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The Death of Elvis Presley Pt. 1: Orion (Repost) · Conspiracy! The Show

0:10
Speaker 1: Welcome to Conspiracy, the show, the world's most trusted conspiracy
0:16
Speaker 1: theory podcast, with your hosts, Adam Todd Brown and Olivia Hydar.
0:33
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Conspiracy, the show. I'm your host,
0:38
Speaker 2: Adam Todd Brown. Joining me as co-host this week, ooh,
0:42
Speaker 2: my favorite co-host of all. No co-host. I don't even
0:46
Speaker 2: have guests this week. I am going it alone, which
0:50
Speaker 2: is a thing I haven't done in quite a while
0:52
Speaker 2: on this podcast. But here's the thing. I'm diving back
0:56
Speaker 2: into the theory that music icon Elvis Presley died. faked
1:01
Speaker 2: his death. Now, this is not NPR, so I won't
1:05
Speaker 2: insult your pop culture knowledge and pad this out by
1:09
Speaker 2: spending the next 10 minutes explaining who Elvis Presley was
1:13
Speaker 2: and why he mattered to people the way he did.
1:16
Speaker 2: Everyone knows that part, and hey, if you don't, just
1:19
Speaker 2: Google it, you know? Why am I doing this episode alone?
1:22
Speaker 2: I don't know. In my opinion, this is one of
1:25
Speaker 2: those conspiracies where It borders on pointless to even try
1:30
Speaker 2: to talk to people about it anymore. Granted, I'm wasting
1:35
Speaker 2: that time talking about it with you, but you can't
1:39
Speaker 2: fire back your objections at me in real time. That's
1:43
Speaker 2: what I'm trying to avoid. by not having a co-host here.
1:46
Speaker 2: Because I will be the first to admit, there are
1:49
Speaker 2: several parts of the Elvis faked his death theory that
1:54
Speaker 2: seem pretty damn unbelievable. And I'm going to talk about
1:58
Speaker 2: a bunch of them today. Over the years, and this
2:01
Speaker 2: is another reason I don't have a guest on this episode,
2:05
Speaker 2: the idea that Elvis might have faked his death has
2:08
Speaker 2: come to be viewed as more comedy than anything else.
2:12
Speaker 2: And If you even sort of believe it, you are
2:15
Speaker 2: now part of that joke also. But it wasn't always
2:19
Speaker 2: that way. If you listened to my series on Jonestown,
2:23
Speaker 2: you might recall that back when Jonestown happened, there were
2:26
Speaker 2: plenty of mainstream outlets and even an elected official or
2:30
Speaker 2: two who legitimately questioned if the CIA was behind what
2:35
Speaker 2: happened there. But since then, the idea that the CIA
2:39
Speaker 2: might have been involved in Jonestown has become complete conspiracy
2:43
Speaker 2: theory nonsense in the eyes of most people. Same thing here.
2:48
Speaker 2: In this case, the ABC News program 2020 dedicated an
2:52
Speaker 2: entire hour to the very valid questions surrounding the medical
2:57
Speaker 2: examiner's report in the death of Elvis Presley. And on
3:01
Speaker 2: the next episode, I will dedicate an hour, probably not
3:06
Speaker 2: a whole hour, to talking about that hour of television
3:09
Speaker 2: because it conveniently still exists online. As for today's I
3:14
Speaker 2: want to talk about a different piece of Elvis conspiracy media.
3:18
Speaker 2: It's a 1988 book called Is Elvis Alive? by a
3:22
Speaker 2: writer named Gail Brewer Giorgio. If you don't know... and
3:27
Speaker 2: you almost certainly do not. Gail Brewer Giorgio is, for
3:31
Speaker 2: all intents and purposes, the architect of the theory that
3:35
Speaker 2: Elvis faked his death. And the story of how she
3:39
Speaker 2: got to that point in her life is covered in
3:42
Speaker 2: this book. It's one of two of her books that
3:46
Speaker 2: I want to cover. If you've listened to me talk
3:48
Speaker 2: about the Elvis theory enough, you know my theory of
3:51
Speaker 2: choice is that he faked his death and joined the
3:55
Speaker 2: Witness Protection Program. And you've probably heard me mention that
3:59
Speaker 2: a woman wrote a book about that theory back in
4:01
Speaker 2: the day. Gail Brewer-Giorgio is that woman. Is Elvis Alive
4:06
Speaker 2: is not that book. As it turns out, Gail Brewer-Giorgio
4:10
Speaker 2: kind of made a career out of writing books about
4:13
Speaker 2: Elvis's death. Is Elvis Alive was the first, although it
4:18
Speaker 2: was initially titled The Most Incredible Elvis Presley Story Ever Told.
4:23
Speaker 2: And indeed, Gail Brewer-Giorgio does have a highly incredible story
4:28
Speaker 2: to tell. And we'll get to that shortly. But first,
4:31
Speaker 2: let's talk about a little bit of weirdness surrounding the
4:34
Speaker 2: availability of those books. A lot of her books are
4:37
Speaker 2: out of print now, but most of them are readily
4:40
Speaker 2: available on eBay and book reseller sites for real cheap.
4:46
Speaker 2: Most of them. One book, 1997's Elvis is Alive, is
4:49
Speaker 2: hard to find online. and approximately 10 times more expensive
4:56
Speaker 2: than all of her other books. And wouldn't you know it,
5:00
Speaker 2: that is the book that's about the theory that Elvis
5:03
Speaker 2: teamed up with the FBI on an investigation into a
5:07
Speaker 2: criminal syndicate and then joined Witness Protection afterward. Go figure.
5:12
Speaker 2: But don't worry, provided the feds don't intercept it, a
5:15
Speaker 2: copy of Elvis is Alive is on its way. And
5:19
Speaker 2: I'll cover that book on a episode in the very
5:21
Speaker 2: near future. As for now, let's get into Gail Brewer-Giorgio's
5:26
Speaker 2: first Elvis book, which again is called Is Elvis Alive?
5:30
Speaker 2: The first thing I want to talk about is the cassette.
5:32
Speaker 2: This version of the book, the version called Is Elvis Alive?,
5:36
Speaker 2: comes packaged with a 60-minute cassette that features Gail Brewer
5:41
Speaker 2: Giorgio being interviewed about a mysterious recording that was given
5:46
Speaker 2: to her that it was claimed was Elvis talking to
5:50
Speaker 2: an unnamed friend in 1981. Pretty tough to pull off
5:55
Speaker 2: if he actually died on August 16th, 1977. This recording
6:00
Speaker 2: was sent to a voice expert of some sort, and
6:03
Speaker 2: they concluded that the voice on the recording is Elvis.
6:07
Speaker 2: She has a copy of the report from that voice
6:11
Speaker 2: expert in the book. So that's exciting. However, there's another
6:14
Speaker 2: book out there that is also called Elvis is Alive
6:18
Speaker 2: by a writer named Xaviant Hayes.
6:21
Speaker 3: Okay.
6:22
Speaker 2: One, judging from the reviews, people seem to clean goddamn
6:26
Speaker 2: hate that book. But I did read a little bit
6:28
Speaker 2: of it on Google Books, and it claims that the
6:32
Speaker 2: tape included with the Gale Brewer-Giorgio book is the voice
6:36
Speaker 2: of Elvis because that recording is pieced together from two
6:40
Speaker 2: previous recordings that existed before he died. What I find
6:45
Speaker 2: interesting about that claim is that the first version of
6:48
Speaker 2: Gale's book, back when it was called the most incredible
6:52
Speaker 2: Elvis story ever told, did not include that cassette. So
6:56
Speaker 2: after publishing the claims in this book, someone approached Gail
7:00
Speaker 2: Brewer-Giorgio and said, hey, you have no idea how right
7:03
Speaker 2: you are. Here's a tape that proves it. And it
7:06
Speaker 2: turns out that tape is a fake, but also one
7:08
Speaker 2: that's faked well enough that it could sort of fool
7:11
Speaker 2: a voice expert. Do you really have no other questions here,
7:15
Speaker 2: guy who wrote the other Elvis is Alive book? Who
7:17
Speaker 2: made that tape? Why did they make it? Why did
7:20
Speaker 2: they give it to Gail Brewer Giorgio? Those are all
7:23
Speaker 2: things I would love to know, because it sounds like
7:26
Speaker 2: it could just as easily be a Mirage Men kind
7:29
Speaker 2: of thing, where the government will give a person who's
7:33
Speaker 2: onto something Fake information. So they can discredit them once
7:37
Speaker 2: they go public with that fake information. Here is Gail
7:41
Speaker 2: Brewer-Giorgio talking about receiving that tape. And this is from
7:45
Speaker 2: the cassette that comes with the Is Elvis Alive book.
7:49
Speaker 3: A lot of things had happened during that period. Of course,
7:52
Speaker 3: that's why I've written a book about the book. But
7:54
Speaker 3: last year, I was presented with a tape in front
7:57
Speaker 3: of witnesses. There were two ladies, actually, that presented me
8:00
Speaker 3: with a tape.
8:01
Speaker 4: Was this an audio tape or a video tape?
8:04
Speaker 3: Audio.
8:04
Speaker 4: Strictly audio.
8:05
Speaker 2: Audio.
8:06
Speaker 3: I was told right up front that the tape had
8:09
Speaker 3: been doctored. The person that the voice is talking to
8:14
Speaker 3: has cut their voice out deliberately. The voice on the
8:19
Speaker 3: tape had been talking on the telephone to someone who
8:22
Speaker 3: was recording. The women who had given me the tape
8:25
Speaker 3: really didn't want to say too much. There are other
8:28
Speaker 3: reasons for that. Their identity, their personal involvement with Elvis Presley,
8:33
Speaker 3: and also they believed that Elvis Presley, or more than believed,
8:37
Speaker 3: they told me he was alive and that they understood
8:40
Speaker 3: why the things happened to my book that did, I
8:43
Speaker 3: was told to get a voice print. Well, the voice
8:46
Speaker 3: print expert was in Texas, had some association with the
8:48
Speaker 3: Watergate tapes, etc. And they compared it with known interviews
8:54
Speaker 3: with Elvis Presley. The voice print came back December 15th
8:58
Speaker 3: of 87, and it came back as positive.
9:01
Speaker 4: Positive meaning?
9:02
Speaker 3: Meaning that the voice on the mystery tape and that
9:05
Speaker 3: of the known element being Elvis Presley with a reasonable
9:08
Speaker 3: assurance was one in the same. What they were unable
9:13
Speaker 3: to ascertain is when it was actually done.
9:17
Speaker 2: So the writer who says this tape was spliced together
9:21
Speaker 2: from other recordings says it's from a monologue that Elvis
9:26
Speaker 2: did at a show and a 1962 interview. Those two
9:31
Speaker 2: things are spliced together to make this recording. And they
9:36
Speaker 2: also very helpfully add this clue. Fans should check out
9:40
Speaker 2: the Elvis Aaron Presley box set for the monologue and
9:44
Speaker 2: golden celebration for the interview. Helpful, but also easier said
9:49
Speaker 2: than done. The Elvis Aaron Presley box set seems to
9:52
Speaker 2: not be on any streaming services. So my only course
9:57
Speaker 2: of action here is to buy it on CD. Golden
10:00
Speaker 2: Celebration is on YouTube and it is three hours long
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Speaker 2: with no helpful chapters to tell you what track starts
10:09
Speaker 2: where or where in this three hour recording. This interview
10:13
Speaker 2: that ends up being about 10 minutes. Where's it at
10:17
Speaker 2: in there? I don't know. But I'm going to fucking
10:19
Speaker 2: look into it, and I will get back to you.
10:22
Speaker 2: I trust that I will find everything Elvis says on
10:26
Speaker 2: this tape in those two recordings, but who knows? Maybe
10:30
Speaker 2: I won't. Until then, there's plenty of other weirdness to
10:33
Speaker 2: get to when it comes to the book, Is Elvis Alive?
10:37
Speaker 2: Weirdly enough, Gail Brewer-Giorgio's version of events starts with a
10:42
Speaker 2: novel called Orion. She says she started writing this book
10:46
Speaker 2: a few days after Elvis died, and that it took
10:49
Speaker 2: all of 54 days to finish, as if the book
10:53
Speaker 2: just wrote itself. Here's a quote from the book Is
10:56
Speaker 2: Elvis Alive? about the plot of Orion. My hero, Orion,
11:01
Speaker 2: would be a singer, would win a great prize, and
11:03
Speaker 2: would possess psychic attributes. Because of his gifts, his life
11:08
Speaker 2: would suffer and he would be in great danger. He
11:10
Speaker 2: would sing one last time, then fake his own death
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Speaker 2: by going to a distant shore. End quote. Or, even better,
11:18
Speaker 2: here's Gail talking about it on that tape that comes
11:20
Speaker 2: with the book.
11:21
Speaker 3: And I created Orion out of a combination of mythology, religion,
11:26
Speaker 3: brought it together into a singer. I wrote the book
11:29
Speaker 3: in about 54 days, at least the first draft. You
11:32
Speaker 3: have to remember... There were literally no books or biographies
11:37
Speaker 3: out about Elvis Presley, so I didn't have anything to copy.
11:40
Speaker 3: And I didn't want to copy. If I had wanted
11:41
Speaker 3: to write a biography, I would have. Basically, I wanted
11:44
Speaker 3: to create a hero of fiction, and I wanted that
11:47
Speaker 3: hero to hoax his own death.
11:49
Speaker 4: Now, how did you come up with that idea?
11:51
Speaker 3: Well, in mythology, basically, the legend Orion has a derivative,
11:57
Speaker 3: which is Orion, A-R-I-O-N. And it's about a man who sang.
12:02
Speaker 3: He was being penalized for being a great singer. His
12:07
Speaker 3: life was in danger. And so in order to save
12:10
Speaker 3: his life, he's out to sea and he begs the
12:12
Speaker 3: sailors to let him sing once more. He jumps to
12:15
Speaker 3: the ocean and is saved by the dolphins and is
12:17
Speaker 3: taken to an island. and they think he's dead. The
12:21
Speaker 3: whole story actually comes from the mythology Orion, and it's
12:25
Speaker 3: amazing how close it may have come to the life
12:28
Speaker 3: of Elvis Presley. I guess that's when my troubles began.
12:32
Speaker 2: She includes the prologue from Orion in this book about Elvis,
12:37
Speaker 2: and it will be clear why when this story gets
12:41
Speaker 2: even goddamn crazier in a few minutes. But she claims
12:44
Speaker 2: she was not trying to write about Elvis directly. but instead, quote,
12:48
Speaker 2: decided to use the story of Jesus together with mythology
12:52
Speaker 2: and create a contemporary hero. a man who via music
12:56
Speaker 2: was given the gift of tongues. Now this is where
12:58
Speaker 2: it starts to get real weird. Gail says a friend
13:01
Speaker 2: of hers read the Orion Manuscript and suggested that she
13:04
Speaker 2: send it to a woman named Mae Axton, who, as
13:08
Speaker 2: it turns out, was the co-writer of the Elvis hit
13:11
Speaker 2: song Heartbreak Hotel. Gail says she did not know that part.
13:14
Speaker 2: She also says that one of the first things Mae
13:16
Speaker 2: Axton said to her was, quote, I can't believe what
13:20
Speaker 2: you've written. How do you know so much? End quote.
13:24
Speaker 2: And by how do you know so much, she meant
13:27
Speaker 2: how do you know so much about Elvis? And Gail
13:30
Speaker 2: Brewer Giorgio does not know that much about Elvis, at
13:34
Speaker 2: least not at this point in her life. And keep
13:37
Speaker 2: in mind, Elvis died young. So the market wasn't flush
13:41
Speaker 2: with Elvis biographies like it started to become after his death.
13:46
Speaker 2: She was basically writing this book at the same time
13:50
Speaker 2: the people responsible for that glut of Elvis biographies after
13:54
Speaker 2: his death died. would have been writing their books also.
13:56
Speaker 2: So she could not have used them for source material.
14:00
Speaker 2: She also includes a copyright from Orion that is dated
14:03
Speaker 2: June 1978. So at the very least, that would put
14:07
Speaker 2: it on the market right around the time that glut
14:11
Speaker 2: of other Elvis biographies showed up. But nevertheless, she apparently
14:16
Speaker 2: nailed a bunch of details about Elvis in that the
14:19
Speaker 2: public didn't necessarily know at the time. Weird stuff. One example,
14:25
Speaker 2: according to Mae Axton, was the fact that the hero
14:28
Speaker 2: in Orion had medical issues relating to his eyes, and
14:32
Speaker 2: Elvis was apparently secretly struggling with glaucoma right before he died.
14:38
Speaker 2: There are letters from Mae Axton about Orion included in
14:41
Speaker 2: this book, where she confirms that the book seems like
14:44
Speaker 2: it was written directly about Elvis. So Mae Axton... suggests
14:49
Speaker 2: that she send this manuscript to a guy named Bob
14:51
Speaker 2: Neal at the William Morris Agency, one of the most
14:54
Speaker 2: prestigious literary agencies in the whole world. He was a
14:58
Speaker 2: former radio DJ who was instrumental in some of Elvis's
15:02
Speaker 2: early success, and Gale claims that in their first phone call,
15:05
Speaker 2: he had the same question. How do you know so much? Meanwhile,
15:09
Speaker 2: in Gale's mind, she's just written a work of fiction
15:12
Speaker 2: based on details she made up. But this book starts
15:16
Speaker 2: getting a lot of interest especially within William Morris. That
15:20
Speaker 2: part will be important later. An uncomfortable amount of interest, actually,
15:25
Speaker 2: as far as Gale was concerned. Here's a quote. They
15:28
Speaker 2: were giants in the literary world. We, meaning her and
15:32
Speaker 2: her husband, also shared a feeling of something happening beneath
15:36
Speaker 2: the surface. I was not famous or powerful enough to
15:39
Speaker 2: warrant this type of courtship. I felt uneasy. End quote. So,
15:45
Speaker 2: she decided to not sign with William Morris, which in
15:49
Speaker 2: and of itself is a very bold move. And she
15:52
Speaker 2: starts shopping her book around to other publishers. And that
15:55
Speaker 2: is when this story takes the first of many very
15:58
Speaker 2: weird twists. By 1979, Gail Brewer Giorgio had signed a
16:03
Speaker 2: hardcover publishing deal for Orion. And almost as soon as
16:07
Speaker 2: she did, a mysterious masked singer named Orion who sounded
16:13
Speaker 2: a whole lot like Elvis, released his first album on
16:17
Speaker 2: Sun Records, Elvis' original record label.
16:21
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put you in my washing machine.
16:37
Speaker 1: Even weirder, the liner notes of the.
16:39
Speaker 4: Album included names.
16:41
Speaker 3: That were lifted directly from Gail Brewer.
16:44
Speaker 2: Giorgio's Orion Manuscript.
16:46
Speaker 3: Also, I mentioned earlier that she put the prologue for
16:49
Speaker 3: Orion Manuscript.
17:06
Speaker 2: In this book about Elvis. That prologue is on the
17:10
Speaker 2: back cover of this Orion album in its entirety. In
17:15
Speaker 2: other words, a few short years after his death, Elvis's
17:19
Speaker 2: original record label started releasing albums by a guy who
17:23
Speaker 2: sounded exactly like Elvis, had hair like Elvis, wore a
17:27
Speaker 2: mask to conceal his identity, and his first album was
17:31
Speaker 2: called Reborn. You can Google all of these things. I
17:35
Speaker 2: will link to the album in the show notes. Everything
17:38
Speaker 2: about it is so aggressively weird. And it all definitely happened.
17:44
Speaker 2: You can listen to this Reborn album on any streaming
17:48
Speaker 2: service of your choosing. You can buy it on vinyl.
17:51
Speaker 2: This really happened. And all of it was done without
17:54
Speaker 2: Gail Brewer-Giorgio's permission. She says she approached Sun Records about
17:58
Speaker 2: this and that the meeting ended with them telling her, quote,
18:01
Speaker 2: So sue us, end quote. And as far as I
18:04
Speaker 2: can tell, Sun Records has never disputed that claim. The
18:08
Speaker 2: book actually came out after the album. So Gayle spent
18:11
Speaker 2: a lot of time in interviews answering questions about the
18:15
Speaker 2: real life Orion. And she says she just kind of
18:18
Speaker 2: played along with it because one, it was good promotion
18:22
Speaker 2: for her book. Sun Records started promoting the book also,
18:26
Speaker 2: but they bought them at wholesale, so Gayle didn't make
18:28
Speaker 2: any money from it. So there was that. And also,
18:31
Speaker 2: she didn't have the money or the power to sue
18:34
Speaker 2: a company like Sun Records. So when she's out trying
18:37
Speaker 2: to promote her book, she's just getting questions about this
18:40
Speaker 2: other Orion guy. And at one of these stops where
18:44
Speaker 2: she's promoting her book, she's taken aback by a question
18:47
Speaker 2: she gets about Orion, which is, why are there two Orions?
18:52
Speaker 2: She said she was taken aback by that question because
18:54
Speaker 2: to the best of her knowledge, Orion Orion was just
18:56
Speaker 2: a guy named Jimmy Ellis. He's a country singer who
18:59
Speaker 2: does actually sound a whole lot like Elvis. And I
19:03
Speaker 2: think at one point he just started recording as Jimmy Ellis.
19:08
Speaker 2: So there was nothing weird there. She knew that this
19:11
Speaker 2: Orion fella wasn't Elvis, but she also thought there was
19:15
Speaker 2: only one. This person she was talking to, she went
19:18
Speaker 2: to an Orion show. and claimed that after the show,
19:22
Speaker 2: she approached the tour bus, and since the door was open,
19:24
Speaker 2: she just walked up that little flight of stairs that's
19:27
Speaker 2: on every bus, at which point she saw two men
19:30
Speaker 2: in the back of the bus, both dressed like Orion,
19:33
Speaker 2: and that when they saw her, one ducked into the bathroom,
19:37
Speaker 2: the other came out and started signing autographs for people. Later,
19:40
Speaker 2: there's another story from a girl who was the president
19:43
Speaker 2: of one of the litany of Elvis fan clubs. She
19:46
Speaker 2: went to an Orion show, and at one point, He
19:48
Speaker 2: stopped to run offstage. and grab a drink of water.
19:51
Speaker 2: She says that when he left, he had huge sweat
19:54
Speaker 2: stains under his arms, and when he returned, he did not.
19:57
Speaker 2: But also, he wasn't offstage long enough to change clothes.
20:00
Speaker 2: And then she claimed that she was convinced that the
20:03
Speaker 2: person who came back out was actually Elvis. And that
20:06
Speaker 2: she could tell, because he had dimples in his butt,
20:09
Speaker 2: that the first Orion did not. So what they're getting
20:12
Speaker 2: at here is that Orion was a front that Elvis
20:17
Speaker 2: used to keep recording and performing after he faked his death.
20:22
Speaker 2: I don't know if I believe that. I think Gale
20:25
Speaker 2: might have been getting gaslighted a little bit on that front.
20:29
Speaker 2: But that doesn't make the fact that someone took her
20:31
Speaker 2: novel and turned it into a real person without her
20:34
Speaker 2: consent any less weird. it does seem like someone somewhere
20:39
Speaker 2: was interested in making sure this book did not raise
20:44
Speaker 2: a bunch of questions about the real Elvis. And so
20:47
Speaker 2: from there, she gets into some of the various clues
20:51
Speaker 2: that Elvis fans have obsessed about over the years that
20:55
Speaker 2: they think point to Elvis having faked his death. Honestly,
20:59
Speaker 2: the most compelling piece of evidence to me is one
21:04
Speaker 2: that I personally have always dismissed, and it's one that
21:08
Speaker 2: I think people dismiss the quickest in general, which is
21:12
Speaker 2: that his middle name is misspelled on his gravestone. My
21:16
Speaker 2: question about that has always been, to what end? What
21:19
Speaker 2: would be the purpose as it relates to the conspiracy itself?
21:24
Speaker 2: Gail Brewer-Giorgio, I think, maybe nails it in this book
21:28
Speaker 2: when she points out that Elvis and his parents both
21:32
Speaker 2: were highly religious people. and highly superstitious. Putting your living
21:38
Speaker 2: child's name on a gravestone to that family would have
21:42
Speaker 2: been seen as tempting fate. And I know that seems
21:46
Speaker 2: like a silly explanation, but I would argue that it
21:51
Speaker 2: was just an accident that no one ever fixed is
21:54
Speaker 2: also a silly explanation, even on its surface. If it
21:58
Speaker 2: was just an error, you could just have it corrected.
22:02
Speaker 2: We're talking about a plaque on a gravestone. You can
22:05
Speaker 2: remove it and put a new one there. Why would
22:08
Speaker 2: they not fix it if it was just a mistake?
22:12
Speaker 2: And Elvis was, beyond being religious, a very spiritual guy.
22:17
Speaker 2: He was obsessed with mysticism and parapsychology, all that weird shit.
22:22
Speaker 2: So that might seem like a silly concern to you,
22:26
Speaker 2: but to someone... like Elvis and his super-duper religious family,
22:31
Speaker 2: putting a living person's name on a gravestone is not
22:34
Speaker 2: a minor thing. And the other problem with the idea that, well,
22:39
Speaker 2: it was just a mistake, they probably didn't fix it
22:42
Speaker 2: because it wasn't that important to them. Bullshit. Elvis's middle
22:46
Speaker 2: name is a reference to his twin brother, who did
22:50
Speaker 2: not survive the pregnancy. Elvis was supposed to be a twin.
22:54
Speaker 2: His twin died in childbirth, I think maybe even before.
22:58
Speaker 2: So Elvis's mom still named that kid. And she gave
23:04
Speaker 2: Elvis and that kid weird middle names for the sole
23:08
Speaker 2: purpose of them rhyming and seeming similar. And she did
23:11
Speaker 2: it so every time Elvis said his name, he would
23:14
Speaker 2: think of his twin brother. And in this book, there
23:19
Speaker 2: are so many different documents, bills, receipts, everything where Elvis
23:24
Speaker 2: signs his name Elvis Aaron Presley.
23:27
Speaker 3: 1A.
23:28
Speaker 2: There is no point in his life where he for
23:31
Speaker 2: some reason switched to doing 2As. Why would you? Why
23:34
Speaker 2: would you? That makes no sense. And I think the
23:38
Speaker 2: name was important enough to him and important enough to
23:41
Speaker 2: the family that if it was just a mistake, they
23:44
Speaker 2: would have fixed it. And so while that might seem
23:46
Speaker 2: like the weakest evidence of all, I think that's just
23:49
Speaker 2: because it seems like a trivial detail when the truth
23:52
Speaker 2: is it's not trivial at all. It's just not a
23:55
Speaker 2: mistake that would have been made and not corrected. Don't
23:59
Speaker 2: buy that. The book also goes a little bit into
24:01
Speaker 2: the weirdness with the medical examiner's report, but seeing as
24:05
Speaker 2: how that is the entire focus of the 2020 episode
24:08
Speaker 2: that I'll be covering next, I'll save all that for later.
24:11
Speaker 2: But another detail that comes up in this book that
24:13
Speaker 2: I so far have not found an explanation for is
24:16
Speaker 2: that while Elvis definitely had a life insurance policy, no
24:19
Speaker 2: one ever cashed it in. That's a highly weird thing
24:22
Speaker 2: in a case like this, unless the person didn't actually
24:25
Speaker 2: die and you're trying to not commit fraud about it.
24:28
Speaker 2: There's also the detail that he was supposed to leave
24:30
Speaker 2: for a 16-date tour the day he died, but had
24:33
Speaker 2: ordered absolutely zero costumes. for said tour. His hair and
24:38
Speaker 2: sideburns were also not dyed. And tell me one time
24:42
Speaker 2: you saw Elvis performing with gray hair. He dyed his
24:45
Speaker 2: hair and his sideburns before his tours. There's also the
24:48
Speaker 2: question of why there was so much Elvis merch available
24:52
Speaker 2: in stores immediately upon his death. And the answer to
24:55
Speaker 2: that is that he had a tour planned. But then
24:58
Speaker 2: that raises the other question of, did they plan a
25:02
Speaker 2: tour because he was going on tour? Or did they
25:04
Speaker 2: plan a tour as an excuse to have a shit
25:07
Speaker 2: ton of merch to sell when he died? Because weird
25:10
Speaker 2: detail about Colonel Tom Parker, who's going to come up
25:12
Speaker 2: again later, Elvis' manager, terribly played by Tom Hanks in
25:17
Speaker 2: the movie. When it was announced that Elvis had died,
25:20
Speaker 2: Tom Parker did not go to Memphis. Tom Parker... flew
25:24
Speaker 2: to New York and signed a new merchandising deal. I mean,
25:28
Speaker 2: make of that what you will, I guess. But it's
25:30
Speaker 2: also pointed out here that Gale wasn't the only one
25:34
Speaker 2: asking those questions. Here's a bit from the tape.
25:38
Speaker 4: Why isn't this out? Why aren't people running around whispering?
25:41
Speaker 3: Actually, it is out. That's the strange part about it.
25:44
Speaker 3: Merle Haggard made a comment in People magazine about he
25:48
Speaker 3: feeling that Elvis Presley was alive. People have reported seeing him.
25:53
Speaker 3: But let's face it, Jeff, if you were sitting on
25:55
Speaker 3: an airplane next to someone who looked like Elvis Presley,
25:59
Speaker 3: you might look at him and say, you know, he
26:02
Speaker 3: looks like Elvis Presley or an older Elvis Presley. And
26:05
Speaker 3: even if he told you he was, you probably wouldn't
26:08
Speaker 3: believe him, number one. Number two, if you did believe him,
26:11
Speaker 3: there's very few people who believe you.
26:13
Speaker 4: That's right.
26:14
Speaker 3: So I think that was his cover also, is that
26:17
Speaker 3: people just simply aren't going to believe it.
26:20
Speaker 2: There was also a magazine called Photoscreen that in 1980
26:23
Speaker 2: ran a cover story questioning if Elvis faked his death.
26:27
Speaker 2: There's also Merle Haggard famously told a People magazine interviewer
26:32
Speaker 2: at the time that he wouldn't be surprised if if
26:34
Speaker 2: Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker cooked up a scheme to
26:38
Speaker 2: fake his death. As this all started coming out, and
26:41
Speaker 2: coupled with the reactions she received to Orion, Gail Brewer-Giorgio
26:46
Speaker 2: starts wondering if, in writing Orion, a work of fiction,
26:50
Speaker 2: she'd actually written about something real. This is a quote.
26:55
Speaker 2: The late-night telephone calls, the two Orions, the Sun Records connection,
27:01
Speaker 2: May Axton, Bob Neal, 2020's independent investigation of a cover-up,
27:06
Speaker 2: the misspelled name on the grave, the contradictions in the
27:09
Speaker 2: medical examiner's report constantly made me wonder if, indeed, unwittingly,
27:15
Speaker 2: I had tuned into something that, written as fiction, was
27:18
Speaker 2: instead fact. End quote. And if that sounds silly, take
27:23
Speaker 2: this next thing into account. She eventually signed a deal
27:25
Speaker 2: to publish the book in paperback, and later received a
27:29
Speaker 2: letter saying she was not to mention Elvis at all
27:33
Speaker 2: in relation to the promotion of the book, lest they
27:36
Speaker 2: get sued. Again, this is purely fiction. She was not
27:39
Speaker 2: suggesting that Elvis faked his death. She wrote a fictional
27:43
Speaker 2: book about a dude named Orion that was... moderately inspired
27:48
Speaker 2: by the fact that Elvis had just died. Given the
27:52
Speaker 2: timeline we're working with, she could not have based the
27:56
Speaker 2: book on the conspiracy because the conspiracy didn't exist yet.
28:01
Speaker 2: Orion exists. It's also very hard to find, but it's
28:04
Speaker 2: out there. It's a book about a singer who faked
28:06
Speaker 2: his death, and it happened to come out shortly after
28:08
Speaker 2: Elvis died. It really does seem, though, like she struck
28:11
Speaker 2: a nerve with someone somewhere in the Elvis camp, and
28:15
Speaker 2: I'd sure like to know why if he did really
28:17
Speaker 2: die in 1977. It seems like of all the books
28:21
Speaker 2: that came out about Elvis, including one called Elvis What
28:26
Speaker 2: Happened that came out before he died that was highly
28:29
Speaker 2: critical of Elvis, made some shocking claims about Elvis. There
28:35
Speaker 2: were no threats of legal action over that. But for
28:38
Speaker 2: some reason, this book about a fake singer named Orion
28:41
Speaker 2: was going to get this woman sued. And not long
28:43
Speaker 2: after her book was released, an actual biography called Elvis
28:47
Speaker 2: was released. She bought a copy and one was startled
28:51
Speaker 2: to find how much her character Orion did actually sound
28:55
Speaker 2: like Elvis. especially the part where her character and Elvis
28:59
Speaker 2: himself both thought they had a special connection with Jesus.
29:03
Speaker 2: But what really shocked her was Chapter 10, which was
29:06
Speaker 2: all about Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis' connection to who?
29:10
Speaker 2: The William Morris Agency, the same people who so very
29:15
Speaker 2: enthusiastically pursued her book and then almost certainly passed it
29:20
Speaker 2: on to Sun Records. so they could craft a fake
29:23
Speaker 2: character around it. Her suspicion was that they wanted to
29:26
Speaker 2: buy the book, to kill the book. She says she
29:29
Speaker 2: was also told by a literary agent that when Orion
29:32
Speaker 2: did finally get published, Colonel Tom Parker approached that publisher,
29:36
Speaker 2: Simon & Schuster, and encouraged them to, quote, hang the
29:39
Speaker 2: book out to dry, which basically means they stopped promoting
29:43
Speaker 2: it and stopped sending it to bookstores. And that is
29:46
Speaker 2: what happened after Orion hit shelves. It sold something like 70,000
29:51
Speaker 2: copies right away and then just disappeared. And the singer Orion,
29:57
Speaker 2: who mysteriously appeared when that book first came out, he
30:01
Speaker 2: also vanished around that same time.
30:03
Speaker 3: Weird.
30:04
Speaker 2: Here's a quote. It was obvious there was little I
30:06
Speaker 2: could do. I could prove my connection with the William
30:08
Speaker 2: Morris Agency. I could prove the Colonel and Elvis' connection
30:12
Speaker 2: with the William Morris Agency. I could prove a connection
30:14
Speaker 2: between the William Morris Agency and Simon & Schuster. I
30:17
Speaker 2: could prove Orion was gone. What I couldn't prove was
30:21
Speaker 2: did it all connect? And again, this book is not
30:24
Speaker 2: the one that makes the connection between Elvis, his dad,
30:27
Speaker 2: and that FBI investigation. But she does get close when
30:31
Speaker 2: she talks about how, aside from peanut butter and bacon sandwiches...
30:35
Speaker 2: Two things Elvis truly loved were law enforcement and the
30:40
Speaker 2: idea of living a double life. That last part has
30:42
Speaker 2: been documented in a bunch of Elvis biographies, and it
30:46
Speaker 2: all ties back to that twin brother. As for law enforcement,
30:50
Speaker 2: we all know about that famous trip to meet Richard
30:52
Speaker 2: Nixon and how the government made Elvis an actual government agent.
30:56
Speaker 2: That's an incident that we all laugh it up about,
30:58
Speaker 2: like it was just some bullshit ceremonial thing, but not really.
31:02
Speaker 2: There's a quote in this book from a couple of
31:04
Speaker 2: writers who were researching their own book about Elvis, and
31:08
Speaker 2: the quote comes directly from correspondence they had with the ATF.
31:13
Speaker 2: Here goes. During the period of 1974 to 1976, Mr.
31:17
Speaker 2: Presley provided one of our undercover narcotics agents, who was
31:21
Speaker 2: a musician, a job cover.
31:23
Speaker 3: Mr.
31:23
Speaker 2: Presley confirmed to anyone inquiring that the agent slash musician
31:28
Speaker 2: was a member of one of his traveling bands, end quote.
31:31
Speaker 2: And listen, ACAB includes Elvis. But also, it's pretty clear
31:36
Speaker 2: that his ties to law enforcement went a little further
31:39
Speaker 2: than just ceremonial badges. It's also brought up that Colonel
31:43
Speaker 2: Tom Parker knew a thing or two about crafting a
31:46
Speaker 2: new identity and not being found out. There have, for
31:49
Speaker 2: a long time, been rumblings that he was actually from Holland.
31:52
Speaker 2: and was in the country illegally the entire time he
31:55
Speaker 2: was representing Elvis. And he was just so good at
31:59
Speaker 2: that shit that he did not get caught. Which also
32:01
Speaker 2: explains why Elvis never toured overseas. Tom Parker didn't want
32:04
Speaker 2: to have to worry about going in and out of
32:06
Speaker 2: the country and getting fucking deported. And again, he also
32:10
Speaker 2: seemed to be completely unbothered by Elvis's death. Instead of
32:13
Speaker 2: going to Memphis the day he died, again, flew to
32:16
Speaker 2: New York to sign a merchandising deal. The matter of
32:19
Speaker 2: the public viewing of Elvis's body comes up in this also.
32:22
Speaker 2: For starters, having a public viewing was apparently way out
32:25
Speaker 2: of character for his family. Elvis and his dad both
32:28
Speaker 2: got really upset when Elvis's mom's funeral turned into a
32:32
Speaker 2: publicity circus. So it's kind of unlikely that Vernon Presley
32:37
Speaker 2: would seek out a public spectacle type of funeral for
32:41
Speaker 2: his son. But doing it this way gave people something
32:44
Speaker 2: to look at to confirm Elvis was dead and that
32:46
Speaker 2: there were no questions to be asked. But it didn't
32:49
Speaker 2: exactly work because people have asked questions. For one thing,
32:53
Speaker 2: pictures of Elvis in that coffin eventually circulated and people
32:57
Speaker 2: remarked that it didn't really look like him. Here's a
33:00
Speaker 2: quote from a country singer named La Costa, who is
33:02
Speaker 2: the sister of of also country singer Tanya Tucker. Here goes.
33:06
Speaker 2: We went right up to his casket and stood there,
33:09
Speaker 2: and God, I couldn't believe it. He looked just like
33:11
Speaker 2: a piece of plastic laying there. It didn't look like
33:14
Speaker 2: him at all. He looked more like a dummy than
33:17
Speaker 2: a real person. You know, a lot of people think
33:19
Speaker 2: it was a dummy. They don't think he's dead. And finally,
33:22
Speaker 2: here's Gail Brewer-Giorgio talking about the funeral service in that casket.
33:27
Speaker 4: And of course, that raises a very, very basic question.
33:31
Speaker 4: Who was that then in the coffin at Graceland on
33:35
Speaker 4: August 17, 1977, lying in state as hundreds, thousands of
33:41
Speaker 4: people passed by the coffin inside the... Including you.
33:45
Speaker 3: I understand.
33:46
Speaker 4: That's right.
33:46
Speaker 3: You were sent there.
33:47
Speaker 4: I would like to know who that was.
33:49
Speaker 3: There's a lot of speculation, obviously. The majority of the
33:54
Speaker 3: fans have written in their newsletters and periodicals. I've had
33:58
Speaker 3: journalists call me. I've been a journalist. that guess it
34:02
Speaker 3: was a wax dummy. There's been questions as to why
34:07
Speaker 3: the coffin weighed 900 pounds. Some have speculated that it
34:11
Speaker 3: had a cooling unit in it to cool a wax dummy.
34:15
Speaker 3: I don't know who was in the coffin, but that
34:18
Speaker 3: seems to be the number one guess.
34:21
Speaker 4: And it seems to be the number one question, I think,
34:23
Speaker 4: among a lot of the skeptics, does it not?
34:25
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of people wonder why Vernon would have
34:28
Speaker 3: even put his son on display. It was a thou
34:31
Speaker 3: protest too much kind of thing. When Elvis's mother died,
34:35
Speaker 3: he was very upset, and so was Vernon, that her
34:38
Speaker 3: funeral had turned into a circus. It seems very, very
34:41
Speaker 3: odd that with great deliberation that this particular viewing and
34:47
Speaker 3: funeral had turned into a circus by invitation. So the
34:52
Speaker 3: only thing I can think of is if they had
34:54
Speaker 3: had a very, very quiet, dignified, private kind of funeral,
34:59
Speaker 3: people would not have believed he died. Therefore, put the
35:02
Speaker 3: body or whatever on display. And again, this is all guesswork,
35:06
Speaker 3: and it's not simply my guesswork. I'm mimicking thousands of
35:10
Speaker 3: fans out there. Put something on display and say, there
35:14
Speaker 3: he is. Now you can leave him alone, go away.
35:17
Speaker 3: There's nobody here anymore for you to see. I can't
35:19
Speaker 3: come up with another reason.
35:21
Speaker 2: And that's where this episode ends. I have by no
35:25
Speaker 2: means covered everything there is to cover in this book.
35:27
Speaker 2: So if you want to know more, just go buy
35:29
Speaker 2: a copy. They are all over eBay, if nothing else.
35:32
Speaker 2: I will warn you that my copy serves as a
35:35
Speaker 2: stark reminder that the notion that paper books are superior
35:40
Speaker 2: to digital books is crazy talk. The only thing my
35:44
Speaker 2: copy of this book has over an e-book is that
35:47
Speaker 2: it reeks of grandma perfume. and I feel like I
35:50
Speaker 2: need to wash my hands every time I touch it.
35:53
Speaker 2: All this despite it being factory sealed when I bought it.
35:56
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's out there if you want to read it.
35:58
Speaker 2: I know a lot of the evidence covered here today
36:01
Speaker 2: in this episode is kind of circumstantial, bordering on superficial.
36:05
Speaker 2: That's because I skipped over all of the medical examiner
36:07
Speaker 2: report stuff, which I'll talk about next week when we
36:11
Speaker 2: dive into that 2020 report. Spoiler, it's got Geraldo Rivera
36:15
Speaker 2: in it, but it's back when he was still a journalist,
36:17
Speaker 2: so it's fine. And hey, that's it for now. Please
36:20
Speaker 2: go read my writings over at adamtoddbrown.substack.com before the government
36:25
Speaker 2: crafts a fake character around them to discredit me. And thanks. Goodbye, everybody.
36:30
Speaker 2: We love you.
36:34
Speaker 3: People of Earth, your planet is about to be destroyed.
36:49
Speaker 1: Your planet is about to be destroyed.