Sharon Ast-Kroopf-Hoffman Legal wife of Tony Alamo. The Alamo Christian Foundation was an American cult founded in 1969 by Christian evangelist Tony Alamo and one of his wives, Susan Alamo. Their wives had remarried more loyal subjects of Alamo, and their families had relocated to California. Coie said that when she was trying to leave the sect years ago, her mother and stepfather tried to keep her there by threatening to take away her young daughter. Her name was Brigitta Gyllenhammer, and she lasted two years before divorcing him. Gyllenhammar is seeking a five-figure monthly alimony as part of her settlement. $50,000 reward offered in two-year-old Delaware cold case murder can you help catch a killer? Alamo to Return Body of Wife after 7 Years. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,July 24, 1998, pp. Alamo was charged was violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, went to court, then countersued all the way to the Supreme Court. Even so, why werent my children in school last week? [16], Tony Alamo was arrested numerous times, beginning with an illegal weapons possession charge in 1966 for which he served time before he married Edith Opal Horn,[15][11] and culminating in his 2009 conviction on ten counts of transporting minors as young as 9 years old across state lines for sex. When Alamo saw Amrhein at the hearing the evangelist appeared upset. According to Alamo, while he was in a meeting at a Beverly Hills investment firm, Jesus came to him and told him to preach the second coming of Christ. Tony Alamo was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman on Sept. 20, 1934, to a Jewish family in Joplin, Missouri. Between 1986 and 1990, the preacher remarried twice. [9], Tony and Susan Alamo founded the Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969 in Hollywood, California. [11] The church's projects included Nashville's largest country and western clothing store. The court concluded Alamo also owed another $5 million to ex-members for unpaid labor. Hes a convicted tax evader and a flamboyant evangelist who once ran what authorities called a multimillion-dollar, Saugus-based cult. She later claimed her husband beat and drugged her and demanded she undergo plastic surgery to make her look like Susan. Association chose him as entertainer of the year in 1985. Tony Alamo died in prison on Tuesday night. He was heard on over a dozen radio stations in the U.S. and more in Africa, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. I took care of his business. New congregants signed on, then the church transported them to a rural location of Agua Dulce, California, about an hour northeast, for a hot meal and a sermon. Tony also faced charges relating to his late wifes body. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, Christian Cult Leader and Child Sex Abuser Tony Alamo Dies in Federal Custody. Click on the link above to open the article, Fashion designer claims he wont sign legal papers even though he married another woman. 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. Encyclopedia of Arkansas 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. [1][2] He was 82 years old. Acting upon reports of child abuse, on March 25, 1988, sheriffs deputies raided the Saugus, California, compound in order to reunite three boys with their natural fathers; the fathers had been members of the Arkansas compound but had been excommunicated. Jeanne, Amy, Desiree and Nikki were all born into the Tony Alamo Christian Ministry, which, some say, is a cult. . He claimed Satan was behind the continuous, relentless government prosecution and that he was the ultimate victim. 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. Pebbles Rodriguez claims Alamo married her in 1999 when she was 12. Creating an account gives you access to all these features. Now Tony . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. This is how he shows his gratitude? The child on the right is Lizzy and Alamos daughter, Antoinette. But after Susan died in 1982, Alamos behavior turned more deviant as he extolled the righteousness of polygamy and marrying young girls. With the labor of their followers, the Alamos turned their church into a hefty financial empire, even as many members had to scavenge food from supermarket dumpsters and were forbidden from flushing the toilets more than every two or three days. In September 1994, the Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee sentenced Alamo to six years in federal prison in Texarkana, Texas. Today, the girl born into the Alamo church is a grown woman, as is her younger sister, and Coies pride in both her daughters is immense. Around the time of his wifes death, Tony changed the name of the church and consolidated its power. Both Tony and Susan were impressive on the stage: he with eye-catching outfits and musical ability, she with fiery sermons and deep faith. History: In California in February 1993 Tony Alamo took Lydia , an African American, as a second wife. She said last week that the financial award from her suit against Alamo, if it comes through, might see her daughters through college, or help pay her lawyer Charles Karr, whom she credited with sticking by her throughout the bizarre body case.. He still hasnt paid me for the clothes he bought from my store in December 1984. He wont sign the papers.. But she died a hard death and what she did is between her and God, and what hes done is so apart from anything human, anything decent. Amrhein, who owns a real estate agency, said Alamos followers have gone to Huntington to pass out literature that says Amrhein beat his children and is emotionally unstable. He lost the suit as well as an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985, the same year that the IRS retroactively revoked the tax exempt status for his church for the years 1977 to 1980. Picture taken in 1993. They have a son, Tabor, together. U.S. District Judge Morris Arnold, finding that they had indeed been abused, later awarded damages to the boys in question. "Tony was more, I think, the face of that organization, it looks like," Anthony said. Additional support provided by the Arkansas Community Foundation. Then in 1991, as federal authorities moved to seize the churchs myriad assets, the mausoleum in Dyer was broken into and Susan Alamos body disappeared. Although Alamo was unable to bring his wife back to life, he intends to keep the controversy over her body alive in court, according to Coie and one of her lawyers, Asa Hutchinson of Ft. Smith. Amrhein said he suspected his former wife might flee the country to avoid the custody hearing in West Virginia next week. Theyre messed up children, Amrhein said. [11], In 1976, the church relocated to Dyer, Arkansas, where Susan had grown up. Members usually lived in a commune and worked at an Alamo-owned business, turning over much of their salaries to the church. July 11, 1993. Tony Alamo was a well-known evangelist who, after a radical conversion to Christianity, founded what is now called Tony Alamo Christian Ministries with his wife, Susan, later establishing its headquarters in Dyer (Crawford County). But no. Tony spent the last 20 years in and out of prison, pioneered conspiracy talk radio, and built an empire that couldnt withstand the lust and greed of its creator. I was terrified that if I didnt do what I was supposed to do when he told me to do it no matter what it was Im going to hell, Amy tells PEOPLE, recalling her childhood in the cult. Dear Abby. 25-Apr-1925, m. 1966, d. 8-Apr-1982 cancer) Wife: Birgetta Oyllenhammer (m . Online at http://www.religionnewsblog.com/8506 (accessed February 23, 2023). Ten would be convicted on ten counts, all related to trafficking underage girls across state lines. After years of legal troubles during which he was accused of engaging in abusive behavior against his followers, Alamo was convicted of ten child rape offenses in 2009. This newspaper traced the advertising agency promoting the association to the Alamo of Nashville clothing store. 1A, 6A. I made sure he was properly dressed. . Updated. Gyllenhammar, who moved to California from Sweden 15 years ago, talked of a romance that had gone sour. A hearing was held the day after her arrest. Tony began a concerted effort to avoid reporting his income. He came to me nose to nose and pulled a Muhammad Ali on me. In their prime during the 1970s and early 80s, the oddly paired Alamoshe a puffy Elvis look-alike and she a platinum-haired matroncommanded hundreds of followers, many of them living in what the government called a commune in Saugus remote Mint Canyon. He was walking down the hallway in his black regalia and five-inch elevator shoes, Amrhein recalls. The only thing thats ungodly is if you have a statue of another God., I tried to make the marriage work, Miss Gyllenhammar said. However, one thing is clear, only one of his children (Sion) is born from his legal wife, Sharon. 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. Gordon, Ronald J. Shown here with their son, Sion. Tony Alamo and his wife, Susan, established a church in Nashville called the Music Square Church, located near Printers Alley. Tony Alamo kept Mrs. Marston's phone and utilities in her name. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBT hate groups, "Tony Alamo, Apocalyptic Ministry Leader Convicted of Sex Abuse, Dies at 82", "Christian Cult Leader and Child Sex Abuser Tony Alamo Dies in Federal Custody". In 1966, after serving jail time for a weapons charge, Alamo married Edith Opal Horn from Alma (Crawford County), also of Jewish descent. The 61-year-old Alamonow serving a six-year sentence in Colorado for failing to file tax returns and submitting a false onemust also arrange for her proper and legal entombment, Spears ruled. Does Mike Murdock's 58 days seed covenant really work? Convicted a year later, he died in federal prison in 2017 at 82. The show was awarded the Fringe's Encore Producer Award. Her mother Suzanne and step-father, Bob Streit, are still with the Alamo group. She believed a miracle would save her. There the church grew to several hundred members and it also established printing facilities, a school, and a tabernacle. . Misheal Eden Jones-Williams Unofficial wife of Tony Alamo. 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. 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. Nine years his senior, Edith Horn, a two-time divorce who already had a daughter, had moved to Hollywood to become an actress but ended up supporting herself partly by scamming churches into believing her to be a missionary in need of money. 1986-03-06 Press Argus Courier Alamos second wife says theyre not divorced Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Lazar . Jordan (Kenyas son) was born in Alamos house and Alamo currently refers to him as the bastard and the nigger. Susan Alamo, born Edith Opal Horn, married Hoffman in 1966 after which the two changed their names to Tony and Susan Alamo. On the cover of his album Bad, Michael Jackson is wearing an Alamo-painted jacket. Regardless of his motive, if Alamo doesnt comply with Spears ruling, hell go straight to Crawford County Jail in Arkansas after completing his federal prison sentence and be held there indefinitely. Alamo began preaching in Los Angeles in the 1960s on a platform of anti-catholicism, homophobia and polygamy with young women, according to the AP. Sunday October 1, 1995 Alamo Christian Ministries, Tony Alamo. By now, he was a millionaire with a large staff of workers. Her name was Susan (born Edith Opal Horn) Lipowitz, nine years his senior. With the assistance of some church members, the Alamos produced records and tapes. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. When Bernie LaZar Hoffman was born on Sept. 30, 1934, in Joplin, Missouri, he wasn't born into a particularly religious household. Siege of the Alamos. People Weekly, June 13, 1983, pp. Hed lost his best friend, business partner and favorite wife and she was only 56. The smaller compound was now in Fouke, Arkansas, but there were two extant branches in Ft. Smith and Los Angeles. 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. Amrhein called the Press Argus Courier this week after cult awareness groups sent him clippings that have appeared in this newspaper. Alamo says he married Amrhein in December. He had his fist clenched and started making noises. Its no wonder you get rich when you dont pay your bills. He took all my jewelry and gave it to Elizabeth. The following month, Susan Alamo was re-interred in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He's a convicted tax evader and a flamboyant evangelist who once ran what authorities called a multimillion-dollar, Saugus-based cult. Hes not paying his bills at his stores. Tony was heartbroken. Susan was the love of Alamos life, and by the time he met her, hed already dropped Bernie and begun calling himself Mark. Hed tried out a few stage namesBernie was a singersuch as Mark Hoffman and Marcus Abad.. He called the new entity Music Square Church and filed for tax-exempt status. 3.2K views 2 years ago NASHVILLE Tony Alamo his church Alamo Christian Ministries, his store The Alamo, or the Al-ah-mo, and his wife Susan's dead body were one of the first phenomena. Misheal is still in the group and often reads the responses on Tonys radio broadcast. She didnt hink he will hold on to his wealth much longer. She said, Im a successful designer. In September 2008, Alamo was charged with multiple violations of the Mann Act between 1994 and 2005. Alamo turned fugitive in 1989 and wasnt captured till July 1991, after a tip came in from a viewer of Americas Most Wanted.. Speaking of which: One way in which you can support us at no additional cost to you is by shopping at Amazon.com. Preacher Tony Alamo Told to Return Wife's Remains. To show you how much he has changed, at the hearing in New Orleans, he said I would beat him. Members in Dyer worked on a large campus compound. Christian communities were good business in Hollywood, and The Alamo Christian foundation grew steadily over the next decade. In the midst of his supposed third marriage, a 1986 Arkansas Gazette report concluded that Gyllenhammar had actually been Alamos sixth wife, as he had apparently been married four times prior to Susan. The Ravening Wolf. Intelligence Report, Fall 2007. She was born four and a half years before Black Friday, and the Great Depression dealt her already poor family another blow. Intended article Body of wife after 7 years bought from my store in 1984. Her arrest and Alamos daughter, Antoinette Susan ( born Edith Opal Horn, married Hoffman in 1966 which! 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