped you. She began to undress you. You were at that moment temporarily impotent, so obviously you could not have intercourse with her. You told me that 15 minutes later you were in the shower saying, weeping and saying to God, "Oh God, I've been with a whore." We came back into the room where several people were, including Mark DeMoss, Jerry Nims, Pastor Dortch.
We came into that room and we were there six hours totally, not 25 minutes. And in that six hours, somewhere along the way, you said, "Jerry, I want you to take the ministry." And I asked you the question, "Why do you want me to take it?" You said, "You're the only preacher I trust right now." Those were his words. Jim, since that time I have learned that not only did you have sex with Jessica Hahn, so did your associate, John Wesley Fletcher.
And a third person, a member of your team, went in with the intention of having sex with her and she was prostrate and on the floor and unable to respond and could not accommodate him. And I've learned, Jim, that two weeks after that in Hawaii, you went to that person and asked the question, "Did you get her too?" And Jim, that made my blood boil. Later, I have sat across the table from men who have told me of their, of your homosexual advances.
And since then, of course, I have learned of the fiscal irregularities. And Jim, I must tell you that I would be doing a disservice to God. As much as I love you and care for you and will pray for you, I would be doing a disservice to God and to the church at large to allow you to come back here now or ever. Jim Baker was never one to shy away from the spotlight. So, of course, he responded. I'm a gentleman.
Believe me, he is a gentleman. And he does not say things like, did you get her too? That is not even in Jim Baker's vocabulary. And I agreed with my wife we would not discuss this problem again publicly, and I'm just not going to do it.
And here's Jim Baker discussing those problems publicly. I have never been involved with white swapping. Never. I'm not a homosexual. And I've looked into the homosexual charges, and I would again say if anyone has these charges against me, I want them to come forward publicly with this proof. I've been married to this man for 26 years, and I can tell you one thing, he's not homosexual or is he bisexual. He's a wonderful, loving man.
So far as we looked into these charges, I found one man said I gave him a homosexual look. I wonder what that is. That's one of them. The other one said he walked in and I was having a rubdown in a locker room where there was naked men. Well, I don't know if this man had ever been in a locker room before, but there's saunas and showers and locker rooms, the people would be naked there. But there's no substance to these charges.
During the grand jury hearings, it was revealed that Jim Baker had homosexual relationships with at least six male employees of PTL, including John Wesley Fletcher, the man who introduced Baker to Jessica Hahn. During the grand jury, John Wesley Fletcher answered no comment when asked if he had ever had a sexual relationship with Jim Baker. But a few months later, during an interview with Penthouse magazine, Fletcher confirmed that he did, in fact, have sex with Jim Baker, albeit reluctantly, on three separate occasions.
He told the magazine, quote,
Heritage USA only had 258 rooms available. The government further alleged that out of $158 million collected to fund the construction of Heritage USA, at least $3.7 million was pocketed by Jim Baker for personal use. If convicted, Baker was facing a maximum penalty of 120 years in prison and more than $5 million in fines. The trial began in August of 1989.
And just like everyone expected, it was quite entertaining.
Four days into the trial, Jim Baker's attorney found his client lying in the fetal position with his head under a couch in his office, sobbing and muttering to himself, "Please don't do this to me." Baker claimed that he was suffering from hallucinations and he claimed that everybody in the courtroom had shape-shifted into giant ant-like creatures. The trial was suspended and Jim Baker was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation.
Dr. Sally Johnson, the chief psychiatrist at the Butner Federal Correctional Institute, reported that Baker had suffered from a panic attack and that evaluations did not find any severe mental disease or defect. Quote,
I can't rule it out that it won't happen again, but I can't rule it in either. The trial resumed two weeks later, and Baker's defense team did its best to explain why he had taken such large amounts of PTL money for personal use at a time when his ministry was crashing down to earth. They introduced the theory that Jim Baker was in fact possessed by demons when he helped himself to the funds, a theory that elicited giggles from the courtroom while federal district judge Robert Potter buried his face into his hands.
On October 5th, 1989, after only 10 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Jim Baker of 23 counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy, but he still maintained his innocence. I went into the courtroom innocent of the charges against me, and I come out today still innocent of the charges against me.
At a sentencing hearing about three weeks later, Jim Baker apologized, saying, quote,
Judge Robert Potter, who had earned the nickname "Maximum Bob" during his career, defended the sentence saying, quote: "Those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests. Worst of all, it appears that Mr. Baker feels that he was deserving of his gains from the little people who sent in their savings." Baker's sentence would later be reduced to eight years in 1991. He was granted parole and released from prison after only five years.
leaving him free to pick up right where he left off, which is what he planned to do. But this time, it would be without his wife, Tammy Faye. She had filed for divorce in 1992. Even after standing by Jim's side throughout all of the scandals, she couldn't take it anymore. In a letter she had written to a church in Florida, while Jim was still in prison, she said, quote,
Tammy eventually remarried to a property developer named Roe Messner, and she would return to the public eye sporadically as a C-list celebrity, before dying at her home in 2007 from colon cancer. PTL, the organization and television network the Bakers had founded, had also died, even though Jerry Falwell had raised enough money to save it after the Baker scandals, and taking a celebratory waterslide in his suit at Heritage USA.
ptl's financial problems never went away and made it impossible to rebuild as for jim baker he's back he returned to televangelism in 2003 with a new show and a new wife but a different message instead of preaching prosperity jim baker now preaches about the end times and how to prepare for them your silver and your gold is going to be worthless that's right so people have been storing away silver and gold for the last days yeah
The only thing that you are going to want when these times come is going to be food to eat. And that's why we've spent our ministry for the last years putting together this food for survival. Instead of free lodging at theme parks, Baker now sells freeze-dried foods by the bucket, literally, and other survival products like a $15 tool to open said buckets and flashlights, shovels, duct tape, and microwaves.
He terrorizes his audience with tales of apocalyptic cannibal neighbors to convince them to buy 400 pancakes at a time. And he rails against the liberal agenda and promotes Donald Trump like an angry baby boomer addicted to Fox News. There's coming a time when that's when he said the Bible says there will be no food to eat. And if you do...
get any food, you have to sign over to the Antichrist. That means you've sold your soul to the devil. And you say, oh, it will never be that evil. What's going on right now?
Half of America hates Jesus Christ half of America wants to destroy the president because he's standing up to save babies that he stands up for Religious freedom right at all. This is this is what's really really sad and it's time to be prepared Because it's coming a time when it will be too late to get ready. Absolutely. I hear them crying. I
I've heard them crying for years. And God said, what will we do? What will you do if these babies are starving? Other people, your neighbors, your sweet, sweet neighbors. The Bible says they're going to eat their arms. The Bible says they're going to eat their babies. Then it says they're going to eat their children. That's what people do.
when they get hungry. Listen, I think maybe Trump is here to give us time to get ready because all hell is going to break loose and we're not going to have the Antichrist show up to get the sign of the mark of the beast on our forehead. It won't happen without hunger is going to be the main thing. You don't get it. Most people don't want to get it. But that's why I'm so obsessed with you all being prepared.
Trump is not crazy. No, no. They want him to be crazy because they want to impeach him. There's nothing they can impeach him over because this thing with the collusion with Russia, they can't prove. But they want to say this man's crazy. And they're trying to get doctors to say the president's crazy. I'll tell you what, if they go through with that, there will be a...
If anybody can recognize stupidity and insanity, it's Jim Baker. But to his credit, every now and then, he does have moments of clarity, like this one here during his final show with Tammy Faye in the 80s.
where he reminds his audience that although things can seem awfully dark at times, lightness and love and hope will soon return. You know, I've walked through this yard, Tammy, and the sun has been shining and yet a song's been going through my head. The sun will shine again. And you say, but the sun is shining. But in our world right now, it's cloudy and dark. I believe, Tammy.
Because the God I serve is still God. I believe the sun will shine again. Do you want to sing it? I'll do it. Can you do it? I sure will. All right, Tammy Faye is going to sing a song for you. Maybe you're hurting and you need this song today too. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with music by Ethan Helfrich, a.k.a. Rescue Sleeping Giant.
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