Just when you think the Stanley family can’t offer up yet another book with a contradictory set of claims and accounts, we have David Stanley’s narrative from his 2016 book where he talks about August 16, 1977, and the details of his day. I am a bit late to this one, but let’s jump in […]

Evidence.4: “The Elvis Conspiracy” Synopsis
21 pages. Let’s take a look: Page 1: “[Charlie Hodge’s] more than 20 year association with Elvis Presley lends a great deal of credibility to author Dick Grob’s work, substantiating much of the evidence uncovered and reported in ‘The Elvis Conspiracy.’” There is nothing in this book (The Elvis Conspiracy?) substantiated by Charlie Hodge, and […]

[Q5] The Stomach
Has anyone ever wondered about this? On the topic of Elvis’s stomach (stomach contents), Dr. Francisco said that it (the stomach) “had not been pumped” during resuscitation efforts. On the same topic of Elvis’s stomach, Dr. Eric Muirhead stated in a deposition that the Emergency Room personnel reported to him that the stomach had been […]

@HoJoMo
Let’s take a look at the Stanley brothers and the Howard Johnson’s Motel just north of Graceland on August 15 and 16, 1977. Some of this comes from previous commentary and analysis, but a few new questions are worth asking: Dick Grob claims that David Stanley and Rick Stanley were at the Howard Johnson’s Motel, […]

@HoJoMo.2
There are two parts of the passage below from “The Death of Elvis” that are important to emphasize: First, after the 20/20 broadcast (September 13, 1979), Grob began making the statements mentioned above. However, his synopsis shows a copyright date of March 3, 1979. If Grob had come up with “questions” about the whereabouts of […]

[Q3] Impacted :
Has anyone ever wondered about this? On the topic of Elvis’s colon, Dr. Francisco said that “Elvis did not have an impacted colon at the time of his death.” On the same topic of Elvis’s colon, Dan Warlick and the pathologists at the autopsy are quoted as saying that Elvis’s colon was “jam-packed from the […]

[PBP] The $900k Salary Question
On the CLAIM [2018] by Lisa Marie Presley regarding the salary allegedly paid to Priscilla Presley by EPE: Lisa Marie Presley alleges in her 2018 action against Barry Siegel [Paragraph 31] that he, “allowed (and, in fact, lobbied) for EPE to pay Lisa’s mother (and the co-Trustee of the Trust) a salary of $900,000 per […]

[PBP] On the Petition for Order
Here are several of the PETITION FOR ORDER complaints in the filing submitted by Priscilla Presley (Petitioner): Questions: How did Priscilla Presley “discover” this document? Who alerted her to the existence of this amendment? (“Pertaining” to be an amendment?) Questions: Is there any evidence that this 2016 Amendment was delivered? Is there any evidence that […]

LT.2: There Are No Heroes
In recent months, since the release of the (not-really-a-) biopic, “ELVIS,” I have seen a number of articles about Linda Thompson and her position on the film, mainly addressing the accuracy of the film, and the lack of any mention of her in it. One main point that she makes in these articles is that […]

The Approximation of Truth
There is a adage that has made its way around the media world the past few years that goes, “Photo or video or it didn’t happen.” Imagine if we applied that rule to the Elvis community, and to the history of Elvis (and the Presley family) going back nearly 100 years. What would our knowledgebase […]
News Item: The Intersection
https://tonyortega.substack.com/p/breaking-lisa-marie-presley-news From 11/8/22: And 11/9/22:

Protected: “How Fast Can This Thing Go”
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

That Bomb Threat
Someone sent me a few passages from a new book featuring pilot Ron Strauss, who flew the Lisa Marie for Elvis back in 1976-1977. I’d like to address this one story about the Lisa Marie and a bomb threat early on the morning of January 1, 1977, at Pittsburgh International Airport. Fact pattern bullet points: […]

“…you know that’s not what happened…”
Of all the people who deserve scrutiny for their actions on the morning and afternoon of August 16, 1977, Rick Stanley would top the list. He was on duty from 12 midnight to 12 noon that day, and was supposedly present through the early morning up until about eight o’clock, give or take. At that […]

“Ladies and gentlemen, Charlie Hodge…”
Deflect, obfuscate, misrepresent, lie. The worst of the lot [here @ 04:12]: “They discovered during the autopsy that Elvis had had three other heart attacks already, so there were weakened valves in his heart already, just like his mother, just like the mother’s two brothers.” Flat-out lie. Here’s a serious question: Can any of these […]

Billy Smith: On the Injections
During the Dr. Nichopoulos trial in 1981, Billy Smith testified as to the following (edited for clarity): James Neal (Nichopoulos Defense Attorney): During the last period you were with Mr. Presley, I understand that…you were there from 1961 to 1968, you were there for a couple of months around the end of 1970, but then…1975 […]

“Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Esposito…”
The following clip features a brief ~2013 account from Joe Esposito in which he describes what happened at Graceland around 2:00pm on August 16, 1977: “About two o’clock the phone rings, intercom, and one of the maids picks up the phone and it’s Ginger. She says come upstairs, I need help, Elvis fainted. So I […]

The What Ifs
When it comes to Elvis’s death, the “What If” list is rather lengthy. Where to start? How about here: (Fixed it.) This is a good time to quickly re-visit a key point in this story that seems to get overlooked quite often. On the day of Elvis’s death, by all accounts Rick Stanley was the […]

“Ladies and gentlemen, George Klein…”
In this video clip, taken from a longer interview/comment a few years back (original source unknown), George Klein talks about his arrival at Graceland on August 16, 1977, and Dr. Nichopoulos’s subsequent confirmation of Elvis’s death: And yet: No one places George Klein at Graceland prior to 4:00pm when Dr. Nichopoulos returned to announce Elvis’s […]

Evidence.3: The In-House Investigation
Dick Grob and his supporters have said for years that Grob’s investigation into Elvis’s death, as (supposedly) requested by Vernon Presley, was a top-notch investigative tour de force, with no stones left unturned. According to these folks, and to Grob himself, Grob looked at everything and everyone, even the autopsy report he was unable to […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 8/DW/D2/Nasal Swab.2
Deposition Part 2: 79 pages There are only a few points I’d like to make on the second part of the Warlick deposition, taken November 7, 1979: First, we return to the question of why Dan Warlick collected the nasal blood swab. In this section of the deposition, Warlick admits that he took this blood […]

“ELVIS”
Below are comments and observations about the new movie, “ELVIS.” These are opinions only. First, let’s go back and look at one paragraph from “On Elvis Biopics” (October 2019): Now, several years later, we are awaiting the Luhrmann-produced Elvis biopic, and so far I am not entirely sure what we will be getting. First, Luhrmann […]

“Firemen With First-Aid Kits”
“Ulysses Jones and Charles Crosby weren’t paramedics.” I was told the other day that someone said this recently. “1977, they weren’t paramedics. They were doing first-aid.” Jones and Crosby were “firemen with first-aid kits.” “That is a fact!” No, it’s not a fact. No record on Crosby (he drove the ambulance), but Jones headed the […]

Ginger Alden: The Red Herring
Red herring: something that distracts attention from the real issue. Over the past four-plus decades, the Elvis World has been infected by a broad, slow-moving, and consistent effort to paint Ginger Alden as a villain. The villain of what? The villain who let Elvis die, the villain who didn’t help Elvis with his drug problem, […]

Drugs for Vacations
Or drugs for cash. Or drugs for cars. Or drugs for jewelry. Whichever example you want to use…they’re all the same. Elvis had in his employ doctors and nurses (not all, but several) who provided drugs to him that were so far outside a curative protocol that they (the doctors and nurses) may just as […]

The Investigation @ BMH – 7/DW/Nasal Swab
At some point early in the autopsy procedure, Dr. Francisco told Dan Warlick that he would not be needed any longer in terms of the investigation into Elvis’s death. Warlick took Francisco’s comments to mean that the investigation should not continue. So what did he do then? We can review his actions in the autopsy […]

The Sleep Question
Redux. Let’s look at these two statements, from a video that was posted recently by Linda Thompson: Linda Thompson: “…I loved him, he loved me, and there was someone else in the wings, that he was going to see, and I felt, I was hoping he’d be okay…I didn’t wanna wake up and find him […]

“The Dangers”
Just a few comments on these two paragraphs from Billy Stanley’s 1989 book: First, we have another example of this ridiculous “If Linda…” nonsense, in this case Stanley saying that Linda Thompson would have been “alert” and would not have slept until Elvis slept. So, what we are to understand here is that no female […]

The “If Mindi Miller…” Fallacy
First, please read this, from a few years back: Next, please read this: The “If Linda…” Fallacy. Then, consider these points: Mindi Miller’s statement is a simple and obvious example of pandering [pander: “to please other people by doing or saying what you think they want you to do or say“]. Linda Thompson is held in very […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 8/DW/D1
Deposition Part 1: 109 pages I am not going to review the Warlick depositions (parts 1 and 2) line-by-line, instead I will comment on just a few key sections that will help clarify what Warlick was doing (or not doing) that day. Starting at four o’clock that afternoon, in the first part of Warlick’s 2-part […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 6/JS
Jerry Stauffer – Assistant District Attorney General Stauffer was present at the Homicide Department on the afternoon of August 16, 1977, when a call came in from Baptist Hospital alerting them to the fact that Elvis Presley, “had been transported to the hospital and was apparently DOA, dead on arrival.” Stauffer accompanied the MPD detectives […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 5/N.H-SM
Recall that when interviewed by investigators at Graceland on the afternoon of 8/16/77, neither Dr. Nichopoulos nor Nurse Henley revealed the drug storage and dispensing arrangement they were operating at Graceland, which is discussed here. In fact, both individuals were lying by omission when they failed to mention the arrangement since they both knew that […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 4/N.H-SM
Recall that when interviewed by investigators at Graceland on the afternoon of 8/16/77, neither Dr. Nichopoulos nor Tish Henley revealed the drug storage and dispensing arrangement they were operating at Graceland, which is discussed here. In fact, both individuals were lying by omission when they failed to mention the arrangement since they both knew that […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 3/N.H-DW
Recall that when interviewed by investigators at Graceland on the afternoon of 8/16/77, neither Dr. Nichopoulos nor Tish Henley revealed the drug storage and dispensing arrangement they were operating at Graceland, which is discussed here. In fact, both individuals were lying by omission when they failed to mention the arrangement since they both knew that […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 2/JP
Sgt. John Peel – MPD Homicide Detective (interviewed 10-2-79) Let’s hit the main points: Sgt. Peel learned of Elvis’s death when he arrived for work at 3:45pm. He then went to Baptist with Lt. McCachren and Jerry Stauffer. At Baptist, Peel went with McCachren and Stauffer to Maurice Elliott’s office where he met Joe Esposito […]

The Investigation @ Graceland – 1/SM
Was there any sort of proper investigation into the death of Elvis that took place at Graceland, involving the Memphis Police Department, the Medical Examiner’s office, and/or the Attorney General’s office? These are the people who went to Graceland just after the announcement of the death, ostensibly, at first glance, to investigate the death: Car […]

[P.S.] N > K > N > ? > E
A brief postscript to N>K>N>?>E There is one part of the puzzle that should be addressed beyond the question of who was the conduit for drugs between Nichopoulos and Elvis. Below is a brief comment outlining this issue: On the morning of 8/16/77, it is reported that Ginger Alden was suffering some sort of pain […]

CSA/DEA: Secure Storage for C-II/C-III
From The Backyard Pharmacy®: During the Nichopoulos trial, Tish Henley testified, “that she had been in charge of the drugs at Graceland since 1975 and kept them in an overnight bag under lock and key in her trailer.” [“The Death of Elvis,” pg. 303] Here are several pertinent sections from the DEA Controlled Substance Secure […]

N > K > N > ? > E
Part 2 of “The Pharmacist and the Doctor“ “We can tell you that the Controlled Substances Act was enacted in 1970 and has been in effect continuously since then. Under the Act, for a controlled substance prescription to be lawful, it must be issued for a legitimate medical purpose by a DEA-registered practitioner acting the […]

[AV4] Ambulance Video: The 280Z @ 01:54-02:03
It is important to understand why the ambulance video now appears to be unreliable as a source, beyond the simple visual of what is seen. Timing and sequence are now part of a guessing game. Let’s look at the David Stanley claim that he drove his friend, Mark White, down the street, then returned to […]

[AV3] Ambulance Video: “Watch the mansion…”
On the conspiracy side of August 16, 1977, we have the claim that a phone call was placed from inside the mansion, that the caller was Ginger Alden, and that she advised James Kirk (of The National Enquirer) to “watch” the mansion (from Kirk’s log allegedly documenting these events, the wording is, “Keep watch on […]

[AV2] Ambulance Video: Cuts in the Tape
Reference: 07:23 version of “The Ambulance Video” @ 00:00 – 02:55 00:00 – 01:24: Van, various angles/locations. 01:24: Black (or dark-colored) car stops just past fork in Graceland driveway, backs up, then changes direction from proceeding straight up the south side of the driveway to turning left and proceeding up the north side of the […]

[AV1] Ambulance Video: The Van
In the opening scenes of what is generally known as “the ambulance video,” a van is prominently featured. In fact, this van has been at the center of the “ambulance video” narrative since the video became widely available. One might even say that without the van, the ambulance video would not exist. Or so the […]

[Q2] Billy Smith: ~1:45pm
8/16/77: Billy Smith says he was alerted to Elvis’s emergency situation by a phone call from Patsy Gambill at “a quarter to two” (~1:45pm), which is approximately one hour before we’ve been told (as part of the official story) that the ambulance departed Graceland with Elvis en route to Baptist. An alert at ~1:45pm would […]

[Q1] “Lying on the Bed”
At Baptist Hospital, shortly after Elvis had been pronounced dead, Joe Esposito told a MPD detective that Ginger Alden had found Elvis on the bathroom floor, she then called downstairs on the intercom for assistance, and that Al Strada had gone upstairs. According to Esposito, Strada then called for Esposito to come up, and when […]

Dr. Nichopoulos: The Call to Graceland?
Continued from “Dr. Nichopoulos: Arrival @ Graceland 8/16/77“ Dr. Nichopoulos stated numerous times that when he was paged on August 16, 1977, with the alert from Graceland, he immediately called back and spoke with Joe Esposito. Let’s walk through this again. First, some pertinent information on the technology involved: 1970s: Tone and voice pagers were invented. […]

The Ambulance of…Hope?
Have you ever walked down the street and seen an ambulance zooming by, sirens wailing, and said to yourself, “I am filled with hope looking at that ambulance”? Have you ever looked up the word “hope” in the dictionary and seen a photo of an ambulance? Did Patsy Gambill call Billy Smith at 1:45pm on […]

Discovery
The location in the bathroom where Elvis was discovered by Ginger Alden has typically been referenced as somewhere around the center of the room, equidistant between the west wall and the counter (which is on the east side of the room), with the upper body generally towards the counter. We see this location in the […]

Evidence.2
And lest we forget Grob’s second stack of papers, “Safe and Sound,” here is a bit more on “evidence”: From page 263: On the 2:20pm emergency call from Ginger, Grob writes that Ginger was calm during the call. This is a statement presented as fact, which runs counter to the account given by the person […]

Evidence.1
Years ago I was often contacted by enthusiastic alivers who would tell me that they had “evidence” that “proves” that Elvis faked his death. They’d shout it from the roof-tops: “We have evidence!” And I’d shout back, “Great, show me the evidence!” But how much evidence did they show me? None. Zilch. Zero. Why? Because […]

The Ginger Hit Job, Part IV
Dick Grob came up with the “Ginger Hit Job” in 1977 and committed it to paper as early as 1979 as part of the synopsis for his book proposal. Years later, it eventually caught on and spread, reaching fans worldwide via books, interviews, and assorted commentary, until Grob’s first large stack of paper was published […]

Departure
A question I have never heard asked before: “Why did Dr. Nichopoulos go to Graceland after being notified of Elvis’s medical emergency?” The answer would seem to be pretty logical, and simple: to help his patient. But does this answer really explain the whole situation? According to the account Dr. Nichopoulos outlined in his book, […]

The Tour Stockpiles, Part II
July 1977 prescriptions, written to Elvis by Dr. Nichopoulos: What do you see here? A Nichopoulos “tour stockpile”? Percodan, and Quaalude, and Demerol, and Dexedrine, and Dilaudid…just stocking up for the tour. Oh, but wait, there was no tour in July 1977. So what were these drugs for? The “drugs are for everyone on the […]

Dr. Nichopoulos: Arrival @ Graceland 8/16/77
The Great Memory Lapse continues: According to the official account of August 16, 1977, Dr. Nichopoulos was contacted at Doctors Hospital by someone at Graceland at the time of Elvis’s medical emergency. According to Nichopoulos, this call came in between 2:30pm and 2:33pm. Remember Dr. Nichopoulos’s strange inability to recall very much about that historic […]

The Tour Stockpiles
There is a myth that Dr. Nichopoulos introduced into the Elvis community many years ago that attempts to explain and justify the massive amounts of drugs the doctor took with him on Elvis’s tours. The myth goes basically like this: Dr. Nichopoulos had to write many high-quantity Schedule II prescriptions just prior to each tour […]

The 1977 Hawaii Stockpile
Dr. Nichopoulos claimed a number of times over the years that he had to write massive (quantity) prescriptions because he was treating potentially as many as 100 people on each tour. On March 3, 1977, Nichopoulos joined Elvis and a small group of people on a Hawaii vacation. Here is a list of the prescriptions […]

Lies of Omission: The 8/16/77 Pills
“Lies of omission involve the intentional exclusion of important information, whereas lies of commission involve the intentional generation of false information.” As part of the police “investigation” into Elvis’s death on the afternoon of August 16, 1977, Sgt. John Peel asked “nurse” Tish Henley if Elvis had taken any medications just prior to his death, and she replied […]

Lies of Omission: The Great Memory Lapse
“Lies of omission involve the intentional exclusion of important information, whereas lies of commission involve the intentional generation of false information.” (Reference.) In Dr. Nichopoulos’s November 1979 deposition for the ABC News lawsuit, there are some critical omissions in Nichopoulos’s responses to several questions, and the absence of this information creates a different perception of what Nichopoulos did […]

Rick Stanley: Revisited, Again
Here we are again, looking at the strange accounts as presented by Rick Stanley. This time around, there are two particular pieces I’d like to examine, a video interview from 2010, and a short section of his 1986 book, “The Touch of Two Kings.” Keeping things in chronological order, we’ll start with 1986. On page […]

The Ginger Hit Job, Part III
“Indictment is a noun form of the verb indict, which can be used in the sense of making formal criminal charges or in the more general sense of accusing or criticizing.” [dictionary.com] From Dick Grob’s 1979 synopsis for “The Elvis Conspiracy?”: “…then perhaps social indictments and judgements can be evoked.” Did Dick Grob ever make any efforts […]

The Ginger Hit Job, Part II
Where was Dean Nichopoulos on August 16, 1977? Dick Grob and Dr. Nichopoulos said Dean was at Graceland, working security, answering phones, and paying close attention to everything that was going on. But was he? Let’s start here: Going by Dean’s own words, he was at the mall a little bit south of Graceland (a […]

The Ginger Hit Job
“Good, we’ll start blasting her [Ginger Alden] and change it around so it doesn’t look too good, you know…” Who said it? Well, Dick Grob said it, of course, referring to a Ginger Alden story/interview for The National Enquirer. And thus began the broad, never-ending attack on Ginger. We are nearly 44 years down the […]

Information in a Vacuum
Definition of “in a vacuum“: “If something is done in a vacuum, it is not affected by any outside influences or information.” (Collins English Dictionary) Recently I watched a video of Billy Smith and Jo Smith recorded in the early 1980s talking about August 16, 1977, and how they were notified that Elvis was having […]

Rooks: The 8/16/77 TV Schedule
Nancy Rooks writes in her 2005 book that she “thinks” she was watching “As The World Turns” on TV when Ginger Alden called downstairs for help. The time of this call was 2:20pm, as the story goes, but over the years we have seen a handful of different times also being mentioned. In a YouTube […]

Rooks: The Excursion
In her 2005 book, “Inside Graceland,” Nancy Rooks tells the story of Ginger Alden calling downstairs for help on August 16, 1977, but adds a few claims/details that she had not included in her first book 21 years earlier (thus changing the entire story). According to Rooks in 2005, when Ginger called for help from […]

Rooks: A Timeline Question
The Nancy Rooks claim re: David Stanley from her 1984 book, “The Maid, the Man, and the Fans”: This “bodyguard” referred to by Nancy Rooks was David Stanley, according to Stanley’s own account of the exchange. Rooks places the time that Stanley left Graceland at “around eleven o’clock” that morning, but if that is accurate, […]

Rooks: 1984
In 1984 Nancy Rooks released a book called, “The Maid, The Man, and the Fans,” which talked a little bit about the maid, a little bit about The Man (Elvis), and a little bit about one fan in particular (the co-author). What she didn’t cover here I assume she covered in her 2005 book, “Inside […]

@SXMElvisRadio: Rewriting History
On December 21, 2020, @SXMElvisRadio tweeted: To which I replied with this post: Elvis & Joyce (& Nixon & The Gun) And this post: Elvis & Joyce (& Nixon & The Gun), Part II …both of which provide information, background, and analysis that runs counter to the “official” story. So what did @SXMElvisRadio do next? […]

Alicia Kerwin: Who was “Rose”?
In Alicia Kerwin’s 1980 testimonial interview, she states that during her second visit to Graceland she was in Lisa Marie’s bedroom and was introduced to Tish Henley. Also present, to cut Elvis’s hair, was Aurelia Dupont, as well as “someone else,” David Stanley, and “one of her sisters and her boyfriend.” The “her” in Kerwin’s […]

Who Said It?
Who Said It? – #1 The highlights… Ginger found Elvis, then got ready, then noticed that Elvis hadn’t moved, and then called for help? Ginger called for help and Lisa Marie answered? Lisa Marie “called for help” and Al Strada answered? Are they using the phone here? Where was Lisa Marie that she had to […]

The Ghost of Dr. Nick
Was Dr. Nichopoulos at Graceland before the ambulance arrived on August 16, 1977? Most say he was not, and yet more than a few say he was. The ever-weakening official story goes that Dr. Nichopoulos arrived at Graceland at approximately 2:45-2:46pm, just as the ambulance was preparing to exit the property. He got into the […]

Kirk’s Log: Revisited
“Kirk’s Log” is the timeline record kept by National Enquirer guy Jim Kirk, and is featured in Dick Grob’s magnum dopus, “The Elvis Conspiracy?” In Kirk’s Log, we find an hour-by-hour account that Kirk supposedly kept as the events in Memphis unfolded over the days from August 16 to August 20, 1977, though it is […]

Disinformation?
One of these is not like the others: From the Alicia Kerwin interview transcript:

Protected: The Alicia Kerwin Timeline
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Check Stubs: Lewis v Jenkins
What is wrong with this picture? Here, we have a weekly check stub from George Lewis, dated June 17, 1977 (with a [slightly] larger view of the handwriting below it): The description of this item: If you look closely, especially at the lower right corner of the first image (above), you can see that the […]

8/16/77: The Ambulance Video Revisited
PLUS: Section II: The 2:20pm Emergency Call Taking another look at the Ambulance Video, focusing on the events listed below. Video sequence of events: Event1 @ 00:04-00:11: Unidentified car starts to go up right side of the drive (at the fork), stops, backs up, then goes up the left side of the drive; Event2 @ […]

The “If Linda…” Fallacy: Footnote
When I became an Elvis fan, it was not very long before I was trying to sort out fact from fiction, and to put the pieces of the informational Elvis World into some semblance of proper order. But first and foremost, I have remained a fan since then, and I am still a fan today. […]

The “If Linda…” Fallacy
On page 195 of David Stanley’s book, “Life With Elvis,” there are a whole bunch of assumptions and conclusions that absolutely boggle the mind. The main mind-boggler is that Linda Thompson, had she been with Elvis at the time of his death, would have saved his life. Seriously? How has this idea stayed afloat for […]

Shifting the Narrative, II: David Stanley, Mark White, & CCTV
[This piece is an addendum to “The Stanleys: Shifting The Narrative“] I recently came across a short story from a longtime friend of the Stanley brothers which was posted on social media sometime in 2019. The story, to paraphrase (for grammar and clarity), goes like this: “I have been friends with Billy, Ricky, and David […]

Shifting the Narrative, III: David Stanley – 12:pm-2:47pm 8/16/77
After reading the previous discussions on David Stanley, Rick Stanley, and the movements of each on the morning and early afternoon of August 16, 1977, there is one final section of an interview I’d like to look at. The excerpts below are from a publication called, “Essential Elvis Interviews,” presumably from the early 2000s. (These […]

Shifting the Narrative, IV: Rick Stanley – 12:pm-4:pm 8/16/77
LARRY KING: How did you hear about it [Elvis’s death]? RICKY STANLEY: I heard about it when David came in, my youngest brother. And I said, David, Joe says we’ve got to get him up at a certain time because we’re going to leave for a tour. And I’m going to run a few errands. […]

That Weird Prescription
The August 15, 1977, Prescription/Order Spoof Misspellings, odd handwriting, incorrect info…this document has it all. Turns out it was created as a spoof insert for the bootleg record, “Elvis’s Greatest Shit,” from the early 1980s. Not a forgery, not a fake prescription…just an effort to mock Elvis, included in an album intended to mock Elvis. […]

The Placebo Myth
Placebo (a term used here for the sake of clarity): “An inert substance usually prepared to look as similar [as possible] to the active product investigated in a study.” A number of directly-involved parties have defended their care of Elvis over the years, as have many, many disinterested parties, by citing the efforts of Elvis’s […]

The Backyard Pharmacy®
For X number of years, leading up to August 1977, Elvis had on his staff what was essentially a live-in nurse: a nurse who lived on the grounds of the Graceland estate. What were her duties? What and who was she responsible for? When Elvis went on tour, Dr. Nichopoulos claimed he was responsible for […]

The Stanleys: Shifting the Narrative
Below are some observations and a bit of commentary on Rick Stanley’s 1992 book, “Caught In A Trap,” plus a few relevant topics and questions that came up during my review. Too often in Elvis World we see stories get slightly altered or shifted on the timeline (or removed from the timeline) and nowhere does […]

July 1977 Stockpiling?
For Dr. Nichopoulos and his supporters/apologists, the writing of large numbers of prescriptions for large numbers of medications was simply part of the care he provided Elvis and the many people who were part of the concert tours. That is, Dr. Nichopoulos wrote prescriptions for a lot of medications so that they would be available […]

The 4:pm Wake-up Call
We have been told for many years that Elvis told Rick Stanley on the morning of 8/16/77 that he did not want to be disturbed until a 4:00pm wake-up call/time. Presumably he informed Rick of this so that he would pass along the instruction to his brother when David Stanley came on duty at 12:00pm. […]

The Cleaners, III
This third part of “The Cleaners” is about two different, but related topics: first, and primarily, the case discussed walks us through a perfect lesson on the way Elvis information, and the attendant analysis, is mismanaged; and second, it is about another question pertaining to the “scrubbing” of the upstairs suite at Graceland on August […]

The Cleaners, I & II
The goings-on at Graceland on the morning and afternoon of August 16, 1977, leave a lot of questions unanswered. Assuming the questions are asked, of course. Below, I’d like to look at a few of these questions as they pertain to the clean-up and removal of medications from the upstairs suite, and then in Part […]

More on: The Grob Conspiracy
There are a number of people in Elvis World who closely follow the claims and accusations of/from Dick Grob, as they pertain to Ginger Alden. You all know who you are. These folks look to Grob for all the answers about Elvis’s death, his health, his relationship with Ginger, and the goings-on with Ginger immediately […]

About That Bone Cancer
In the following analysis and commentary, I am going to look again at the varying details of the claim that Elvis had bone cancer, a claim that was unceremoniously introduced into the public domain and then left uncorrected for decades by the very people who made the claim in the first place (while knowing for […]

The Alicia Kerwin Question
I am not sure why this question is such a tough one to figure out: Was Alicia Kerwin going to accompany Elvis on the August 17-28, 1977, tour, either for the entire tour or for a small part of it? Maybe it’s a difficult topic because Ms. Kerwin is no longer here to help us […]

Elvis World: Facts/Truth
Recently, as I have read numerous posts, Tweets, and commentary on Elvis written by his friends, associates, family, et al., I am reminded that we here in Elvis World have a very tricky problem when it comes to dealing in facts, and thus truth. Obviously most fans were not around to witness the incidents, events, […]
The Vernon Presley Letters
Did Vernon Presley write the letters he sent to Elvis’s fans? The answer to this question takes us to another question, and that is whether Vernon had his full mental faculties in the last few years of his life. Let’s look at two letters that Vernon sent, the first from sometime after March 1979, and […]

On Elvis Biopics, Part II
In an article posted this morning here, Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling comment on the upcoming Elvis biopic being produced by Baz Luhrmann. If I am jumping the gun on this, so be it, but I do have a few questions. Jerry Schilling: “I think he certainly asked all the right questions, as I will […]

On Elvis Biopics
This past week on Twitter, the deejay Argo, host of SiriusXM Elvis Radio, offered a few supportive comments to filmmaker Baz Luhrmann when Mr. Luhrmann announced that the role of Priscilla Presley had been cast for his upcoming Elvis biopic. I echo Argo’s sentiment, and I truly hope that Luhrmann knocks it out of the […]

Elvis & Joyce (& Nixon & The Gun), Part II
Over the years I have researched many topics about Elvis, and getting the facts and the stories correct has always been my first priority. Other researchers and writers, to their credit, also say they aim for accuracy. However, the story behind Elvis’s December 19, 1970, trip to Washington DC is one collection of Elvis factoids […]

Understanding the Death of Elvis
This is the original piece written in Fall 2013 about Elvis’s death, the closing section of which is included in the post titled, “Review: The Post-Mortem Documents.” Understanding the Death of Elvis As the 36th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death has passed, and his seventy-ninth birthday approaches, I am reminded once again, as I am […]
8/16/77: Harvey Team Lead
In 2010, I had the privilege of discussing the resuscitation efforts of August 16, 1977, with the physician who led those efforts. I may post details from that conversation here, someday, but am not sure. The doctor was very generous with his description of the events, and the details he provided helped to clear up […]
January 1978: The Poolhouse
My commentary on the poolhouse door and whether Al Strada would have been on the Graceland property in January 1978 is posted here. This pertains to the claim that Elvis is seen in the “poolhouse photo” taken five months after his death.
Vernon & The Autopsy Permission Form
The autopsy permission form was taken from Baptist Memorial Hospital to Graceland shortly after Elvis was pronounced dead on August 16, 1977. The form was to be presented to Vernon Presley for his signature, and information about the autopsy procedure would at that time be provided and explained to him. But right before this discussion took […]
8/16/77: Ginger Alden Revisited
On August 16, 1977, Ginger Alden (Elvis’s fiancée) was with Elvis in his upstairs suite, and at 2:20 that afternoon she found his lifeless body on the floor of the bathroom. Since then, Ginger’s actions that day have been described in various ways, most of which are very much at odds with the facts. Below, I am […]
Article: “Skeptical Briefs”
An article I wrote called “There’s No Debate: Elvis Is Not Alive” was published in The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s December 2009 newsletter. The article can he read here.
The Pharmacist and the Doctor
Let’s take a look at the Dilaudid prescriptions from August 15 and early on the morning of August 16, 1977: From Dr. Nichopoulos’s book, page 13: DR. NICHOPOULOS: “All I know is when Elvis called me about his tooth hurting this morning, he asked if I could give him something for pain. (No narcotics were […]
Gladys Presley’s Death Certificate
A few years ago I obtained a copy of Gladys Presley’s death certificate. The cause of death listed in the document is in line with the cause of death reported to the public.
The Lloyds of London Insurance Claim
One of the standard “go-to” pieces of evidence the alivers use to prove/support the death hoax is the Lloyds of London insurance policy, which they claim was purchased but never cashed/paid out. Thus, they reason, the insurance policy supports the hoaxed death theory since Elvis and the estate would be guilty of insurance fraud if […]
EP & OPFOPEN: A House of Cards?
At some point I hope to post a full analysis and commentary on the OPFOPEN case based on my discussions with the retired FBI agent who initiated and worked undercover on the case. For now, however, there are several key pieces of information to consider, all of which come straight from this FBI agent: 1. […]
The Autopsy Photographer
I had a very interesting conversation this afternoon with the person who took the Elvis autopsy photos on the evening of August 16, 1977. We discussed where at Baptist Memorial Hospital the photos were taken, what the photos show, the film developing process, and several other topics related to this photographer’s job that day. (Originally […]
Review: The Post-Mortem Documents
Over the years there has been continuing confusion in public resources (books, articles, message boards, etc.) as to the documents relating to Elvis’s death. These documents are the autopsy report, the Medical Examiner’s report, the death certificate, and the Permission for Autopsy form. Below is an overview of the facts pertaining to each, and how […]
Aaron Spelling: The Final Word
Conventional wisdom in the world of Elvis-is-Alive theorizing tells us that Elvis spelled his middle name “Aron” throughout his life, and that Vernon Presley just pulled the double-A spelling (“Aaron”) out of thin air when Elvis died and he used that spelling on the grave marker. So, over all these years, the suspicion by those […]
1977 International Flight of Fancy
For as long as alivers have been peddling their wares, one of their go-to pieces of “evidence” has been the story of a man resembling Elvis Presley, but going by the name of “Jon Burrows,” purchasing a ticket to South America (Buenos Aires) at the Memphis International Airport (MIA) on the afternoon of August 16, […]
Protected: The Weintraub Call: A 3-Minute Window
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

The 2:47pm Exit?
In the photo below, we see an ambulance facing west, either driving out of the Graceland gate, or parked just east of the guard house. This photo was purportedly taken by Martin Davis when he stopped by Graceland on his way to a work site, and he stated to co-workers as they viewed the Polaroid […]
OFP: Elvis Was Not Involved
In response to those who claim that Elvis knew about the investigation into the airplane lease/buy-back deal his father was involved in, one of the FBI agents involved in the case says it succinctly: “Contrary to press reports speculating about PRESLEY’s involvement, agents said he did *not* know about the undercover investigation and was never […]

Elvis & Joyce (& Nixon & The Gun)
So Elvis Presley gets into an argument about his spending habits with his father and wife, and exits the property en route to the Memphis International Airport. From there, he gets on a plane bound for Washington DC to meet up with Joyce Bova, a woman he had met in Las Vegas a year prior, […]