Private investigator Bill Edgar has recently started working as a ‘coffin confessor’.
- Edgar attends the funerals of his clients and reveals the secrets they have asked him to share.
- The coffin confessor also does ‘home sweeps’ after his clients die whereby he cleans up and throws away everything that the deceased would not want their family to find.
- Edgar’s fee is $7,300 (AUD$10,000) for a funeral confession and $2,200 (AUD$3,000) for a home sweep.
Bill Edgar who is now known as the ‘Coffin Confessor’ acts as the voice of the dead.
For a fee of $7,300 (AUD$10,000), Edgar ensures that his clients will feel at peace knowing that there is somebody who will take care of their unfinished business after they die. The private investigator first crashed a funeral and revealed the secrets of the deceased three years ago when one of his terminally ill clients was being ripped off by someone in his business. Discussing death, Edgar had suggested that the man do his own eulogy; however, the man had said that he wanted something more and Edgar then joked that he could crash his funeral for him. About a month later, he had been contacted by the man and was told he would take him up on his offer, paying him $7,300 (AUD$10,000) to crash his funeral.
Edgar described the first funeral he crashed as he wrote:
I was to interrupt the funeral when his best friend was reading the eulogy and to tell his best friend to sit down and shut up. Then I was to explain to everyone that I had something to say on the behalf of the deceased. […] I just went in as a mourner and sat amongst the family and friends. […] I then outed the best friend for trying to sleep with the deceased’s wife, I asked three mourners who were also at the funeral to stand up and make themselves known, and then I had to tell them to get lost, because as far as my client had been concerned, they shouldn’t have been at the funeral.
Since then, Edgar has done 22 funerals and home sweeps.
The Coffin Confessor charges $7,300 (AUD$10,000) for a funeral confession and $2,200 (AUD$3,000) for a ‘home sweep’. When a client asks for a home sweep, they are essentially asking Edgar to destroy all of the items that they do not want their family and friends to find: “It could be anything from sex toys to money or guns. We’ve all got skeletons in our closets and we don’t want family and friends finding that type of stuff”. Nevertheless, Edgar notes that he has declined certain requests in the past.
In order to hire Edgar, you would need to sign a contract.
Going into people’s homes and confessing their darkest secrets could prove dangerous. For this reason, Edgar has put measures in place in order to protect himself. More specifically, he ensures that all of the conversations are recorded and that the clients sign a contract. Edgar notes: “If someone wants to confess to a serious crime after they have passed, I have to suggest they write it down and seal it and I will open it after their death, because I do not want to be in a position of knowing something that should be reported to the police.”
Does his unusual job help or harm the mourners?
According to psychologist Shona Innes, Edgar’s job is harmful and destructive for everyone involved. Edgar makes it possible for people to avoid having to fix their problems and relationships while they are still alive as they know that after they are gone, there would be someone to handle everything for them. This, ABC reports is the ‘ultimate avoidance’. In addition to this, by revealing a horrifying secret, Edgar can do tremendous damage to the mental and emotional health of the deceased’s family. Ultimately, it is possible that the Coffin Confessor could be doing a lot more harm than good.
