[11], In 1976, the church relocated to Dyer, Arkansas, where Susan had grown up. In the early 1940s, Susan moved west to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. At the time, Susan was married to Coies late father, Solomon Samuel Lipowitz, whom she described as a good man and a prizefighter who was also a mobster. They named the group the Alamo Christian Foundation before forming the . The only thing thats ungodly is if you have a statue of another God., I tried to make the marriage work, Miss Gyllenhammar said. Schriver, Debby. Mr. Alamo presently has the ability to have the body produced.. The total number of wives he has accumulated is unclear, to be sure. He was working as a music promoter. I called the State Department to look out for my former wife in case she applied for a passport, Amrhein said. He was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman on September 20, 1934, in Joplin, Missouri. 1986-03-06 Press Argus Courier Alamos second wife says theyre not divorced Theyd been tipped off by three former members, all men whose sons had been taken to California after their ex-wives married other Alamo Church members. Mrs. Alamo had temporary custody of the two children. Our website includes affiliate links, which means we get a small commission -- at no additional cost to you -- for each qualifying purpose. She later claimed her husband beat and drugged her and demanded she undergo plastic surgery to make her look like Susan. She married Tony, who at the time was a fugitive, in hiding from charges of felony child abuse in California. The Alamo Christian Foundation was an American cult founded in 1969 by Christian evangelist Tony Alamo and one of his wives, Susan Alamo. "They did not leave a paper trail," said Tampa police Detective Grady Snyder. They also ran a nationwide network of lucrative, church-owned businesses, authorities said, including a distributor of designer denim and leather jackets, studded with rhinestones, that sold for $1,000 or more. (Diane Elana Williams Alamo testified against Tony in the IRS trial which could account for the revenge of taking Kenyas wife and his hatred of the child). The Alamo Christian Foundation last year lost its status as a tax-exempt religious organization and is now treated as a for-profit group by the IRS. Between 1986 and 1990, the preacher remarried twice. He remained in prison until his death in May 2017 . Members could stop by the compound in Dyer, from its perch looking out over the Ozark Mountains, and view the embalmed body of Susan Alamo. His efforts succeeded in having the high-end jackets designed by Tony Alamo and manufactured by unpaid cult members removed from a majority of clothing stores on Hollywood Boulevard and in bringing the abuses of the cult to the attention of the local media. 72201. Communal living was a staple of the Music Square Church. He had his fist clenched and started making noises. She believed a miracle would save her. Elizabeth Mercado Unofficial wife of Tony Alamo. Click on the link above to open the article, Fashion designer claims he wont sign legal papers even though he married another woman. Alamo to Return Body of Wife after 7 Years. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,July 24, 1998, pp. The program also charges Tony Alamo with being a child abuser, polygamist and pedophile. Executive summary: Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. By the time the church was at its height in 1980, they had their own television ministry and were bringing in tens of thousands of dollars each week. You are here: Home | Preacher Tony Alamo Told to Return Wifes Remains. In November of that year, the judge sentenced him to 175 years in prison. He became unhinged and, convinced he could raise her from the dead, kept her embalmed body on display for six months with members of his church praying around it. Alamo quickly declared bankruptcy, and his related businesses collapsed. When Amrhein was arrested last week in New Orleans for trying to leave the country, her marriage license was reportedly not certified. Read our Privacy Policy. Alamo was convicted on June 8, 1994, on one charge of filing a false income tax return and three charges of failing to file a tax return. Alamos attorneys kept the issue before the courts from 1985 to 1992, arguing that church-owned enterprises were exempt from federal income taxes because they were churches in disguise. I made sure he was properly dressed. Alamos church also lives, if in a far smaller and less organized fashion, said several sources including Alamos own lawyer. Ten would be convicted on ten counts, all related to trafficking underage girls across state lines. When Bernie, sometimes called Mark, met Susan in 1965, they were both on their second marriages--at least thats what he told her. Alamo had the body of Mrs. Alamo removed from the tomb. They made a record together, and they cant sing. He keeps his life private but we will mention it as we found. The Arkansas compound had much in common with Jonestown, the South American outpost run by Jim Jones that resulted in 909 deaths by cyanide poisoning on Nov. 18, 1978. The girls grew up in Fouke, Arkansas, where they lived on a compound. The ministry has buildings in Moffett and Muldrow. Pebbles agrees: I dont think it will ever be easy. At one time, Alamo owned as many as twenty-nine businesses in nearby Alma, including Alamo Western Wear, as well as Alamo Restaurant and Alamo Discount Grocery. Meanwhile, lawsuits filed by former church members accused the couple of controlling their flock with intimidation and beatings. His motions allege that Spears cannot objectively judge the case because he was endorsed by local newspaper editor Jack Moseley. Alamo claimed that he and his followers had no assets and were living hand to mouth; he also apparently issued a death threat against Arnold, though he was later acquitted of that charge. They scooped up runaways and drug users off the streets of Hollywood, giving them food, shelter and fundamentalist religion tinged with anti-Catholic and anti-government messages. She didnt hink he will hold on to his wealth much longer. It was also extremely anti-Catholic, only accepted the King James Version of the Bible, and its members adhered to a moral code which condemned and forbade the use of drugs, homosexuality, adultery, birth control, and abortion. Major support provided through a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. DEAR ABBY: I am in love with my best . As young girls, Amy Eddy and her best friend, Pebbles Rodriguez, did not have any control of their lives. In 1966, after serving jail time for a weapons charge, Alamo married Edith Opal Horn from Alma (Crawford County), also of Jewish descent. Additional support provided by the Arkansas General Assembly. Her body was taken to the foundation's compound on a ridge overlooking the town of Dyer, Arkansas, where Susan Alamo was born as Edith . The Ravening Wolf. Intelligence Report, Fall 2007. Copyright 2023 Empire Media Group, Inc. Front Page Detectives is a registered trademark. Tony was heartbroken. Born Bernie Hoffman, the boy from Missouri wasnt an average preacher. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2018. But look who he married? One of the fathers, Robert Miller, had previously overseen the churchs trucking company and alleged that Alamo had embezzled $100,000 from it. For additional information: . Amrhein called the Press Argus Courier this week after cult awareness groups sent him clippings that have appeared in this newspaper. One of the ex-communicated fathers also claimed Alamo had embezzled up to $100,000 in church funds from their trucking company. Pre-European Exploration, Prehistory through 1540, European Exploration and Settlement, 1541 through 1802, Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood, 1803 through 1860, Civil War through Reconstruction, 1861 through 1874, Post-Reconstruction through the Gilded Age, 1875 through 1900, Early Twentieth Century, 1901 through 1940, World War II through the Faubus Era, 1941 through 1967, Divergent Prosperity and the Arc of Reform, 19682022, https://www.villagevoice.com/2008/05/13/the-barely-legal-empire-of-tony-alamo/, Divergent Prosperity and the Arc of Reform (19682022). Alamo formed the cult way back in 1969 with his wife Susan when he was a flamboyant preacher on the streets of Hollywood. She had just turned 16 years old. Said Hutchinson: We get their literature on our windshields about every Sunday morning.. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. As the government painstakingly made its case for tax evasion, Tony was fighting legal battles on multiple fronts. Tony Alamo was born on 20 September 1934 and his place of birth was in Joplin, Missouri, US. Factories are calling me and asking me why he doesnt pay his bills. The U.S. State Department isnt sure either if Alamo and Amrhein are married. He was heard on over a dozen radio stations in the U.S. and more in Africa, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. 2023 Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Offers may be subject to change without notice. He claimed that he recorded a hit record single in the early 1960s, Little Yankee Girl, and that he was asked to manage musical acts including the Beatles, the Doors, and the Rolling Stones. Eddy was 14 and Rodriguez just 12 when they. The flashy evangelist did business in the backwoods of western Arkansas, but when the law caught up with him, he was living in Tampa, Florida, where he ran a restaurant and regularly broadcast religious talk shows. If hed married Brooke Shields I would be jealous. Gordon, Ronald J. Original Design by Gurpartap Singh, Eye Witness & First Hand Accounts of Abuse, Tony Alamos second wife says theyre not divorced, 1986-03-06 Press Argus Courier Alamos second wife says theyre not divorced. Tony Alamo (1934-2017), American founder of the Alamo Christian Foundation Antonio Alamo, Jr., known as Tony Alamo, American physician and Nevada gaming official This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. The child on the right is Lizzy and Alamos daughter, Antoinette. In this paragraph, we have covered all details of his relationship and wife in this article. Theyre messed up children, Amrhein said. Jeanne, Amy, Desiree and Nikki were all born into the Tony Alamo Christian Ministry, which, some say, is a cult. But he had to go back to his mother the day before his birthday. When he was a teenager, Alamo left Joplin for the West Coast. He built her a heart-shaped mausoleum, and the church kept her body on display. Its putting closure to it, finally, said Alamos stepdaughter, Christhiaon Coie of Reseda, who sued Alamo literally over her mothers dead body and for whom the legal decision represents a symbolic burial of her mothers and her tortured past. The full weight of the crimes hed committed was finally coming to light, and in 2014, a judge from Miller County, Arkansas, ruled in a case brought by seven ex-cult members. History: In California in February 1993 Tony Alamo took Lydia , an African American, as a second wife. Tony Alamo, a Jewish kid from Joplin, Missouri, met his perfect match when he first laid eyes on the woman of his dreams in Hollywood. It would turn out this marriage would be forever for only one of them. While Alamo was tied up in the courts on federal tax evasion charges, other allegations were levied against him from various quarters. She is seeking a sizeable monthly alimony so she can take care of the bills she claims he hasnt paid. In the official record, Tony Alamo is listed as a pastor. Association chose him as entertainer of the year in 1985. Im not jealous. Welsh, Adam. It would later be determined that the church was mostly optics, as it became the way an increasingly erratic and unhinged Tony evaded paying any taxes on his growing fortune. Her name was Brigitta Gyllenhammer, and she lasted two years before divorcing him. In July 1998, he was transferred to a Texarkana halfway house, from which he was released on December 8 of the same year. Specific details about his death were not immediately known, though he reportedly suffered from a number of health problems, including diabetes and a 2011 heart attack. Around the time of his wifes death, Tony changed the name of the church and consolidated its power. The term 'cult expert' is not protected. [13], In 1991 the federal government confiscated the property, finding when its agents arrived that Susan's body had been removed. He is very talented. Over the years, Alamo has alternately admitted and denied that he knew of the corpses whereaboutsmost recently maintaining he had no control over the theft or return. Lydia and Tabor are no longer in associated with the group or Tony Alamo. In 1976, the U.S. Department of Labor brought charges against Alamo for violations of the Fair Labor Standard Act. Probably the strangest incident surrounding Tony Alamo Christian Ministries had to do with the body of Susan Alamo, who died of cancer on April 8, 1982. [1][2] He was 82 years old. Amrhein is involved in a custody fight over her two children from a previous marriage but her marriage to the Alama-based minister is being called into question because Alamo's second wife, Birgitta Gyllenhammar, 43, says she is still waiting for him to sign the divorce papers. (Listed if other than Religion News Blog, or if not shown above), Leslie Berger, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1, 1995, http://www.latimes.com, cults use a method that experts now refer to as coercive control an act, Updated Israeli police have arrested man whom they suspect of leading a violent cult community, The upcoming trials of the last three Aum Shinrikyo cult members will inevitably revisit the, The Cult Information Centre, a UK charity that warns people of the dangers of cults,, 'Fatal Attraction' star Glenn Close has told New York Magazine that she was well-equipped for, After 25 years in operation, the Cult Information Centre in England fears it may no, A panel of academics and professionals from Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Services will, South Australia's chief prosecutor is calling for new laws to thwart the rise of cults. But no. The assistant said there were many Scriptural reasons why they divorced. When Bernie LaZar Hoffman was born on Sept. 30, 1934, in Joplin, Missouri, he wasn't born into a particularly religious household. Miss Gyllenhammar says when the romance cooled, he would often beat her. Tony Alamo was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman on Sept. 20, 1934, to a Jewish family in Joplin, Missouri. Susan, too, would eventually change her name from the one her parents gave her in Alma, Arkansas. On November 13, he was sentenced to 175 years in prison and also was fined $250,000. He's a convicted tax evader and a flamboyant evangelist who once ran what authorities called a multimillion-dollar, Saugus-based cult. Ive done well. They were awarded the largest sum of damages in Arkansas history $525 million dollars. After a decade of building the church, Susan and Tony moved everyone to Dyer, Arkansas, just outside Fort Smith near the Oklahoma border. History: In 1989 Alamo married Sharon Kroopf (now Sharon Miriam Hoffman), in her late 30s at the time. However, he denies he has more than one wife but several victims have escaped and come forward with the truth. Additional support provided by the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation Inc. In October 2007, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on account of its anti-Catholic rhetoric. Married in Las Vegas, the Alamos soon established their church, also known as the Susan and Tony Alamo Foundation. Following Susans death, rumors spread that he had taken two fifteen-year-old girls as wives. On June 23, 1984, he married Swedish native Birgitta Gyllenhammar in Las Vegas, Nevada, though this marriage ended two years later; she later claimed that Alamo wanted her to have plastic surgery to look like Susan and that he regularly beat and drugged her. Dear Abby: My boyfriend is using me for sex and money. The monthly gross went from $50,000 to $120,000.. History: Just 13 years old when she went to Tony Alamos house and became a wife. She was already married to Kenya Williams (African American) and pregnant with his child at the time. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Nicky, 12, and Amanda, 10, but apparently she violated conditions placed on her by the court. His father was a poor immigrant from Romania who settled the family near Joplin, Missouri in the 1920s. In 1982, his wife Susan Alamo (ne Edith Opal Horn) died of cancer. Church members branched out to begin small businesses within the nearby community of Alma, Arkansas. By. Again, followers worked in these businesses for practically nothing. The imprisoned Evangelist preacher Tony Alamo, who sexually abused young girls he considered to be his wives, has died after serving more than seven years of a 175-year prison sentence, authorities said. Alamos various marriages were controversial and difficult to number. Were free! After he hooked up with Susan, his ambition, combined with her knowledge of Pentecostal life, along with the burgeoning pro-Jesus counterculture movement of the mid-1960s, resulted runaway success. There the church grew to several hundred members and it also established printing facilities, a school, and a tabernacle. Asked about his wealth, Gyllenhammar said she is not entitled to any of his property because all of it belongs to the foundation. The show related his four-year struggle against the Alamo church on the streets of Hollywood. Lets make the most of it.. [11] MSC was granted 501c tax-exempt status in 1981,[16] but this was retroactively revoked by the IRS on April 5, 1996. Hes a riot. Tony Alamo talks to reporters as he is escorted to a waiting police car outside the federal courthouse in Texarkana, Ark. The grounds included a school, a printshop, a tabernacle and a workshop for producing clothing and garments. 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