Rev Earl Paulk Receives a Call from a Man Claiming to be the Atlanta Child Murderer (March 19, 1981)

Voiceover: An overview of a phone call that Reverend Paulk received from a man claiming to be the Atlanta child murderer. Footage: Rev. Paulk giving a press conference in the sanctuary of his church (natural sound); aerial footage of where Curtis Walker's body was found; Ponce de Leon Avenue; the outside of Paulk's church; sound cuts out at the end.
Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children Story
Reporter: Emerman, BeBe
Earl Pearly Paulk, Jr. (May 30, 1927 - March 29, 2009) was an American televangelist and the founder of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, a charismatic/Pentecostal megachurch in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Noted as "one of the country’s first great independent megachurches", Paulk's church gained an international reputation for combining liturgical arts, such as dance and drama, with social ministry.[1] Paulk was also known for his lifelong crusade against racism.
Paulk's reputation was severely tarnished in his later years by allegations of sexual misconduct, including several illicit relationships and accusations that he had molested children.
Earl Paulk was born on May 30, 1927, in Appling County, Georgia, near Savannah, to Earl Pearly Paulk, Sr. and Addie Mae Tomberlin Paulk. His father was a minister in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), eventually rising to assistant general overseer of the denomination. At 17, Paulk said he received a call from God to enter ministry.
Sex scandals[edit source]
Allegations by congregants[edit source]
Paulk was involved with many sex scandals spanning several decades.[1] In 1992, six women accused Paulk, his brother Don, and two other nephews who were ministers at the cathedral, of sexual manipulation. One of them was Tricia Weeks, who had ghostwritten Paulk's autobiography. The story received considerable national coverage. Paulk denied the allegations, claiming Weeks was either mentally unstable or under evil influences. However, he admitted to the adulterous affair which forced him out of Hemphill Church of God in 1960.[1]
In 2001, Jessica Battle, a college student who had been part of the cathedral's dance group, sued Paulk, accusing him of molesting her between the ages of 7 and 11, and later of forcing himself on her when she was 17.[1] The suit was settled out of court in 2003 for $400,000.[1] In 2003, Cindy Hall claimed that Paulk had convinced her into a lengthy affair that also included her having sex with Don.[1] Hall alleged that the affair began in 1983[1] when Paulk prayed for her, then kissed her. He then would say he intended to "make love" to her.[1] At one point, Paulk supposedly would tell her that they had a "special gift of love outside holy matrimony".[1] The relationship became a weekly occurrence.[1] Hall left the church in 2003 after being convinced that Battle was telling the truth about being molested by Paulk.[1] Hall also claims that at Paulk's request, she denied having sex with him, lying under oath at her deposition for the Battle case.[1]
Mona Manning Brewer, a Sunday School teacher at the Cathedral who was featured regularly as a soloist on Paulk's television program, claimed that on September 11, 1989, Paulk felt "'impressed of the Lord' to get to know her better".[1] She stopped by his office the next day, becoming a regular visitor. She alleged that a church official stated that there had been a "word of knowledge" claiming that she was about to enter a new relationship that would benefit her. That relationship became an affair that lasted fourteen years.[1] She didn't break the relationship off until September 2003, and didn't tell anyone about the affair until hearing about Hall's allegations.[1] She then told her husband, Cathedral minister Bobby Brewer, who bided his time until the refinancing of the cathedral was finished. In March 2004, Bobby Brewer angrily confronted Earl and Don Paulk at the Brewers' house, at one point hitting them both.[1] The Brewers eventually sued Paulk and the Cathedral on August 31, 2005, claiming Paulk misused his position to manipulate Mona into a sexual relationship and claiming Paulk owed US$400,000 for a loan Bobby issued to settle the Battle case.[1] Paulk denied the allegations from Brewers, but his attorney acknowledged a sexual relationship between him and Mona had taken place.[1] Paulk claimed that the relationship was brief and that she was the initiator.[10]
On Monday, March 5, 2007, at a pretrial hearing, the Brewers' lawyer wrote out a request for dismissal of the case by hand and handed it to lawyers for Paulk and the cathedral.
Paulk found his theology criticized concerning accusations of promoting Dominionism and Word of Faith teaching.[15] Before opening his doors to the gay and lesbian community, he had close ties to the Christian Reconstructionist movement.[16]
Death[edit source]
Paulk died early on the morning of March 29, 2009, at Atlanta Medical Center after a long battle with cancer.[17]

[@shonwillis4276]

I'm thinking to myself why they just didn't look into that and take these type of allegations seriously

[@AzharMalik-yc4hk]

Didn't he admit to molestation of someone in his own family in two.

[@shonwillis4276]

APD wasn't taking none of this stuff seriously or in consideration the mothers and kids was telling them that they were seeing strange cars and other people that wasn't description of Wayne Williams

[@randyposs6281]

wayne didn't have a wife or van and didn't hang around ponce deleon