Dortch earned $620,000 between January 1986 and March this year, the newspaper said. The Bakkers received $4.8 million in salary, bonuses and other payments between January 1984 and last month, according to the Charlotte Observer, which cited an unnamed source with access to ministry records.
The letter, never sent, was to have been signed by Swaggart, Ankerberg and Falwell.īakker, 47, and his wife have remained in seclusion since he resigned as president of the PTL ministry in March. Some people aren't forthcoming with documents."Īnkerberg last March drafted a letter to Bakker and PTL authorities, confronting Bakker with his sexual liaison with Hahn. "In the month that has elapsed since the last board meeting, I and my firm have been charged with ferreting out facts. "Rumors have always been in the air, but as far as convincing proof, I have not seen anything. "It's everything except cannibalism, isn't it?" he said of Ankerberg's list of charges, which also included drinking, prohibited in the Assemblies of God denomination. "Our agenda for Tuesday suddenly bulked up," said PTL counsel Grutman yesterday from New York, referring to the scheduled meeting in Fort Mill, S.C., when results of internal investigations at PTL may be disclosed. He said his "witnesses" agreed to testify in court if necessary, and said some have appeared before Falwell and officials of the Assemblies of God, under which Bakker is ordained. He gave no specifics, but said many top officials in the PTL organization knew about the funds.īakker's successor, Dortch, was aware of this and "covered it up," Ankerberg said. Tammy Baker, he said, knew of her husband's infidelity and at one point attempted to leave him.Īnkerberg also told King that PTL staffers he would not name were involved in misappropriation of funds. And I've investigated those and people that were there, and the people that ought to know have said thay they have been witness to the fact of homosexuality on his part," he said on CNN. He also said, "There were rumors of homosexual episodes. just a few weeks ago called some of the board members and said, Jim Bakker doesn't have AIDS." On those programs, Ankerberg claimed to have evidence of homosexual encounters involving Bakker, "wife-swapping" by PTL employes winked at by Bakker and other officials, misappropriation of funds and visits by Bakker to a massage parlor. John Ankerberg said in a telephone interview early yesterday morning after appearances on Larry King's CNN interview program and ABC "Nightline." "We'd heard talk that Jim Bakker was going to try to come back to PTL Monday," the Rev. Jim Bakker to recapture his multimillion-dollar PTL empire, a television evangelist has launched a media campaign accusing the exiled preacher of homosexual encounters and using female prostitutes.