The Men Who Built Billy Graham’s Casket
By Mark Denison
Their names were burned into the pine plywood casket in which Billy Graham was laid to rest. “Handcrafted by Richard Liggett, Paul Krolowitz, Clifford Bowman.”
These three men were hardened criminals at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. In 2006, they built the plain wooden casket that would one day be used by the most famous and accomplished Christian preacher since Biblical times.
The caskets for Graham and his wife, who died 11 years ago, came courtesy of Franklin, their son who now leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.
Here’s what happened.
During a visit to the penitentiary, Franklin was struck by the “simple and natural beauty” of the wooden caskets made by the inmates. The largest maximum security prison in the world, the complex is also known by the name of the plantation that previously occupied its grounds, Angola, itself a reference to the home country of many of its enslaved African workers. The prison covers more ground than Manhattan.
On his visit in 2006, Franklin was impressed with the handiwork of the men, so he asked the men at the carpentry workshop what it would take to build two caskets for his parents. “I like the simple coffin with a cross on top,” he told the inmates.
The caskets were lined with white mattress pads from Walmart. A wooden cross was nailed on top. Each cost about $200 to make.
Franklin’s son Roy said, “We were down there for a prison rodeo and my father had seen these caskets being made. He came back and told my grandmother he bought her a gift. He bought her a casket made by prisoners. And my grandmother thought it was outstanding.”
Angola inmates had started building the caskets as replacements for the cardboard boxes being used to bury fellow inmates after they died. They wanted to give each man the dignity of being buried in a wooden casket.
Roy said, “The prisoners are people who need forgiveness, too. And that’s what my grandmother loved about it. We all need forgiveness.”
Franklin returned to Angola in 2008 for the dedication of a chapel constructed by prisoners and funded with private donations. Angola, once one of the most violent prisons in the country, now houses a seminary for prisoners seeking God.
Two of the inmates, Liggett and Bowman, have since died in prison. The third, Krolowitz, who did time for armed robbery, has since been released.
A prison chaplain recalled that Liggett, who was known as “Grasshopper,” and died in 2007, had told him, “Billy Graham is a simple man who preached a simple message. He must be buried in a simple casket.”
Both Liggett and Billy Graham got their wish.
Ten days ago, Billy Graham was laid to rest. The man is no longer with us. But while the man is gone, the message continues.
Thanks to a Sovereign God. And a man named “Grasshopper.”