The Prisoners and Convicted Murderer Who Made Billy Graham's Casket Were from the Prison Where He Preached the Gospel

Will Maule : Mar 2, 2018
Faithwire.com

"Graham's Angola casket is a fitting reminder of the evangelist's connection with some of America's most forgotten people." -Byron R. Johnson

(Washington, DC)—[Faithwire.com] There is no doubt that Rev. Billy Graham was one of the most famous clergymen in history. Having preached to over 200 million people and counseled several presidents, he was known as "America's Pastor." So why did this staggeringly influential preacher have his coffin made by prison inmates from Louisiana? (Photo: Billy Graham's casket is brought into the Capitol Rotunda Wednesday morning/Facebook/via Faithwire.com)

Well, it turns out that one of Graham's foremost mission fields was the prison yard—he regularly preached the Gospel to those behind bars. As Byron R. Johnson explained at The Gospel Coalition:

"The Graham family has been connected to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a.k.a. Angola, a maximum-security prison once known as the bloodiest prison in America. Most of the prisoners at Angola are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole-meaning they will eventually die and be buried in the Angola prison cemetery."

Graham personally visited the penitentiary:

"Franklin Graham preached at Angola, and George Beverly Shea sang there. In fact, Shea sang to more than 800 prisoners at Angola in 2009. He was there to perform and to give to the prison an organ he had received from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association earlier that year for his 100th birthday. The Graham family would donate funds to help build a couple of chapels at Angola."

The man who led the team of prisoners that was tasked with constructing the coffin for both Rev. Graham and his wife Ruth was a man named Richard Liggett—he was a convicted murderer. Almost 31 years into his sentence, Leggett passed away from cancer back in 2007. For such a man of fame and influence, his coffin is extraordinarily humble. Estimated at a cost of just $215, the plain wood coffins were made of plywood and lined with mattress pads made from Walmart comforters.

When former warden Burl Cain heard that many of the prison's inmates were being buried in cardboard boxes, he knew something had to be done.

"Cain had the inmates construct plywood caskets for themselves and others who couldn't afford one. In addition to making the caskets, the prisoners-many of them former hardened criminals who are now committed Christians-also pray over them," the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association explained...

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