Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #79 - Bad Blood: JP Miller’s Father and the Very Bad Lessons He Taught His Son

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell - along with researcher and reporter Beth Braden - take a fresh look at what Myrtle Beach Pastor JP Miller seemed to be saying in his bizarre ramblings in front of his congregation the day after his wife, Mica Francis, died.  And then they go back even further to explore the insidious messages JP seems to have received from his semi-famous father, Pastor Wayne Miller, during his divorce from JP’s mom in 2001. From telling the court about “unexplained lingerie” and “unwholesome” conversations over AOL, Wayne Miller responded to his estranged wife’s accusations with a fiery vengeance as he sought to maintain custody of his children and pay zero dollars and zero cents in alimony.  Also on the show, journalist/researcher Beth Braden reports on the latest strange dealings that appear to have grown from Solid Rock Ministries, specifically a massive transfer of assets to JP’s assistant AND a new nonprofit filing attached to several people in the JP MIller ecosystem.  Next week, we'll dive into Cory Fleming's first post-conviction… non-appearance? What went down at today's restitution hearing. Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Episode Resources Laura Richard’s podcast Crime Analyst Mandy In Hollywood on Instagram Colucci Case Overview Michael Scott Declares Bankruptcy from "The Office" Mica’s List & Mica’s Law Premium Case Files Living Water Church’s Articles of Incorporation Solid Rock Church’s Property Transfer Documentation - Dec 13, 2024 Tricia Ross’s 2006 Theft Judgements Mica Francis’ Second Divorce Filing - April 15, 2024 Susan & Reginald Miller’s Divorce File Premium Members also get access to ad-free listening, searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. What We're Buying... Eric Bland's New Book!!! - Mandy's Book in Paperback!! - Marcia Clark's New Book - Amanda Knox's New Book - Tamron Hall's New Book - Erin Lee Carr's Book Peloton - onepeloton.com Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.com. Here's a link to some of our favorite things: https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn And a special thank you to our other amazing sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email [e-mail] and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month, every month. At Fizz, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply. Details at fizz.ca. Get groceries delivered across the DTA from real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. I don't know if the FBI will ever charge JP Miller, but before that happens, and if it does, I know we have to talk about the bad blood between JP and his father. Because I

think that relationship plays a much bigger role in JP's life than he will ever admit. My name is Mandi Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunashark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hello and Happy Holidays from Hilton Head. We just got back from our team trip to LA and honestly, I am still riding the high of that adventure. Liz, David, and I had the most Hollywood experience this weekend. From an amazing meeting at our talent agency's office, shout out UTA, to touring the writer's

room of the Murdoch Hulu show on the Universal Lot, to a fabulous dinner at Soho House with the Laura Richards and yes, you should listen to her podcast, Crime Analyst. It's amazing. We really did it all and for the first time in a long time, I am feeling at peace with this crazy journey that we have been on in the past three years. Like finally seeing our work live in action come to life in a TV show, it clicked for me. The blood, sweat and tears were worth it all. The Murdoch story will be remembered by how we told it on MMP,

through fear, through empathy, through the victims and not the evil doers. This is important because people should walk away from this show feeling empowered to stand up to evil, to fight the good fight, to keep trying, especially when people tell you that it has always been this way. And that is a big deal. Hard work pays off. That's a lesson I learned this weekend and I want to thank all of you, our listeners, who got us to this very special milestone. Check out my Instagram to see photos of our team from the trip and check out this week's

Cup of Justice to hear us live from Hollywood. Oh, and speaking of good news, Liz heard some really great news from sources this week. The Kaluci trial is finally scheduled for June 2nd, 2025. This means almost 10 years after Sarah Lynn Kaluci's death, her family and friends will finally have the opportunity to get justice and possibly see an end to this dark chapter of their lives. We plan on covering the trial live for Lunashark Premium members, just like the Murdoch trial in 2023.

Stay tuned for details on that. And this week, while we were gone, JP Miller has kept journalist Beth Braden busy with, of course, some sketchy moves. Here's Beth to tell you all about the madness that went down this week. So, J.P. Miller appears to be trying to cover his assets. In a previous episode, we talked about some late October business filings with the South Carolina Secretary of State in which J.P. Miller updated the address for Solid Rock Ministries, Inc. to reflect his home address. And he also registered a new entity, Living Water Church at Market Common, Inc.

He's the registered agent for that church, too. Remember, Solid Rock has a good-sized real estate portfolio for being a tax-exempt church. They own the parcel where the current church building sits. Solid Rock also owns JP's home. And it also owns two parcels of land on the Highway 17 bypass. Those two parcels were slated for a bigger, better Solid Rock, according to a Sun News report from January 2024. According to market values obtained from the Horry County Land Records, Solid Rock's real estate is

worth $9.8 million. Well, it was. As of December 13th, Living Water Church at Market Common now has its own real estate portfolio. According to records obtained from the Horry County Register of Deeds, the lands slated to be the New Solid Rock as well as the house where J.P. lives were transferred into Living Water's name. The document was prepared by the law office of Natasha M. Hannah, and the transmittal sheet attached to the filing says that the deed is to be sent to Natasha Hannah's office after it is filed. That tidbit will matter in a minute.

And get this, Trisha Ross, the church secretary and long-time right-hand woman of J.P. Miller, who also pleaded guilty to stealing more than $5,000 from Dollar General, her employer, in 2006. It's Trisha who signed off on the deal on behalf of Solid Rock Ministries. According to this document, Living Water Church's address is Trisha's address? But hold on, because this is about to get weirder. On Tuesday, YouTuber Robbie Harvey reported on a new entity that he says has ties to J.P. Miller, and I wanted to independently verify that information. The entity is called Mercy Church Ministries, Inc., and it was registered with the state on November 18th.

The registered agent is Molly Fleming, spelled M-O-L-L-I-E. This will be important in a few minutes. The address is 172 Machine Loop, Unit C in Myrtle Beach. First off, this address doesn't exist. I cannot find record of any road called Machine Loop in Myrtle Beach. The Register of Deeds Office doesn't have a record of Machine Loop. The online database for land records doesn't have a record of Machine Loop. The filing with the Secretary of State indicates

that the entity is intending to obtain 501C3 status, and it also lists the directors of the nonprofit corporation. They are Molly Fleming, Mona Amoresi, and Mary Jo Grinninger. Let's set Molly aside for a moment. Mona Amoresi was the counselor at Faith First Academy, the school attached to Solid Rock Church. Faith First Academy's website is gone now, but it was captured in the Internet Archives last December. Mona is described as a, quote, prayer partner, spirit-filled woman of counsel going to Bible

College for a degree in Christian counseling, offer to any students or parents for $25 per hour, after school and Fridays, end quote, and it lists her email as as Mona at faithfirstacademy.org. As for Mary Jo Grinninger, well, that's Trisha Ross's mother. But who is Molly Fleming? A source reminded me that JP's mother's maiden name was Susan Fleming. A newspaper clipping announcing Susan's engagement to Wayne Miller in 1974 told me that Susan's parents were Mr. and Mrs. M.H. Fleming. Findagrave.com identified her father as Monroe Herbert Fleming, who passed away in 2012. His obituary reads in part, 12. His obituary reads in part, Surviving is his wife of 65 years. Molly Usher Fleming. This Molly is spelled M-O-L-L-Y and I can't find an obituary for her anywhere. According to the image of Mr. Fleming's gravestone at Find-A-Grave, Molly was born in April of 1929, making her 95 years old and JP's only

remaining grandparent. Put a pin in that one and remember that for later. So we've seen the misspelled name thing before in Murdoch. Randolph's II and III did it. We've seen it in this case, too. Sometimes we see John Paul Miller with or without the hyphen. Sometimes he appears as just John. Are they using JP's grandmother's name to hide? Are we to believe that a 95 year old woman is founding a church? I called the Secretary of State's office to ask more about the filing process. Apparently, if all of the paperwork appears to be in order, the Secretary of State's office accepts the filing and doesn't do any further fact checking.

They do not collect any kind of ID or verify the information being submitted. I asked the Secretary of State's office for more information about the filing given the apparently fake address, and was provided with a copy of a payment receipt for the filing. This is where it gets even stranger. It has Molly Fleming's phone number, beginning with an 864 area code. 864 is the upstate of South Carolina, the top northwest corner bordering Georgia and North Carolina. That number, when entered into Google, appears to be associated with a man named

Mark A. Brunty. There was an attorney in Myrtle Beach named Mark A. Brunty who was suspended from practicing law by the South Carolina Supreme Court in 2012 and charged federally with four counts relating to a fraud scheme. Now, we don't know if those are the same two Mark A. Bruntyies, but it's an interesting coincidence at the very least. Then the name of the person who actually paid for the Mercy Ministries filing? Tina Corley. Tina Corley is the reported name of a dark-haired woman who was at Solid Rock Church with JP on October 20th. Corley was also reportedly present when JP bonded out of the Myrtle Beach jail on November 7th, after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting

a protester. The email used for the Mercy Ministries filing was F.B. Owen's Paralegal at gmail.com. I checked the South Carolina Bar's Registry of Certified Paralegals and couldn't find any with the first initial F with the last name either Bowens or Owens, though paralegals are not required to have a certification in South Carolina. Still, most paralegals would have an email address associated with the firm where they are employed, not a Gmail account. From where we're sitting, it looks like this entire filing is sketchy.

Beyond the filing weirdness, on November 19th, Mercy Church Ministries bought a $155,000 property located at 4869 US Highway 17 Bypass. It's a small storefront in a rundown strip mall next to the land slated to be the new Solid Rock. The document for this deal was prepared by Feldman and Melton law offices in Conway, but the transmittal sheet attached to the filing says that the deed is to be sent to Natasha Hanna's office after it's filed, just like in the Solid Rock Leaving Water Land deal from December 13th. So, needless to say, we will be watching closely to see what happens next and who's involved,

because something tells me this won cannot survive the sunlight, we need to talk about J.P. Miller's family legacy. On April 28, 2024, J.P. Miller stood before his Solid Rock congregation, just like he did hundreds of Sundays before, and delivered a passionate, yet disjointed 30-minute sermon. Except this wasn't like every other Sunday. Less than 24 hours before the church service began, JP Miller's estranged wife Micah was found dead in a North Carolina swamp. And less than 72 hours before that, JP had just been served with divorce papers.

Now, we have spoken at length about how JP oddly announced to his church at the very end of his sermon that his wife had died from suicide, before his wife's death was ruled a suicide, but we haven't talked much about what he said during those 30 minutes before the announcement. We have listened to the sermon several times, searching for clues to see what exactly was on J.P. Miller's mind that morning. And while a whole lot of his speech

was incoherent preacher drivel, some of it is telling. J.P. Miller focused his last speech as J.P. Miller the pastor before he was known as J.P. Miller the pastor before he was known as J.P. Miller the suspicious preacher whose wife just died on what he calls being generational minded. As I've said before this speech was really strange considering the context of Micah's death. He mentions gunfire twice, he mentions mental illness once, he says the word kill 12 times. He says the word murder 4 times. He says the word died 13 times.

And he says the word divorce 5 times. I know that JP's voice is triggering to so many of you, so we are going to paraphrase as much as possible. But I need you all to hear some of this speech and remember that these are JP's last words to his congressman. They're going to paraphrase as much as possible, but I need you all to hear some of this speech and remember that these are JP's last words to his congregation before the world knew him as Micah's sketchy pastor husband. So they go pick up Mephibosheth, they bring him to the palace, and in 2 Samuel 9 verse

7, David said to him, don't be afraid, I'm going to show you kindness, here's why, because your dad made a decision that honored God. Now your granddad wasn't doing the right thing, but your dad was doing the right thing because nothing you did because your dad, I'm bringing you here in the palace and I'm going to give you back the land that was your grandfather's and you're going to eat with me at my table as one of the king's sons. So today in part 15 for your notes, we're going to talk about this. Be generational minded.

Be generational minded. The life that we live on earth, it doesn't just affect us as individuals, it affects everyone that comes after us. It affects the people that we leave behind. In the Old Testament, they would pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I think that's so interesting, especially because remember, Jacob weren't even right at the time. God changed his name to Israel after he, you know, gave his life to God.

But God said, you know what, I want to keep it Jacob. You keep praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I want everybody to know I'm the God of imperfect people as well. But he was a generational. They were always thinking, what can I do for the next generation? What can I do for the next generation?

On and on. And so it affects those that come after us No person in this room lives or dies unto himself Every person in here We all make decisions that affect those who come after psalms 112 says the seed of the righteous is gonna be mighty That means if you choose to honor God God made a promise you might leave earth But God made a promise that your children your grandchildren your great your great grandchildren, they're going to be ahead in life. They're going to have a little bit of extra strength, a little bit more mercy in life,

all because of the choices that you made. Okay, so this is what was going through the mind of JP less than 24 hours after his wife was shot to death His speech was about being Generational minded which I think should be generationally minded but whatever JP is talking about leaving a legacy about living a life full of decisions that will make your children and grandchildren's lives better about how if your father, quote unquote, served God, then you, your children, and your grandchildren will be given an advantage in life.

However, JP is clear in his sermon what he means by serving God, and it's all about money and giving to your church. More on that in a minute, and we'll be right back. It's made with millions of moisturizing, micro-moisture droplets to keep your skin silky soft for 24 hours. Plus it's paraben and sulfate free. No matter how dry your skin feels, Dove has you covered. Buy Dove Body Wash today at your local retailer

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Love that chicken boom Popeyes. So when JP Miller launches into what exactly serving God means, it is not about serving others. It is not about treating others the way that you would want to be treated. It is not about being a good husband and a good father. It is about tithing. It is about giving part of your paycheck back to His Church. Listen to this. And so when Abraham saw him in Genesis 14, 20, it says, Abram gave Melchizedek a tent of everything he had.

He just saw this high priest and said, you know what, I'm gonna tithe. Now for all of you that think, well tithing's under the law, this is hundreds of years before the law. So tithing's before the law and it's after the law because Jesus said to do it. But he just thought, he just thought, I said, you know what, I'm just gonna give 10% of everything I got. I'm gonna give it to him. I'm gonna give it to him. So Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, Jacob had Levi, okay, four generations. If you fast forward to the New Testament in Hebrews 7 9 It says Levi paid tithes through Abraham because when Melchizedek met Abraham Levi was unborn but in the body of Abraham You know that tell me Abraham gave God

Right gave to God and God is crediting this boy That's not even born as being a giver because his great grandfather was a giver. Here's what God was saying, it's in the blood now. It's in the blood. Abraham's parents were stingy, they were idol worshipers. Abraham made a decision, he thought he's going to be a giver. Now his great-grandson's automatically, he's not even out of the womb and God says,

that's a giver, that's a giver, because Abraham put it in the blood. Like I said, I have listened to this sermon an unfortunate amount of times. And my takeaway? Well, I think that JP knew that Micah's death meant financial trouble for him. I think he knew how much his last divorce cost him and how many church members he lost when the truce came out about his affair. And I think he knew that the most important thing in his world in this moment was to hold on to every member and keep those tithes coming.

How was he going to do that? By scaring his congregation with biblical references about what happens to those who don't serve God, aka JP, and those who don't stay loyal to JP. The most important thing is to tell them to serve JP, to stay loyal to JP, and give 10% of their income to JP. Otherwise, what he's saying here is that they will be cursed. He literally says the word curse 13 times in this speech.

Listen to this. No, no, I'm talking about like curse, like iniquity in the Bible. Okay, Deuteronomy 5, 9 through 10, the iniquity of the parents can visit the children to the third and fourth generations, but I show mercy and love to those who obey me up to a thousand generations. So when you go to the doctor, they say to you, tell me about your family history. Is there any, is there any mental illness in your family? Is there any diabetes? Any heart disease? Why do they ask you that? Because they know you can struggle because of somebody else. They know that you can struggle in life because of

something that was passed down to you. okay? We call it a bad blood, but the Bible calls it an iniquity. Now there's two definitions of the word iniquity. One I'll put on the screen, and that's this, continued disobedience that gets passed down from one generation to the next. Let me give you an easier way to think about it, and you can write down if you want to,

but an easier way that it would be an inward bent. The areas that Satan tempts you in in your flesh, that's an iniquity. That's something that's getting passed down. It's an inward bent or an inward motivation. And what happens is intellectual principalities of darkness study your family line so they know how to tempt. If you ever wonder why did I can't believe that this happened to me and I just fell into it, well that's because Satan's been studying your family line so they know how to tempt. If you ever wonder why did I can't believe that this happened to me and I just fell into it well that's because Satan's been studying your family line for generations. He knows the iniquity that he's been trying to get them to keep passing down to you so he

knows the alcoholism. He knows to tempt you with alcohol if that's in your family. He's already studied, he's got you already. If you're easily you know influenced by the wrong people he knows if I just get the wrong person around him Whatever it is pornography, whatever it is. Satan studied it Adam and Eve, right? They disobeyed and that decision affected the entire world. It affects us Well, the first murderer in the Bible was Adam's son Cain The second murder was Cain's descendant Lamech that just kept getting passed down from one to the next through Cain's offspring.

Proverbs 26-2 says, the curse does not come without a cause. Let me say this, there's a reason that your family keeps going through divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce. There's a reason that poverty, you just can't make, you can't pay your bills, can't pay your bills, your parents couldn't pay their bills, your grandparents, there's a reason, you gotta break the curse, There's a reason for it. Well, it is absolutely wild to hear this man talking about pornography, about divorce, divorce, divorce, and murder in this sermon hours after his wife died. And he knew that he was being filmed. Notice how he talks about bad blood, this idea that if your father was horrible, meaning he didn't quote unquote serve God in his life, and maybe had a problem with pornography,

that curse will be passed down to you. You would think that JP would use this topic to talk about his own family history. You know, how his father is a felon who has been arrested multiple times, how his father spent time in federal prison, how his father is the guy who went from being the semi-famous Good Morning Jesus TV host to being known as the pastor who pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an undercover officer at a Myrtle Beach bathhouse. Or maybe you'd think he'd mention after he brought up divorce the fact that him and

his father both have two failed marriages under their belts. But no, that would require self-reflection and honesty. And this sermon was about deflection and honesty. And this sermon was about deflection. So instead, he told his flock about his sweet nana, you know, Molly Fleming, JP's grandma, whose name was listed as one of the directors of the new nonprofit corporation attached to JP Miller. He was saying, you are where you are because your grandma prayed for you every day. Does anybody can say that about there?

You aren't where you are because your mom drug your butt to church every Sunday. That's why you are where you are. You know, I told you my nana, I had four grandparents of course, nana, papa, grandma, granma. My nana is my last, I'm 44 years old and she's still alive. We have actually five generations alive on earth right now. And she's the one that would make me go and preach to her out at the amphitheater when I was 10 11 years old in Darlington and she'd let me take up an offering which was always special she didn't have much but

I took it but I also remember the other day that when I was I think it was 11 or 12 I wanted to take a homiletics class homiletics is like a public speaking for preachers and so I went to the Bible College and my nonna would pick me up and go with me. So I could learn how to preach. She actually took the class with me. And she would get up there and preach and write sermons and you know, we'd help each other out. At 11 years old she did that. She's 96 years old and she's still speaking faith into me. Let me play this for you. You just trust him with whatever is going on. Don't let the devil take anything from you, honey.

Stand your ground. Love you. Bye-bye. Listen, listen, she's 96, she lives in a nursing home, she can't even get out of bed, but she calls me every week and leaves voice messages just like that. Do you know how she's going to be remembered? She's going to be remembered as someone who poured faith into other people. When she leaves this earth, it's not just going to be, okay, goodbye, it's going to be, no, I'm here because of her. I'm still going because of her. I'm still going because of her. Notice how his voice quivered there in a way that we have never heard when JP talks about Micah.

But what JP is saying here is also telling. This man just texted his estranged wife's family hours before this sermon to tell them that Micah was dead by saying, quote, Good job, Francis family. This is what happens when you encourage someone to divorce the person they love. JP, in this moment, actually believes that his Nana is going to die proud of his grandson, proud of his legacy, proud to be related to him. Then, before announcing that his wife died by suicide, you know, before her death was

actually ruled a suicide, JP ended the generational-minded sermon by implanting a vision in the minds of his congregation. Listen to this. Can you picture one of your relatives, your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren? They're out there on the new property, the new solid rock property. There's a festival this day, right? There's thousands of people. There's a Christian band playing.

Maybe we have baptisms going on, whatever we got. And your relative is going through something tough a marital issue cancer financial stroke something that not really everybody knows about and they're walking around the property they're thinking God I don't know what to do about this I need you God please can you come through and then all of a sudden their phone rings but the way they do it 300 years now they just do this their phone rings and they just put up their ear what is it and it's the it's the answer to their miracle whatever the results to the test came back we were so sorry we got it wrong you don't have

cancer or the the lottery you just won the lottery whatever it is come through and your relative says God this is amazing why would you do this for me and God says I love you I didn't do this for you you see 300 years ago your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents we're listening to this tall charming humble pastor and he told them that if they'll give their life to Christ that God won't just take care of them they'll take care of the ones that come after them and so I love you but I didn't heal you for your sake I did it because the promise I made to them 300 years ago that's what I want you to leave here with. Amen. So here, JP is writing his own little book of revelations, before telling his congregation

that his 30-year-old estranged wife, who is beloved to them, is dead. And before they heard the news, before they had the opportunity to question if they should leave the church now that Micah had suspiciously died, he planted a vision in their minds to make them believe, if I stick with this man and this church, my legacy will be blessed, the generations behind me will be blessed, and I will be a part of something beautiful." Isn't it incredibly telling that the future of Solid Rock was on his mind in this moment? That he was talking about the multi-million dollar property that he had recently purposed

for the purpose of expanding his church. And here he is telling us that he isn't going to let Micah's death get in the way of that vision. However, JP left out a huge truth about his own family in this generational-minded sermon. He left out the fact that by his own definition, he is full of bad blood, passed down by his father, and he himself is cursed, not cured, because his life has mirrored his father's life, and at the end of the day, he has nothing but bad blood to offer. So we need to talk about JP's father, Wayne Miller, once again. It's been a while since we talked to you about JP's father, Pastor Wayne Miller,

and his apparent dark influence over JP's life. Obviously there's a huge father-like son thing going on there because JP quite literally followed in Wayne's professional footsteps by becoming a pastor and he became embroiled in scandal after scandal at said church just like his daddy. If only JC Penny's portrait studio photographers could capture generational toxicity on film, Wayne and JP would have themselves a really nice memory to carry around in their church-subsidized wallets. Again, we think JP is either fully aware of this dynamic with his father, or at the very least subconsciously aware of the paternal path he's on, given some of the sermons. But as we told you in episode 56,

there are a lot of similarities in how Wayne and JP's divorces went down. And today we want to dive in a little deeper about the similarities in terms of how they seem to view women. Specifically, those who were married to them. Even more specifically, those who sought to escape them, which statistically has worked out to be 100%. Between them, JP and Wayne have had four wives and all four of those wives ended up being like a yuck.

You might remember that Wayne married JP's mom in 1974. And in 2001, she filed for divorce from him. The divorce was granted the next year, but Susan Miller seemed to be locked in a child support battle with Wayne through 2009 after the youngest of their children turned 18. According to court records and a very, shall we say, detailed affidavit from Susan Miller – which again we talked about in episode 56 – Susan characterized her marriage to Wayne like this, in a nutshell. She married Wayne against her parents' wishes, just like Micah did,

and she disrupted the trajectory of her own life, education, and potential career to become Wayne's wife and their kid's mother. Kind of like Micah, but with stepkids. She tried hard to be a good pastor's wife and sought out new skills to improve her standing, again, just like Micah. Susan also accused Wayne of having a violent temper, specifically when he didn't get what he wanted, and making her choose between her family and him. Susan outlined their intimacy problems, which she said he blamed on her, and said he occasionally hit her, JP, and their other son. She said he treated her like a servant and was an absent and inattentive father. She also accused him of reckless spending,

including on the church's credit card, that she said he then blamed on her. In February 2001, shortly before she filed for divorce, Susan said she had a medically necessary breast reduction surgery and right after that, Wayne left her, cashing in his life insurance policy and moving to a condo. According to the filings, Wayne claimed to have no money to help support Susan and the kids and according to her, he stopped paying the family's bills, all the while still spending on unnecessary items. Remember, during the first part of their marriage, Wayne was at the height of his televangelist career. And he was trying to build a Christian compound that included a church, a petting

zoo, a Bible institute, an orphanage, a place for fishing and camping, and senior living. It was called Gloryland, and we are both very thankful he didn't call it Wayne's World. Either way, there's a very good chance that the Writers' Room at Righteous Gemstones had news clippings of this on their wall for inspiration. And if they didn't, they sure should have. So speaking of news clips, Wayne has a lot of them. He was very well known during his heyday in South Carolina. And for more on that, check out episode 53. As you know, Wayne's glory land was evidently glory-free because he started getting publicly

accused in the media of making unwanted sexual advances toward male Bible students, and he had to move his family 65 plus miles east to Myrtle Beach to escape the scandal. According to the filings, he opened a new church in Myrtle Beach, but Susan had wanted him to try other work instead, and for a while he tried to be a real estate agent. In the filings, Susan said that during their marriage,

Wayne didn't want her to work, that he withheld money from her, had entanglements with other men, called her fat, and would make her sleep in another room because he did not want his sleep disturbed. Which should sound familiar to you because in Micah's list, it's one of the accusations that Micah was forced to walk on eggshells with JP because if she disturbed his sleep, he would get angry at her. Okay, last thing about Susan. She admitted to having a short sexual affair with the former boyfriend of a friend.

She said she didn't seek it out, but did it because she was lonely and had been emotionally and physically abandoned by Wayne a long time before that. Let's pause and think about how much gumption that took back then. Susan created a very unflattering paper trail on Wayne at a time when, despite the rumors

and publicized sex scandals of his past, he still had a following who supported him both locally and internationally. Now, one thing I wanna remind you about is that affidavits are sworn testimony. But just because someone swears an oath under the penalty of perjury does not mean they're telling the truth. We were not in Susan and Wayne's marriage. We do not know which person is the more credible narrator of their

marriage. Their filings though are public information, but it doesn't mean they should be taken as fact. They are merely accusations being lobbed at each other. That said, Wayne had a reaction to Susan's divorce filings. A fiery and vengeful one. The earth around Susan was even more scorched than that church of his that mysteriously burned down in 1999 in what was one of the biggest fires Florence, South Carolina had ever seen before. Again, like father like son, right? Screw up at your old church? Well, make up a new one.

Got served with divorce papers from a woman no longer willing to keep your secrets? Then weaponize the church against her. Get called out for conduct, unbecoming of a man of God? Deny, double down, and duck forcoming of a man of God, deny, double down and duck for cover behind a stack of Bibles. Be told you have to pay child support, claim poverty and argue against it.

More on all of that in a minute. With Uber Reserve, good things come to those who plan ahead. Family vacay? Reserve your ride as soon as you book your flights. To all the planners, now you can reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. See Uber app for details. Okay, so like I said, after Susan's breast reduction surgery, something changed in the marriage because Wayne up and left Susan and the kids on February 25th, 2001, according to court documents.

In May of that year, Susan asked the court to order Wayne to pay alimony and child support and to grant her primary custody of JP's younger brother and sister. In June, Susan submitted her tell-all affidavit to the court and Wayne followed up with one of his own a day later. His started with, quote, I have been married to Susan Miller for 27 very long years. It has been an unhappy marriage for as long as I can remember. We have not slept in the same bedroom for 20 years, even before we separated in February. This is where I would like to remind you that that sure, maybe they didn't sleep in the same rooms, but at the time they had a 10 year old and a 17 year old still living at home, so hashtag

math. After claiming to have been estranged from his wife for 20 years, Wayne told the court that he had had suspicions about Susan having affairs. Not a fair, like she said, but multiple affairs. Quote, I have found unexplained lingerie and gift baskets from Victoria's secret. She had a private telephone line put in her bedroom. During the last 2 and 1 half years, she has become obsessed with the internet. He told the court that Susan spent 7,533 minutes or 30 hours a week online and he attached

copies of their internet bills which included some of the screen names he said that she used including oh I'm Nice, Silken Satin 8, Oh Suzy Q 42, and Lace 4200. He wrote, It is clear that her conversations on the internet are not of a wholesome nature. But there are a few usernames left out of Wayne's affidavit according to the AOL bills he attached to it. Specifically, there was one called Glory Dad 77. What does 77 mean? It can mean nothing. Or it could mean anything. It could have been a year of significance to whoever the user was. It also could have been a reference to the number of times the

Bible says you should forgive thy neighbor. Sometimes it's a reference to the angel number that indicates personal growth and enlightenment. Another time it's a reference to the angel number that indicates personal growth and enlightenment. Another time it's been used to discreetly reference one's own homosexuality or asexual position in which both partners are faced in the same direction. Anyway, Wayne said Susan bragged about her affairs to church members and he mentioned the affair that Susan herself had admitted to in her own affidavit, noting that the man's former girlfriend was a member of the church. He said that Susan would meet this man at her sister's condo. He also told the court about an affair he

said Susan had with a man we're going to call John Doe from Connecticut, who flew in to meet her while Wayne was in Orlando at a church dedication. He said, quote, one of the things I found most offensive was after church, she refused to go out to eat with our family because she said she was going home. As it turned out, she was going to take her boyfriend to the airport. Wayne included their phone bell showing what he said were calls to said boyfriend, but noted that the man had been sending Susan calling cards so all the calls wouldn't show up. Quote, many times in the past I considered leaving Susan, but I knew as a pastor I would lose my ministry and my job. However, with her becoming so flagrant in her adultery,

even the church has had enough. I am finally at a place where I can keep my job if she will stop trying to stir up so much trouble at the church. So, maybe it's more like father, like mother, like son. This is a church he started in control, and to his mind, it was being put in jeopardy by a wanton, reckless woman. But also, what is he talking about? He is finally at a place where he can keep the job he gave himself?

It's history repeating itself and it's easy to see where JP developed his worldview because in so many ways, this was the lens he was seeing Micah through. In his affidavit, Wayne then went on to paint Susan out to be an awful mother, saying that over the past few years she had lost interest in the children. He claimed their younger son wanted to live with him but that Susan was afraid to be alone and that she used the temptation of no curfew to keep him under her roof. And he claimed that their younger daughter was with him 90% of the time that she was awake. He also told the court that Susan doesn't get their daughter to school on time. Ostensibly during that 10% window that Wayne said he didn't have her, I guess.

She attends Cathedral Hall Academy, which is where I am headmaster, so I see her throughout the school day. When school is out, she is with me because she attends summer camp sponsored by Cathedral Hall Academy. We are together every day." In other words, she goes to the school he started that's attached to the church he started and that's their quality time? Again, there's something he's leaving out there. It's his school. Wayne then really threw down the gauntlet. He told the court that his children, the ones he says were with him most of the time, were

living in filth. In February after he left, he said that Susan just let everything go. Quote, In May, some friends and I went to the house. I was horrified to see just how bad Susan had let it become. He attached copies of the pictures that were taken that day. The photos are black and white and have been photocopied a few times over so they're really hard to read but they seem to feature very cluttered and disheveled rooms. Each photo has a very neat typewritten, like old school typewritten, label. As in, someone actually typed out the

name of each room on an actual label and then stuck it to an actual page at the top, denoting each room. Wayne told the court that the children needed two parents, but Susan should not be the primary parent. Quote, I cannot believe that Susan even really wants them unless she thinks that there is money associated with having them. She has shown so little interest in the last two years that her sudden maternal interest is suspicious. I want to note that the bulk of Susan's affidavit was about how much her children were her life, and how much she loved being a mother.

Wayne claimed that even though he believed Susan did not qualify for alimony because of her alleged adulterous ways, he was still willing to pay her a little money for the good of the children. But nothing that he offered to Susan was good enough, he said. Here's David. Susan has always done what Susan wanted to do. She is not the least bit concerned about paying our bills. I have explained to her over and over and over again

that the way we have been paying the bills is by borrowing more money, and obviously we cannot continue to do that. Our debt is staggering. But she is convinced that I have a money tree in the backyard. I do not. Wayne told the court that they had first and second mortgages on the house, and that in order to sell the house, it needed to be painted and cleaned, but Susan refused to move. He said she used the threat of foreclosure to force him to pay her money. He also said that she bounced checks frequently and even signed his name to those checks. In September and October of 2000, Wayne said they had $782 in overdraft fees, and that in 1999, Susan had cost him $5,000 in overdrafts.

Stick a pin in that one, friends. And now, here's one of the best parts. Wayne told the court that several months earlier he had paid to put an ad in the paper, announcing he would no longer be covering her debts. Quote, frankly, I was hoping that would protect me legally, but also I was hoping that would shake her up and make her realize how precarious our financial situation is.

But it has not changed a thing. She had $2,000 worth of dental work done and charged it to my dental card. I cannot believe she would incur that kind of expense knowing that our marriage was crumbling and the house was headed toward foreclosure. Well first, midlife glow-ups post-bad marriages are not cheap, Pastor Wayne. And second, knowing your marriage was crumbling, the one you said was never good, that especially had not been a marriage for 20 years? Again, hashtag math.

But here's what the newspaper ad said y'all. I will no longer be responsible for any debts incurred by anyone other than myself. Then he signed it with the misspelled version of his name. Sound familiar? Also, this is literally the equivalent of Michael Scott on the office entering Dunder Mifflin and yelling, I DECLARE BANKRUPTSY to get out of paying back all the money of his that his girlfriend Jan was spending. Turns out Wayne was just as chaotic as all that. And as chaotic as JP is right now.

So in the affidavit, Wayne gave the court a snapshot of his finances. He said he earned $1,000 a week and received $1,100 a month for housing allowance and $400 a month for utilities. And though he repeatedly referred to his church that he started as his employer, he said he was considered self-employed for tax purposes. In other words, it seems like he wanted the court to believe he was beholden to a boss and therefore everything was out of his hands at all times. But he had to have an explanation at the ready for why he was self-employed and that explanation

wasn't because I'm actually employing myself. The divorce filings from both Wayne and JP have definitely surprised us in terms of 1. How much their churches subsidized their lives while they also received regular salaries and, too, how much they claimed to be poor when faced with divorce. It doesn't make them unique men at all, but there's definitely a cruelty in it. They seem to have wanted pastors' wives, women who worked for the church for low to no pay, in part because it created a financial dependency that allowed them to call the shots and do whatever they wanted, unchallenged.

That seemed to be the expectation anyway. But when their wives expressed their hopes, dreams, desires, and expectations in their need for love and attention and connection and respect and expectations, and their need for love and attention and connection and respect and fidelity, all components of a healthy marriage, that was a betrayal of the contract both men seemed to think that they were in. Wayne and JP seemed to be twins in that respect.

They both appeared to have secrets that their wives knew about, secrets that would destroy their standing in their own churches, secrets that could compromise their weekly intake of tithing from church members. So to them, their wives were imminent and existential threats. But instead of putting all of their efforts into fixing themselves and their relationships, they appeared to have decided, separately, to take no prisoners. Here is David with some choice lines from Wayne's affidavit that really sheds light on why JP is so very JP. We have edited the affidavit for brevity and to edit out certain names.

Susan is so bitter and angry for reasons known only to her that she has tried to destroy me at every turn. She stirs up strife in the church that I pastor. She spreads malicious lies about me. Her frequent threat is I'll ruin you and your ministry. She is just about to do it. Attendance and contributions are down, much of which can be directly attributed to her efforts to discredit me and my ministry. Our private life should stay private. She does not need to be dragging this into my workplace. She hurts not only me, but she hurts the children and herself by doing so. She has threatened me repeatedly. She comes to my townhouse and just walks

in any time she wants to. She comes to my townhouse and just walks in any time she wants to. She gets drinks out of my refrigerator, takes a sip, and puts them on the counter. Let's pause for a second. Go off, Susan. Can you imagine the judge reading this? So you're telling me I should give custody of your kids because your wife can't finish a Snapple? Here's David again. on her without having to talk to me. I do not want this woman around me and I don't want her trying to destroy my ministry and therefore my livelihood with her malicious ways. I ask that the court restrain her from coming about me and from interfering with my work." Again, this should ring familiar. When Micah tried to lead JP, he reported her for theft,

made her and her family persona non grata at the church. Wayne then goes on to tell the court that things between them rose to a crescendo in May, which is interesting because he left in February, according to him earlier in the affidavit. Here is David with Wayne's own words and again, look at these similarities between father and son. me and showing no remorse for her affairs. In a fit of frustration and pain, I wrote her a mean letter and used the same words and language to her that she had used

describing her relationships with these other men to me. I had hoped that the vulgar language would shock her into reality of the lifestyle that she had been living and the pain and suffering she had inflicted on me with her bragging about the affairs even to other ministers. I regret having done that. I wish I had just written a letter and torn it up, but I do not think that a momentary lapse in judgment should offset more than 20 years of faithfulness and care. Ah, mean letters that were only written by the man

because the woman drove him to it, that used vulgar language that the man only used because the woman was vulgar first. Ah, well, Wayne obviously seems to have thought this letter would make its way into the divorce filings. But if it did, it was not included in our FOIA return. I can't even imagine what it says. Here is David again. me will have to support her. That is a figment of her imagination. I am going to have to take a

salary reduction if things do not get better soon. Attached is a copy of a warning that I received from my employer, warning about the financial consequences of Susan's behavior. So, again, he is making it seem like he isn't his own boss. He has a board, but it's his church and his school, and, in our opinion, it seems like his opinion and his word were guided by the board. Which is something JP's first wife put on the record about JP. Yep, he has a board. He only listens to them when he wants to though. Here is David with the so-called warning letter.

We have edited it for brevity. Pastor, it is with great heaviness and heart that I inform you that you may have to take another salary cut due to the dropping income of the church. Your wife's behavior, talking to people and threatening to destroy this ministry, is probably the main reason for the drop. I know you needed to see how bad it is getting.

If you and Sister Susan do not settle your problems soon, there may not be anything to settle. Sorry." This was hand-dated April 24, 2001. It has all the subtlety of a pageant mom miming their kids' dance moves from the audience so that the kids get it right. Wayne told the court that it was ridiculous for Susan to think the church would support her and that she had the education she needed to work. Then he asked for child support and for Susan to pay his attorney fees.

After a June hearing, the court ordered Wayne to temporarily pay Susan $1,000 a month to help with the mortgage. But within less than a month after that, Susan and the kids had moved out of the marital home and Wayne had moved back in. Susan, however, still believed she was owed that $1,000. Wayne refused to pay it. Not only that, on July 17, 2001, the business administrator at Wayne's church sent a letter to another church administrator who, incidentally, is the same one who signed Wayne's affidavit as a notary. The letter

outlined the expense of Susan's car and claimed that the church was hurting financially and wished to sell the car. Quote, Mrs. Miller is welcome to drive it as long as she reimburses the church for the payments each month. So again, Wayne's church employees at Wayne's church appear to have been participating in Wayne's divorce. Wayne's church owned the family's cars and now they were being used to punish Wayne's wife. Again, sound familiar?

Like father, like son. Surprising no one, Susan and Wayne were back in court in July. Susan asked the court for clarity on that $1,000, as well as an order specifying who pays what when it came to her car and her children's health insurance. Wayne responded to Susan's motion with an affidavit. He reminded the court that she didn't deserve the money because of her affairs, and then told on Susan for not making any mortgage payments since the last hearing. Remember, it had only been a month since the original order.

But here Wayne was representing it to the court as if Susan had been delinquent for a matter of time. It is so manipulative. He goes on. needs to be done on the inside to get it ready to sell. These figures do not include the cost of painting." Once again, this man had moved out of the house only a few months earlier, but it almost feels like he wants the court to believe this damage is due to something that Susan did. Also, it's hard not to hear about his cleaning and repair costs and not wonder if he enlisted

his Bible students to help because as we all know, he was arrested and later pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his treatment of his students, including using them for labor, but paying them little to no money. Another word for that, by the way, would be slavery. In social media posts, Wayne has made it quite clear that he takes issue with that word. He also has publicly sought to minimize this incident as well as his attempt at a bathhouse dalliance in 2006.

At the end of the affidavit, Wayne told the court that his employer, meaning the church he started, had to, quote, cancel Susan's medical insurance as a cost-cutting measure. He told the court that he thought his children would still be covered but after their June hearing he learned from his office that the children would not be. He noted that JP's

younger brother needed to have a tonsillectomy soon but that there was no insurance to cover it. I wish they were, he wrote. He claimed not to know that canceling Susan's insurance would mean also canceling his kid's insurance. In July, the court offered clarification. The judge gave Susan temporary custody, allowed JP's 17-year-old brother to determine on his own how much he wanted to see his dad, and outlined conditions for visitation

with JP's little sister. They also ordered Wayne to pay Susan $750 a month in alimony, $629 a month in child support, and to pay for his kid's health insurance. Wayne was also on the hook for Susan's $2,500 attorney fees. A whole lot more than that thousand dollars he was complaining about. At the time, Susan was earning about $1,100 a month and Wayne was earning around $4,300 and their house was in foreclosure. The court gave permission to Wayne to sell it and ordered him to also pay for Susan's

car as well as its insurance. By October 2001 though, they were back in court. It's interesting because JP's first marriage seemed to follow the same playbook. Wayne was now claiming that his salary as a pastor at his church, again the one he started and controlled, facts that he did not include in an affidavit he filed at the time, had been cut by 35%. He told the court that the church's board of trustees was forced to cut everyone's salaries because of fewer receipts, i.e. fewer church members tithing. In his affidavit, Wayne included a number of documents, including a resolution by the board to conduct a salary

study. It was this salary study that was apparently used to decide the salary reductions, but the study itself was not included. Wayne also told the court twice that the church canceled his health insurance, which now meant he couldn't fulfill his obligation to the court order in terms of insuring his children. Moreover, he said that due to his court ordered financial obligations, he was left with just $24 at the end of each month, and he was in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings. He wanted the court to order Susan to take over the health insurance obligations, and

then he got real sanctimonious and manipulative. Here's David again. Although I much prefer to have custody of my children. If Susan is to have custody on a temporary basis, then I have no objection paying support. I continue to feed them breakfast, lunch, and sometimes supper. I bought their school clothes because Susan refused to do so. I pay $200 a month in after-school care for my daughter

so that Susan and I both can work." And there's a real dad of the year. Anyway, Wayne was intent on showing the court that he was utterly broke. I want to note some interesting things from his 2000 pastoral report, which ostensibly would have been issued in December or January, one month before Wayne moved out of the house, and four months before Susan had filed for divorce. In it, Wayne outlined how the church was able to pay off all its mortgages and pay off the U.S. Department of Education to get their academy building and other property.

Also, he said they saw a 50% increase in the academy and growth in the Bible college. Sounds like a good year, right? Also included in the report is a lineup from the Business Administration of the Church, where they noted, as one of their successes, stopped all bounced checks and bank fees and stopped all credit card use. Sounds like they had a management problem there, huh? Interesting that the church that Wayne started, controlled, etc. had enough bounced checks and credit card problems that an administrator felt like it was a notable accomplishment to get it under control.

Was that all Susan's fault too? Did Susan bounce church checks and overspend church credit cards? Or is it a more likely explanation that no, she didn't? Kind of lends credibility to some of the claims in her affidavit, no? But again, we don't know what's true here. Anyway, it was super clear that Wayne wanted the court to believe he was utterly destitute and that he, most of all, did not want Susan to get a dime in alimony. Sources have told us that JP was also concerned with Micah trying to get money from him.

Obviously, we've talked about how their house was transferred to the church after Micah first filed for divorce in October 2023. We've seen texts from JP in which he complained to Micah's friend that all Micah thought he was good for was to pay her bills. It's a pattern. The women are the problem here, not the men with their secrets and their lies and their allegedly abusive behavior and their apparent laser focus on keeping an open flow of that 10% of other people's paychecks they relied on.

It's almost like JP and Wayne knew that their wives legitimized them and provided cover for their darker instincts. Without their wives, they were exposed. So they did what they could do to destroy their wives credibility at every turn. It's not uncommon. Don't listen to her. She's crazy. At the end of the day, there is a legacy here with JP and Wayne and it is not one of strength.

It is nothing more than a weak and chaotic man passing down his worth traits to his weak and chaotic son in the hopes that he too can convince a corner of the community, a corner seeking guidance and camaraderie and meaning, to hand over a chunk of their pay and all of their blind and deaf loyalty to him. It is a legacy of hating the women who loved and trusted them. And perhaps even hating themselves. It is a legacy of bad blood. The question is, where does this cycle break? Obviously, we want to see it end in an arrest.

Because who knows what other lessons JP might have learned from his father. And that is a very scary thought. Stay tuned me, Manny Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com and interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. When I look back at my younger self, I remember the feeling of being bullied and disrespected. I remember hating that feeling. And I remember the day that I resolved to never let it happen again.

When I founded Bland Richter with my partner Ronnie Richter, we committed to build a firm that demanded respect and that would fight the powerful on behalf of clients who felt powerless. We stand tall against the largest law firms in the state, the country, and the entire world, and we've remained true to the commitment not to be pushed around. Tenacious representation, proven results. We are Bland-Richter. Learn more about what we do and who we are by visiting blandrichter.com.

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