Roe Messner

Ronald Roe Messner (born circa 1935) is an American building contractor who has built more than 1,700 churches, including several megachurches.

Having divorced his first wife, he married televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in 1993 after her divorce from husband and PTL Club founder Jim Bakker.

Messner grew up in Waldron, Kansas, on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. He founded Messner Construction in Andover, Kansas, and began building churches.

Roe Messner rocketed to fame with the construction of Heritage USA in 1978 at the behest of Jim Bakker.

In 1987, he and his first wife, Ruth Ann, wrote Building For The Master: By Design (). He reportedly played a behind-the-scenes role in the downfall of the PTL Club. He was reportedly the person who produced the money for the $265,000 payment to Jessica Hahn to cover up a brief sexual affair. Messner later billed PTL for work never completed on the Jerusalem Amphitheater at Heritage USA.

Revelations of the payoff invited scrutiny of Bakker's finances, prompting him to be charged with fraud. In the Bakkers' fraud trial, Messner testified for Bakker's defense, saying that Jerry Falwell had attempted to take over PTL and its associated cable television network by dispatching Messner to the Bakker home in Palm Springs, California, to make an offer to "keep quiet".

According to Messner's testimony, Tammy wrote the offer on her stationery, listing a $300,000-a-year lifetime salary for Jim, $100,000 a year for Tammy, a house, and a year's worth of free phone calls and health insurance. However, Messner said Bakker wrote on it: "I'm not making any demands on PTL. I'm not asking for anything.". Falwell has denied making any offer. In the messy bankruptcy of PTL, Messner was listed as the single biggest creditor of PTL with an outstanding claim of $14 million. In court papers, the new operators accused Messner of $5.3 million in inflated or phony billings to PTL.

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