US televangelist Jim Bakker dies at 86
The death of Bakker, whose journey from the TV pulpit to a prison cell in the 1980s was announced on social media by his second wife, Lori Bakker.
"It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening," she wrote on the Facebook and Instagram pages of her husband's latest television
ministry.
She added, “For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry.”
But the cause and circumstances of his death were not revealed.
Bakker rose to prominence alongside his then-wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, through their Christian television programme, The PTL Club, which they launched in the 1970s.
The programme grew into a large religious broadcasting empire, while the couple also developed Heritage USA, a Christian theme park and resort in South Carolina.
Bakker had been among the most popular of the Christian preachers who thrived on US television in the 1980s, achieving fame on the show "The PTL Club." PTL stood for "Praise The Lord" and "People That Love."
Bakker spent 4-1/2 years in prison after being convicted in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1989 of defrauding followers in a scheme involving vacations at his Heritage USA Christian theme park and resort.
Prosecutors painted him as a selfish and petty con man driven by greed and lust for power.
"Those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests," Judge Robert Potter told Bakker before sentencing him.
Bakker had quit the PTL ministry in 1987 after revelations of a 1980 sexual encounter with Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary who later posed nude in Playboy magazine, and a subsequent $265,000 payoff with ministry funds to gain her silence.
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, his first wife, had started with a small TV ministry and eventually created a multimillion-dollar operation with 2,000 employees and the 2,300-acre (930-hectare) Heritage USA complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
At its peak, the PTL ministry drew 13 million viewers on 200 TV stations and raked in $129 million a year.
Bakker was convicted after a six-week trial in federal court on all 24 fraud and conspiracy charges brought against him.
Prosecutors said he defrauded followers of $158 million by selling promises of lifetime annual vacations that he could not provide.
They said he siphoned $3.7 million to bankroll a lavish lifestyle that included several homes, luxury cars, mink coats, diamonds, servants - and an air-conditioned dog house.
The judge ordered Bakker to 45 years in prison, but the sentence was later reduced. "I have sinned," Bakker told the court. "I have made mistakes. But never in my life did I intend to defraud anyone."
Bakker's chief aide, Richard Dortch, served 18 months of an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to reduced charges in exchange for testifying against Bakker.
Tammy Faye was never charged. She stood by Bakker at the trial - even singing to reporters after his conviction - but divorced him in 1992 while he was in prison. She died of cancer in 2007.
