The public has had a long held fascination with detectives. Detective see a side of life the average persons never exposed to. I spent thirty four years as a cop. For twenty five of those years, I was catching killers. That's what I did for a living. I was a homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead, I'm taking the public into the world in which I operated. The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw
and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some of the content and language might be confronting. That's because no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged. Join me now as I take you into this world. Welcome back to part two of my chat with Bill Edgar, known as a coffin confessor. He's the person that delivers messages at funerals at the requests of the deceased. And it's quite an interesting occupation that Bill's found himself in.
If you listen to part one, you would have heard of Bill's life. I'll call it extraordinary. Bill. First of all, welcome back Part two.
Thanks for having me.
Quite extraordinary, And I say this is all honestly, what you went through tugs at the heart strings, and full credit to you for making something of your life and not letting those setbacks. And we're talking being abused as a child, sexually abused as a child, not letting those setbacks define you. But it has its impact. We left you in Part one as a seventeen year old fighting the system in Bogoo jail and doing what you needed to do to survive, and that included fighting and standing
up for yourself and being stood over. How long did you do in prison?
I went in on just after my seventeenth birthday and I came out just after my twenty first birthday. I sort of I'd do six months and remand for six months, and I'd do another six months, and then I'd be out for three months and then back in again, all on the same charges. Basically, the system was so broken
back then as it is today. I guess is that you know I'd go to court and they'd go, look, he's got a six month sentence, but there is this outstanding crime that we're still investigating, and Bill Pots will go will investigate it, and they're going, oh, we haven't got time. Well let him out on bail, and then I'd be out on bail and then I'd be walking somewhere and the police had just arrested me and they thrown me back inside.
Tough time. So four years were you still and you touched on how you met your wife Lara at school and even you can't even do that normally because it was there a school that you weren't actually meant to with tend Then you'd stolen the school uniform to go in the classroom and she happened to be sitting behind you. You can't make this shit up, Bill.
And I dragged her in and out of my troubles and she stayed with me through all that. She'd come and visit me in Bogger Road. Then I got a pregnant. People were saying run, and I'm like, I love this girl. I'm not running.
You know.
She bring the baby into and it was just a fucking what a woman. I mean, Jesus.
Yeah, I would look at your resume and thinking not a lot going on here, But you've proved them all wrong. And so's Lara's love for you, and vice versa. So forty years it's a long, long time. You get out of JAF you're twenty one, what's life prospects for You're a father by this stage.
I take it rick laying ruthing, you know, whatever I could do, you know, I worked at and I tried to better myself, and each job I had fucking couldn't work for anybody. I couldn't be told what to do. Is it just I am dyslexic? But I also have this, I have a processor. Everybody has a processor in their brain. Mind's slow, and I've learned that I can't react straight away. I have to think about it first and then react,
and I've learned that and taught myself that. But when I was younger, I just react and then I'd think, you know, which was dumb, which is a lot of people do. Anyway, I ended up working whatever job I could, and the one job I found I was good at, which is the dumbest job, is a dorman, you know, and it's just a complete fucking nightmare of a job
because you know, again you've got legalabies. And then I was working with people that were like we've touched on before, the royd raide should get to their head and I'd be like, I don't even like this type of thing. But anyway, I fell into nightclubs and I the owner. Is really funny because my wife and I we escaped to Cans. We said, let's just move, so we escaped to Cairns nineteen ninety one. By this time we had a little girl, so and she was one year old
and my son was three or four year old. And we escaped to Cairns and I said to my wife, I said, I'm I'm going to work at a nightclub up here. It's really famous called the Playpen. It's a huge nightclub. I'm going to get myself a job there. Anyway, I rock up at this nightclub at six o'clock at night and there's a ladder that going right up to the roof, like OHI as and there's a guy right up at the top and he's changing light bulbs. And I look at him right up there, and there's a
security guard, bouncer, story bloke holding the ladder. And I said to the security guy, I said, mate, looking for a job. He goes, no jobs here, I said, I said, who's the manager or the boss? And there he goes. That's him up there. I said, that's him up there and I look up and I say, are you're the manager of the boss. He goes, yeah, mate, I said, I need a job. Security dormant nah. I said, okay,
you got too many. He says yeah. I said, how about I not this fucking broke out and then you give me a job because you've got nowhere to go. I said, oh, that's that's the option. So I said I need a job. I said, and I'm desperate. I had a wife, a couple of kids. We've just moved here, and this guy holding your ladder is your life support and I'm about to cut it. And I'd been in Ja I'd come out.
So I was full of He knew how to talk the talk.
And the bouncer looks at me and he goes, mate, I'll tear your head off. I said, you let go of that ladder. He's dead anyway. The boss up, Tobby, says, can you be back here at seven point thirty wear a white shirt, black pants, black shirts. I said, no, iris pow.
That's a great job interview.
I worked there for three and a half years on the door, and then the owner of the nightclub came in and he says, you're not a dorman. He says, you're a manager, coming, I'll train you. So I became a manager of the nightclub for a few years too.
So it was great and that kept your way from falling back into old habits or getting yourself into trouble your manage.
Yeah, you know nightclubs. I could see all the trouble around me.
Oh like that's tiptoeing through a minefield.
Working absolutely. I had Lara, I had the kids, and I I was good at what I did. I was good. I'm a very good talker in that way. And the second weekend I was there, there's a big fight and I had no backup. They don't locked me out, they lock they locked the fucking door. I'm out the front and I'm punching on with this guy. I knew I was. I was. I was just hab it. All of a sudden, this paddy wagon come flying around the corner and it's
a dog squad. Dog's going off and all the boy they hate dogs, and the copper gets out and he lets his dog out, and holy fuck, the dog's name is Ghost. I think I think it was a ghost. And he come out and everybody just fucking ran for it, and I'm standing there and I've got a bit of clar it over me, and the copper comes over and he goes, you're right man. I said yeah, I said, I said, they locked me out, and he says, yeah, that's protocol here in kens. You know, we just locked
the clubs down. And I said, yeah, but they don't leave. The fucking bounces outside.
It's not usually, that's not meant to be how it works exactly.
So he injuries him as doug and him and I have become you know, we became close around. I still talk to Dougie today and he's been a copper for years. And it was just a situation that I ended up. Yeah, from from the streets, did yail, doing jobs, and then security, and then from then just just life got better.
You talk about getting getting life's experience, so now you're getting You became a private investigator, and you explained that partly in Part one about doing a lot of finances and that type of stuff. You outlined to us your first job as a coffin confessor and what was done there. How did that business take off from that point because that was the one out thing. Did you was there a light bulb moment you think, hold, that's here's something
that people might be wanting. How was it word of mouth? Did you advertise it? How did it grow?
I when I left that first funeral, Graham's funeral, the young girl came up to me and that was his daughter and thanked me for it. And there was another young lady who came running over and she said, excuse me. She says, you need to see my auntie. And I'm like why, and she goes, she's impalliative care. This is the hospital. She's in northern New South Wales. She needs you really bad. I don't do like what will she need you know? And she goes, I'm not sure, but
she needs you someone like you. It was to crash her funeral. And I went, you're fucking kidding me?
What?
She goes, my niece just told me that you crashed Graham's funeral. And she was the funeral on my behalf because I knew Graham and his family. I want you to do my funeral. Fuck. I left there and I went to a cafe and I sat at this cafe and I'm scratching my head and I'm looking at my phone, and then I thought, this is seriously, could this be a business? Maybe it could be. So then I thought, what I call myself? Who am I? What am I?
What do I do? And I'm sitting there and going I stand in front of the coffin and I confess people's it's as deep as dark as secrets. So I guess I'm the coffin confessor. And it hit me and I went coffin confessor, Yeah, that's cool. And then I trademarked it, and then I painted it.
What did the Arnie want done? At her funeral?
She had a best friend for over forty years and they were wonderful, wonderful friends together. They both had family, so married with kids. But her secret was that she was in love with her best friend, passionately in love with her, and she could never tell her. After that was crashed and that was revealed, her best friend came over to me and said, I felt exactly the same way. I didn't know she felt like that.
Oh that's sad, isn't it?
Like the husband's come over and said, I knew. I told her so many times that she should fulfill her dreams and gain, but she was too scared about society, her family, and that she has to be married to a man and that. Yeah, it was very touching.
Yeah that and I didn't expect that. But they're the type of moments, so special moments that you're uncovering. And like when you told me that, I'm thinking two people that are madly in love with each other, but they didn't tell each other until one of them died. It does make you think about the way you live your life, doesn't it. Where you see things like.
That, Absolutely, it really does. It's changed my life immensely.
Well, you know, I'll keep coming back at the weekend. Okay, I'll read Bill's book. But you made me think about a lot of lot of different things. And I suppose it's the very nature of a funeral is it's crunch time. You know, if it's not going to be said here, it's gone, you just you fade off into the distance.
So yeah, that's what happens. You've had a and we'll talk obviously more on the Coffin Confessor, but you've had which is a resounding success, but you've had a couple of other business ideas that haven't been as good Coffin camping. Let's just talk through the mindset there. I'm on a roll here, coffin confessor. Okay, we can go further, we can go coffin camping. Okay, give us the insight in your thought process there. And what happened.
I was getting hundreds, if not thousands of emails requests for meetings and to talk to the not to crash their funerals, just to meet me. I said to my wife, I said, look, you know, we've got twelve acres. I'm going to use an acre down the back of the forest and I'm going to set up a camping situation down there. And she goes, oh, yeah, what time, And
I said, coffin camping. I'm going to have four coffins designed beautifully in this nice area, and I'm going to do it on a nice and professional and she goes, as long as it's nice and not tacking. I said, yeah,
it'll be nice, it'll be beautiful. And I got my heart set on it, and I started doing it and I got into it and I had it all set up beautifully, and then I contacted he made of mine who's in the media, and I said, listen, I said, what I want you to do, no media, I just want you to come down with your wife and spend a night in the coffins at coffin camping and he's like, oh fuck yeah, he says, I'm me in. He said. The wife won't be, but I've got to mate and
we'll bring a six pack. I said, no, no alcohols and food and our coals included. I said, just down. So he rocks downright. Unbeknownst to me, he brings a fucking film crew. Right. It comes down and the four of them end up staying the night in this coffin, and the coffins are really nice. I'm talking like, it's really well set up. I'm there having a fire and a beer and talking with them and having a good time. Then all of a sudden, I go and I leave them to it. In the morning, I go see them
and I said, I'll say Darryl's his name. It's not I said, Darryl. You know, Like, what'd you think? He said, I'll be all. He said, that was the most cathartic experience I've ever had in my life. That was fucking unbelievable. I said, yeah, did you have the lid open or closed? He says, I closed it. He said, Terry over there wouldn't fucking close his I said, and cathartic. He says, oh, mate, it really made me think about you know, death, life
and everything in between. And I said, oh, that's cool. That's good to know. He says, And so we shot a movie this morning about it. I said, what. He says, Yeah, we shot a little movie and we sent it through to Sunrise David Kosh.
He said, yeah.
Yeah, he says, they're going to be here tomorrow. I'm like, fuck off. So anyway, Yeah, they arrive and they do the story. That was it, That was the beginning. In the end of coffin Camp. Everybody that come past my property will yelling out coffin confessor, Hey god, yeah. They were taking photos videos that were fucking laying in the coffins that ah fuck, I did it at the wrong place.
My place, just not in your own own home. I just as you're describing that, I'm thinking, and I hadn't even thought, Okay, sleep in the coffin you put the lid down, saying it's cathartic. I would imagine it would be because if you're laying in there, you're thinking, is this how it all ends? And then you would reflect on your life.
And I had each one had an iPad so they could talk to each other.
Yeah, well, they'd be handy, make going a little bit nicer if you could see die sleeping, stay in contact. You put yourself through that once yourself did, and you spend a night in a coffin just to get feel for it.
I did, and it is a cathartic experience. It's yeah, well, I tell you what. It's not for everyone, but for those that you've got to experience it because it is. It's something different. And I don't mean like it's just you know, like I had a group of ladies come out.
Four ladies, bring out their bottles of wine and their champagne, and they're all sitting around the campfire, and then all of a sudden, they're all sitting in their individual coffins, and the coffins are in individual rooms, and so they'd be sitting up in the coffin having wine and they're all talking to each other, chatting and carrying on, having a great time, and then you know, you hear their
stories in the morning. One lady says, I just cried myself to sleep, you know, because I was thinking of my mum and dad and they were in a coffin and then I was. Another lady says, that's it. It's made my mind up, and being cremated. It had all different effects on different people, so it was pretty cool in that respect.
It's bizarre, isn't it. And I wonder why, And yeah, I was a homicide detechnic for so long, so I'm thinking about about death. But reading your book just sort of it really brings it home because the funeral is a funeral, and normally you go to a funeral, you prepare yourself for the funeral, depending on who it is. You go there, you feel the emotions, you walk away
and try and move on with life. But what you talk about here sort of it dangles it in front of people and you've got to look at it, process it.
Well, that's it. I mean, I'm responsible and I love it, and I do I get off on it a little bit that I'm responsible for having the whole world talk about death in a different light. Now.
You also another interesting story, and it leads into one of the jobs you get as a coffin confessor. The bloat that he was worried how his family were going to react after he passed away, and they're a bit greedy, and he decided to ask a favor of the coffin confessor, not for the eulogy, but to bury some stuff under
his coffin. Do you want to talk us through that story, because you also just and I don't want to paint you as a weirdo, but you also laid in the bottom of a dugout gravesite looking up and just looking at the sky to get a sense of what it felt like. Talk us through that one. Well, I like your sense of adventure.
Look, this gentleman who had engaged me vultures in the family mate. He had them in spades, and they say, you can't take it with you when you go, you just go. Well, this bloke took it with you, you know, his possessions, his money and everything else. He wanted to take it with him, or he wanted it buried where no one would ever find it. And I said, okay, I'll try and find a place. And he said, well, burn all the cash. And I'm like, I could do
that turn until I realized that it's illegal. But you can wrap it up tight and keep it concealed and bury it somewhere. That's not a problem. So to the life of me. I had no idea where I was going to plant this thing, and I thought I'd put it in my own garden and put a tree on top of it and just plant it there. And that was it until I was at another funeral and I went ding, I'm going to jump in his grave. I
going to dig a hole put it there. I'll wait for the funeral, and when the coffin goes on top, my job's done. So I ended up going to the cemetery and I saw the guy in the backo that was digs the graves and I asked him to lower me down, and he's like, and I told him the story, told him what I do. I didn't tell him what I was going to do down there. I'm an investigator. I wanted to look at graves. That was basically my story for him, and he says, ah, he says, he said,
what's in it for me? Like everybody, I got a couple hundred bucks and he goes, yeah, sure, not a problem. I said, okay, So I gave him a couple hundred bucks. He lowers me down. I'm six foot one. There's no fucking way that was six foot under. I'm telling you it was like eight ten feet.
So we got that wrong. It's send foot one.
Anyway, he lows me down and I'm standing at the bottom and he's put the bucket back up. He yells out and he says, I'll be back in a minute, and I said, yeah, no, worries great, because I'm going to dig a hole. The little little bag I had, I had like this. It wasn't a screwdriver. It's a chisel. And I took that purposely because I knew the ground might be hot. It turns out I didn't need a big hole. And I thought, how I'm digging away, digging away anyway. I bury this thing, get it all in,
and I'm standing there. This guy in the back is the only fucking person in the world that knows where I am. And I'm standing there and I'm looking around, and I just noticed the colors of the dirt change, you know, as you dig deeper and deeper. And I look up and the clouds are gone by, and I'm thinking, fuck, he's taking a while. And then I just sat down and then I lay down and it was you know,
it wasn't wet, but it was damp. It felt that way and I just lay there and I'm I'm looking up and I'm watching all the clouds go past, and I'm thinking, fuck if I'm going to be bury and these neighbors dudes creepy. And then yeah, he comes back and he as a bucket and I get out and I went, job done, you know, But I had to wait until a few hours for the funeral. And then the funeral was done, and then they lowered the casket
and then and then I started filling it in. The bacco driver says, oh, do you want to help fill it in? Is you made of yours and all this? And I said no, but I'll just if you don't mind, I'll just watch it till the end.
Okay, So that was that was his way of dealing with the greedy, greedy family.
Yeah, big time. So I've probably got families out there going. Okay. My grandfather was in his eighties. He was buried around this area. We might have to the grave and find out where all his shit is.
Looking at what motivates people to engage you? And I'm just pulling out a couple of observations or quotes from the book. That rare that you meet someone who's entirely motivated by revenge. So I think you make the point revenge offers no solace at the end of the day, but burdening does. So that's not so much about revenge, it's about unburdening. And there's another quote we've got here
from your book. We've all met people you'd fucking never want to talk to again and maybe who you'll hate forever. Does that mean you should take revenge on them. No, it just means you should let it go and move on again. This type of words of wisdom from the book I didn't expect, but yeah, it's fairly poignant what you're saying there, Like, if you hang on to the desire for revenge and anger, it's going to destroy you
and you're better off to let it go. You've seen more people than most people would get to see coming to the end of their lives. It's got a story to tell you. What's your observation of the best way to deal with the shit that you carry in your life coming close to the end?
Yeah, you know, and you don't even have to be close to the end. I think I think I put it down to a cleansing, And this is what happened to me after doing the job for so long now, and I know more people dead than a life. So I got rid of all the shit in my life, the baggage to this day when I said, I still speak to my police mate Douggie in that, but I do not have a friend in the world that I can find today and just go for a coffee or a beer with because I don't carry other people's baggage.
I've got enough baggage in my own and I don't carry people's baggage. But I think it's a cleansing. I think I downsized everything. I became more permanent to the life that I want to live, as in we all live dying, but very few of us die living, and I'm going to die living. Revenge anger, all those type of things that you hold on to against somebody that isn't holding onto anything towards you is a fucking total
waste of time. Because I am a great believer in karma, they're going to fuck up themselves or at the end of the day, as I've always said, everyone dies everyone.
I look at such simple, simple things and I'm laughing there because yeah, I'm going to get revenge on this person, And we've all been there in that position where the person hasn't even given you a second thought, and you've become obsessed with that person that I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and that person for them, they're too dumb to realize how much have upset you.
Why waste your time on that. I was listening at a university graduation and they had a person delivering a keynote, a doctor that worked in palliative care. Most of his career, spent decades in palliative care, so I saw a lot of people pass and because of the nature of his work, people had often come up to him and say, this is what he was delivering the speech, what's the best way to die? And he stood there and he answered answered the question. He said, what I tell people is
to have a good death, have a good life. That's the best advice I could give to you. I took something away from that that I didn't expect. What's your thoughts on that? Is that a good philosophy in life for a good death, have a good life.
Yeah, I mean that's a saying and that's something that can resonate with people. My thought is is you know, people will ask me what the meaning of life is, and I truly believe the meaning of life is to avoid death. It's the meaning of life is you've got to avoid death. My personal thoughts is after doing what I do is to prepare for death. And I don't mean funeral plan or any of that shit. I mean to prepare for your own death or the death of a loved one close to you. That doesn't mean you're
not going to mourn and grief. It just means be prepared because it can happen at any fucking time, right, and time will just come and take you. Death has no care or consequence, you know, it's just there. So I have this thing where I just say to people, you know, prepare just and once you prepare and you accept it, because we're all going there, it's going to fucking happen. Every person on the planet's got a skeleton
in the closet. So if you're prepare for it, all of a sudden, you're become enlightened and you don't give a fuck about it because you know it's going to happen, like it's part of life. So yeah, that's what I think. I think. Prepare there for it.
Okay, nursing homes and the pain you've seen there. You've seen a lot of people that have been there in nursing homes. And I know in your book, and I'm not the saying things out of school, you say, I'm not going to go down that path. I don't want to live in that where the care is not the stand that should be. That type of thing.
Yeah, And it's sad because some of the cares are so beautiful, beautiful people, but they're being driven out because of the workload. I couldn't do what they do because I don't think I've got a heart big enough. But their heart gets ripped apart because they're told constantly to look after these two people. Then no, there's another two
over there on the dementia unit needs another help. And they're just being overrun and driven out of the system, leaving the poor people that are in there to fend for themselves. Basically, it's a horrid system, absolutely horrid. And I met a couple in their eighties that engaged me and they will be taking their own lives because of that reason.
Is that the couple that want their ashes spread around their lawns. You met on a walk one morning.
A total walk. I have a car that is quite it's a focal point wherever it goes to this car and the number plate is Coffin Confessor. We started talking and lo and behold they told me their story, and then I went back to their place a couple of days later and we spoke extensively about what they've got planned and how they were going to do it, and it's methodical everything. It's amazing how they've planned it. And they don't want me to help in any way.
Okay, so you're not complexit in it. You can't do anything about it.
I'm just delivering a message after they're gone.
There's another one when we talk about a talk about people with a greed of people, and it's more in keeping with your work as a private investigator. But there was one particular lady that met these or soon to be a deceased lady in a store and she befriend her and then made a claim on her will for six figure summon. You did some inquiries about it, found out it was all bullshit. She hardly had anything to do with her, but was just trying to steal the money from the estate.
This happens so often. Just bullshit, you know. I got a week ago, I met a gentleman that lost his wife and he put an ad in the paper for someone to rent a room out. The lady that's renting the room, oate, is in her fifties and has put an engagement ring on her hand and told everybody that she's engaged to the bloke. She phoned up the police
and she said that it was abusive. The police have come and removed him from his house and she's now ransacked and he's not allowed back at his house for six months.
Just oh, speechless. As ridiculous as it sounds, I can see how that's happening. If you've got people and I saw this in the Cops when I was in the cops, if they got no morals or no principles whatsoever, they're very hard to deal with. Like that is just so shameful what that person has done. But they don't care. They're frauds. Is they haven't got a conscience.
As a PI and I've worked for many years with some some fucking ruthless people. I've got to say those type of people, if they tell a lie and they believe in the lie. It's not a lie.
Yeah, you can't shame them, can you. They just I locked up all types of people for different different crimes, but the frauds has always used to get me. Like I still remember early days as a detective going to a place and this couple they just moved from state to state. They'd rent a place, hire all this furniture, get a SPA installed, like whatever they wanted, but not pay for a thing, enjoy it for six months before it all caught up on them. I remember when we
locked them up. We had to hire trucks to come and take all the stolen gear that they had in their place. But no shame whatsoever, Like it wasn't you've just done that, We see your next time, shameful. You get some other interesting ones that There was the lady that found herself in Palliatiff Care. She'd lost her husband years before, and she had something at home that she didn't want her family finding in the draw so she discreetly I think she had a name for it, called
it call it something. Just wanted someone that could discreetly go and pick this item up from the drawer beside a bed and dispose of it without her family finding it.
Yeah, she tested me, that lady. She said to me, I was engaged through the palliadiff care nurse and I went and saw this lady and she said, look, I've got some documents and I got some items. They're hidden in the roof cavity going there and if you can bring them to me. And I was like, no problem at all. And I fulfilled that job. There wasn't an issue, you know. And she was very grateful on that. And I got to talking and she found out the honesty and the trust that we had, and she said, look,
I have an embarrassing item. She says, you've been married for some time. I know who you are, and you know, done a little bit of talking in the nurses, you know. And she says, and you are a good looker. She says, So I want to be able to be a bit honest with you. And I'm like, okay, what would you like? And she goes, I need you to remove Clive And I'm like, okay, I didn't see anybody there or anything there. Have you got an animal? I didn't know? Cat dog?
Who's Clive? You know? And she goes, look, Clive's my closest dearest friend since my husband left. And I'm like, okay, I said, and where do I find Clive? And she says, he'll be in my drawer beside the bed. But he's actually got a bit of velcrow to him, so he's stuck it up under the drawer. So as well, Clive is obviously a sexual toy. Is that right? And she goes, I don't like to talk like that, and I'm like okay. She goes, but yes, I said, So I'm to get
Clive and bring him back to go. Oh god, no, don't bring him here that. She said, I want him destroyed, and I said, not a problem. I said, I'll feel myself collecting him, bagging him and then putting him in the furnace. And she goes, oh, that'd be perfect a furnace. What a way to go. So it was a testing time. I go back to the house and yeah, I find exactly where Clive is and I'm like, holy fulk. Clive
ain't no small little man either, you know. I take Clive and they do exactly what she wants done, and I send her the video and she's elated. Everything's happy, you know, And she was very upset and a bit of shame that her daughter may have found it. You know.
That was Yeah, but like that must bring you some joy stuff like that, and it's a funny story and there's absolutely no judgment there, but you can We've all got these little secrets. We go, oh, that might be embarrassing all this and something that you could bring that and put a smile on the face.
It's just people, you know, and we have certain things that we feel a little bit ashamed of. But it's not since it's not dirty, it's not you know, And like I always say, you know, if we don't do, if we don't sin, Jesus died for nothing.
Yeah. Yeah, you're not religious, but you consider yourself spiritual and you talk about karma and all that. So you don't believe in one particular religion, but you believe in something out there.
Yeah. I have this thing that religious people are terrified of going to hell. Spiritual people have already been there. And I look at it in a way that you know, I see things differently to a lot of people. I said earlier in the podcast that I had a gift with sport. Any sport I did I was not good at. I was great and I mean really good. And it wasn't until I turned thirty that I learned to read, write, and spell. Was thirty three that I found that I
had a gift with numbers. I had no idea that it was even a thing, but I had a gift with numbers, could say things differently, and that's why I became a private investigator in the finance world. So you know, those type of things. And it's a gift that I say that I have, but I don't say it's from God or something like that. I say that I'm Yeah, I definitely have a belief in something. I mean, we
can't just live then die and then nothing. I mean, obviously we live and what we leave behind being our children, grandchildren, whatever it is, is a legacy, which is great. You know, if death ends life, what the fuck end's death?
Yeah? How does that go? It's interesting that you talk about it. Then again, because of the work that you do when you've seen so much death and so many funerals, but also not just seeing death, but getting the opportunity to speak to people prior to death and they're revealing their most intimate thoughts and secrets secrets to you. So you do definitely have an insight that other people wouldn't.
You've been challenged a few times with jobs, and one in particular, one where the blokes us to see you had stuff that he wanted passed on. His death was imminent, and it turned out he'd sexually assaulted his nieces and wanted you to deliver a message to them. Given what happened to you as a child, that must have been a difficult situation to find yourself in and full of mixed emotions sitting down talking to a bloke like that.
Yeah, I was sitting face to face with a pedophile, and I didn't know that until I'd arrived and sat with him and started talking. Nor did I know that he was actually a student at the Southport School and he knew all about me. It was a moment that ty started to you know, all your senses go off, and then all of a sudden he confesses that he was at TSS, he knows the lost boy of TSS,
he knows who I am. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, I had so much rage as well, But at the same time, I'm being very, very professional, and I want to grab this guy's throat and have his eyes pop out, and he gives me these letter letters to give to his nieces, and I'm like, they're just going to fucking tear them up or burnham. They don't give a fuck mut you know. But I wouldn't say
that to him. But you know, I'm there in the capacity of a coughing so I've got to put all my shit aside, and i got to do a job, you know, as confronting as it was the beautiful part for me. And i know it sounds morbid or whatever else, but he's dying. He's going to go meet his maker, whoever it is, you know. And I've always said that, you know, when people die, my focus, my point of view, sorry, is that there is no heaven, no Hell. We all
go to the same place. And it used to ship me when I'd hear somebody like, come, you hear somebody get raped and murdered and that person then gets shot and killed, and they go, oh, he's going to hell, and that poor girl's gone to heaven. And I'm sitting there going, no, They're all going to the same fucking place. But anyway, I like that.
It also touched on the fact of how disrespectful it is where you see a religious funeral that means nothing to the deceased. And we've all been to those funerals, and I think you reference in the book one where the person delivering the service couldn't even remember the deceased name.
I've sat in many a funeral where it's all about the religion and someone's on their soapbox, but nothing about the person that's been buried than the person that's been buried, as far as I knew, had nothing to do with religion anyway. I think what you deliver is something more personal at the funeral, as confronting as it might be to some people in the congregation. What's your thoughts on that? Do you think it is a more personal way that someone from the actual decease is leaving a message. Oh?
Absolutely. And look at the end of the day, when I walk into a church and I have to disrupt a church service because my client was an atheist and did not ruin religious funeral, and most of the people there knew he didn't want a religious funeral, is beyond belief, and out of respect for the mom and dad, I've had to say, Look, if you respect your son, you wouldn't go ahead with this, but you are going ahead with it, so I'm here to stop it on behalf
of your son, and the minister of the church will go to interrupt, and I'll say to him straight up, to repent is to repeat. And that's all this institution fucking is is people come and they repent what they did last week, only to repeat it again next week. Now fuck off, sit down, shut up, I'm taking the coffin or I'm going to do this service his way, not your way.
How do you protect yourself with You get it in writing, You record the request from the deceased, so you've got documentation there supporting, supporting the fact. Have you ever just walk into the wrong funeral stand up and you just get carried out or have you ever had those.
I've had a nightmare of attending the wrong funeral. Most of the crowd want to hear what they love one have to say, so they'll shout the other ones down. So that's not not an issue at all. I Mean, everybody's there for one reason, and it's supposed to be to mourn the deceased and hear what their life story. So what's better than hearing it actually from them?
Fascinating Obviously the business can continues on, but do you get foodback from people? If you had people reach out to you and thank you for what you did at the service, I think it reflects the passing of Harry or whoever it was very well.
I don't, I don't. I refuse to open those emails or read them or talk to anybody. It's not about them. It was all about my client. I don't keep in touch with anybody. I've had people feelm me and then try and sell the film. You know, I'm like, you know, but again I'm very quick. I go in, do what they do, and I leave and by time they get their phones out, they're like, it's over. The fuck was that guy?
And when you know what comes across, you've got to working as a bounce of being a kid in an adult prison. You've got the street smarts. You can read the crowd, you can read a look. You get a sense of where you can push. But yeah, I can just imagine how you're feeling before you walk in. You're
probably becoming more and more accustomed to it. But you raise the word ethics a lot during the talk and a lot in the book, and it comes out there was an approach by a daughter that wanted you to get up at her father's funeral and say that he abused her, and you brought your private investigator skills to the table and you needed something more than just one person's word. Do you want to talk us through that or a similar type of situation.
Yeah, so I can't, and I won't be engaged by a third party. I can only be engaged by the person you know, whose story it is and who's going to die or not even close to death. But it's about them. I can't. You know. I've had a lady say, look, you know I want you to crash my husband's funeral. Well, no, I need your husband to engage me. So I won't do it on behalf of anybody except for those you
know that need my services directly. And I do that purely because the investigation is to look into their claims. When the person I'm supposed to crash for is laying on his deathbed and I can't get two words out of him, I mean I can't do it. So as an investigator, I do like to look at the claims this particular lady you're talking about, I believe, you know, like most of the world today. We all have mental
health issues, you know, and it's a sad thing. But this lady had them in spades where she and I got to say she was abuse, she was attacked, but it was her husband. And it finally came out that she hated her father for not stopping her husband from attacking her. She blamed her her father again. Her father didn't engage me, so it wasn't going to happen anyway,
but she was a bit upset about that. And I mean, I've had a multitude of people that call me names and are offensive and abusive because I won't crash their relatives sooner, and I said, oh, if their relative can engage me, then I'll do it.
It makes a lot of sense. I could see it all crashing and burning and ending in tears if you didn't have that moral compass that you hold tight to. How you go there? What about the way it's taken off? You've gone from okay, Bill Edgar, and then all of a sudden, you're doing interviews around the world and everyone's fascinated by what you're doing. Talk us through that, because that's life changing in itself.
Oh, it's incredible. I mean I get a call at two o'clock in the morning from a guy in America, you know, who's an agent for a lawyer for Oprah and all these people you know. And he's dropping names and he's talking and he's real America and I'm going to be your agent. I hung up on him, thanks me back, and he goes, no one ever thinks I hung up again. Third time he calls back and he goes, okay, okay, okay, I get it. I get it. I know I know about you. I know you. I just listen to me
for a couple of minutes. So I listened to him, and he says, just do some research on who I am and what I'm capable of, and we can we can become good friends. Look, I really assure you that this, and I know you're investigator, so please just look at that. And so I looked into him, and I purposely waited three days, and I've got a couple of emails that i'd never opened. Sometimes you can open an email and they can see that you've opened it. I didn't take
any text or calls or anything. And I really looked into this guy, and he was Chicago based and he's a real Chicago boy, you know, and his family, you know, the mobster elite. And he's a lawyer, very well known, I very well respected lawyer as well, you know. So I phone him up two o'clock his morning, Steve, and he goes, yeah, yeah Bill. Bill. I said, yeah, good mate. I said, look, as my agent, this is what you can look after me for, you know. And he's like, oh,
that's so terrific. I'll send you a contract and I said, no worry. So he sends over this contract and I phone him up and I say, are you you're right with this contract? Ah, I said, I've just shown up my lawyers and they're saying that, are you comfortable. Oh, Bill, I'm a multi million I'm very comfortable. I'm really comfortable with it. It's not about the money, he says. I just lost my mama and I've got family that are on their death and I've been watching you and I've
seen some videos. Man, you're it. You're one of a coin. There's no one like you in the world and your mine and I'm like, okay, cool. So yeah, he's been my agent for the last couple of years and he's been going around and he doesn't have to do much. People google it and go, holy fun.
Well it is amazing because I remember when I first heard about you, it was exactly the same thing. He what he did this? Or yeah, just amazing. Is there a tell me if you can't? But is there talk of any film rights or anything about the story.
Yeah, So I signed with Paramount to start with. Now I working with Hollywood is not fun as much as people might think it is. It's not what I do in life is. I'd like to keep what I own. I don't sell anything. It's my integrity, it's my story in my life. Once you sign, you lose everything. They own everything, and sure they pay you for it, but the money's not not your story anymore, and it's not me.
It wasn't for sale. So Paramount sort of came back and forth and I said, look, no, it's not for sale. Then all of a sudden, another company come forward from Canada and England. They said, look, we want to do it. A television series, a documentary, a reality show. We want to do all these things over the next couple of years. What do you think? First up, I said I want to own it, and they said, yeah, it's yours. We want to license it from you. I went beautiful and
to this day we have an Australian producer. There's people all over the world that are working collaboratory on all this and it's been Yeah, it's really exciting to watch what they're doing.
Full credit to you, and it is exciting. I'm genuinely happy for you. It's amazing what's gone on your life these days. Describe your life, your personal life. Still madly in love with that woman that you annoyed it as a teenager.
I look io my life, so yeah, yeah, I'm madly in love with her. She had a very bad accident a couple of years ago on the horse. We have horses, and the horse crushed her from the waist down and she's she learnt to walk again, which is absolutely Great's she has dropped foot and issues with hips and stuff, and she's she's disabled in that capacity. But you know what,
You've got to be proud of her. She got back on the fucking horse and she's riding around now and she does everything that I think I rubbed off on her.
Yeah, well, two spirited people, and maybe it was meant to be. When she told you to stop leaning back on your chair and a bit a ticker on a bit of front. That's a bloke I'm going to marry, as seeing at school first time she's seen you. It must have been a good style of a bloke back then.
Life today though, I mean, we have a hobby farm, We've got twelve acres. It's just a nice lifestyle. Works comes and goes. I still I'm true to myself. I don't. I always say, and even Lara says the same thing. If I was in my twenties thirties and this happened, I'd probably go nuts and bizarre, you know, and just but because and I am. I'm in my fifties and I enjoy it.
I love it. You're quite right, like if this came to you too early, you would have blown it. You would have got caught up in your own heuber and just importance.
And yeah, yeah, And that's what I keep telling myself. It's not about me, it's about them. If I keep the integrity and I keep doing what I do in the professional factor of being all for the client, nothing should go wrong. And if I protect myself well with the contracts of videos and everything else. I mean, I felt to certain people that you know, the media overseas in America have said, oh, we want to talk to a couple of the clients' families, give us their details.
And at first I did that once they hounded her, you know, so I don't do that anymore. I don't know.
You learn, you learn learn with those type of things, and you've got to protect those people who have put their trust in you and different things. Now there's we're starting to run out of time. But there's one thing I'm going to ask you about because you freak me out in your book a lot I was enjoying. You feel needed to feel pain, so you went to the dentist. Just let me describe what I remember from this part.
You went to the dentist. You had seven feelings that had the old ol minim feelings and you wanted them replaced with porcelain. I get that, but you want it all done at the same time and without any anesthetic. What motivated that is that? Well, talk us through it.
I have this thing. I have a very high pain tolerance, and to feel pain is to feel alive for me. I believe that comes from the trauma and everything I experienced, because I find it hard to feel pain I have the feelings of empathy and sympathy and you know, and love and all that, and it's not very often. It used to be often, because I'd go out and just get bashed up and I'd stand there and laugh because I'd enjoy it, because I'd go like, I'm alive, you know.
And just recently it was not long ago that it came to me, and it came to me in a wave, and I had to feel pain, but I didn't want to hurt anybody, and I just I went to the dentist and I convinced her that, you know, this is what I needed to do. If anything goes wrong, it's not on you. I signed it disclosure and everything. And she's she started and I tell you, tooth by tooth, She's like she was crying in pain, and she's like, are you okay, And I'm like, I'm fine, just keep going,
don't stop. And it was I tell you, there's no more pain than getting your teeth file drilled dug out without an aesthetic.
I'm sitting here cringing, cringing. Now I'm not going to say I understand you with the teeth. You're going to drag me into the dances, but I understand it, and you do boxing. Sometimes I say to people, if I'm in mental state or whatever, it just feels good to be hit because it makes you feel alive. I would have just done four teeth. I wouldn't have done seven.
You know what, when she was halfway through, I just couldn't stop just doing more, you know.
And yeah, I look and pain. It was told to me like pain. It comes up like a triangle and it gets to the point where that's the extreme part. It can't get any worse. Sit there and take it. So there is ways of ways of dealing with the pain. Look wrapping up, I just want to say a couple things. I don't think we lose the importance of the messaging that you put out with survivors of child's sexual abuse and the impact it has and hearing your story. People
should listen to it and what we talk about. Anyone that knows about these type of crimes going on and doesn't do anything, they should be as complicit as a person inflicting the crimes. The fact that you got through your life. And when I say, because I'm choosing my words not to say you turned it round because you didn't have a choice which direction it was going in. It was just pointed you in the direction said good luck. But you're doing some positive stuff and your spirit and
your tenacity comes through. But also you delved into an area that I didn't think you could touch on so many people's lives. But I read this book hard Ass Homicide Detective, and it made me start thinking about death and life. So you're here onto something and yeah, I just like to congratulate you on the way that you've lived your life and the things that you're achieving.
Oh thanks, make it means a lot, really does. I mean, you know, touching people the way I do is just yeah, it's an amazing feeling. And you know at the start of the book when I say, you know I was looking for the man that I really was. You know, I saw him in my reflection, was standing right in front of me. I just couldn't see him until I became a grandparent. Look out for all the success and you've got. So this is this is your second book,
The Afterlife Confessional. You've got a third book coming out. Yeah, I'm planning on the third book. I don't think I'm ever going to run out of stories because everyone's going to die.
What's your funeral going to be like? Just finishing off?
Yeah, look, I'm not having a funeral. I've my whole family knows that I'm to be cremated, thrown in the ocean, followed by a bottle of port, have a nice dinner and a chat and a thought about me, and that's it. That's it for me, beautiful. But there'll be a secret that'll come out in hologram.
Now now you're talking that's exciting. Well, I won't say I look for it. Hopefully it's a long time down the track. But look, thanks very much, Bill, thanks for taking the time. I know you're busy, and I've really enjoyed the chat.
Gary has been wonderful. Thanks so much, mate.
Cheers. Well, that was a two hour chat I had with Bill Edgar, and I've got to say it felt like ten minutes. He's got such an interesting life story and what happened to him as a child that shouldn't happen to anyone, and the stories of going into a male adult prison as a seventeen year old, it's just quite chilling. And then you've got the aspect of what he does as a coffin confessor, and i've got to say it's given me a different perspective on life and death.
And that's saying something coming from a homicide detective. But I found him really interesting to chat with and quite frankly, quite inspiration