Richard Silanskas says he authored the religious messages but claims investor Gene Bicknell wanted him to send them. Bicknell alleges the messages were part of a scheme that led him to put more than $60 million into the failed American Heartland project.
A bizarre legal battle surrounding one of the most ambitious RV resort projects ever announced has taken another turn.
Richard M. Silanskas Jr. has admitted that he authored and sent religious messages to American Heartland investor O. Gene Bicknell that appeared to come from God and, later, from a fictional nun named “Sister Catherine.”
Silanskas made the admission during a June 16 deposition, according to a Tulsa World report republished by AOL and subsequent reporting by PEOPLE. He also acknowledged lying about the messages during an earlier deposition.
But Silanskas disputes Bicknell’s account of why the messages were created.
Bicknell alleges in a federal lawsuit that the religious communications were part of a years-long effort to convince him that God wanted him to keep funding American Heartland Theme Park and Resort near Vinita, Oklahoma. Silanskas now says Bicknell asked him to create the messages and that he complied because he feared Bicknell.
At the center of the dispute is a project RVers may recognize: Three Ponies RV Park and Campground, a planned 320-acre resort with 750 RV sites and 300 cabins that was supposed to become the first phase of American Heartland.
The RV resort was supposed to open first
American Heartland made national headlines when the project was announced in 2023.
The original plan called for a roughly $2 billion, 1,000-acre entertainment destination along Route 66 near Vinita. Its centerpiece would be a 125-acre Americana-themed amusement park, along with a hotel, indoor water park, and other attractions.
Three Ponies was supposed to come first.
According to The Journal Record’s coverage of the October 2023 groundbreaking, the campground would have included 750 RV spaces, 300 cabins, a clubhouse, swimming pool, general store, trails and dog park. It was scheduled to open in spring 2025, followed by the theme park in 2026.
Those plans never came together.
By October 2024, The Journal Record reported that construction had not begun a year after the groundbreaking. Design firm FORREC and Crossland Construction had also filed liens claiming millions of dollars in unpaid work.
The situation became much stranger when Bicknell filed a federal lawsuit in July 2025.
The lawsuit describes hundreds of supposed messages from God
A May 5 opinion and order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma provides a detailed account of Bicknell’s allegations.
Because the order involved motions to dismiss, the judge had to accept the well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and view them in Bicknell’s favor. The account in the order should not be confused with factual findings made after a trial.
According to the complaint, daily devotional messages called “Todays Word” began reaching Bicknell in early 2022.
The messages were written in the first person as though God were speaking directly to him. One emphasized “ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE” and instructed Bicknell to abandon the way he had traditionally handled business decisions.
Days later, Bicknell received a development plan for an Oklahoma theme park.
Over the following two months, he spent nearly $7 million purchasing about 1,600 acres around Vinita, according to the court order. Additional transfers and land purchases followed.
The frequency of the religious messages later increased. The complaint says Bicknell received more than 500 over a six-month period in 2023.
Eventually, the messages introduced the concept of a “triune” leadership consisting of Bicknell, Silanskas and Larry Wilhite, another defendant in the lawsuit. Some communications instructed Bicknell to share the project’s eventual proceeds among the three men, according to the court order.
Bicknell told them he was running out of money
By October 2023, Bicknell was openly warning Silanskas and Wilhite about his financial situation.
In one message quoted in the court filing, he said he had exhausted his available options and was “basically broke.” He warned that without revenue, he faced bankruptcy.
Religious messages continued after that warning, according to the complaint. They continued to stress obedience, the “triune” leadership, and setting aside Bicknell’s own financial calculations.
The Three Ponies groundbreaking was held later that month.
During 2023 alone, Bicknell put nearly $48 million into American Heartland, according to allegations summarized by the court.
Then came ‘Sister Catherine’
Beginning in January 2024, Bicknell started receiving emails from someone calling herself “Sister Catherine.”
The complaint alleges that roughly 100 messages arrived from several Gmail and Yahoo accounts. They continued many of the same themes found in the earlier communications, including obedience, the “triune,” and resistance to people questioning Bicknell’s decisions.
Bicknell apparently believed he was corresponding with a real nun.
Court records describe him responding to Sister Catherine about his finances, depression, family disagreements, and difficulty finding more money for the project. He continued transferring funds, including more than $2 million from a stock sale in February 2024 and additional transfers in March and April.
By spring 2024, the project had run out of money and construction had stopped.
Bicknell had contributed more than $60 million, according to the complaint. He alleges that most of the money was squandered or misappropriated. Those allegations remain disputed.
Silanskas now admits he wrote the messages
That part of the story changed significantly this summer.
During his June deposition, Silanskas acknowledged that he created and sent the “Todays Word” communications and messages attributed to Sister Catherine, according to the Tulsa World report.
Silanskas said he pulled material from online devotionals and added his own language.
His explanation differs sharply from Bicknell’s.
Silanskas testified that Bicknell wanted him to send the religious messages. He also claimed he feared Bicknell and worried about his own safety and the safety of his family. Silanskas said that fear was also behind his earlier false testimony about the messages.
Bicknell’s attorneys reject that explanation and continue to allege that the communications were used to manipulate him into financing the project.
What is admitted and what remains disputed
- Silanskas admits: He authored and sent the religious communications attributed to God and Sister Catherine.
- Silanskas says: Bicknell wanted him to create the messages, and Silanskas acted partly out of fear.
- Bicknell alleges: The messages were deliberately used to convince him that God wanted him to keep funding American Heartland.
- Still disputed: Why the messages were created, who knew they were fabricated, and the roles played by the other people named in the lawsuit.
The other defendants deny involvement in the fake messages
Bicknell’s lawsuit also names Larry Wilhite and Stephen Hedrick.
Wilhite’s attorney told KFOR that Wilhite did not know Silanskas was behind the religious messages until phone records were produced in the lawsuit and Silanskas testified during his deposition.
An attorney for Hedrick said Silanskas’s testimony supports Hedrick’s position that he had nothing to do with either the “Todays Word” or Sister Catherine communications.
A judge has already ruled on some of the claims
In May, Magistrate Judge Susan E. Huntsman dismissed Bicknell’s RICO claims against Wilhite without prejudice, finding that the complaint did not adequately establish the required pattern of racketeering activity.
The court denied Wilhite’s attempt to dismiss the other claims against him. Hedrick’s motion to dismiss was also denied.
At the motion-to-dismiss stage, the court was deciding whether Bicknell had alleged enough facts for those claims to continue, not deciding whose account of the events was ultimately true.
The litigation remains active, and recent filings cited by PEOPLE show Bicknell’s lawyers are still seeking electronic records from Silanskas.
Meanwhile, the 750-site RV resort never opened
For RVers, the physical result of the American Heartland project is much simpler.
Three Ponies RV Park and Campground was supposed to welcome its first guests in spring 2025.
Instead, construction stalled.
A 2025 report from Construction Dive said the lawsuit alleged that little more than a fence and gravel road had been built on the property. The planned resort had once been promoted as one of the largest RV campgrounds in the region.
What began as plans for a 750-site RV resort, hundreds of cabins, and a multibillion-dollar Route 66 attraction is now tied up in a federal lawsuit involving more than $60 million, hundreds of religious messages, and sharply conflicting accounts of why those messages were sent.
Silanskas’s admission answers one of the strangest questions surrounding American Heartland: someone really was writing the supposed messages from God and Sister Catherine.
The much larger question of why he did it, and who else knew, is now part of the case still being fought in federal court.
Write a comment