Jim Bakker

American TV evangelist who built up a huge fortune before he was indicted on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1987. He was born prematurely, was always small in stature and was raised in a strict Christian family. After Bible College, he was ordained a minister in 1964. He met Tammy Faye LaValley in 1960 while they were both still in school; after they married the became traveling evangelists.

In 1965, they went on TV where he played on his boyish innocence and appeal to claim divine healings and to solicit donations. He built his PTL (Praise The Lord) ministry into a $129 million a year business, with company purchased mansions, cars, jewels and trips. They also sold fraudulent "partnerships" in a theme park. His autobiography was published in 1976 and was entitled "Move That Mountain!"

Bakker's house of cards began to collapse when church secretary Jessica Hahn reported his seduction and betrayal in 1980. When the investigation began, he faced a possible 120 years in prison and a $5 million fine for siphoning $3.7 million from the business to live like Croesus. He was also accused of homosexual encounters. In May 1987, he tearfully confessed on TV to his tryst with Hahn and was defrocked. Charles Shepard won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigation of the PTL with his book "Forgiven," which was published in September 1989.

Convicted in October 1989 of fleecing his flock to a total of $158 million, he went to federal prison in Jesup, Georgia. He was released to a half-way house in July 1994 after serving 4 1/2 years behind bars and on 1 December 1994, he was a free man. He moved to a secluded North Carolina farm where he worked as a handyman and wrote a memoir, "I Was Wrong," published in 1996.

"I never planned to minister again," he said. In 1998, he visited the Dream Center in Los Angeles, a hospital complex associated with the L.A. International Church.