Bill Edgar's managed to make a solid living through working with the dead.
He made a name for himself as the 'Coffin Confessor' through gate-crashing funerals and carrying out associated requests left by the dying.
This brought him fame and admiration - and inspired him to write a book ‘The Afterlife Confessional’.
He joined Francesca to discuss the new opportunities that came with the role.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Bill Edgar's job is far from your average nine to five.
He made worldwide headlines a few years back as the
coffin Confessor. He's paid by the dying to gate crash
their funerals once they're gone, and to carry out their
dying wishes. The fame has now extended Bill's job and
the services he offers. It's even brought Hollywood knocking on
his door. Bill has detailed his job and also what
(00:36):
he has learned from the dying in a new book
called The Afterlife Confessional. And Bill Edgar joins me now
from Australia. How are you doing, Bill?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm great, Thank you for having me. How are you
really good?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Thank you? Now I see that the job has kind
of extended somewhat in recent years. You now call yourself
really a concierge to the dying. Explain that role to me.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, So it went from crashing funerals to crashing wakes
and then going to viewings and placing items coffins, and
then you know, it became a service that I didn't realize.
Who's going to happen. But I do home suites for
removing sensitive items. Now I'm delivering gifts from the afterlife,
and that's a beautiful thing to do. It's great.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Are you surprised how the role of creating funerals has
led to so many opportunities.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's incredible, it really is. And for you know, for
the only Coffin confessor on the planet to be doing this,
it's it's just a joy to do. And I'm excited,
and it's the people I meet are just incredible people.
And I hold their secrets and you know, their desires,
their fantasies and everything, and I you know, I crush
the funeral. I do a face to face and I
(01:49):
let the other people know exactly what they are, what
they wanted to said. Yeah, it's amazing, Bill, Do you
sort of see.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I suppose peace within people if they know that things
are going to be done or said or dealt with
the way they want them to. Does it bring a
sense of peace initty end?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh? For sure, a lot of solace and a lot
of happy faces to at the end, because it's you know,
I never realized that so many people don't actually get
their last wishes and it was incredible. How many people
have reached out and said they've done their own eulogy,
but the famili's viewed it and said they won't play
it at the funeral. Or you know, there's people that
(02:31):
they thought loved and cared for them, but they turn
into vultures and they just can't wait for them to pass.
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So in a way, the dying or decease very appreciative
for your work. But what about sort of the family
and other people you acounter along the way as you
do your job. How well do they respond to you?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, it's a bit of a mix. So you know,
when I crash a funeral, I try to get everybody
on my side as fast as I can by telling
them that this is their loved one in the casket coffin.
Now it's not me saying this, it's them. They've wrote
it down. I've got a video. It's them. It's their message.
How don't we sit down and we just listen to
what they have to say. Besides, it's their funeral, not yours.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Does the job come with risks? Do you have to
have a bit of a thick skin and a certain
amount of bravery? To do this job.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure,
but it's I guess it's my upbringing is you made
me who I am today to be able to do
this job. And I've got to say that across the planet,
people have reached out and sent resumes and they want
to start their own business up. But I'm fearful of
it being turned into something that people could take advantage
(03:45):
of the deceased and those dying, because it's so easy
to not fulfill their wishes and just take the money
and run.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Because a lot of times you are preventing the family
from taking advantage of the dying, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh? Absolutely. I mean the vultures in the family are
just incredible and they give me the strength to do
what I do. So you know, some of those people
will be going through the homes of those laying on
their deathbed before they're even in the ground, and they're
either throwing stuff out or selling stuff, or finding their
personal belongings and taking them. It's just, yeah, it's vile.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I think at one point you were actually hired to
guard somebody who was dying and be in the room
with them to make sure that the family didn't take
their jewelry off before they'd passed away, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, that was very sad. The lady was petrified and
hospital staff as well, and the son was caught in
the act of trying to take his mother's rings off
her hand before she'd even died, and it was it's horrific.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Things like that really encouraged me to be able to
do what I do. But then there's the other side
where I'll attend a funeral or a gathering and that's
something either funny. It could be good, bad, funny, or sad. Really,
it's quite arranged nowadays.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
And your experience does everyone die with a secret.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Every person on the planet's got a skeleton in the closet.
It's just a matter if they want to let it
out or not.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
You're also talk in the book about walking a fine
legal line. Talk me through that. Have you run into
any trouble with the police.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
When I go to a home sweep and I remove
sensitive bi itom, some of the family members might get
up set and call the police. But I have video,
and I've got the rights, and I have the keys,
so I don't do a break in there now. I'm
actually there on behalf of the person who's hired me.
The other thing is that the police would like me
to divulge crimes. And if I'm told a crime, obviously
(05:39):
you know you best divulge it. However, what I've done
is of usk those people not to tell me the crime.
They write it down and it's posted to me, and
I don't open that until the day of their funeral,
so I have no idea of the crime. So therefore
I can't report it until I know.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Interesting what's a home sweep?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
My home sweep is where And this is something I
found very fascinating and interesting, and it's very heartbreaking too,
because a person can have the fall at home, get
taken to hospital and placed in hospite and told they're
never going to go home again. Now, those people have
certain items that they don't want their family and friends
to find at home, and it could be of a
sexual nature, it could be even their laptop or phone,
(06:20):
it could be anything. And that's a home sweep. So
I'm engaged to go to their home remove sensitive items,
either bring him back to my client, or I destroy him.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And as you say, at one point you were having
to dismantle a six dungeon.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yes, an eighty eight year old gentleman i'd met. He
was fearful that his three sons were about to go
to his house and discover what the father was real
early into you know, and it's sad that we can't
live the way we are. But I mean, I can
understand how embarrassing and mortified he'd feel. So Yeah, I
entered his home, and I got to say, a sex
(06:58):
dungeon sort of describes it as a dirty old man's
place with the hooks and all the stuff like that,
But it's not. This was very It was very well maintained.
He was eighty eight and he had a great sex life.
He was married for thirty five years. His wife had
passed away, and he just he went into that world,
and hey, why not We only live once.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
And as you say, you're not there to judge. Hey,
what impact does this kind of job have on your life?
What impact has ahead on you?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, I've changed heat since I started this job. I
think more so that I've prepared myself for death. And
you know, a close friend or loved one as well.
But doesn't mean I'm not going to mourn or anything.
It just means that I'm more prepared and being more
prepared and knowing that, you know, we're all going to die.
No one's going to escape. But if you come to
terms with that, and you're prepared by you know, getting
(07:50):
rid of the clutter the people in your life that
just keep you backwards or drag you down, you know,
and just remove all that crap out of your life
and move forward. And I'm no longer living and then dying.
I'm actually going to die living.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Have you turned any requests down?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I came very close. A lady asked me to be
her suicide note, and I found that very confronting, and
all the help that we try to get her and
everything was, you know, z in vain. She ended up
doing what she said she was going to do, and
I did take the job because I thought, well, I
am the coughing confess I do, you know, deliver the
(08:30):
messages from beyond. And yeah, so it was confronting, but
at the same time, you know, I did what she wanted.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
What I was quite intrigued with in the book reading
about the stories and the situations that you dealt with,
is you kind of do treat them a little bit
like a private investigator woulds you document? You film so
much stuff. You make sure that you're you know that
you're going You're making it very clear to your client
what you've done and how you're going about it, and
and I suppose that sort of protects you a certain
(09:03):
amount but also provides that reassurance to the client that
you're doing what they asked.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Absolutely. I mean, there'd be nothing more vile than you're
stealing off the dead. So yeah, it's back up for
me as well, you know, so I don't get litigated.
But it's also one of those things that I've always
done them. You know, I truly believe that you've got
to document everything and keep it safe. I'm very old school.
I'll write a lot of things down and I don't
(09:32):
keep a lot on the computers because I do know
as a private investigator how easily they can be hacked.
So you know a lot of my stuff is written
and diarized, and that's how I like to work. But yeah,
I think the safety aspect for myself and litigation, I
have to make sure that I'm fully covered and I'm
doing the right thing. And again I don't work on
(09:53):
behalf of the third party so no one can engage
me to go crash their mother's brother's aunt's funeral. I
don't do that. I any crash of funerals of those
that have engaged me directly.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Well interesting, And of course Hollywood's after you now, because
why wouldn't they, Baby, because this is such an incredible
story and an incredible life that you've had.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Bill.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
What's going on there?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, you know something that's really exciting, and it's to
do with New Zealand actually, is that we're hoping that
New Zealand, Australia and can come to an agreement in
combination where the Coffin Confess actually gets filmed in both countries.
And you know, it's really exciting to be able to
do that because I do have a strong connection with
(10:37):
New Zealand. I have two aunties that were married into
my toxic family and actually escape to New Zealand who
embrace them beautifully, and you know, I'm very grateful for that.
But at the same time, they're working on a drama
series and I'm really excited about that. And like I say,
if they can keep it anyway in this part of
the world, New Zealand Australia, I'd be very very happy.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Oh Bill, thank you so much for your time today.
It's been a delight to talk to you. The Afterlife
Confessional is in stores now. It is eighteen past eleven
year with News Talks EB.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks ITB from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Bill Edgar's job is far from your average nine to five.
He made worldwide headlines a few years back as the
coffin Confessor. He's paid by the dying to gate crash
their funerals once they're gone, and to carry out their
dying wishes. The fame has now extended Bill's job and
the services he offers. It's even brought Hollywood knocking on
his door. Bill has detailed his job and also what
(00:36):
he has learned from the dying in a new book
called The Afterlife Confessional. And Bill Edgar joins me now
from Australia. How are you doing, Bill?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm great, Thank you for having me. How are you
really good?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Thank you? Now I see that the job has kind
of extended somewhat in recent years. You now call yourself
really a concierge to the dying. Explain that role to me.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, So it went from crashing funerals to crashing wakes
and then going to viewings and placing items coffins, and
then you know, it became a service that I didn't realize.
Who's going to happen. But I do home suites for
removing sensitive items. Now I'm delivering gifts from the afterlife,
and that's a beautiful thing to do. It's great.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Are you surprised how the role of creating funerals has
led to so many opportunities.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's incredible, it really is. And for you know, for
the only Coffin confessor on the planet to be doing this,
it's it's just a joy to do. And I'm excited,
and it's the people I meet are just incredible people.
And I hold their secrets and you know, their desires,
their fantasies and everything, and I you know, I crush
the funeral. I do a face to face and I
(01:49):
let the other people know exactly what they are, what
they wanted to said. Yeah, it's amazing, Bill, Do you
sort of see.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I suppose peace within people if they know that things
are going to be done or said or dealt with
the way they want them to. Does it bring a
sense of peace initty end?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh? For sure, a lot of solace and a lot
of happy faces to at the end, because it's you know,
I never realized that so many people don't actually get
their last wishes and it was incredible. How many people
have reached out and said they've done their own eulogy,
but the famili's viewed it and said they won't play
it at the funeral. Or you know, there's people that
(02:31):
they thought loved and cared for them, but they turn
into vultures and they just can't wait for them to pass.
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So in a way, the dying or decease very appreciative
for your work. But what about sort of the family
and other people you acounter along the way as you
do your job. How well do they respond to you?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, it's a bit of a mix. So you know,
when I crash a funeral, I try to get everybody
on my side as fast as I can by telling
them that this is their loved one in the casket coffin.
Now it's not me saying this, it's them. They've wrote
it down. I've got a video. It's them. It's their message.
How don't we sit down and we just listen to
what they have to say. Besides, it's their funeral, not yours.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Does the job come with risks? Do you have to
have a bit of a thick skin and a certain
amount of bravery? To do this job.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure,
but it's I guess it's my upbringing is you made
me who I am today to be able to do
this job. And I've got to say that across the planet,
people have reached out and sent resumes and they want
to start their own business up. But I'm fearful of
it being turned into something that people could take advantage
(03:45):
of the deceased and those dying, because it's so easy
to not fulfill their wishes and just take the money
and run.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Because a lot of times you are preventing the family
from taking advantage of the dying, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh? Absolutely. I mean the vultures in the family are
just incredible and they give me the strength to do
what I do. So you know, some of those people
will be going through the homes of those laying on
their deathbed before they're even in the ground, and they're
either throwing stuff out or selling stuff, or finding their
personal belongings and taking them. It's just, yeah, it's vile.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I think at one point you were actually hired to
guard somebody who was dying and be in the room
with them to make sure that the family didn't take
their jewelry off before they'd passed away, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, that was very sad. The lady was petrified and
hospital staff as well, and the son was caught in
the act of trying to take his mother's rings off
her hand before she'd even died, and it was it's horrific.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Things like that really encouraged me to be able to
do what I do. But then there's the other side
where I'll attend a funeral or a gathering and that's
something either funny. It could be good, bad, funny, or sad. Really,
it's quite arranged nowadays.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
And your experience does everyone die with a secret.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Every person on the planet's got a skeleton in the closet.
It's just a matter if they want to let it
out or not.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
You're also talk in the book about walking a fine
legal line. Talk me through that. Have you run into
any trouble with the police.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
When I go to a home sweep and I remove
sensitive bi itom, some of the family members might get
up set and call the police. But I have video,
and I've got the rights, and I have the keys,
so I don't do a break in there now. I'm
actually there on behalf of the person who's hired me.
The other thing is that the police would like me
to divulge crimes. And if I'm told a crime, obviously
(05:39):
you know you best divulge it. However, what I've done
is of usk those people not to tell me the crime.
They write it down and it's posted to me, and
I don't open that until the day of their funeral,
so I have no idea of the crime. So therefore
I can't report it until I know.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Interesting what's a home sweep?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
My home sweep is where And this is something I
found very fascinating and interesting, and it's very heartbreaking too,
because a person can have the fall at home, get
taken to hospital and placed in hospite and told they're
never going to go home again. Now, those people have
certain items that they don't want their family and friends
to find at home, and it could be of a
sexual nature, it could be even their laptop or phone,
(06:20):
it could be anything. And that's a home sweep. So
I'm engaged to go to their home remove sensitive items,
either bring him back to my client, or I destroy him.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And as you say, at one point you were having
to dismantle a six dungeon.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yes, an eighty eight year old gentleman i'd met. He
was fearful that his three sons were about to go
to his house and discover what the father was real
early into you know, and it's sad that we can't
live the way we are. But I mean, I can
understand how embarrassing and mortified he'd feel. So Yeah, I
entered his home, and I got to say, a sex
(06:58):
dungeon sort of describes it as a dirty old man's
place with the hooks and all the stuff like that,
But it's not. This was very It was very well maintained.
He was eighty eight and he had a great sex life.
He was married for thirty five years. His wife had
passed away, and he just he went into that world,
and hey, why not We only live once.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
And as you say, you're not there to judge. Hey,
what impact does this kind of job have on your life?
What impact has ahead on you?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, I've changed heat since I started this job. I
think more so that I've prepared myself for death. And
you know, a close friend or loved one as well.
But doesn't mean I'm not going to mourn or anything.
It just means that I'm more prepared and being more
prepared and knowing that, you know, we're all going to die.
No one's going to escape. But if you come to
terms with that, and you're prepared by you know, getting
(07:50):
rid of the clutter the people in your life that
just keep you backwards or drag you down, you know,
and just remove all that crap out of your life
and move forward. And I'm no longer living and then dying.
I'm actually going to die living.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Have you turned any requests down?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I came very close. A lady asked me to be
her suicide note, and I found that very confronting, and
all the help that we try to get her and
everything was, you know, z in vain. She ended up
doing what she said she was going to do, and
I did take the job because I thought, well, I
am the coughing confess I do, you know, deliver the
(08:30):
messages from beyond. And yeah, so it was confronting, but
at the same time, you know, I did what she wanted.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
What I was quite intrigued with in the book reading
about the stories and the situations that you dealt with,
is you kind of do treat them a little bit
like a private investigator woulds you document? You film so
much stuff. You make sure that you're you know that
you're going You're making it very clear to your client
what you've done and how you're going about it, and
and I suppose that sort of protects you a certain
(09:03):
amount but also provides that reassurance to the client that
you're doing what they asked.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Absolutely. I mean, there'd be nothing more vile than you're
stealing off the dead. So yeah, it's back up for
me as well, you know, so I don't get litigated.
But it's also one of those things that I've always
done them. You know, I truly believe that you've got
to document everything and keep it safe. I'm very old school.
I'll write a lot of things down and I don't
(09:32):
keep a lot on the computers because I do know
as a private investigator how easily they can be hacked.
So you know a lot of my stuff is written
and diarized, and that's how I like to work. But yeah,
I think the safety aspect for myself and litigation, I
have to make sure that I'm fully covered and I'm
doing the right thing. And again I don't work on
(09:53):
behalf of the third party so no one can engage
me to go crash their mother's brother's aunt's funeral. I
don't do that. I any crash of funerals of those
that have engaged me directly.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Well interesting, And of course Hollywood's after you now, because
why wouldn't they, Baby, because this is such an incredible
story and an incredible life that you've had.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Bill.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
What's going on there?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well, you know something that's really exciting, and it's to
do with New Zealand actually, is that we're hoping that
New Zealand, Australia and can come to an agreement in
combination where the Coffin Confess actually gets filmed in both countries.
And you know, it's really exciting to be able to
do that because I do have a strong connection with
(10:37):
New Zealand. I have two aunties that were married into
my toxic family and actually escape to New Zealand who
embrace them beautifully, and you know, I'm very grateful for that.
But at the same time, they're working on a drama
series and I'm really excited about that. And like I say,
if they can keep it anyway in this part of
the world, New Zealand Australia, I'd be very very happy.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Oh Bill, thank you so much for your time today.
It's been a delight to talk to you. The Afterlife
Confessional is in stores now. It is eighteen past eleven
year with News Talks EB.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks ITB from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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