Skip to main content
You’re viewing our refreshed design —  Switch to the previous design ↗
Adv.
Home Item #729833
Televangelist Jim Bakker sentenced in 1989...
5 photographs · click to enlarge ⤢ Open zoom view

Televangelist Jim Bakker sentenced in 1989...

Item # 729833 ·
LOS ANGELES TIMES, Oct. 25, 1989 

* American televangelist Jim Bakker sentenced to prison
* "The PLT Club" television program w/ Tammy Faye 

The top of the front page has a two column heading: "Bakker Gets 45 Years in Prison" with subhead and photo. (see images) 
Complete with all major sections (80+ pages), very light toning to upper half of the front page, very nice condition.

Background: The October 24, 1989, sentencing of televangelist Jim Bakker stands as a unprecedented watershed moment in American legal and religious history, marking the first federal prosecution and conviction of a major television evangelist for defrauding his followers. U.S. District Judge Robert D. "Maximum Bob" Potter handed down an exceptionally severe penalty: a stunning 45-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine after Bakker was convicted on 24 felony counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. The extraordinary nature of the punishment reflected the sheer magnitude of the scam, in which Bakker oversold more than 150,000 "lifetime partnerships" for his Praise The Lord (PTL) ministry’s Heritage USA theme park—raising over $158 million for lodging perks that could not be honored—and diverted millions to fund an outrageously lavish lifestyle consisting of luxury homes, mink coats, and air-conditioned dog houses. Beyond the unprecedented severity of the term for white-collar fraud, the proceedings were uniquely notable for Judge Potter’s scathing rhetoric, where he openly declared that the court was "sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers". This rare judicial outburst ultimately proved to be the sentence's undoing; in 1991, a federal appeals court upheld all 24 criminal convictions but vacated the 45-year term specifically because Potter's religious bias violated due process, leading to a drastically reduced sentence and Bakker's eventual release on parole in 1994.  
Category: The 20th Century
Price
$58
100% Authentic: Original printing, never a reproduction.