First: I love Elvis. He may have been used by a racist establishment, but he was a subversive as much as an exploiter.
Second: He was, as I have posted elsewhere, enlightened.
Third:
UFO ROUNDUP
Volume 7, Number 33
August 13, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
1977: ELVIS--DEAD OR ALIVE?
At about 1 a.m. on Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Elvis Aron Presley, 42, the singer better known to his legions of fans as "the King," called his step-brother Rick Stanley and asked him to bring a Demerol pill. Elvis said he had chipped his tooth and "was in pain."
Elvis talked with Rick Stanley for over an hour about the pending divorce between Elvis's dad, Vernon Presley, and Rick's mother Dee. They also discussed Elvis's upcoming 11-day music tour.
Shortly thereafter, Elvis played a game of racquetball with his 21-year-old fiancee, Ginger Alden. At 4 a.m., the couple called it quits and went to bed.
Thus began what some writers have called "the strange death of Elvis Presley."
"'I'll never forget his last words,' Alden says, ''Precious, I'm going to go in the bathroom and read.' And I can never forget the horror of finding his body just hours later, his face purple and his eyes blood- red.'"
Ginger Alden awoke at 2 p.m. "Finally, she opened the (bathroom) door and peeped inside. What she saw was Elvis doubled up face down on the floor, with his buttocks elevated, in the fetal position. Clearly he had been sitting in the black leather and chrome chair reading and had toppled forward onto the floor. The book was still lying on the chair.
Oddity Number One--Elvis is said to have had his fatal heart attack while reading. If so, he didn't tumble right to the floor. Apparently, he took a few moments to close the book and place it carefully on the chair.
"Alden called Graceland's security and Elvis's road manager. Joe Esposito soon rushed into the room. 'The minute I touched him I knew it was over,' recalls Esposito, 'I rolled him over and tried to give him heart massage. I couldn't open his mouth. '"
This was a clear indication that rigor mortis had already set in, meaning that Elvis had died at least six hours earlier, most likely sometime between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Yet what are we to make of the original report by Sgt. R.E. Millican of the Memphis, Tenn. Police Department, i.e. Report No. 2793 for August 16, 1977?
Sgt. Millican wrote, "Subject: Presley, Elvis. Offense: DOA (Dead on Arrival). The above subject was brought to the Baptist Hospital after being found unconscious in the upstairs bedroom (my emphasis--J.T.) of his home (the Graceland mansion). The subject was transported by fire department and ambulance and was DOA at the hospital. Homicide and the medical examiner did make the scene at the hospital and at (Graceland) 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard."
Conflicting testimony abounds. In Albert Goldman's book Elvis, "Joe Esposito was called. When he turned Elvis over on his back, he heard a sighing sound, convincing him that Elvis was still breathing."
In an interview with US Magazine dated August 24, 1984, "Ginger Alden says she found the body at 12:30 p.m., not 2 p.m."
Most intriguing is the Medical Examiner's report. "According to this report, it appears that although the body was discovered at 1400 (2 p.m.) there is a time lapse of an hour and a half (my emphasis--J.T.) until police were notified at 1530 (3:30 p.m.) and the Medical Examiner notified at 1600 (4 p.m.). It also reads that Elvis was pronounced dead at 1530. If it's true that Elvis was DOA and rigor mortis had set in, why so long in pronouncing him dead?"
Then there's the delicate matter of Elvis's weight at death. "The report of the county medical examiner in Memphis, Tenn. lists Elvis's weight at 170 pounds. A call to the examiner's office reports that all corpses are weighed and any variation would depend upon how much food the dead man had in his stomach when found."
Columnist James Bacon reported, "Everyone I have talked to who saw Elvis in those last days put his weight at well over 200 pounds. One even had it as high as 250 pounds."
Apparently, Elvis somehow lost 50 pounds while sitting in the bathroom reading.
"Somehow, in all the confusion, order reigned. Within hours Elvis's body was reportedly autopsied, taken to the Memphis Funeral Home, embalmed and returned to the (Graceland) mansion early the next day. Cause of death was from the beginning a mystery. Elvis was encased in a specially-designed casket weighing 900 pounds which was flown in 'overnight.'"
The unusual coffin triggered speculation among Memphis residents that the King had faked his death. The "extra weight" in the coffin was said to be "a special air-conditioning unit designed to keep Elvis's wax mannequin from melting in the August heat."
Adding to the speculation was Elvis's lifelong business manager, Colonel Tom Parker. "The Colonel, rather than returning immediately to Memphis, flew to New York where he met with the owner of a large merchandising firm. A deal was made to merchandize Elvis via the Colonel's company, Boxcar Enterprises, owned 56 percent by the Colonel and 22 percent each by the Presley estate and the Colonel's assistant, Tom Ditkin."
"Nearly two weeks after Elvis's funeral, three men were arrested 'attempting to steal the body of Elvis.' This occurred August 29, 1977. The men arrested said they did not want the body of Elvis but wanted to prove to the world that Elvis had not died and that there was no body in the crypt."
"The three charged with the kidnapping attempt were merely charged with trespassing and released on bond. Later Vernon (Elvis's father) dropped all charges. Why?"
As a result, on October 2, 1977, the bodies of Elvis and his mother, Gladys Love Smith Presley, were removed from the crypt at Memphis's Forest Hill Cemetery and re- interred at Graceland, in what are now the Meditation Gardens. Amazingly, the Memphis zoning board had granted Vernon Presley a variance to allow a private cemetery on the mansion grounds.
Tongues really began to wag, however, when Elvis's headstone appeared at the site, bearing the name "Elvis Aaron Presley."
As Gail Brewer-Giorgio points out in her book Is Elvis Alive?, the King's true name was Elvis Aron Presley. That's how it reads on the Standard Certificate of Live Birth issued at Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi on January 8, 1935.
Elvis Aron Presley is also on the King's 1953 diploma from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis. And on Elvis's U.S. Army induction papers, dated December 18, 1957. And on his DD-214 discharge form.
"The marriage certificate uniting him in marriage to Priscilla Ann Beaulieu reads Elvis Aron Presley." "The Medical Examiner's Report and Death Certificate read Elvis Aron Presley."
"RCA, in all their promotions, list the name as Elvis Aron Presley." "All legal contracts spell the name as Elvis Aron Presley."
Giorgio-Brewer wrote, "If Elvis were not buried there, it would be a bad omen to have his name on the grave. If Elvis did not die on August 16, 1977, then it makes sense not to tempt fate by putting one's name on a tombstone...To misspell the name could be a method of saying, 'It's not me.'"
Curiously, Elvis's name is also misspelled on his August 15, 1972 property settlement agreement for the divorce from Priscilla--Elvis Aaron Presley. That's how he signed the document. Could it have been Elvis's way of saying, 'It's not me. I'm not doing this.'?
Much has been made of "Elvis sightings" in the past fifteen years, but few people realize that the sightings literally began the day after the King's death.
According to Giorgio, on Wednesday, August 17, 1977, "a woman who worked at the reservations desk at the Memphis airport...didn't think too much of it at the time. She remembers that on August 17th, a man bearing a slight resemblance to Elvis picked up a ticket to Buenos Aires that had been reserved under the name of John Burrows."
"'John Burrows' (sometimes spelled Burroughs--J.T.) was the code name Elvis Presley used--it was the name he gave to personal friends, including President Richard M. Nixon, if they wanted to get through to him."
In his book, The Elvis Sightings, author Peter Eicher interviewed Louise Welling of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who reported, "About a week after Elvis's funeral, there was a man here in Kalamazoo who came on our (local) TV station and said he saw Elvis walking up Millkam Road to Oakland Drive."
Throughout the 1980s, rumors persisted in Kalamazoo of the mysterious "John Burrows," who owned a sizable office building in the city. Witness Kelly B. finally managed to infiltrate the building on a day in 1986 when Burrows was known to be there. She reported, "'I turned around and looked directly into his eyes. He had on gold-rimmed glasses, a very modified version of what he used to wear, with a slight tint to them.' It wasn't the glasses that convinced her, however, it was the eyes of the King. 'I looked into his eyes. He had the Elvis Presley expression in his eyes, that I think most people who know him are familiar with...The eyes held that kind of sparkle. They were also the same shape and color eyes that Elvis had."
Was Burrows simply an Elvis lookalike? Or did Elvis fake his own death in order to live a quiet life in Kalamazoo? The sightings continue to this day. In fact, there's a website devoted to them at http://www.elvissightingbulletinboard.com
Such are the stange occurrences that have made the death of Elvis one of the world's enduring mysteries.
(See the books Is Elvis Alive? by Gail Brewer-Giorgio, Tudor Publishing Co., New York, N.Y., 1988; The Elvis Sightings by Peter Eicher, Avon Books, New York, N.Y., 1993; Elvis by Albert Goldman, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y., 1981; Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Lucy de Barbin and Dary Matera, Villard Books, New York, N.Y., 1977; and Elvis and Gladys by Elaine Dundy, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, N.Y., 1985. Also the National Enquirer for August 20, 2002, "Elvis: His Final Hours," Globe for August 20, 2002, "Elvis Death Scene," and USA Weekend for August 11, 2002, "The Elvis Files.") |
