Joy Walker
a.k.a.: AJ Walker, A. Joy Walker, Almond Joy Walker, Joyce Walker, Alma Walker and Texas Walker
a.k.a: AllThatTV.com, ATTV
known associate: Joseph Walker; a.k.a. Joe Walker, Joey Walker, Squint-eyed Joe
Joy & Joseph Walker
For the past ten years Joy and Joseph Walker have been pattering their lifestyle in an eerily similar parallel to the story line of the movie A Most Deadly Family starring Mary Tyler Moore and Gabriel Olds.
About two to three times a year they move into a new community and repeat, and get better at, their same old scams, which includes getting free rent, the promise of employing lots of people in the movie and television industry and selling a poor grant product for lots of money.
The basic modus operendi goes like this.
They move into a community in a low rate motel while looking for a nice house to move into. Their fundamental lure is that they have been working on a 24/7 internet television station that will be ready to go on the air in the next 2 – 4 months. This gives them time to go through their compendium of ‘hustles’.
Always maintaining that they are millionaires and own several high quality businesses, their first priority is to find free housing. This is accomplished by finding a landlord who is having a hard time renting their property; or in some cases a seller having not been able to sell their property. The rouse is that with her ‘TV’ (ATTV) station she is going to do a home make-over show. She offers to film an up-coming episode at the rental property and put in tens of thousands of dollars of improvement, in exchange for living in the property rent free. A similar proposition has been offered to home sellers.
Joy and Joe Walker are masters at delaying tactics. They have run these scams so many times they know exactly how to get the maximum benefits from their rouses.
They are also masters at manipulating language, which is especially critical in their contracts.
The rent, or purchase date, is delayed as long as possible until they are evicted. Then they move on to the next city, the next state, the next scam.
The 24/7 internet TV station is the crown jewel of their manipulation. They claim to have been working on this project since 1995, filming since 1998, and it is almost ready to go on the air, in just a few more months. They use this TV scam in many ways, but primarily to lure and pull people in like a Venus fly trap, then start to wrap around them. Regardless of your contact with Joy Walker, one of the first things she will show you is an overview of the TV and all the money it will bring in. The next step is to see if you have any interest in being part of her TV business.
Here is where they will start to explore your vanity to see what perks you up and how to manipulate your actions. Are you interested in making lots of money, do you want to be a celebrity, get your picture on the front of Time magazine, wear designer clothes, travel the world, etc. Whatever your interest, that will be promised to you if you work for them as an unpaid employee for three months, or longer. The theme of this part of the scam is “Where do you fit in with their organization?”
Joy and Joseph claim that the ATTV program will be the biggest and most unique thing to ever come along. It is so unique that not even Donald Trump or Bill Gates can do what the “Walkers” are doing. – Did we mention that Joy and Joseph know everything about everything. There is nothing that they don’t know how to do better than you.
The second fundamental scam is their trying to start a grant writing business. They claim to have dozens of current clients and have written many grants, at a nearly 100% success rate. The fact is that they have no current clients. They try to get some local non-profits to act as a pass-through account to sponsor some other for-profit businesses. They try to hire local grant writers and appointment setters to do all the work at relatively little, or no compensation. Joy is a self-proclaimed, self-taught grant writer. To our knowledge, neither Joy nor Joseph Walker has ever received funding from a grant that they wrote.
Although there is a real value in teaching someone how to write grants, Joy Walker charges the top dollar to the client for the base information. Clients receive the minimal training in how to apply for grants in exchange for several thousands of dollars.
Their chief characteristic is the ‘delaying tactics’. When they are questions like:
“When is the TV going to be operational?”
“When am I going to be paid?”
“When are you going to start a website?”
“When are you going to start a business bank account?”
“When are you going to have a local office?”
They will always answer in the theme of – we don’t need it, it will be just a little longer, or some other excuse that may seem reasonable.
Red Flags
Although no business is perfect and employees will gossip and complain about the management in all companies, there are several areas of concern that raise ‘Red Flags” with Joy and Joseph Walker.
They operate on cash basis only.
They do not have any infrastructure for a business of the size they claim to be launching.
There is no Human Resource Department to hire, train, or provide benefits to staff.
There is no business telephone.
There is no website.
There is no mailing address.
In fact, there is no business registration at all. Not even a dba.
So contracts that are provided to ‘employees’ are offered by the person Joy Walker and not any business entity.
The grant writing has always been by Joy as an individual, not through a business.
They always live rent free in exchange for the promise of a home make-over.
The two of these individuals, neither with any college education, has created something that neither Donald Trump nor Bill Gates, nor all their resources, could accomplish.
When talking with them there is a feeling of relaxation rather than the nervous energy of preparing for such a large business launching.
Their training materials are scant and poorly compiled.
Their business contracts are poorly written.
They claim to be making business deals all over the world and bringing in millions of dollars every month, but live the life style of near paupers.
This is done, by their claim, so that all the money can go back into the TV station.
They have very little business or office equipment in their house (remember there is no office.)
Her prized, and perhaps only piece of furniture is a $1,000 lamp.
Essentially, they own only as much stuff as will fit into a car so they can leave in a hurry.
Joy Walker uses Biblical quotes to chastise others but then frequently acts the opposite of what she just said.
Updates
There have been so many people affected by Joy Walker and Joseph Walker across the country for the past several years that reports continually come in. So we invite you to come back next week to read about some of the updates.
News Articles
The Rest of the Story? Many questions remain unanswered on big deal that fell apart
Kerry Craig News-Telegram Assistant Editor
Feb. 26, 2006 -- A plan to develop an Internet television production studio just east of Sulphur Springs died on Feb. 6 when the purchase of the Mary Bonham home was not completed.
But many questions are still unanswered.
On Dec. 18, Joy Walker, also known as Almond Joy Walker, told city and county leaders and members of the news media that her project would begin to take shape in early February and that a large number of jobs would become available immediately.
"We are going to start with bare minimums -- 1,500 people full time," she said. Included in the 1,500 jobs, Walker said, would be sound people, lighting people, and crews to build sets.
Within another 90 days, Walker said the number would grow to a staggering 4,500 or more.
Mary Bonham, who says she is vitally interested in Sulphur Springs’ economic growth, first saw the remote possibility of the plan having a major impact on both the city and Hopkins County.
The influx of 4,000 people and their families meant the population could more than double, and that was cause for some concern for local government and school officials.
For the school districts, there was the prospect of overcrowded classrooms. For local governments, the infrastructure -- utilities, communications or Internet -- was not in place to support an effort of such scope.
These were only the start of a myriad of questions about the plan and its feasibility.
The cost of constructing a building 800 feet long and 180 feet wide, equipping the building for television production and paying salaries of 1,500 to 4,000 people would be enormous. Where would the money come from?
Almond Joy Walker said she had the money. Her son, Joseph, and attorney, Terry Taylor of Colleyville, were adamant there was financial backing for the venture.
When asked about Walker's other ventures, Taylor said he could not offer a lot of help, that he had only been representing her since June 2005.
"Most of that time was working in another area of her company. She does a lot of philanthropic work," the attorney said. He would not, however, reveal any specific information on those ventures.
As for specific accomplishments, Taylor had no information.
"The things that I have been working on with her are things she is intending to do," he said. "Quite frankly, because her time is so limited, I haven't had time to ask her about past things."
Joseph Walker said he and his mother had done many things but wouldn't offer specifics. The information, however, would be provided early in January, he said.
"When we come back -- we are planning on being back there in two weeks -- we will be bringing a packet with all the advice that anybody would really want," he told the News-Telegram.
The information packets never materialized.
Requests for more information and interviews by the News-Telegram, KSST and Dallas Morning News were all stonewalled.
Mrs. Walker did meet with Washington Times writer Hugh Aynesworth in early February to discuss the planned studio.
"She said she was going to accomplish many things that Bill Gates could not do," Aynesworth said.
But some things just didn't add up.
An official in the video production department at Southern Methodist University said the only people in Florida capable of such a large operation would have "Disney" attached to their names.
The owner of a television production studio in North Dallas said the Spanish-language network, Telemundo, had just completed full production of a year’s worth of soap operas in their 150-foot long studio with a maximum of just more than 100 people.
City, school and county officials had questions about the financial capabilities of Mrs. Walker and her company. Those questions, too, went unanswered.
An investigation into the background of Almond Joy Walker would reveal some discrepancies and lead to even more questions.
Two months prior to her appearance in Sulphur Springs, Almond Joy Walker was evicted from a rented house in Oakland Park, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2005, by owner Pamela J. O'Connor.
"She owes me quite a bit of money," O'Connor said. "She rented a place from me. She moved in June, I believe, and my daughter finally got her evicted in October. She paid one month's worth of rent, and she and her son moved in, and there was little or no furniture, like bags and boxes of clothing -- they had a computer, but not much of anything."
Documentation of at least three other civil suits further dimmed the financial potential for an Internet television studio in Sulphur Springs.
Attorney Terry Taylor, who said he represented Mrs. Walker in the purchase of the Mary Bonham property and later said he was employed to manage the television production facility, said he was unaware of any financial difficulties involving Walker.
"This is news to me," Taylor said during a telephone conversation last week.
In the weeks leading up to the planned closing date for the sale of the Bonham home, Mary Bonham continued to be optimistic, hoping the deal would work for the benefit of Sulphur Springs.
Between the initial announcement and the projected closing date for the property sale, Mary Bonham said, Mrs. Walker and her son were allowed to live in a guest house on the property and were permitted to use one of the Bonham automobiles.
But as the date for the sale finalization drew near, the deal began to fall apart.
At the closing on Feb. 4, Walker’s attorney asked for additional time -- two more weeks -- before closing on the transaction in order to explore what he termed “information that was given to us” about structural problems with the property.
Bonham’s attorney suggested a slightly shorter extension might be acceptable if another $20,000 in non-refundable earnest money was paid.
Previous earnest money was paid into escrow for the pending sale -- $20,000 for a $15.5 million transaction -- was paid by Taylor, and he apparently did not want to put in any additional money, and Mary Bonham rejected the request for additional time.
“Basically, she said, ‘No’ and to get off her property,” Taylor told the News-Telegram on Feb. 6. “All we wanted was additional time to check out this information.”
When asked if there were problems in getting the $15.5 million for the property, the attorney said there were not, that he stopped a transfer of funds.
“Joy was going to put the funds in escrow, and I stopped her,” he said. “I asked her to go get a certified check instead, because I wanted to demonstrate, when I went into the [closing] meeting, that we had the funds, because I knew there was such a question about it. [Joy] was unable to get that certified check.”
For Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County, hope for a place in the television spotlight has gone away. In its place are still more questions.
Taylor said the group was still intent on building their studio somewhere, but that Sulphur Springs was both out of the question and in the past. He said they would look elsewhere, maybe "west of Fort Worth."
For Mary Bonham, there was only disappointment that the economic boost for Sulphur Springs would never happen.
That, and disappointment in people she said she had tried to befriend.
"Was this a scam? A misguided venture? Or did Joy Walker really think she could pull off a business monster?" News-Telegram Publisher Scott Keys wrote in Feb. 8. editorial. "Only Mrs. Walker and her 'partners' in the venture know for sure.”
