What really happened to Jim Bakker in prison? The televangelist who once had gold swan faucets ended up cleaning prison toilets for 12 cents an hour. This is the story of the Jim Bakker trial in 1989: a witness who collapsed on the stand, Jim Bakker found hiding under a couch in his lawyer's office, the psychiatric evaluation at Butner, and the photo of him led away in handcuffs in tears. Then came the guilty verdict on all 24 counts and a 45-year sentence from "Maximum Bob" Potter.

Jim Bakker died on October 5, 2026, at 86, exactly 37 years to the day after the verdict that sent him to prison. Inside FMC Rochester he reportedly served alongside Lyndon LaRouche, watched Tammy Faye Bakker divorce him and marry Roe Messner, read the Bible cover to cover, and renounced the prosperity gospel in his book "I Was Wrong." Then came the appeal, the resentencing, Jesup, Georgia, his parole in July 1994, the halfway house, and the Dream Center in Los Angeles.


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