Released on Amazon Prime Video in October 2013,The Burialtrue story was turned into a legal drama starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. The film follows Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe (Jones), a funeral home owner who lost money to a Ponzi scheme because of a business associate. On the verge of losing everything, he turns to an attorney named Willie E. Gary (Foxx), a personal injury lawyer that O’Keefe believes can help him convince a mostly Black jury to side with him in the court case he undertakes against a man who unethically tries to take over his business.
While the story is a fictional retelling, it is based on thetrue-life court case between the real Jeremiah O’Keefe and a man named Raymond Loewenand his company, the Loewen Funeral Group. The lawsuit took place in 1995 and saw O’Keefe’s eventual victory and Lowewn’s company’s downfall. With that said, not everything in the movie was entirely accurate, although it mostly stuck with the main strands of the original lawsuit and the court case that followed.
What Was The Real Burial Lawsuit About?
Raymond Loewen Tried To Monopolize The Funeral Business
The idea for the movie was inspired by aNew Yorkerarticle by journalist Jonathan Harr from 1999 calledThe Burial. The article itself opens with a tantalizing statement about the case and how it was something that had a lasting impact on an entire industry. “Its outcome, however, caused consternation in circles far removed from Mississippi. That outcome was due in part to revelations that emerged during the trial about the nature of a hugely profitable industry, one that sooner or later enters the life of every human being.”
Pamela Reed
Annette O’Keefe
That aspect was the funeral industry, and the sometimes underhanded tactics taken by the people who help the grieving say goodbye to their loved ones.
Raymond Loewen was one of 12 children in a Canadian family that owned the only funeral parlor and ambulance service in their town. Loewen turned his family’s funeral home into a profitable business by raising prices and modernizing the equipment. He then bought more funeral homes and eventually started moving his business into the United States. His business goal was to cut costs so he could buy more funeral homes. When he bought Wright & Ferguson in Mississippi, the lawsuit was put into motion.
O’Keefe sued and Loewen agreed to a settlement but then refused to honor the agreement.
Jerry O’Keefe owned eight funeral parlors in Mississippi and the funeral insurance business, Gulf National. O’Keefe had been in a contractual agreement, “twice renewed and affirmed,” for 16 years with Wright & Furguson. When Loewen bought Wright & Ferguson, he canceled the agreement and sold funeral insurance from a company he owned instead. O’Keefe sued and Loewen agreed to a settlement but then refused to honor the agreement. This led to O’Keefe’s businesses starting to fail.
Loewen decided to just wait for O’Keefe to go into bankruptcy and then buy the funeral homes in bankruptcy court. After O’Keefe was forced to sell four of his funeral homes, he finally had no choice but to sue Loewen. The trial began on July 30, 2025.
Who Was The Real Legal Team From The Burial?
Willie Gary Was An Underdog Who Became A Giant Killer
The real-life attorney was Willie Edward Gary, a 26-year-old personal injury attorney from North Carolina. A young Black attorney, he showed early on that he was not someone who would be mistreated because of his skin color. In the original article aboutThe Burial, Gary remembered when he moved his wife and two kids to Florida only to be told the apartment he contracted was “no longer available.” When he said he was a newly graduated attorney and would sue them, that apartment suddenly was available again.
The Real Willie E. Gary’s Cameo In The Burial Explained: Who He Plays & When He Appears
Jamie Foxx plays lawyer Willie E. Gray in the 2023 Amazon Prime Video drama film The Burial, and the real-life Gray makes a cameo in the movie.
Since that time, Willie Gray has become a very successful attorney, and had cases pending in 42 different states at the time of the article. He has offices in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and had 27 lawyers working for him and 112 people on staff. When Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe realized the case was going to be held in Hinds County, Mississippi, which was primarily a Black community, he hired Gary to represent him. This was also in response to Loewen hiring two prominent Black lawyers as well.
How Was The Story & Script Changed Over Time?
Director Maggie Betts Demanded Changes From The Original Script
The true life event happened in 1995. The original script forThe Burialwas written in the 1990s by Doug Wright (Quills). However, the script was floating around Hollywood with names like Alexander Payne and Ron Howard considering it, but no one picked it up. Director Maggie Betts didn’t even want to make the movie originally. She was working on several film focusing on female experiences, and she had a lot that she wanted to do. However, when COVID-19 hit, she reconsidered.
Betts added fictional characters who were not part of the main story.
Betts agreed to come on board, but she wanted to make major changes to the script. She added fictional characters who were not part of the main story and added moments to the events of the courtroom drama that didn’t really happen. While Wright still received credit as a co-writer,Betts changed the story to fit her narrative, making it more of an “inspired by true events” film (viaTime).
As a result, Betts added comedic moments to the story to show how the court case was much bigger than just two men suing each other. “It hits this big revelation about the history of race in America,” Betts said. “Ultimately, I thought, The South is like a graveyard for slaves, that capitalism was built on slavery. And these ghosts of the past were going to rise up and have influence over the trial.”
What Changed From The True Story To The Movie?
Mame Downes Was A Fictional Character
The one big change that happened between the movie andThe Burialtrue life storywas the existence of Mame Downes.In the film, Ray Loewen’s company hired a Black female attorney to counter O’Keefe hiring Gary.Jurnee Smollett played thisBurialcharacter, but in real life, there was no such attorney. As mentioned, Loewen hired two prolific Black attorneys already, both politicians, to represent him. One was a state senator and the other a state representative. However, Mame was a fictional character.
The Loewen Group did hire an experienced Black trial lawyer named Richard Sinkfield.
There was a similar character in real life, though. The Loewen Group did hire an experienced Black trial lawyer named Richard Sinkfield from Atlanta. He aligns with Smollett’s character but is a man. According to director Maggie Betts, “I wanted [it] so that none of the Black characters had a need for white people in their life. Completely self-sufficient. Mame works for Ray Loewen, but she’s on her own path, and she doesn’t need [him]” (viaTime).
What Happened To Hal Dockins In Real Life After The Burial
One of the most compelling characters in The Burial is junior counsel Hal Dockins, but what happened to Dockins after the events of this movie?
Betts also wanted to honor the courtroom drama, even though she considered it “dated.” She chose to follow the basic formula while adding the freshness of having Black attorneys representing white clients. To this end, she also created a completely fictional boardroom negotiation scene toward the end when O’Keefe refused to settle with Loewen that didn’t happen in real life.
What Happened After The Real Case?
Gary Became A Giant-Killer Attorney After O’Keefe & Loewen Settled
After everything was said and done inThe Burial’sending, O’Keefe won the case with a monster settlement. He knew that he couldn’t expect to collect the money if it remained as high as it was, so he reached out and settled with the Loewen Group once again. This time, they settled on paying him $175 million to end the litigation. Raymond Loewen was forced to retire as President and CEO of the company he founded. Eventually, the Loewen Group filed for bankruptcy while O’Keefe’s funeral homes thrived.
As for Willie Gary, who called himself the “Giant Killer,” he continued to thrive and won countless cases after this victory. He was even on an episode ofLifestyles of the Rich and Famous. He sued giant corporations like Anheuser-Busch and Walt Disney Corporation and won. After the events ofThe Burial, Gary’s firm, called Gary, Williams, Parenti, Watson, Gary & Gillespie, P.L.L.C., boasts a team of 21 attorneys. Jeremiah O’Keefe died in 2016 at the age of 93, while Raymond Loewen died in 2023 at the age of 83.
The Burial
Cast
Based on a true story, The Burial is a legal drama film by director Maggie Betts created for Prime Video. When funeral homeowner/director Jeremiah O’Keefe sees a non-penned deal go south, he reaches out to the charismatic attorney Willie E. Gary for help. Together, the two navigate the tricky dealings of corporations and prejudicial blockades to save O’Keefe’s family funeral home business.
