Digging Up Bones

What happens when the dead refuse to stay buried?

For decades, Robertson County's funeral industry operated behind a veil of trust, tradition, and silence. But when graves were opened and long-buried questions began to surface, a troubling story emerged-one involving funeral homes, missing records, community loyalties, and allegations that shook an entire region.

Digging Up Bones is a gripping investigation into the life and legacy of funeral director Robert Lewis Wilks and the funeral business that surrounded him. Through historical records, court documents, local accounts, and cultural reflection, this book explores the hidden world behind the business of death and the people entrusted with caring for the dead.

More than a true-crime story, this is an examination of memory, accountability, grief, and the secrets that small communities often keep buried for generations. As graves are reopened and old wounds revisited, readers are confronted with difficult questions about trust, justice, and the stories we tell about the dead.

Part investigative narrative, part social history, and part reflection on mortality itself, Digging Up Bones takes readers on a haunting journey through one of the most controversial funeral home scandals in Tennessee history.

Some secrets die with the dead. Others wait to be uncovered.