by PL

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 Rick Stanley prior to this copyright date, then why was he saying “Ricky was downstairs zonked out of his gourd” after September 13, 1979? Grob is jumping back and forth on these claims and they do not make sense if placed on the timeline. Why was he doing this?

Second, look at the wording Grob uses to refer to the “system” that was in-place for Elvis’s care: “I think that possibly everything that could go wrong went wrong that particular night with the system.” The “system,” as we know it now, is the method and manner by which Elvis’s staff attended to him and watched over him, and the purpose behind this “system” was to make sure Elvis did not hurt himself or experience some sort of critical or life-threatening health/medical emergency. This was all due to Elvis’s drug use. As I have written before, though, look at the people Grob had on staff for this babysitting system: Rick Stanley and David Stanley, two admitted drug abusers/addicts. Grob is complaining about the fact that the on-call drug addict was not present to attend to his employer, who was also a drug addict. And the second aide to come on duty that day, another drug addict, was also not present for his shift. Grob is surprised and obviously disappointed that these two drug abusers were not doing their jobs. What did he expect? The fact is, that “possibly everything” did not go wrong; quite the contrary, the only thing that “went wrong” was Rick Stanley not doing his job. Why is this so difficult for so many people to see?

To close, if Grob denied Elvis had a drug problem, then what was the “system” for?