Jim Bakker Took Their Life Savings. This Is What Happened to Them

They were retirees, widows, farmers, and young families, and they trusted the man on their television screen. In the 1980s, more than 150,000 ordinary Americans sent Jim Bakker $1,000 each for a PTL "lifetime partnership": a free vacation at the Heritage Grand Hotel at Heritage USA, every year, for the rest of their lives. He promised to stop at 25,000. He sold more than 66,000 for the Grand Hotel alone, plus bunkhouse memberships for buildings that were never built. This is the true story of the PTL lifetime partners, the people who paid for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's empire, and what happened to them after it collapsed. Jim Bakker died on October 5, 2026, at 86, exactly 37 years to the day after a jury found him guilty on all 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. Follow the partners through the 1989 Jim Bakker fraud trial in Charlotte, the shocking words a federal judge used about the partners who defended him, the 1990 class-action verdict for nearly $130 million, the accounting firms they took to court, the fine print on their membership cards, the man who bought Bakker's air-conditioned doghouse, and the strange ending nobody saw coming. 🔔 Subscribe for the real stories behind the legends, every week. 💬 Would you have forgiven Jim Bakker if he had taken your money? Tell us in the comments. #JimBakker #PTL #HeritageUSA