That was part of our custody agreement. 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). Sign up to receive breakingFront Page Detectivesnews and exclusive investigations. When Bernie LaZar Hoffman was born on Sept. 30, 1934, in Joplin, Missouri, he wasn't born into a particularly religious household. An assistant called back and said Alamo had divorced Gyllenhammar but would not say where. The saga began in 1982 when, instead of burying his 59-year-old wife, Alamo brought her embalmed body back to his compound near tiny Dyer, Ark. Their partnership brought in more members than ever. The total number of wives he has accumulated is unclear, to be sure. Tony Alamo kept Mrs. Marston's phone and utilities in her name. The U.S. State Department isnt sure either if Alamo and Amrhein are married. He apparently adopted the name Marcus Abad for some time and achieved some modicum of success as a big band crooner in Los Angeles, California. Said Hutchinson: We get their literature on our windshields about every Sunday morning.. Alamo responded by declaring bankruptcy, and his businesses imploded, although Alamo Ministries limped along. In 1976, the U.S. Department of Labor brought charges against Alamo for violations of the Fair Labor Standard Act. 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. Amy and Pebbles were finally freed from their torture in 2008 when Alamo was arrested and charged with 10 counts of interstate transportation of minors for illicit sexual purposes. The assistant said there were many Scriptural reasons why they divorced. 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. . But after Susan died in 1982, Alamos behavior turned more deviant as he extolled the righteousness of polygamy and marrying young girls. She sings better than he does. Shown here pregnant with Alamos son, Tabor. Special Trial Judge Larry L. Nameroff ruled, however, that the organization was essentially operated for Tonys and Susans private benefit, and the IRS seized some of the church property for an auction. Son: Mark Anthony Hoffman (b. He sent their record to all my friends in Los Angeles to make me mad. This project is funded in part by a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant award. [11], Seventeen days before her 57th birthday, Susan Alamo died of breast cancer on 8 April 1982 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the City of Faith hospital. Dear Abby advises a woman whose boyfriend is using her. 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. Miss Gyllenhammar says when the romance cooled, he would often beat her. In 1966, Tony was arrested on a gun charge, a felony for which he served jail time. Pebbles was 12. 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. There is nothing I can do to make it go away, but I try my hardest.. The two immediately clicked, having much in common from midwestern, Jewish roots to a talent for showmanship and within months, Susan converted Bernie/Mark to hard-core Protestantism. Tony traveled far from his midwestern roots. The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo. Village Voice, May 13, 2008. Like Bernie, she grew up Jewish in a mostly Christian state. 1A, 11A. Alamo formed the cult way back in 1969 with his wife Susan when he was a flamboyant preacher on the streets of Hollywood. 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. Lydia was in her early 30s. She met Alamo in 1983 while he was buying clothes from her for his Nashville store. In return, Jody says, Tony Alamo took away her childhood at the age of 10 by putting her to work eight hours or more a day in the church's denim jacket business. Members usually lived in a commune and worked at an Alamo-owned business, turning over much of their salaries to the church. He arrived in Los Angeles in the 1960s, claiming he was a music promoter with clients including the Beatles. Tony also faced charges relating to his late wifes body. 2833. Susan, too, would eventually change her name from the one her parents gave her in Alma, Arkansas. [4], After divorcing their respective spouses, Horn and Hoffman married in a 1966 Las Vegas ceremony, legally changing their names to Tony Alamo and Susan Alamo. The feds had narrowed in Tony fought Coie for custody of Susans remains. ET) on Investigation Discovery. Alamo had the body of Mrs. Alamo removed from the tomb. Gyllenhammar, who moved to California from Sweden 15 years ago, talked of a romance that had gone sour. Communal living was a staple of the Music Square Church. Alamo was recently convicted by a federal court jury in Texarkana, Ark., on 10 counts of transporting underage girls across state lines for sex. Hes not paying his bills at his stores. Alamo Mansion in Disrepair, Entered Now on a Dare. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 9, 2017, pp, 1A, 9A. She later claimed her husband beat and drugged her and demanded she undergo plastic surgery to make her look like Susan. Major support provided through a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. There the church grew to several hundred members and it also established printing facilities, a school, and a tabernacle. Just why Alamo had the corpsewhich he claimed spoke to him from the graveremoved from its tomb was not explained in Spears order. She converted to Pentecostal Christianity in childhood. Between 1986 and 1990, the preacher remarried twice. Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas. He had his fist clenched and started making noises. Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Lazar . Now Tony Alamo is also a grave robberat least in the eyes of an Arkansas judge, who has ordered him to lay to rest his wifes missing 13-year-old corpse. In September 2008, Alamo was charged with multiple violations of the Mann Act between 1994 and 2005. Additional support provided by the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation Inc. One of the fathers, Robert Miller, had previously overseen the churchs trucking company and alleged that Alamo had embezzled $100,000 from it. His motions allege that Spears cannot objectively judge the case because he was endorsed by local newspaper editor Jack Moseley. A custody hearing will be held Monday in Huntington. Special thanks to the Department of Arkansas Heritage. Isabel Mendoza Unofficial wife of Tony Alamo All Rights Reserved. They also had a knack for finding young people who needed help. [11], In 2016, award-winning playwright Ernest Kearney produced his one-man show My Alamo War for the Hollywood Fringe Festival in Los Angeles, California. In July 1998, he was transferred to a Texarkana halfway house, from which he was released on December 8 of the same year. She later claimed her husband beat and drugged her and demanded she undergo plastic surgery to make her look like Susan. In 1984, Tony Alamo married what was either his fourth or sixth wife, as there have been claims he was married four times before he wed Susan. It would turn out this marriage would be forever for only one of them. For more about the harrowing experiences of Amy Eddy and Pebbles Rodriguez and how they reclaimed their lives, watch tonights episode of People Magazine Investigates: Cults at 9 oclock ET on Investigation Discovery. When Alamo was released from federal prison in 1998, he quickly reassumed his status as the head of a now smaller Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, which is headquartered in Miller County, with branches in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) and Los Angeles. Lydia Unofficial wife of Tony Alamo. Tony Alamo's Wife, Girlfriend His marital status is not known. In September 1994, the Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee sentenced Alamo to six years in federal prison in Texarkana, Texas. (AP) Amy Eddy and Pebbles Rodriguez are speaking out about how they were controlled by apocalyptic cult leader Tony Alamo in an upcoming documentary. 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. 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. [13], In 1991 the federal government confiscated the property, finding when its agents arrived that Susan's body had been removed. "[16] MSC sued and lost in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Despite repeated efforts to reach him, Alamo would not discuss the case. He was convicted on July 4, 2009. Kizers ruling upheld an earlier decision by the state Department of Finance and Administration that six Alamo businesses in Alma and Dyer have no religious purpose and must pay sales taxes. They complained of long shifts, and some revealed the organization required absolute loyalty. 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. I doubled the business at the Alamo of Nashville store. Another former wife of imprisoned evangelist Tony Alamo has been added as a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit that names the ministry, church-run businesses and high-ranking individuals in the organization as defendants. They have a son, Tabor, together. Her name was Brigitta Gyllenhammer, and she lasted two years before divorcing him. Alamo was charged was violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, went to court, then countersued all the way to the Supreme Court. What were they doing in New Orleans?. Families Torn by Their Loved Ones Faith in Tony Alamo. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,June 11, 2000, pp. Meanwhile, lawsuits filed by former church members accused the couple of controlling their flock with intimidation and beatings. He can be very charming.. . On the cover of his album Bad, Michael Jackson is wearing an Alamo-painted jacket. 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. WATCH: Cult Leaders & Child Brides: Breaking Down People Magazine Investigates: Cults. Magazines, Digital Sunday October 1, 1995 Alamo Christian Ministries, Tony Alamo. The term cult has a precise definition or rather, Religion News Blog is a service provided by, Preacher Tony Alamo Told to Return Wifes Remains, No jail sentence for Phil Aguilar, founder of Christian motorcycle club, FLDS sells cult fashion online; Ex-member helps FLDS victims, Minister removed after confession of sexual misconduct, Controversial Reverend Carl H. Stevens of Greater Grace World Outreach Dies. 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