Wallace G. Wilkinson - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

After his service as governor, Wilkinson returned to his business pursuits. In the early 1990s, he began borrowing money to keep his bookstore business solvent and to support his lavish lifestyle. His interest in running for another non-consecutive term as governor appeared to be dampened by the system of public financing that Kentucky had in place at that time for gubernatorial elections. In 1995, he published his memoir entitled You Can't Do That, Governor!; a major theme of the book was his disdain for conventional wisdom and political norms. In 1999, he launched ECampus.com, an Internet book retailer. Among the investors in the company were Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, Long John Silver's founder James Patterson, and Ohio State University president William English Kirwan.

On February 5, 2001, a group of Wilkinson's creditors filed suit to have his companies seized. During the ensuing bankruptcy proceedings, Wilkinson admitted that his liabilities exceeded his assets by $300 million. During the proceedings, it was revealed that Wilkinson had been financially insolvent since 1992 and was operating a Ponzi scheme, paying his creditors with money borrowed from others rather than his own profits. He had paid no federal income taxes since 1991. At his deposition in June 2001, Wilkinson invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination over 140 times. Wallace's Bookstore was liquidated for just over $31 million, and ecampus.com was sold for $2.5 million. Wilkinson's wife, Martha, also filed for bankruptcy; his sons were forced to sell their homes to repay loans made to them by their father. During the bankruptcy proceedings, the Wilkinsons moved from Lexington to Naples, Florida.

While in Lexington for a deposition on May 26, 2002, Wilkinson began to experience chest pains and was admitted to St. Joseph's Hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with arterial blockages and scheduled him for arterial bypass surgery. Before the surgery could be performed, however, doctors discovered another lymphatic mass. Wilkinson began taking chemotherapy, and doctors removed the mass on June 4, 2002. Wilkinson was placed on life support on June 26, 2002. He suffered a stroke on July 4, 2002. Wilkinson had previously instructed his family not to continue life support after all hope of recovery was gone; accordingly, they decided to withdraw life support, and Wilkinson died on July 5, 2002. He is entombed within a locked mausoleum at Sarasota Memorial Park in Sarasota, Florida; the family chose July 4, 2002 as the date of death for his marker. The city of Liberty dubbed the stretch of the U.S. 127 bypass that runs through the city Wallace Wilkinson Boulevard in 1987.