Missing Money: William Branham, Paul Cain, and the MOB

Music Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Branham Historical Research Podcast. I'm your host, John Collins, the author and founder of William Branham Historical Research at William-Branham.org, and with me I have my co-host, researcher, minister, and friend, Charles Paisley, the founder of ChristianGospelChurch.org, and the author of Come Out Of Her, My People.

And together we're examining the history and the intersections in history between William Branham and other key figures that either influenced or were influenced by the post-World War II healing revivals. Charles, I am so excited for today.

There are a number of things that I have held back for years because they were things that I knew. They could be considered rumors, but considering the people that I heard them from, you could almost say it was maybe not a direct source, but almost a direct source.

But because of what it is and because that there is no way to document this, I've kind of had to hold some of it back, but there are things that I have known for years that people wonder why I chose the approach that I did with my historical research.

The guilt by association claims always come out. Why did you connect William Branham to his father, Charles, to the mob, that kind of thing? But there was so much more that I knew. And as you dig deeper into this, you start to realize once you can critically examine everything that you know, everything that you heard, and then tie each one of those pieces to critical analysis instead of cult brainwashed way of thinking.

Suddenly, you start to see the picture that is not the picture of a Christian minister. I'll just say it like that. Well, John, we have a really interesting episode today. And we have a piece of documentation that we're going to mainly build the episode around today.

And we're going back to the 1940s. And before I tell you, you know, dive in just a little bit, let's just say what we got. We have a copy of Graham Snellings Resignation Letter from the Branham Tabernacle.

And you know, research is still really ongoing into all of this stuff, you know, from the message. And you know, as more people leave the message, as more people reach out. Um. they're leaving with more evidence and they're reaching out with more evidence. We're always glad to have people send stuff in and we've had lots of stuff sent in, but this one was significant enough, you know, we felt the need to just do a whole episode on it as there's some fairly notable things in this letter that I think are really worth pointing out to people.

Now, before we start going through the letter itself maybe and just kind of pointing out the the notable things in it. I thought I should maybe talk just a few minutes about Graham Snelling's position and the whole message and everything that happened during his time before and after he left that way. People can kind of get some context for this. So Graham Snelling had been connected to William Branham since the 30s. So there was a relationship that existed with them since the 1930s and when William Branham had his 1933 tent revival meetings, Graham Snelling along with George DR were basically the two other elder figures there helping him

do his 1933 tent meetings where the baptism happened, you know, and the lights supposedly came down from heaven and all that. Graham Snelling was there. He's actually one of the only eyewitnesses to that event that is known to the message community. So he's at that event after they start the Branham Tabernacle, George DR really serves as kind of the first assistant pastor. George DR though dies in 1937, they go into a period where from the best we know, it seems like Bernie's Hicks is actually the second most senior minister in the church for a period

of time. And it continues that way up until roughly 1945, 1946. There's hints in William Branham's 1945 of commission vision that he's having problems in his church. Okay, and so he's having these problems. He goes out on the road and starts touring, doing his revival stuff.

And this is a famous message story, John. Hey, I wasn't there, but this has been told to me by people. Our families were there. Our friends were there. I'll put it that way. People we know were there somewhere in 1946 or 1947, William Branham comes back to the Branham Tabernacle after a meeting.

And he hides in the back room, John. This is a story. He hides in the back room. He waits for Bernie's Hicks to get up and start preaching. And as she starts preaching, he don't like she don't know he's there. He burst out of the back room. And he says, I caught a woman preaching and I knew you was a woman preaching. He throws her out of the church. This is a famous, this is a very well repeated story by people that are church. And this is how Bernie's Hicks gets kicked out of the church.

1946 for early 47 something like that. And at that point, they need a new pastor. So the person they The elect is, his name is Brother McCullough. He becomes pastor. He's pastor for maybe six months, and William Brownham suddenly has a vision that he was committing adultery.

And he had to go, okay? This is a pattern, John, isn't it? Yeah. And he has to go. Next in line comes Graham's Snelling, okay? So by 1947 Graham's Snelling then comes in and he's the next pastor of the Branham Tabernacle, okay?

And he remains pastor into 1950. And this is the letter that we're gonna read talks about the terms under which he became pastor and the things that maybe led up to him leaving. Well, what we know in the message is in 1951, William Brownham published his book, A Man Sent from God.

I got a copy of it about on my shelf. Maybe I'll get you a copy you can put up. But his famous 1951 biography, A Man Sent from God, was published in 1951. And news came back to Graham's Snelling that William Brownham had begun to exaggerate the 1933 baptism story, John.

The light came down and there was 10,000 people and the voice thundered from heaven. And Graham's Snelling says, that's not what happened. I was there.

And Graham's Snelling started saying that publicly. Oh, that's not what happened, guys. You know, I was there. And William Brownham had a vision that Graham's Snelling was committing adultery. And then with the little gift of the Holy Spirit, I talked to those, man, just, you know, how in discernment, just a little later, find out.

And one of them was a genuine Christian and he was a real servant of Christ. And the other one was a hypocrite. And one of them, the one that was a hypocrite, was living with a black-headed woman running around with a blonde and had children by her.

Well, right there, the vision couldn't be denied. So this is the pattern, OK? So this is happening, right? And from what I read in this letter, apparently, William Brownham decided to make life unpleasant for Graham's Snelling until he resigned.

I think that's what we're going to see as we read this letter today. So that's the backstory leading up to Graham Snelling's resignation letter in 1951. Yeah. It's so weird and complicated and funny.

It's like if you took Kramer from the Seinfeld show and put him in as a religious figure and mixed in the mob and the clan and all of these different parties and turned it into a very untasteful sitcom.

That's really what this is. But, you know, so I knew some of these pieces that we're about to talk about. And we're going to get into the money, which everybody's been dying for years for me to talk about.

And I hold my tongue because even still, there are pieces of it that I'm not yet ready to open up about. And I've... made very careful that certain figures that are working with me in various locations, they each have a just a small piece of the puzzle so that we keep all things safe on the up and up.

But anyway, my family knew about the money. And the irony is they were so indoctrinated that when they would talk about it, they really didn't critically think about, wait a minute, that's a heck of a lot of money and what's happening with it?

And so my grandfather was the pastor at the Brandham Tabernacle 50 years. He was William Brandham's deacon. I can't say that he is a direct source but I can also say that it's not hearsay because he was there, he was with them.

And I knew, Sarah Brandham even mentions this in her letter so I guess you can say that that is a direct source but I knew that the sons got a heck of a lot of money from William Brandham.

We're talking millions of dollars which in today's money, that's an astronomical figure. I knew about the money, I knew about some of the connections but I've been in contact with Graham Snowling's offspring for years now.

Some of them I've been in contact with up until they died and they died years ago. So they have given me bits and pieces of information that they knew. And again, they weren't Graham so it's not a direct source but it is the closest thing you can get to.

And from a historical perspective, I can't call it factual what they've told me which is why I've not really talked about it but from a biblical perspective, we have the mouth of not just two or three but Charles, it's a lot of witnesses of what we're gonna about to talk about today.

I know, John, I think the first really interesting thing I would like to point out in this letter is actually on the fourth and final page. And I'm sure, John, you're gonna post this whole letter up on your website where people can go read this whole thing for themselves.

I don't know if we're necessarily gonna digest every piece of it but on the fourth page of the letter, Graham Snowling gives an accounting of the Brannum Tabernacle Church Treasury. I'm gonna read some of it to you.

He says, first, the estimate of the average income for the church was $277.12 per month but they took it over the last few months which was during the time of the Schueller meetings.

Now, when I started in 1947, there was $700 in the Treasury and we spent about $354 repairs. So Graham Snowling had direct knowledge of the money that was in the Brannum Tabernacle Treasury. He was the pastor.

That's what I wanna point out to you and I want you just to see these numbers as he accounts for it. That left us about 350 to go on. Since then the church has been redecorated. That cost about a hundred and twenty dollars plus new seats at one thousand dollars and a new furnace and house for it to go to ground and to build it on at a cost of about sixteen hundred plus a thousand plus three fifty for a total of two thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars plus all the expenses paid and four hundred fifty dollars for brother brand on this month of July.

And then he goes on more or less to say there's only thirty two dollars he's being told thirty two dollars left in the treasury. Okay so in nineteen fifty one he seems to be indicating there is a grand total of thirty two dollars and all of the money that's came in and out is what he's just noted that he is aware of.

So there's a problem there. There's a really big big big problem there. William Branham if everybody remembers got sued for tax evasion he got charged with tax evasion the IRS came after him on tax evasion charges starting in nineteen fifty six.

And William Branham's defense for those charges was that he was putting all of the money which he received on the road into the Branham tabernacle treasury. And therefore it was not taxable it was all charitable donations to the tabernacle foundation is the word he used.

But Graham's smelling here in nineteen fifty one is telling us that is not the case. Graham's smelling is telling us. No only thing in the treasury is what we collected in ties at the church.

Yeah William Branham said on recording it was either three hundred fifty thousand or three hundred thousand dollars but he owed the government three we'll call it three hundred three hundred thousand dollars in taxes.

The other day coming in there was a question brought up about something about someone had given me a check and said personally exactly just to me and me only tax paid free everything else.

Well we went and Billy knew that I kind of had need of that check. Now he went and asked the attorneys if we could cash and he said why he's American citizen why can't he cash see.

It says tax paid everything else free any citizen can do that. So then he couldn't be satisfied with that Billy so he goes to the public account and he said what certainly he could cash that.

He's a citizen of the United States so well he couldn't think good about that so he called Murrow Miller. That's the head of the tax association at Indianapolis there was our attorneys and so I some Miller so sure it's all right.

Here you can have that check it's made out to him and Darcy only I can only one can endorse it so forth and it couldn't be stamped with RC I don't cash no checks that's what they got me for the other time.

Somebody bring it up. I want you to check and say, here, brother, bram, at the meeting, I'd say, would you bring him, will you bring him? Well, the government's taking care of all that a whole time.

And I signed him to myself and is paying the debts out there. But they said, I would link when taxes on all of it anyhow. $300,000. And today's money that is almost $4 million in taxes.

And everybody who's listening and is aware how taxis works, you're taxed on a percentage. So I don't know what his rate is. It maybe it was 20, 30%. Whatever it was, that's how much he brought in.

We're talking, it would have been in the billions, man. There was a heck of a lot of money that came into this thing. So what Graham Snelling is saying is that out of all of these millions of dollars in today's money, this little tiny fraction that's leaving the church with what, $32.

That's all that's being left to run the church. You're right, John, and this is very significant because I'm going to read you a quote from William Brannum. This is from the 1962 sermon called All Things, paragraph 29.

William Brannum says, and the federal government income tax collector said that those checks of mine personally, no matter what I do with them, if like some brother signed a check at the window for so many thousands of dollars for an overseas trip, then he signed it just to pay from his foundation to the order of William Brannum.

I signed it, and I put it in the Tabernacle Foundation. We kept every check, everything, brought it back. He said, but when you signed it, it was yours. Then you turned it over to the Tabernacle.

There's no way of beating it. That's all. So what you see in that quote and quite a few others like it, William Brannum is telling his audiences, all the money I received and the revivals, I put it into the Tabernacle.

Therefore, it went to a charitable organization. It's not taxable. This was a huge part of his defense. But the federal government, the whole time, is saying, no, you did not do that. You kept all the money yourself and you have to pay taxes on it.

OK? Graham Snellin confirms to us, William Brannum is lying through his teeth. He did not put that money into the Tabernacle Treasury. The Treasury of the Tabernacle had $32 in 1951, right? And had a high point, I think, and through all those years, maybe had three grand plus some expenses.

He basically confirms to us, William Brannum was not routing this money in the way that he told his audience. So when William Brannum here says all these times that he's justifying these people, I put it all in the Tabernacle Foundation.

I put all my checks there. William Brannum is lying, John. He was bold, faced, lying. You know, like I said, I've known about the money for a long time and the things that are happening with money are unusual.

Like, one, I'm not going to give the person's name, but a person who is a, they offspring of somebody who everyone in the cult knows. Oh, it's from the main sector and it is a very important person, they even after the person died, they had checks written out of a designated amount for, I don't know how long they, I think they said over years to be put back into, to be put back into the voice of God recordings and brand of tabernacle foundation, whatever.

I have a feeling the only thing brand of deposit was IOU.

Well, the money was moving out and that, see, that's the real crux of this and that people ask me, why did I take the path of examining the liquor industry in Indiana, you know, William Brandham claims that he was disconnected from it. He said from what do I think age seven or something, but that's not what the newspaper said. This was connected directly to Al Capone, man, we're talking the big time mob. And what I have known for years and have just kind of avoided the subject is that didn't stop when William Brandham become a minister.

And there's some pretty clear evidence that something is happening with the money. The next really interesting thing I'd like to point out in this letter, John, is, let me see if I can find it. Yep, it is on the second page of his resignation letter. So, in this letter, Graham Snelling also explains who were in what positions in the Brandham tabernacle in 1951. He says, I was told when he left by brother Brandham himself that I could put the deacons back after he was gone. But instead, he chose Brother Sue, or does senior deacon, and brother Doc Brandham as the general overseer of the church, which took all the authority of a

pastor from me. So, what Graham Snelling is saying right there is that William Brandham's brother Doc Edgar Brandham was put in the position of general overseer in 1951, roughly. And so, again, I think that is so interesting because, John, who do we know that was using the title General Overseer. General Overseer was the position of Roy Davis when he planted all these churches.

That was Roy Davis's title. It was his position. John, I don't really know. Methodists don't have General Overseers. Baptists don't have General Overseers. Catholics don't have General Overseers. Jehovah witnesses don't have General Overseers. This is not a normal thing. This is not a normal thing.

This is a unique thing. How is it that the tabernacle ends up with the General Overseer position? Obviously, they are following the same model of governance that was created by Roy Davis. Roy Davis, right?

This is a very good, clear example that organizationally structurally, they are a continuation of Roy Davis's movement, what he planted here in this area. Right. And that's why people have often asked me the next question, why did I continue tying Davis to Brannum during the years whenever Brannum allegedly parted ways from him?

And we found that newspaper article from, I think it was the 1950s, where Brannum is holding a Pentecostal Baptist revival in Indiana. This is after Laterane has exploded and faded. The Pentecostal movement split in half over Laterane doctrines.

And this theme has continued. Davis planted the church. He set up the general overseer to watch the church and govern the church. But he planted many of these things. And remember in the years that we're talking about, Davis is attempting to rise in power as the national leader of the clan.

And he needs funding. And where does the money come from? I've not been able to answer that directly for years. I know where it came from, or some of it came from, but that's the big question everybody has wondered.

How did Davis do this? It takes money to do the things that he did. Where did the money come from? And like the deacons, you can go to the resignation page on my website of my grandfather, all the deacons saying, where is the money going in the resignations?

The deacons have been unable to fulfill all their duties for a while because the treasure trustee has said there is no funds available to help those in need. The question is, where is the money?

You know, would you speak about money a little bit? And I said, you know, I made the point. Graham Snelling says there's 32 bucks left in the treasury. You know, it is entirely possible.

We don't know. It's entirely possible. They were lying to Graham Snelling about what was in the treasury, right? It's entirely possible. They had a boatload of money in the treasury. Maybe William Brennan really was putting the money in there.

But then they're lying to Graham Snelling about it, right? That's possible. Like we don't exactly know, right? All we know is Graham Snelling as far as he knew they had about 32 bucks left in the treasury in 1951.

But Graham Snelling says, oh, I put all of the millions in there from the revival. So something, there's something weird there, John, right? Some, there's something weird there. And somebody's lying to somebody, obviously.

So the other person else I would like to share about Doc Brannum. But I got to do it in a little bit of a roundabout way, John. So before I share this about Doc Brannum, I want to read.

you something from Billy Paul's testimony. So if you go back, there's a book, the book title is Generations. The book is wrote by Angela Smith, who would be, I think she's like the sister-in-law of Rebecca Brannum, if I'm right, Angela Smith.

You'd probably confirm that, John. So she would be Rebecca Brannum's sister-in-law. So she wrote a book called Generations in which she recorded testimonies of all kinds of people in the message. It's actually a really interesting book, a great resource for information from the early days of the message.

Lots of good stuff in there. I want to read to you out of that book, John. Just a little bit of Billy Paul's testimony, okay? Starting about the 10th or 12th paragraph. Billy Paul, this is Billy Paul's testimony in Generations by Angela Smith.

He says, before I was saved, I enjoyed playing cards and gambling. Sometimes I could play cards all night and I was good enough that I could play in some of the big games. One night, I heard of a big poker game that was coming to town, Jeffersonville.

A group of players came from Chicago for this game and there would be a lot of money involved. Of course, all of this was completely illegal. And when I went back, when I went to the back of the room where they were playing, there was a guard at every door looking out for the police.

All right, normally everyone knew each other, but that night there was a new dealer at the table. He told me this is a closed poker game. We could go on to read it. But, John, what does it sound like Billy Paul is describing there?

Yeah, I know exactly who it, who and what it sounds like, but like you, I'm not going to go too far because I think it's probably best if we avoid some of this. But so after my grandfather took over the church as head pastor, there wasn't a clear structure of the general overseer.

At least, I never heard Grandpa mention that. So if it did exist, he was unaware. And we do know that from based off of the court filings, et cetera, that it wasn't a normal church structure.

Well, I'll just say it like that and you can look up the Brannem Tabernacle filings on the website. But according to my grandfather and others, there wasn't just Grandpa that had this knowledge, but there was a period of time when my grandfather was head pastor in which there's large sums of money disappearing from the tithe baskets.

And one of Brannem's brothers, not going to say which one, but one of them apparently was funnily to some men and they were down by the river and... group of the brethren from the church had to go rescue said man because they were going to kill him.

And it's a crazy story. You know, the people that were telling it when I was growing up, they were indoctrinated. So they saw this as a holy thing. The demons are coming. They're trying to attack the church.

Whatever is the nonsense that was in our heads, I had it too. I was indoctrinated. But after I left and critically thought about that scene, what all that implies, then connect it back to the fact that William Brandham's family lived in the casinos with Otto Wathen, the kingpin of the liquor industry, who is supplying the Chicago, the Newport Mobs, Cincinnati mob, all of these different organizations with liquor, back in prohibition.

And then realize that wait a minute, this is still continuing. And the church isn't operating as a church and they're not financially responsible. And you look at the money that Brandham spanned, I mean, he's got a small house, he's got, he does have a Cadillac, he's got multiple cars, vehicles, but there's no way to account for in today's money.

What would have been billions of dollars? That money went somewhere, Charles. We know for sure that William Brandham's father and some of his brothers were working with the Chicago mob in the 1920s, in the 1930s, in the 1940s.

And it also seems for sure into the 1950s. I mean, now, was William Brandham, I don't know, where is his family? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, absolutely, right. Now, now, this is all in the past and so I'm, I'm, I just, I'm reading this to you.

So Billy Paul is talking about being at the poker game with the big guys from Chicago, with people and guns at the door, guarding the doors. Now, the reason I point this out to you in relation to this letter is as you read on through Billy Paul's testimony, he seems to indicate this card game is happening at Doc Brandham's house, which is across the street from the Brandham tabernacle, okay?

So, so this is who William Brandham has made general overseer of the Brandham tabernacle in 1951, his brother, Doc. Now, John, I, I think you know probably, so Doc Brandham, after William Brandham died, Doc Brandham and his family primarily came to faith assembly, primarily came to my church, okay?

So they married into our sect of the message and their family still, I believe, in our sect of the message of the present day. So you know, we actually have fairly quite a bit of familiarity with, with Doc Brandham and his family in, in my sect of the message.

So, Doc Brandham for everything I've ever heard was a very nice man. I never heard anything negative about him, but I'm just pointing out to you, Billy Paul. alt testimony there. The fact that Doc Brannum is the general overseer of the Tabernacle here in in 1951 and his house is right across the street from Tabernacle and Billy Paul seems to indicate that card game happened at his house. So there is your right John. There's a whole lot a person could say and I know I up to this point have been incredibly reluctant to talk about this aspect of things but I'm just I'm cracking the door open just a little

bit here to let people see there is something here and there is plenty of evidence if you actually want to look down on it but for someone who values his life I'm not going to talk about it too much okay. Have you ever wondered how the Pentecostal movement started or how the progression of modern Pentecostalism transition through the latter reign charismatic and other fringe movements into the new apostolic reformation. You can learn this and more on William Brannum Historical Research's website William-Brannum.org. On the book's page of the website you can find the compiled research of John Collins Charles Paisley Stephen Montgomery John McKinnon

and others with links to the paper audio and digital versions of each book. You can also find resources and documentation on various people and topics related to those movements. If you want to contribute to the cause you can support the podcast by clicking the contribute button at the top and as always be sure to like and subscribe to the audio or video version that you're listening to or watching. On behalf of William-Brannum Historical Research we want to thank you for your support. So let's take a moment Charles and let's just sum this up from from the early days

until what we are just beginning to understand from the letter from Graham Snelling to the church. In the early days William-Brannum and his father are producing liquor in in a lizard liquor ring in Jeffersonville Indiana that is supplying directly the Chicago mob Al Capone with liquor. There's clear cut evidence and William-Brannum is doing this until about age 16 according to the newspaper reports that we have and regardless of what his fictional life story says I think he says he was six or seven but he was sixteen and the clan comes in, raged the place they claim that they

eradicated the liquor in Jeffersonville I don't know if they did or not but the Brannum family had previously lived on the on the Wathen farm which was the big casino during the days when you know liquor is going on in in Jeffersonville and in Louisville they're cleaning it up but Jeffersonville to where you came for all the dirty stuff.

So the family is working directly with that. William Brannum's brother kills a man in a gun fight. His other brother becomes in the, even up through the laterane years, Charles, his other brother owned a bar.

It was Howard. Howard Brannum owned a bar in Jeffersonville and worked with friends and family, et cetera. They owned a bar. His sister Dolores, I believe, if I remember, if I recall correctly, she owned a bar that was just up the street from the Brannum Tabernacle.

I had to do some title searching to find it. The other brothers holding card games, and we're not talking about, you know, years before William Brannum's conversion. Howard Brannum toured with William Brannum while selling liquor in the laterane years.

And all this time, Brannum's got this fictional stage persona where he's against all of this stuff. And he's right in the heart of it, man, back in Jeffersonville. Dr. Brannum's house was across the street from the Brannum Tabernacle.

So I think one last thing I want to point out about Brannum's snelling's letter. And maybe this is the most important thing of all in everything that Brannum's snelling actually shared in here. You know, as you read through this letter by Brannum's snelling, you know, just it's in cursive.

So unless you can read English cursive real good, it might have a trouble reading it. I had to make it basically a typed up transcript of it to analyze it real well. But it's very clear in this letter that William Brannum is making life hard for Grams snelling.

Perhaps on purpose, probably on purpose, in order to drive him away. And that he has really taken bad advantage of Grams snelling all through this thing. It's really pretty obvious that he has just used Grams snelling.

And now that Grams snelling has built the tabernacle up a little bit and got some congregation back to it that William Brannum's kicking him to the curb and taking all the hard work that he did for himself.

It's really clear that is what William Brannum is doing. Grams snelling in here explains how when he took over the church, John, I believe he says there's something like 40 people left at the Brannum tabernacle and he takes it over, right?

Because again, that matches what we understand from when Hicks left the church, the story there from her side is that the majority of the congregation left with her and went over and they went on the path that made the Christ gospel called, right?

That matches that. And so Grams snelling saying, hey, there's just a handful of people. The treasury was empty. The building was in shambles and he is through this letter explaining how he fundraised and he spent money out of his own pocket and how he helped redecorate and fix up the building, how he put in the elbow grease to build the congregation back up and how he got it.

back up to, I believe you want to, I said somewhere around, I believe 175 people is what he had built the congregation back to and the income coming in had just finally reached the point where the church had enough income to cover its expenses and now maybe he could start to get a salary out of it that was better than what he's put in.

So that's the way that this is is going and he had obviously looked at it as, I'm going to come, I'm going to do the hard work to get this thing going and then I, it's going to turn into a church that I can be a pastor of.

And you have to remember, Grim smelling had his own church in Utica before this thing started. He could have stayed at his church in Utica and did this exact same thing, right? And built the congregation, right?

But instead William Brannum offered him a sweet heart deal. As you read through here, William Brannum says, I'm leaving the Brannum tabernacle. I'm never coming back. You can have the Brannum tabernacle. That's basically how he, how he explains it.

So he thought he was coming and going to have his own church. But here then Brannum swoops back in, steals it all from him and all that work he could have put in at his church in Utica is lost, right?

And William Brannum just takes the fruit of his ministry from him. That is what is happening here in this letter. And that's, that's in a way, John, that's really dirty, isn't it? I mean, it is so dirty.

It's just using somebody. We Brannum just used this man, took him away from his own church with, with false promises, right? And then kicks him to the curb a few years later and steals essentially steals all the hard work that Graham Snelling had put in to the Brannum tabernacle.

And I want to take a moment and pause a bit and emphasize something that you said. We have a lot of listeners now that have escaped the international house of prayer called. And they're starting to notice similarities between many of the things that we have talked about previously and what we're discussing on the show.

I'm not going to get into any of that right now. But one of the, one of the big things that you mentioned was that William Brannum had Bernice Hicks, who is helping pastor the church.

And I've not said much about it. I've known this for years, but I've not said much about it because William Brannum claims falsely that the reason why he separated from Davis is because Davis was ordaining women preachers.

And he uses that word, women, that phrase, women preachers. But that's not true. Bernice Hicks, who started another cult, an international cult, just up the road from the Brannum tabernacle, Christ gospel church, international.

She was a cult leader who got her start in the Brannum tabernacle. And Paulcane called me, and we talked about many things that some of which I've said, some of which I have not, and I'm not sure I will everything.

But Paulcane was William Brannum's protégé. Okay. He advertised himself as a second brand-um, and you and I talked about this just what was the last night. There were many ministers in the brand-um community who were very angry that he was calling himself a second brand-um.

He went on to help start, you know, through Paul Cain and Bob Jones that IHOP really came to be. Paul Cain was with William Brand-um from the early years of Latter-Rain. He got his start as a minister in the early years, and he told me confirming what you have confirmed and what others knew that Bernice Hicks was the—I think he said assistant pastor.

I'm not certain that is correct, maybe it is, but anyway, she was a minister in the brand-um tabernacle, and what happened was, like you said, the church split, they became their own cult, and there was a strong division because they—the people just—some people sided with her, and according to the Snelling family, what they've confided in me is, it wasn't just the Snellings that noticed the money issues.

There were many people in the church who really desperately needed help, financial help, there were hard times, and William Brand-um, while he's got the lights, cameras, action, glory, and he's wearing wristwatches that—and today's money, these are $10,000 wristwatches.

His poor congregation is just suffering, and so many people did split, and they started a different cult. Right. You know, the Bernie Sixbletoff is interesting stuff, John, and I think the way I understand it, you know, having spent a lot of time looking into it, and I cover this in my book, come out of where my people affair bit.

When William Brand-um went on the road, the church, the tabernacle was in crisis, and I think Bernice was intended—Bernice Hick was intended—just stay behind as a Sunday school teacher, but while William Brand-um was gone, she—you know, Sunday school preachers are the brand-um tabernacle, basically are preachers.

They preach an hour-long sermon before the sermon, and so she took on, I think, in his absence, she started preaching the main service, too. And I think that is what William Brand-um objected to, like the pastor position was vacant and needed filled, and she maybe usurped to the pastor position, so when he came back and threw her out for taking the pastor position, and then brought in Brother McCullough to replace it, you know.

And I suspect he probably—it seemed like he had an extra grind against Bernice Hick all along, right? And so he just used that as his opportunity. You read his 1945 vision letter, something's going on at the brand-um tabernacle.

His people don't want to eat his bread. Remember, there's something going on there, and God's—they're all, you know, where they— Blackbirds or crows or something in there. He basically threw the brand of tabernacle under the bus in that vision, right?

It said yeah, they're all they're all lost. They're going to hell, right? Well, it's Bernie's Hicks is the lady running the church really at that point. Okay. Yeah One of the funniest pieces of evidence as well you and I talked about briefly the Sarah Brannum thing and anybody who's well, I'm not gonna get into her disappearance and All of that stuff you can go to my website and you can find that but she was working with Gerald Walker Gerald Walker was investigating the finances and he found some very criminal things which we've included in that research but

Walker was also the person who investigated the full gospel businessmen's organization and found all kinds of issues with money there and FGBMI for anybody who doesn't realize they're connected directly to Washington and they Even though the National Prayer Breakfast is held by the Fellowship Foundation. There's another There's another kind of prayer breakfast that works in collaboration with this and that's the FGBMI breakfast We've got photos of you know even Nixon. I think I've got Reagan at those things that you can go dig into that research But in 1946 in May of 1946 Bernice Hicks Working with Brannum preaching in the Brannum tabernacle. She is the secretary of the full gospel businessmen's chapter in Louisville

There's it's in the courier journal May the third 1946 and it's talking about the all-denominational services sponsored by the christianist businessmen's that's the group that sponsored William Brannum So Brannum trusted Hicks enough to place her as president or secretary of the chapter in Louisville As he is developing his stage persona worldwide. I think it's worth pointing out too I think we've said this probably somewhere along the podcast, but if not, I'm gonna say it You know we talk about demon shakarian was the founder of the full gospel businessmen. That's true But there was a co-founder, right?

There was another key man who started it with him and his name was minor argon bright minor argon bright was co-founder of the organization and the International Vice President. He was demon shakarian second and command Well, guess where he's from Georgetown, Indiana. Guess where he went to church at the Brannum tabernacle Okay, so the the the Brannum tabernacle and the local message community Was connected to the very top levels of the full gospel businessmen from the beginning ladies and gentlemen I mean, I think I think that that is It's just indisputable right and the argon bright family remains in the message to the present day along with several other people who were

High ranking members of the full gospel businessmen. They were also parts of William Brannum's cult personality I'm back to the letter. I just want to say again, it's really, I think it's really telling when you read this letter and you just consider the way that William Branham used Graham's snowing.

Like when you read this letter, just notice that he's promising Graham's snowing things are going to be one way. He lets Graham's snowing do all of this hard work to build everything up, and then he steals it all from him at the end, okay?

That's the way to read this letter and just notice that William Branham did that and notice how dirty that is. And as you let that sink in, come to realize William Branham did that over and over and over and over and over again to all kinds of people, John.

I mean, all kinds of people. You could truthfully say that's what he did, Fred Sothman. He bled Fred Sothman dry. Fred Sothman was a wealthy man from Canada with vast real estate holdings. William Branham bled Fred Sothman dry.

You know, you can go down the list of people. You can read Gordon Lindsay's testimony about working with William Branham in the business, in business side of stuff. He took terrible financial advantage of Gordon Lindsay over the years, really.

If you read what he did with Gordon Lindsay, you read the stuff also with like Earn Baxter when William Branham went off the field in 1948. William Branham had convinced Gordon Lindsay and Earn Baxter to resign their positions as pastors in their church with good regular paying salaries to come work on his team, right?

And he says, yeah, we're gonna do the voice of healing bit. He's basically promising these guys fame, fortune, money, right? And then a few months later, what does he do? He shuts everything down, he's like, screw you all.

I'm going to have a mental health break. I don't know, you guys can, you know, eat, eat, hey, right? You know, that's basically what William Branham did, right? And you gotta look, William Branham did this stuff over and over and over and over again through his ministry, John.

This was a continual pattern for this man. And this is not good stuff. This is corrupt behavior from William Branham over and over and over again. And you gotta take off the message glasses to look at this.

This is not godly conduct that William Branham did here. It's ungodly wicked conduct. It's basically stealing. So Charles, let's think about this a minute. I was fully unaware that Bernice Hicks, the founder of the Christ gospel international church cult was a minister in the Branham tabernacle until I received a phone call from Paul Kane.

And Paul Kane gave me a lot of things that are just kind of unbelievable. Paul Kane was a very talkative person. I'll just say it like that. Paul Kane also recorded every conversation he had with every single person he had through his entire life.

So there's probably a recording of this phone conversation that exists out there somewhere. And I have a strong suspicion I know who has that record. But all that aside, Paul Cain is the one that informed me that Bernice Hicks was the, was a big name in this religion.

She was a minister and she was preaching in the Brannum Tabernacle. And at the time he said it, I honestly chose, I didn't believe it. I had no way to confirm it. All I knew was that Bernice Hicks was a piano player. That's all that I knew.

That from both from her cult and from ours. I had people that said this. I did not know she was preaching until Paul Cain told me. And then I started digging in, you know, from your testimonies that you've collected and from the things that I have discovered, it's pretty evident that's what was going on. But the key part of this Charles is, by Paul Cain telling me this, that he was there when the female was preaching, that predates William Brannum's first introduction to Paul Cain. I think it was, it was May of 1951. I just had to look it up.

So before May of 1951, Paul Cain was actually attending or visiting the Brannum Tabernacle. He was there when the female preacher was. So that places him in the beginning, which means that he is aware of many of the things, he was aware of many of the things that we're talking about.

He saw the different phases and iterations. He saw the stage personas as they changed and evolved over time. He saw the money. He knew how much money was coming into this. And think about what happened. So he sees this. He wants to become a second Brannum.

And he starts, he helps start the International House of Prayer, which is Brannumism 2.0 effectively. We've had many people come in and give their stories and they're like shocked to find this. Paul Cain tried to recreate this mess that we have talked about in this. And for the people who escaped that cult, many of the details that we're not saying, I've heard from the cult members.

So they know that it was almost a complete clone of everything that we've talked about here. John the more I read and learn about the NAR, I have to say the more shocked and offended. I am by it.

What in the world do you guys think you're restoring the apostles and prophets and of the fivefold ministry? Don't you guys realize the message did that in the 60s and 70s? What in the world? What do you mean you're restoring it? The message restored it in the 50s and 60s.

Did you guys like miss out on that somehow, right? I know my sect of the message had created an international fivefold ministry with apostles over all the regions and all the offices by the mid 70s, John.

And these guys in the 90s start thinking they're rebuilding the fivefold ministry. What in the world do you guys realize that you guys? as you stole our ideas and went over on the parallel and started trying to do the same thing. I mean, and here's the thing, John, and I've mentioned this to you. We knew in my sect of the message, we knew that they were stealing this stuff from the message from the beginning. We sent spies of the Toronto blessing. We were watching Paul Cain the whole time. I mean, and in our parlance, you know, William Brown, I'm talked about, there would

be false, anointed ones at the end time who would create a false message, basically. And we said, you guys are in. That's what we said the NAR was. We said the NAR, these people out there in the vineyard movement and everything back in those days, we said, these guys are the false anointed ones creating a false message. They've stolen our message. They're building the false message. And we said, you guys are actually fulfilling William Brown's prophecies about the false anointed ones making a false message. I bet you the people in NAR have absolutely no idea about any of that, do they? Right? But because Paul Cain, I'm sure

never told you all that part, even though he was still coming to our church is why we was preaching that part. So it's anyways, we could talk so much about that stuff, John, so much about that stuff. But the context that they have is so unusual, so unusual. It's so unusual. It's crazy, man. I mean, think of this. These people come here to grave soak William Brannum's Pyramid grave. Why aren't they going to grave soak Al Capone's grave or DC Stevenson? I mean, if you really understand where all of this came from, this is the biggest

mess, Charles, and even the grave soaking, it's so stupid. Colonel Sanders' tomb is right across the river. You don't find me going there so that I can make better fried chicken. But these guys want to build this fictional reverence with the spiritualism and nonsense.

And they're not telling the people in the NAR where this mess came from. It's something else, John. I just don't even have words. It blows my mind that this could even happen. Right? Hey, it happened, right? And the people in the message, you know what I have done? I have just told them how to fulfill a Brannum prophecy with the, if they hadn't heard that. Of course, my sect already believed it, so I'm sure it's out there anyway.

This is, you guys, I mean, it's, I don't even know what else to say, John. I just got it. But I'm so thankful for this grandstelling letter. Thank you for sending this in. This is an incredibly important piece of history documentation. Ladies and gentlemen, go out to the research website, read it through yourself, see what you think. I think we pointed out some really interesting takeaways from it.

Yes. By the time this episode launches, if you go to William-Branum.org, there's a big search bar at the top. And if you can type in Graham-snelling, and the website is divided into different categories of information. One of them is publications. So if you're on the mobile, there's a little button at the bottom that gets you into the folders.

If you're in the website, you just click on publications and it's published in there and everybody can read it like Charles said it is in cursive so it's a little bit difficult to read but all this is out there, this is crazy stuff, this is what the NAR ultimately developed from.

This is the mess that created it so if you've enjoyed our show and you want more information you can check us out on the web, you can find us at William-Brandom.org. For more information about the history of William-Brandom and the healing revivals, read, come out of her, my people, available on Amazon and Kindle.

For more about the dark side of the NAR, read Weaponized Religion from Christian identity to the NAR, available on Amazon, Kindle, and Soon, Audible.