Latest / Conspiracy! The Show / The Death of Elvis Presley Pt. 3: Operation Fountain Pen

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The Death of Elvis Presley Pt. 3: Operation Fountain Pen · Conspiracy! The Show

0:21
Speaker 1: From the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino and the Legends
0:24
Speaker 1: in Concert Showroom in Las Vegas in a television exclusive
0:28
Speaker 1: The real story behind the event that shocked the world,
0:32
Speaker 1: The Elvis Files. Maria Columbus is the president of the
0:36
Speaker 1: oldest Elvis fan club.
0:38
Speaker 2: Thirty minutes later, Vernon Presley called us.
0:41
Speaker 1: Monte Nicholson is an investigator for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
0:45
Speaker 3: The body made very well not been Elvis Presley.
0:49
Speaker 1: Gail Brewer Giorgio is the best selling author of Is
0:52
Speaker 1: Elvis Alive? And The Elvis Files.
0:54
Speaker 4: The only place it's misspelled is at the plaque a
0:58
Speaker 4: Grace when the final resting place.
1:00
Speaker 1: All Weast is an internationally renowned handwriting expert.
1:03
Speaker 5: And handwriting notations were made on them.
1:06
Speaker 1: And now what's brothers On the right. Luke Dion is
1:09
Speaker 1: an author and political advisor to the Quebec government and
1:12
Speaker 1: a foreign consultant.
1:13
Speaker 6: But Elvis Presley was a feed of all agent.
1:16
Speaker 3: There's no doubt about that.
1:17
Speaker 1: All these men and women share one thing. They believe
1:21
Speaker 1: that Elvis Presley may still be alive. They will tell
1:24
Speaker 1: you why. And now our host on the Elvis Files,
1:29
Speaker 1: Bill Bixby she Bery.
1:41
Speaker 2: Welcome to Conspiracy The Show, the world's most trusted conspiracy
1:47
Speaker 2: theory podcast, with your hosts Adam Todd Brown and Olivia Hidar.
2:03
Speaker 7: Hey, everybody, welcome to Conspiracy The Show. I'm your host,
2:07
Speaker 7: Adam Todd Brown joining me as co host this week. Ooh,
2:10
Speaker 7: my favorite co host of all no co host. I
2:12
Speaker 7: don't even have any guests because I am once again
2:16
Speaker 7: going it alone to bring you the third and final
2:21
Speaker 7: public episode of my deep dive into the death of
2:26
Speaker 7: music legend Elvis Presley. On the first episode, I covered
2:31
Speaker 7: a nineteen eighty eight book called Is Elvis Alive? Written
2:34
Speaker 7: by an investigative journalist named Gail Brewer Giorgio. On the
2:38
Speaker 7: second episode, we covered an ABC twenty twenty news report
2:43
Speaker 7: about all the weirdness in the medical Examiner's report that
2:47
Speaker 7: was released after Elvis's death. It's got a lot of
2:49
Speaker 7: Heraldo in that episode. Sorry about that. And on this episode,
2:54
Speaker 7: we are covering the follow up to the nineteen eighty
2:58
Speaker 7: eight book, Is Elvis Alive. This book came out in
3:01
Speaker 7: nineteen ninety seven. It's called Elvis Is Alive and He's
3:05
Speaker 7: coming Back? Except shit gets weird immediately in that the
3:10
Speaker 7: title on the cover and the title inside the book
3:14
Speaker 7: are not the same. Again, the cover says Elvis is
3:18
Speaker 7: alive and He's coming back. But when you open that cover,
3:21
Speaker 7: the title page says the Elvis cover up. Is that normal?
3:26
Speaker 7: Maybe it's normal. I don't know. What I do know
3:28
Speaker 7: is that this version of the book that I'm going
3:31
Speaker 7: to be referencing throughout this episode is really hard to find.
3:35
Speaker 7: Once again, the cover says Elvis is alive and He's
3:37
Speaker 7: coming back. The bottom third of the cover is blue
3:41
Speaker 7: and the title is in orange text. The rest of
3:44
Speaker 7: the cover is a black and white photo of early
3:47
Speaker 7: days Elvis on stage. We had a guest on a
3:51
Speaker 7: recent episode, an author named David Wheeland. He asked me
3:54
Speaker 7: about this book, and I went out on the Internet
3:58
Speaker 7: and could not even find a picture of the cover
4:00
Speaker 7: of this book anymore. I promise I own it. I
4:03
Speaker 7: can post a picture. Hell, I'll send it to you
4:05
Speaker 7: if you want to copy, with all my scribbles and
4:07
Speaker 7: highlights in it. That said, there is another Gail Brewer
4:11
Speaker 7: Georgio book out there called Elvis Undercover? Is He Alive
4:15
Speaker 7: in coming Back? That seems like it's maybe the hardcover
4:18
Speaker 7: version of this book. It's about fifty pages longer, but
4:22
Speaker 7: the text in the book I'm referring to is kind
4:25
Speaker 7: of gigantic, so that could be a fond thing I reckon.
4:28
Speaker 7: Whatever the case, it's been more than a quarter century
4:31
Speaker 7: since this book was published, and almost half a century
4:35
Speaker 7: since Elvis is alleged to have died, and you might
4:39
Speaker 7: have noticed that in that time, Elvis in fact did
4:42
Speaker 7: not come back. I believe Gail Brewer Georgio is correct
4:48
Speaker 7: in her theory that Elvis assisted the FBI in a
4:51
Speaker 7: massive criminal investigation and enjoined witness protection afterward, and we'll
4:56
Speaker 7: get to that obviously. That said, I'm equal confident that
5:01
Speaker 7: Gail Brewer Georgio was fed a lot of fake information
5:05
Speaker 7: that was meant to discredit her. But also this is
5:08
Speaker 7: that rarest of conspiracy where I'm kind of on the
5:12
Speaker 7: side of the conspirators, and I think they had a
5:15
Speaker 7: damn good reason to try and knock Gail Brewer Georgio's
5:18
Speaker 7: work off course, because if she's correct when she claims
5:22
Speaker 7: Elvis joined witness protection, this book could have gotten him killed,
5:26
Speaker 7: which brings us to another piece of Elvis maybe faked
5:29
Speaker 7: as death media that we're going to talk about throughout
5:32
Speaker 7: this episode. Bill Bigsby Television's The Incredible Hulk Against All
5:37
Speaker 7: Odds was also highly interested in the circumstances surrounding Elvis's death.
5:44
Speaker 7: Part of that has to do with the fact that
5:45
Speaker 7: they were friends, of course, but also Bill Bigsby hosted
5:50
Speaker 7: two separate televised documentary programs, both about Elvis's death. I
5:57
Speaker 7: believe they were both live, they were deafly both broadcast
6:01
Speaker 7: on national television. And throughout this episode, I'm going to
6:05
Speaker 7: be dropping in some moments from the first of those
6:09
Speaker 7: two Bill Bixby specials, because it's very much in line
6:13
Speaker 7: with what's in Gail Brewer Georgio's book. Also, the first
6:17
Speaker 7: of those Bill Bixby specials is called The Elvis Files,
6:20
Speaker 7: and that's the one I'll be talking about here. I'm
6:23
Speaker 7: also going to do another bonus episode, a fourth bonus
6:28
Speaker 7: episode about the second Bill Bixby special, and I'll probably
6:33
Speaker 7: have a guest on that one. I don't think I'm
6:34
Speaker 7: going to do that one by myself, but I bring
6:37
Speaker 7: that up here because Bill Bixby acknowledges the exact thing
6:42
Speaker 7: I just said about Gail Brewer Georgio in that if
6:45
Speaker 7: he's right about the conclusion he comes to in this episode.
6:49
Speaker 7: He could very well be getting his friend killed.
6:52
Speaker 6: Here goes Bill, isn't this show exploding Elvis's death?
6:57
Speaker 1: Yes? Was my feeling.
6:58
Speaker 6: In fact, when I was first asked to host this program,
7:01
Speaker 6: I said no for exactly that reason. But then a
7:05
Speaker 6: body of evidence was presented to me that made the
7:07
Speaker 6: circumstances of August sixteenth, nineteen seventy seven debatable. The more
7:13
Speaker 6: I considered what was in front of me, the more
7:16
Speaker 6: I felt that this was an opportunity present to the
7:18
Speaker 6: world information which had never been brought to light. Now,
7:22
Speaker 6: the next question asked of me, if you're his friend
7:26
Speaker 6: and he is alive, aren't you jeopardizing that same life? Well,
7:31
Speaker 6: anybody interested in using the information presented in this program,
7:35
Speaker 6: information which has been available for at least four years, would.
7:40
Speaker 1: Have done so a long time ago.
7:42
Speaker 6: So if Elvis is alive, he's obviously well protected.
7:47
Speaker 7: Now we'll get into the details more a bit later,
7:50
Speaker 7: But when it comes to Gail Brewer Georgio in her book,
7:54
Speaker 7: she actually names a city and a state where she
7:57
Speaker 7: thought Elvis might have been living, and even a specific
8:01
Speaker 7: location in that city and state where he might be
8:05
Speaker 7: living two locations actually, so if she's correct, of course
8:09
Speaker 7: people were trying to discredit her. At the end of
8:12
Speaker 7: the day, this is not a nefarious conspiracy theory. It
8:16
Speaker 7: doesn't involve innocent people getting hurt. There's no huge money swindle,
8:20
Speaker 7: at least not on the part of the conspirators. There's
8:23
Speaker 7: really nothing to be mad about if Elvis faked his
8:27
Speaker 7: death in the manner and for the reason Gail Brewer
8:31
Speaker 7: Giorgio claims he did so. Yeah, of course people were
8:34
Speaker 7: trying to discredit her. I think the and He's coming
8:37
Speaker 7: Back part of this book title is a great example
8:41
Speaker 7: of the author being led astray by way of false information.
8:45
Speaker 7: She got the notion that Elvis would be coming back,
8:47
Speaker 7: primarily from a phone call from Elvis himself. I believe
8:51
Speaker 7: a lot of what Gail has to say, but I
8:54
Speaker 7: do not believe a person in witness protection who was
8:57
Speaker 7: hiding from real criminals who would love to order them
9:00
Speaker 7: would call a journalist and tell her how right she
9:03
Speaker 7: is about his disappearance. Don't get me wrong, the phone
9:07
Speaker 7: call definitely happened. You can hear it in its entirety
9:10
Speaker 7: on YouTube. I'll link to it in the show notes,
9:13
Speaker 7: but also here's a little bit of it right now.
9:16
Speaker 8: Well, I'm Willie Lee. I'm defending the drug story. I
9:21
Speaker 8: was always Geraldo Rivera and I yelled.
9:24
Speaker 6: At him.
9:27
Speaker 2: Under your own.
9:30
Speaker 3: Do you?
9:31
Speaker 8: When I was on the show with I wasn't want
9:34
Speaker 8: to actually Sally Jesse Rasbiel Show, Britanley with do any
9:40
Speaker 8: of the yet Stanley BOYD Now I just wondered if
9:46
Speaker 8: they do. Yeah, I'm on I'm my own. Yeah.
9:55
Speaker 7: Now, I don't think that is actually Elvis. I couldn't
9:58
Speaker 7: find any record of it in my limited amount of
10:01
Speaker 7: googling I did, but it's mentioned in the comments under
10:05
Speaker 7: that video that an impersonator came forward shortly after Gail
10:08
Speaker 7: went public with his detail and said he was the
10:11
Speaker 7: voice on the call and that would not surprise me
10:14
Speaker 7: one bit, But who knows. Whatever the case, I don't
10:17
Speaker 7: think Elvis ever called Gail Brewer Georgio, but that doesn't
10:22
Speaker 7: mean I think she's wrong about what happened to Elvis.
10:26
Speaker 7: If anything, that she was constantly being fed fake information
10:30
Speaker 7: probably speaks to her being onto something. And on that note,
10:33
Speaker 7: the introduction to this book opens with the following sentence, quote,
10:38
Speaker 7: what book about Elvis Presley did Tutor Publishing receive one
10:42
Speaker 7: and a half million orders for during its first three
10:45
Speaker 7: weeks on the market? End quote? Of course, the answer
10:49
Speaker 7: is her nineteen eighty eight book, is Elvis Alive? I
10:52
Speaker 7: mentioned that just to point out that there was a
10:55
Speaker 7: point in history when the questions around Elvis's death where
10:58
Speaker 7: a thing that the general public, meaning beyond the spectacularly
11:03
Speaker 7: open minded listeners of niche but shockingly high quality conspiracy podcasts,
11:09
Speaker 7: we're at least willing to listen to and consider. I
11:13
Speaker 7: think that ship has sailed now. That well is way
11:16
Speaker 7: too poisoned at this point. Now for me, though, Let's
11:19
Speaker 7: dive in right up top. In chapter one, a chapter
11:23
Speaker 7: called Agent Pressley, Gail Brewer Georgia reminds us that Elvis
11:27
Speaker 7: was quote a bona fide agent at large with the
11:30
Speaker 7: Dea end quote. And that's true. There's documents that prove it.
11:36
Speaker 7: There's paperwork that you have to fill out to be
11:39
Speaker 7: made an agent at large, and the world has seen
11:42
Speaker 7: that paperwork. I think the general line of thinking in
11:46
Speaker 7: regards to that time Elvis stormed the Nixon White House
11:50
Speaker 7: and came away from it with a DEA badge is
11:53
Speaker 7: that it was more comedy than anything and just a
11:56
Speaker 7: means for Elvis to get drugs through the airport or something.
12:01
Speaker 7: But if you've ever dug into the details of that story,
12:04
Speaker 7: you know it starts with Elvis writing Nixon a six
12:07
Speaker 7: page letter all about how he agrees that drugs and
12:11
Speaker 7: commies are destroying this country and that he wanted to
12:15
Speaker 7: help in any way he could. Again, I know we
12:18
Speaker 7: have come to view this meeting with Nixon as a joke,
12:21
Speaker 7: but listen to this snippet from the letter he wrote Nixon,
12:24
Speaker 7: and tell me, in your own quiet to yourself, in
12:28
Speaker 7: your own head kind of way, if it sounds like
12:31
Speaker 7: he's joking. Here we go. I talked to Vice President
12:34
Speaker 7: Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and express my
12:38
Speaker 7: concern for our country. The drug culture, the hippie elements,
12:42
Speaker 7: the SDS, black Panthers, etc. Do not consider me as
12:48
Speaker 7: their enemy or as they call it, the establishment. I
12:52
Speaker 7: call it America, and I love it, Sir. I can
12:55
Speaker 7: and will be of any service that I can to
12:58
Speaker 7: help the country out end quote. Think about what he's
13:02
Speaker 7: saying there. It really boils down to these groups don't
13:05
Speaker 7: see me as the enemy, but I am the enemy.
13:08
Speaker 7: And again we think he's joking, because that would be
13:10
Speaker 7: an absurdly risky joke to make at that point in history,
13:14
Speaker 7: especially the part where he put it in writing somewhere
13:18
Speaker 7: there is an everything, everywhere, all at once alternate universe
13:22
Speaker 7: where instead of meeting with Nixon, that letter just ends
13:25
Speaker 7: with its contents being released to the public and Elvis
13:29
Speaker 7: getting nineteen seventies canceled for being a huge fucking narc Also,
13:35
Speaker 7: and this is mostly a sidebar, but here's another quote
13:38
Speaker 7: from the Elvis Nixon letter. I was nominated this coming
13:41
Speaker 7: year one of America's ten most outstanding young men. End quote.
13:45
Speaker 7: Now I thought that was just some sort of silly
13:48
Speaker 7: flex at first, but then there's this quote from Gail
13:53
Speaker 7: Brewer Giorgio's book. Elvis received his commendation as one of
13:56
Speaker 7: the ten outstanding young men on January eighteenth, nineteen seven,
14:00
Speaker 7: in Memphis. Notably, another soon to be US president presented
14:05
Speaker 7: this award to Elvis, George Bush end quote. There it is.
14:10
Speaker 7: It is not a conspiracy until GHWB makes the scene. Anyway,
14:18
Speaker 7: Contrary to popular belief, which is that the Nixon administration
14:23
Speaker 7: treated this moment where Elvis showed up as a curiosity
14:26
Speaker 7: more than anything. There was actually a lot of support
14:29
Speaker 7: within the White House for making Elvis an agent at
14:33
Speaker 7: large with the DEA. Also that Outstanding young Man commendation.
14:38
Speaker 7: He got it in early nineteen seventy one, and it was,
14:42
Speaker 7: at least according to one of the White House memos
14:45
Speaker 7: about Elvis's invasion of the White House, he was awarded
14:50
Speaker 7: it for quote, his work in the field of drugs
14:53
Speaker 7: end quote. Now I can't find one to one proof
14:57
Speaker 7: of that, but I did find a nineteen seventy one
14:59
Speaker 7: article about those awards that mentions that he was sponsored
15:03
Speaker 7: for the award by former Memphis Sheriff Bill Morris. So
15:08
Speaker 7: I don't know. Keep that in mind. What was he
15:11
Speaker 7: doing for Bill Morris that warranted that nomination? Was it
15:15
Speaker 7: something in the field of drugs. Barring the distant possibility
15:18
Speaker 7: that they mean he liked to party, it sounds like
15:21
Speaker 7: Elvis was doing side hustle cop work well before he
15:24
Speaker 7: asked Nixon to put a badge on it. Now, I
15:27
Speaker 7: know what you're thinking, but Adam Elvis did a ton
15:30
Speaker 7: of drugs himself, for one, not really to the extent
15:33
Speaker 7: you'd think by this point in history, This was nineteen seventy,
15:36
Speaker 7: nineteen seventy one. The drug stuff starts a little later
15:40
Speaker 7: than that. Also, he didn't do illegal drugs. Elvis took
15:44
Speaker 7: prescription drugs. And whether he was actually doing all of
15:48
Speaker 7: the drugs we've been told he was doing isn't a
15:51
Speaker 7: thing I'm convinced as true anymore, but we'll get to
15:54
Speaker 7: that later. Also consider this, there was a little over
15:58
Speaker 7: a year's delay between Elvis I'm meeting Nixon in December
16:01
Speaker 7: nineteen seventy and when he actually got that badge. He
16:04
Speaker 7: received his DEA badge on January twenty seventh, nineteen seventy two.
16:09
Speaker 7: What do we think was going on in between those
16:12
Speaker 7: two moments. Was Nixon just thinking about it while Elvis
16:15
Speaker 7: was out living a normal Elvis life or did Elvis
16:19
Speaker 7: somehow prove his worth to the government in that time?
16:22
Speaker 7: Interesting thing to note here, I consulted a few different
16:25
Speaker 7: timelines of Elvis's career. I'll link to him in the
16:28
Speaker 7: show notes, so you know I'm not lying. Guess what
16:30
Speaker 7: he was doing from nineteen seventy one to nineteen seventy
16:33
Speaker 7: three career wise, nothing, nothing at all. Those two years
16:38
Speaker 7: are fucking blank spots. In the Elvis career timeline, unless
16:44
Speaker 7: you count apparently becoming an asset in the War on
16:47
Speaker 7: drugs for the Nixon administration. Reminder from episode one. In
16:51
Speaker 7: nineteen eighty two, a woman named Maria Columbus, who was
16:55
Speaker 7: president of the longest running Elvis fan club, was also
16:59
Speaker 7: looking into the claims of Elvis faking his death, and
17:02
Speaker 7: at one point she got a letter from the Department
17:05
Speaker 7: of the Treasury that said this quote. During the period
17:09
Speaker 7: of nineteen seventy four through nineteen seventy six, mister Presley
17:12
Speaker 7: provided one of our undercover agents who was a musician
17:16
Speaker 7: a job cover. Mister Presley confirmed to anyone inquiring that
17:20
Speaker 7: the agent musician was a member of one of his
17:23
Speaker 7: traveling bands. Although mister Presley was not actively involved in
17:27
Speaker 7: any of the investigations, his assistance in this regard made
17:31
Speaker 7: it possible for our agent to develop a number of
17:34
Speaker 7: quality investigations. End quote. And then there's a follow up
17:38
Speaker 7: correspondence between Maria Columbus and the FEDS that said the
17:42
Speaker 7: files she was asking for that they could not give
17:45
Speaker 7: her were quote criminal investigative files. Interesting. Another reminder, a
17:50
Speaker 7: huge chunk of Elvis's FBI files are still classified on
17:55
Speaker 7: national security grounds, and in her fan club newsletter at
17:59
Speaker 7: the time, Rihea Columbus asked a pretty solid question here goes,
18:03
Speaker 7: if Elvis had a federal agent in his group from
18:06
Speaker 7: nineteen seventy four to nineteen seventy six, when did he
18:10
Speaker 7: find time to do drugs himself? End quote. I think
18:14
Speaker 7: that's a good question. Also, here's a really fun detail
18:17
Speaker 7: from Gail Brewer Georgio's first book that I didn't mention
18:21
Speaker 7: on the first episode. It's one that comes up again
18:24
Speaker 7: in this book. Apparently more than a few of Elvis's
18:27
Speaker 7: friends suspected that he was sometimes pretending to be high
18:33
Speaker 7: on drugs when he actually wasn't. And Gail Brewer Georgio's
18:38
Speaker 7: thought is was that part of it was that part
18:41
Speaker 7: of his investigative work with the DEA. And let me
18:46
Speaker 7: ask you a question. What's more likely that in the
18:48
Speaker 7: years after he voluntarily enlisted in the War on Drugs,
18:52
Speaker 7: Elvis a chose that point in life to start taking
18:56
Speaker 7: a ton of drugs or b started pretending to be
18:59
Speaker 7: a drug user so he could spy on drug dealers
19:02
Speaker 7: for the government. I know that sounds absolutely insane, but
19:06
Speaker 7: SODA's becoming a junkie after the DEA joins your band.
19:10
Speaker 7: Also insane having the DEA join your band. And hey,
19:14
Speaker 7: this is a point where I would certainly appreciate some
19:16
Speaker 7: noise from the Okham's Razor crowd, because if you're being
19:20
Speaker 7: completely honest with yourself, what is the simplest outcome and
19:26
Speaker 7: or explanation when it comes to Elvis being given a
19:30
Speaker 7: DEA badge? It's that he starts doing DEA stuff because
19:33
Speaker 7: he's a DEA agent. Everything else you want to say, Oh,
19:38
Speaker 7: it's because he's a celebrity. They caddle celebrities. Okay, name
19:41
Speaker 7: all the other celebrities with DEA badges. You think he's
19:44
Speaker 7: the only one that fucking love cops know, how come
19:47
Speaker 7: he's the only one that has a badge because he's
19:49
Speaker 7: a DEA agent. Sorry, sometimes Okham's Razor is going to
19:53
Speaker 7: work for me too, And that he became at least
19:55
Speaker 7: a DEA agent at large is not even a question anymore.
20:00
Speaker 7: The only question is how serious was he about it? Well,
20:04
Speaker 7: it's also worth noting, in addition to the Nixon Whitehouse,
20:08
Speaker 7: Elvis visited FBI headquarters in nineteen seventy and a week
20:12
Speaker 7: later was sent a letter from j Edgar Hoover, thanking
20:15
Speaker 7: him for his offer of confidential assistance to the FBI.
20:19
Speaker 7: Just another jokey joke, moment of latter day Elvis buffoonery,
20:23
Speaker 7: I suppose, as is that time when, two months prior
20:26
Speaker 7: to the meeting with Nixon, Elvis was presented with a
20:29
Speaker 7: CNA membership certificate. What's that mean? Means he was a
20:33
Speaker 7: member in good standing of the California Narcotics Officers Association.
20:38
Speaker 7: It's also mentioned in a bunch of his biographies that
20:41
Speaker 7: he carried a Memphis Sheriff's Department badge in his wallet.
20:45
Speaker 7: There is a story in a lot of those biographies
20:49
Speaker 7: about him using his federal agent credentials to stop a
20:53
Speaker 7: flight on the tarmac in Las Vegas because he thought
20:57
Speaker 7: a guy who stole from him was on. That's real.
21:01
Speaker 7: It happened in nineteen seventy four, such an important year.
21:06
Speaker 7: He was chasing a guy named Hamburger James. Google it
21:10
Speaker 7: if you don't believe me. He was also a member
21:12
Speaker 7: of the National Sheriff's Association. The same sheriff who nominated
21:17
Speaker 7: him for that Outstanding Young Man Award accompanied Elvis on
21:21
Speaker 7: his visit to FBI headquarters. There's also a really curious
21:27
Speaker 7: story in the book If I Can Dream, Elvis's own story,
21:31
Speaker 7: written by his friend and spiritual advisor, Larry Gellen. He
21:35
Speaker 7: mentions the time when on Elvis's last tour in nineteen
21:38
Speaker 7: seventy seven, at a hotel in Cincinnati, Elvis showed him
21:42
Speaker 7: a little black book that was issued each year by
21:45
Speaker 7: the Justice Department that lists what federal narcotics agents, and
21:50
Speaker 7: Elvis was psyched to show his friend that his name
21:54
Speaker 7: was in that book. Geller also claims Elvis told him
21:58
Speaker 7: quote President Carter is planning to create a special post
22:01
Speaker 7: for me. I promised him I would serve my country
22:04
Speaker 7: and use whatever influence I had, especially with the War
22:08
Speaker 7: on drugs end quote Listen. I'm sorry, folks, but I
22:13
Speaker 7: think Elvis was a fed in the seventies. I don't
22:17
Speaker 7: think he got all of those badges and certificates just
22:22
Speaker 7: because he was Elvis and he loved cops. If he
22:25
Speaker 7: loved cops that much, he loved cops enough to do
22:29
Speaker 7: shit for them, obviously, and even in his regular life,
22:33
Speaker 7: Elvis was constantly doing weird spy cop type stuff. In
22:37
Speaker 7: chapter three of her book, chapter called The Thinker Gail
22:40
Speaker 7: Brewer Giorgio gets into some of the stories about that.
22:43
Speaker 7: One example, during a radio interview, TV personality Marty Allen
22:47
Speaker 7: said this quote, Elvis had this ability to read lips.
22:51
Speaker 7: He would be listening to you and talking, and also
22:54
Speaker 7: reading the conversation across the room. He often shocked people
22:57
Speaker 7: by knowing what was going on all around him. He
23:00
Speaker 7: used to play down his intelligence, preferring that people did
23:03
Speaker 7: not know how smart he really was. End quote. He
23:07
Speaker 7: was also apparently really good at disguises, but didn't really
23:11
Speaker 7: need to be on account of the countless Elvis impersonators
23:14
Speaker 7: of the world that were already in business by the seventies.
23:17
Speaker 7: All Elvis had to do to hide in public was
23:19
Speaker 7: look aggressively like Elvis, big sunglasses, big side burns, the
23:23
Speaker 7: whole bit. When he did that, people would just assume
23:26
Speaker 7: he was an impersonator, provided he wasn't walking directly out
23:29
Speaker 7: of graceland. He was also a big fan of pulling
23:32
Speaker 7: pranks where he pretended to be sick or dead. According
23:36
Speaker 7: to one associate named Red West in the book Elvis,
23:39
Speaker 7: What Happened Elvis once while performing, started looking sick and
23:43
Speaker 7: staggered off stage. When he got off stage, he collapsed
23:46
Speaker 7: was rushed to the hospital, where doctors told everyone to
23:49
Speaker 7: leave him and go back to their hotel to wait
23:51
Speaker 7: for word on his condition. Not long after they get back,
23:54
Speaker 7: Elvis shows up at the hotel fit as a fiddle,
23:58
Speaker 7: or as Red West puts it, then a herd of cattle,
24:01
Speaker 7: and tells everyone it was just a joke. In that
24:03
Speaker 7: same book, Red West also talks about a time when
24:07
Speaker 7: at a hotel in Colorado, Elvis called Red and asked
24:10
Speaker 7: him to come to his room, But when he got there,
24:13
Speaker 7: Elvis was passed out on the floor, so Red assumed
24:16
Speaker 7: he was just high or whatever, undressed him, put him
24:19
Speaker 7: in bed, went back to his room. But then he
24:21
Speaker 7: adds this quote, but later I got to thinking, when
24:24
Speaker 7: he spoke to me on the telephone, he was completely straight,
24:27
Speaker 7: like he hadn't taken a thing. And I got to
24:29
Speaker 7: that room in less than a couple of minutes. Now,
24:32
Speaker 7: no drug hits you that hard, So then I suspected
24:35
Speaker 7: he wasn't a sleeper out of it at all. He
24:37
Speaker 7: was wide awake and just faking it just to see
24:40
Speaker 7: how I would handle him. He tested us a lot
24:43
Speaker 7: of times like that end quote. So Elvis was an
24:46
Speaker 7: undercover cop even before he was an undercover cop. It
24:48
Speaker 7: seems like there's also a famous story about a time
24:51
Speaker 7: when Elvis orchestrated a fake gunfight including loaded guns that
24:57
Speaker 7: were loaded with blanks, fortunately, where it appeared that he
25:01
Speaker 7: and everyone else in the room had been shot dead,
25:04
Speaker 7: all in the name of pranking a friend of theirs.
25:07
Speaker 7: So Elvis didn't just love law enforcement in America. He
25:11
Speaker 7: also loved shenanigans and plots and plans and covert surveillance
25:16
Speaker 7: and pretending to be someone else. It was also clear
25:20
Speaker 7: that in nineteen seventy seven, Elvis had some big changes planned.
25:24
Speaker 7: Case in point, told several members of his entourage that
25:28
Speaker 7: they should look for other work because he wasn't going
25:30
Speaker 7: to be touring as much the year after that. When
25:33
Speaker 7: one of them asked what he meant, he just said,
25:35
Speaker 7: look for other work. He was also slowly starting to
25:38
Speaker 7: fire the members of the Memphis Mafia, which was the
25:41
Speaker 7: name given to his inner circle of family members and
25:43
Speaker 7: friends and employees. He'd also taken to ending his shows
25:46
Speaker 7: on his last tour by saying audios, which I gets
25:49
Speaker 7: seems like a minor thing. It's still not a thing.
25:52
Speaker 7: He'd been doing up to that point. He added a
25:54
Speaker 7: cover of My Way by Frank Sinatra to a set
25:57
Speaker 7: list on his final tour, which is very much a
26:00
Speaker 7: song about a person reflecting on the work that they've
26:03
Speaker 7: done and accomplished. He also said this to his stepbrother
26:06
Speaker 7: Rick at one point on that last tour quote, know what, Rick,
26:10
Speaker 7: I may not look good for my television special tonight,
26:13
Speaker 7: but I'll look good in my coffin. End quote. And
26:16
Speaker 7: speaking of all that, there are a few chapters in
26:18
Speaker 7: this book that cover Elvis's fascination with numerology and symbolism
26:23
Speaker 7: and things of the like, and how it could have
26:25
Speaker 7: played into his decision to fake his death. But it
26:28
Speaker 7: all sounds like gibberish to me, and I'm not going
26:30
Speaker 7: to get into it. Not that I think Gail is wrong.
26:33
Speaker 7: If Elvis was into numbers the way people say he was,
26:36
Speaker 7: then the date he is alleged to have died does
26:38
Speaker 7: work out from a long, convoluted numerology standpoint that I
26:44
Speaker 7: just do not feel like talking about on this episode. Instead,
26:48
Speaker 7: let's talk about Kalama Zoom Michigan Against all odds, the
26:53
Speaker 7: bulk of the claimed post death Elvis sightings happened in
26:59
Speaker 7: and around Kalamazoo, Michigan. Before we get into him, please
27:03
Speaker 7: make note of this exchange Elvis had with the audience
27:06
Speaker 7: at a show in December nineteen seventy six, less than
27:10
Speaker 7: a year before he died. Elvis, Honey, I don't even
27:13
Speaker 7: live in Tennessee. That's all a joke. I live in
27:16
Speaker 7: uh No, audience, La Alabama, Honolulu, Elvis, uh No, I
27:22
Speaker 7: don't know that place in Michigan audience Lancing? Really they
27:27
Speaker 7: went lancing first, Pontiac, Detroit, Grand Rapids. Elvis, No, not Lancing,
27:33
Speaker 7: not Panic, not Pontiac. What's that place? Kalamazoo. I know
27:37
Speaker 7: that could be, and probably as just a joke, but
27:39
Speaker 7: weirdly the Kalamazoo connections don't even sort of in there
27:43
Speaker 7: for starters. The day after he died, the Kalamazoo Gazette
27:47
Speaker 7: ran a story with the headline that said, quote Elvis
27:49
Speaker 7: saw Kalamazoo incognito end quote. That was all about how
27:53
Speaker 7: he'd talked about how much he loved Kalamazoo and the
27:56
Speaker 7: way people treated him there. That's all, though, just joking.
27:59
Speaker 7: Have you ever heard of Muhammad Ali? Turns out he
28:02
Speaker 7: and Elvis were really close friends. Now, guess who owned
28:06
Speaker 7: a huge ranch in Kalamazoo, Michigan around this time. Goddamn right,
28:10
Speaker 7: it was Muhammad Ali. Here's a quote from a nineteen
28:13
Speaker 7: seventy nine interview with Modern People magazine with Muhammad Ali. Quote,
28:18
Speaker 7: My close personal friend Elvis came to my Deer Lake
28:21
Speaker 7: training camp about two years before he died. He told
28:24
Speaker 7: us he didn't want nobody to bother us. He wanted
28:27
Speaker 7: peace and quiet. And I gave him a cabin in
28:29
Speaker 7: my camp and nobody even knew it. When the camera
28:32
Speaker 7: started watching me train, he was up on the hill
28:34
Speaker 7: sleeping in the cabin. End quote worth noting Deer Lake
28:38
Speaker 7: is just outside Kalamazoo. There's also the strange case of
28:42
Speaker 7: Wayne Newton. He's actually gonna come up later also, But
28:46
Speaker 7: at a Kalamazoo show in nineteen ninety, Wayne Newton addressed
28:49
Speaker 7: the audience and asked if anyone had seen him walking
28:52
Speaker 7: that day. When no one responded, he said, quote, do
28:55
Speaker 7: you mean no one saw me out walking today? See
28:58
Speaker 7: that's how Elvis does it. In fact, Elvis was with me.
29:02
Speaker 7: He loves this brisk weather end quote. And yeah, that's
29:05
Speaker 7: just jokes. But then also there's that time. Wayne Newton
29:08
Speaker 7: went on a radio show a year later, and when
29:11
Speaker 7: someone asked him about Elvis, he said, quote, there is
29:13
Speaker 7: no doubt in my mind that Elvis's soul is not
29:16
Speaker 7: fulfilled yet and we will be seeing him again too.
29:20
Speaker 7: End quote. Once again, Wayne Newton does have ties to
29:24
Speaker 7: the FBI investigation that Elvis is alleged to have participated in.
29:30
Speaker 7: We'll get there. But back to Kalamazoo. There were a
29:33
Speaker 7: bunch of reported sightings of a guy who called himself
29:36
Speaker 7: John Burrows, who looked a whole lot like Elvis, spotted
29:40
Speaker 7: in and around an office building in Kalamazoo, Michigan. A
29:44
Speaker 7: woman named Kelly Burgess, who worked as an editorial, feature
29:48
Speaker 7: writer and columnist at Detroit News, claims she looked into
29:52
Speaker 7: the Kalamazoo sightings and ended up face to face with
29:56
Speaker 7: Elvis himself. This is Kelly talking about it on the
30:00
Speaker 7: Billy Goodman Show, you know, the one in nineteen eighty eight.
30:04
Speaker 9: It's time now to find out what Elvis Presley looks
30:06
Speaker 9: like today, Kelly. Everybody's on the edge of their seats.
30:10
Speaker 9: They're waiting to hear you describe Elvis Presley when you
30:14
Speaker 9: saw him in August of this year, nineteen eighty eight, Kelly,
30:20
Speaker 9: what does Elvis Presley look like?
30:22
Speaker 4: He was about six foot he maybe one hundred and
30:25
Speaker 4: ninety five pounds, was still with a small pot billy.
30:29
Speaker 4: He looked real good. He had had a very thick
30:33
Speaker 4: head of white hair with outside burns. His hair was
30:38
Speaker 4: kind of done up in a kind of a boyish hairhut.
30:43
Speaker 4: It's same mouth, same high cheekbones. I mean it was Elvis. Anyway.
30:50
Speaker 4: I followed him into the construction office and he sat
30:55
Speaker 4: down at his desk and he put his head down.
31:01
Speaker 4: He d he still didn't the He d spoke very
31:04
Speaker 4: little in the in the short time that I saw him. Interesting,
31:08
Speaker 4: and I thought he was looking for a pen to
31:10
Speaker 4: forgive me so I could write my number down, And
31:13
Speaker 4: evidently he didn't find one. I didn't find one, so
31:16
Speaker 4: I ripped uh out a deposit slop a slipped from
31:20
Speaker 4: my check book and handed it to him. What you mean?
31:24
Speaker 4: And he said all right, Kelly, and I left, And
31:28
Speaker 4: after that I did get several hang ups and hold
31:31
Speaker 4: ons on my answering machine. It was quite an experience.
31:35
Speaker 4: I will never forget it the rest of my life.
31:39
Speaker 9: I wouldn't think you would.
31:40
Speaker 4: I mean his presence was just electrifying like everybody else.
31:44
Speaker 9: Yes, you knew what was in the vibrations, and then
31:47
Speaker 9: it goes where it was.
31:48
Speaker 3: Elvis.
31:49
Speaker 9: What a great story, Kelly. Uh, I understand that you're
31:52
Speaker 9: writing a book.
31:53
Speaker 4: Yes I am. What's it gonna be about. It's gonna
31:56
Speaker 4: be about Elvis Presley from nineteen seventy seven to night
32:00
Speaker 4: teen eighty eight.
32:01
Speaker 3: May I tell us what.
32:02
Speaker 9: He's been doing for the pat How about giving us
32:03
Speaker 9: some inside information?
32:05
Speaker 4: No, I'm sorry, I can't.
32:06
Speaker 9: Oh boy, there you have the story. Elvis is alive
32:10
Speaker 9: and well in Kalamba Zoo, Michigan. At least he was
32:12
Speaker 9: in August of nineteen eighty eight, according to Kelly Burgess.
32:16
Speaker 7: I'll link to that full interview in the show notes
32:18
Speaker 7: if anyone wants to hear it. Did Elvis really flee
32:21
Speaker 7: to Kalama Zoo? I don't know. I doubt it. If anything,
32:24
Speaker 7: I could see this being a red herring, meant to
32:27
Speaker 7: send people looking in the wrong direction, but maybe not.
32:31
Speaker 7: Did you catch a part in that interview where Kelly
32:33
Speaker 7: Burgess said she was writing a book about Elvis's life
32:36
Speaker 7: from nineteen seventy seven to nineteen eighty eight. Well, Gail
32:40
Speaker 7: berg Or Giorgio says she talked to Kelly Burgess about
32:43
Speaker 7: this interview and her book. She asked Kelly if she
32:45
Speaker 7: got a picture of Elvis that day. Kelly said she
32:48
Speaker 7: didn't want to say, which obviously means yes that, Gail says.
32:51
Speaker 7: Kelly also told her that in the course of researching
32:54
Speaker 7: her book, she uncovered information that was frightening and dangerous,
33:00
Speaker 7: and that she felt like the best course of action
33:03
Speaker 7: was to not get involved anymore. Gail says she asked
33:06
Speaker 7: Kelly if the information she uncovered involved the mob. She
33:10
Speaker 7: says Kelly confirmed that it did. Now Gail leaves us
33:18
Speaker 7: on that cliffhanger and then moves on to a couple
33:21
Speaker 7: of chapters about that medical examiner's report and the alleged
33:25
Speaker 7: phone call from Elvis. Most of that is either stuff
33:28
Speaker 7: I've already talked about in the series, or, in the
33:31
Speaker 7: case of that phone call, something I don't find all
33:33
Speaker 7: that compelling as far as evidence goes. Also, when it
33:37
Speaker 7: comes to the inconsistencies with the medical examiner's report and
33:41
Speaker 7: the conflicting accounts of what position the body was in
33:44
Speaker 7: when Elvis was found. Stuff like that it's kind of
33:47
Speaker 7: a meaningless talking point. If Gail's theory here is correct,
33:51
Speaker 7: for one thing, it would raise the obvious question of
33:55
Speaker 7: who was in that autopsy room when that report was done.
33:59
Speaker 7: And I think again, if Gail's theory is correct, the
34:02
Speaker 7: most obvious answer is no one. Because the explanation a
34:06
Speaker 7: lot of fans have come up with, and one that
34:08
Speaker 7: Gail references a few times in both of the books
34:10
Speaker 7: I've read, is that Elvis was approached by a man
34:13
Speaker 7: who was dying of cancer who also happened to look
34:17
Speaker 7: exactly like Elvis, and in exchange for making sure that
34:21
Speaker 7: that man's family was financially secure for life, he agreed
34:24
Speaker 7: to be the body double in Elvis's plot to fake
34:27
Speaker 7: his death. Shut the fuck up. There is no way
34:31
Speaker 7: that happened. If it did, it kind of implies Elvis
34:35
Speaker 7: and his team consensually killed a guy to make this
34:38
Speaker 7: plot work. Either that or he died on the exact
34:42
Speaker 7: day they needed him to, which also seems unlikely. That
34:46
Speaker 7: whole part of the story is obviously highly unlikely. The
34:49
Speaker 7: way easier course of action here would be to just
34:53
Speaker 7: pay people to lie. Elvis could afford that the government
34:56
Speaker 7: could afford that, and the people of Memphis fucking love Elvis.
35:01
Speaker 7: There would be no shortage of people, especially in his
35:05
Speaker 7: inner circle, people who knew him, who would be more
35:08
Speaker 7: than willing to get paid to lie about what happened
35:12
Speaker 7: at Graceland or in the autopsy room or anywhere. Also,
35:16
Speaker 7: we're talking about the American government. They can always just
35:19
Speaker 7: blackmail people into complying, especially if a lot of them
35:22
Speaker 7: are deeply involved in illegally buying and distributing prescription drugs,
35:27
Speaker 7: as we know they were on account of that twenty
35:30
Speaker 7: twenty report. I can't prove that's what happened, but it's
35:33
Speaker 7: obviously a thing that could happen. And I know what
35:36
Speaker 7: you're gonna say. Okay, but someone would have talked eventually,
35:39
Speaker 7: for starters, Are you sure? What makes you so sure?
35:41
Speaker 7: If someone would have talked, especially if this was a
35:43
Speaker 7: situation where Elvis genuinely feared for his and his family's safety,
35:49
Speaker 7: who among this icon's inner circle would be willing to
35:52
Speaker 7: spill the beans for whatever piss ant sum of money
35:56
Speaker 7: the National Inquirer would be willing to pay them if
35:59
Speaker 7: they it meant putting his life at risk. Just a
36:02
Speaker 7: reminder that Elvis machine generated way more money after he
36:05
Speaker 7: died than it ever did when he was alive. There
36:08
Speaker 7: was enough money to keep people quiet and follow up question,
36:12
Speaker 7: if someone did come forward and talk, would you believe him?
36:15
Speaker 7: Here's Geene Smith, Elvis's cousin, talking about what Elvis looked
36:19
Speaker 7: like in his casket during that public.
36:21
Speaker 1: Viewing silently, mourners passed by to say their final farewells.
36:26
Speaker 1: Elvis's cousin, Jean Smith, felt he had to personally say
36:29
Speaker 1: goodbye to the man he had loved so much.
36:33
Speaker 3: When we did the body for the last time, I
36:39
Speaker 3: stood dark quite a while looking at looking at his hands,
36:43
Speaker 3: and of course heave his ours, breaking bricks with his hands.
36:50
Speaker 3: He had callouses on the botmber's hand and big old
36:54
Speaker 3: rough luck knock or his now do look kind of
36:59
Speaker 3: part of your luck? And his right sideburn was sticking
37:03
Speaker 3: out straight out about looked about an inch, and his
37:09
Speaker 3: hairline was looked as if it had been uh high
37:14
Speaker 3: pace of something glued on. Somebody just didn't look right.
37:20
Speaker 3: And his hands was just as smooth it uh a
37:29
Speaker 3: new BOE's baby's behind, you know. And it seemed like
37:32
Speaker 3: I was sweating on his round his hairline. It could
37:40
Speaker 3: have been sweat, it could have been glowed. I don't know,
37:43
Speaker 3: but uh, I just didn't believe it was him.
37:48
Speaker 7: So do you believe him? Because that's someone coming forward
37:51
Speaker 7: and talking and he seems to have some serious reservations
37:55
Speaker 7: about what Elvis looked like in his coffin. I think
37:58
Speaker 7: the part about his hand not having any callouses or
38:02
Speaker 7: bruises is actually pretty fucking huge. Why weren't there callouses?
38:06
Speaker 7: Why weren't there bruises? Or is Jean Smith lying? You decide?
38:11
Speaker 7: And if you do think Elvis's cousin is just lying
38:14
Speaker 7: about that, who would it have to be for you
38:16
Speaker 7: to accept their story is true? Priscilla? If Priscilla Presley
38:20
Speaker 7: said it, would you believe that? Or do you think
38:22
Speaker 7: Priscilla Presley's just old? And Joe Biden and out a
38:25
Speaker 7: little bit? What if it was a retired FBI agent
38:29
Speaker 7: or retired military, retired law enforcement because those people show
38:34
Speaker 7: up in documentaries about conspiracy theories all the time, especially
38:38
Speaker 7: if you're talking UFOs. Do you believe in UFOs yet?
38:41
Speaker 7: Probably not?
38:42
Speaker 8: So.
38:43
Speaker 7: Yeah, someone would have come forward if everyone was paid
38:46
Speaker 7: to lie, and they probably have and no one believed them. Reminder,
38:50
Speaker 7: Elvis was actually able to go out in public as
38:53
Speaker 7: long as he just looked like the Elvis the public
38:56
Speaker 7: knew and loved, because no one would ever believe it
39:00
Speaker 7: was really him, and that's when he was alive. Do
39:02
Speaker 7: you think any of those same people would believe it if, say,
39:06
Speaker 7: his former touring bassist or some shit came forward and said,
39:10
Speaker 7: you know what, Elvis did actually fake his death. No,
39:13
Speaker 7: you wouldn't.
39:14
Speaker 4: So.
39:14
Speaker 7: Yeah, when it comes to the medical examiner's report, the
39:17
Speaker 7: sightings in Kalamazoo, the phone calls to Gail, all of
39:20
Speaker 7: that seems like it would just be smoke screen stuff
39:23
Speaker 7: if Gail's theory is correct. Also, it's been pointed out
39:27
Speaker 7: a bunch of times over the years that there were
39:29
Speaker 7: no photographs taken to the body, there were no fingerprints taken,
39:32
Speaker 7: there were no dental prints made, and there was no
39:35
Speaker 7: analysis of the stomach contents. Again, let's Ockham's raise or
39:40
Speaker 7: that is that because the person who did the autopsy
39:44
Speaker 7: is a sloppy doctor who just doesn't pay attention to detail. No,
39:48
Speaker 7: he was actually known to be a very competent medical examiner.
39:51
Speaker 7: I think the really simple explanation for all that is
39:54
Speaker 7: there was never a body to autopsy, there was no
39:56
Speaker 7: autopsy done. I think all involved parties to Elvis's autopsy
40:00
Speaker 7: are lying. That again strikes me as the easiest and
40:06
Speaker 7: most obvious explanation. I know, human error happens. The doctor
40:11
Speaker 7: who was overseeing this did not have a history of
40:14
Speaker 7: being a sloppy doctor, and if he did, I don't
40:17
Speaker 7: think it would have started with his work on the
40:20
Speaker 7: most famous rock star of all time. That said, the
40:23
Speaker 7: medical examiner's report isn't completely unimportant. The date it was
40:27
Speaker 7: released October twenty first, nineteen seventy seven matters a whole lot.
40:31
Speaker 7: We'll get there in a second. First, let me run
40:34
Speaker 7: a name by you, Frederick Peter Pro. There's a document
40:37
Speaker 7: somewhere in the Elvis FBI files, according to Gail, where
40:41
Speaker 7: Frederick Pro's name is listed as Frederick N. Pro. Someone
40:47
Speaker 7: corrected this on the file in question, so it reflected
40:51
Speaker 7: the name Frederick Peter Pro. According to Gail Brewer Giorgio's
40:55
Speaker 7: claims and the handwriting expert she contacted, the handwriting on
41:00
Speaker 7: that document correcting that name matches the handwriting of none
41:05
Speaker 7: other than Elvis Presley himself. Here's a clip from the
41:10
Speaker 7: Bill Bixby TV documentary.
41:12
Speaker 6: Okay, Paul, you have seen these documents.
41:15
Speaker 1: What is your conclusion?
41:17
Speaker 5: Yes, I certainly have this first one. I don't think
41:20
Speaker 5: said it or not, but we have Frederick N. Prol
41:26
Speaker 5: at al alvas A Presley deceased victim. This little circle
41:30
Speaker 5: down here in this cross indicates they should delete this.
41:33
Speaker 5: And here's what was written about the change and corrected
41:36
Speaker 5: NAM short for name They left off the Frederick Peter
41:40
Speaker 5: prol This handwriting was compared to the non handwriting of
41:43
Speaker 5: Elvis Presley, and it matches very very closely.
41:46
Speaker 6: All right, what about the one that says to Memphis.
41:50
Speaker 5: All right, this is the one that says the Memphis
41:52
Speaker 5: here and this is also references Frederick Peter Prowl, Alvis
41:57
Speaker 5: Presley deceased victim. And down here on the bottom we
42:01
Speaker 5: see a zero point seventy three to Memphis eight fifteen
42:07
Speaker 5: seventy eight. I have compared this to norm handwriting of
42:10
Speaker 5: Elvis Presley's and find that this also matches very very
42:14
Speaker 5: favorably to the handwriting.
42:16
Speaker 1: Now to what did you compare all of this writing?
42:19
Speaker 5: I had a great deal, a great number of samples
42:22
Speaker 5: of his known handwriting. Number one of courus was the
42:24
Speaker 5: Nixon Letter, the letter that he wrote nineteen seventy to
42:26
Speaker 5: President Nixon. I had several canceled checks written by Elvis Presley.
42:31
Speaker 5: I had a Christmas gift list, I had a letter
42:34
Speaker 5: some other friends restaurant check that he had signed, and
42:39
Speaker 5: numerous other.
42:39
Speaker 6: Pieces, several documents, enough materials surely to all authenticated as
42:44
Speaker 6: known handwriting.
42:45
Speaker 7: And now that's not a document dated four months after
42:48
Speaker 7: he is believed to have died. I'm no handwriting experts,
42:51
Speaker 7: so I don't know if it really does match or not.
42:54
Speaker 7: But I will tell you that Frederick Peter Pro is
42:56
Speaker 7: an absolutely crucial name here because you might recall from
43:00
Speaker 7: when I've brought this up previously that the crime syndicate
43:03
Speaker 7: Elvis was allegedly helping the FBI investigate was called the Fraternity.
43:08
Speaker 7: One of the most common objections to this theory is
43:11
Speaker 7: that the fraternity is never mentioned in the Elvis FBI files,
43:16
Speaker 7: and that is hair splitting of the highest order. No,
43:21
Speaker 7: that particular name is not in the files, but the
43:25
Speaker 7: name Frederick Peter Pro, a confirmed member of the criminal
43:29
Speaker 7: syndicate in question, is all over those files, including one
43:34
Speaker 7: that lists Elvis Presley as the victim of a conspiracy
43:39
Speaker 7: orchestrated by Frederick Pro. So all those articles that want
43:43
Speaker 7: to tell you that the fraternity isn't mentioned, sure, but
43:48
Speaker 7: Frederick Peter pro is. Speaking of those FBI files, Gail
43:54
Speaker 7: was able to obtain them after they were declassified in
43:57
Speaker 7: nineteen eighty five, and what she says she found in
44:00
Speaker 7: them is pretty damn interesting. For example, guess what year
44:03
Speaker 7: Operation Fountain Pen started. Nineteen seventy four. Same year the
44:07
Speaker 7: DEA says Elvis started giving an undercover agent a cover
44:11
Speaker 7: job in his band as a means of furthering their investigations.
44:15
Speaker 7: She says, the FBI described the fraternity as quote being
44:18
Speaker 7: composed of approximately thirty to forty of the world's top racketeers,
44:23
Speaker 7: with some members being connected to powerful mafia bosses. By
44:27
Speaker 7: the time the investigation started, it was claimed the group
44:30
Speaker 7: had already swindled their assorted victims out of three billion dollars.
44:35
Speaker 7: As for Elvis, I've mentioned before that the gist of
44:38
Speaker 7: what happened to him is that in nineteen seventy six,
44:41
Speaker 7: this group swindled him out of an airplane and four
44:43
Speaker 7: hundred thousand dollars. The details of how all that happened
44:47
Speaker 7: are kind of long and technical and boring. It involves
44:50
Speaker 7: bounce checks and failed loans and all sorts of other
44:54
Speaker 7: non sexy stuff. I don't want to get into it.
44:57
Speaker 7: Let's let Bill Bixby tell you how it downstead.
45:01
Speaker 1: Our story begins in May of nineteen seventy six, when
45:04
Speaker 1: Elvis wanted to sell one of his airplanes. Besides the
45:08
Speaker 1: famous Lisa Marie, Elvis owned three smaller jets, a lockeyed
45:12
Speaker 1: Jet Star, a Jet Commander, and a Desseaux Falcon. In
45:17
Speaker 1: early nineteen seventy six, Elvis told his father, who handled
45:21
Speaker 1: all of his personal finances, that he wanted to sell
45:24
Speaker 1: the jet Star. Vernon was loyal to his son, but
45:28
Speaker 1: was apparently not a very good businessman. Vernon was introduced
45:32
Speaker 1: to a man named Frederick Peter Pro in May of
45:35
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. Pro talked Vernon into getting involved with
45:39
Speaker 1: a very complicated leasing arrangement with his company. The Jet
45:42
Speaker 1: Star wasn't airworthy, and Pro also said he would facilitate repairs.
45:47
Speaker 1: But Frederick Peter Pro was in reality a con man,
45:50
Speaker 1: a member of a criminal group called the Fraternity, a
45:53
Speaker 1: group with direct ties to organized crime. It has been
45:57
Speaker 1: estimated that the fraternity managed to con at least two
46:00
Speaker 1: billion dollars from people all over the world, and by
46:03
Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen seventy seven, according to an attorney
46:06
Speaker 1: familiar with the case, the Presley estate had lost more
46:09
Speaker 1: than a million dollars.
46:12
Speaker 7: Now, what I do find interesting is Gail's explanation for
46:16
Speaker 7: a plot hole that came up for me in all
46:18
Speaker 7: of this. If Elvis was already helping with the investigation
46:22
Speaker 7: into this group by nineteen seventy four, how would he
46:25
Speaker 7: have still managed to get swindled by them in nineteen
46:29
Speaker 7: seventy six. He should have known about them by Now,
46:32
Speaker 7: before we get to the explanation, I should mention that,
46:34
Speaker 7: at least according to Gail, and as you'd expect anyway,
46:37
Speaker 7: getting witnesses to testify against this group was a tall
46:41
Speaker 7: order on account of how people didn't want to get murdered.
46:44
Speaker 7: Also mentioned Elvis's airplane broker he had a few planes,
46:49
Speaker 7: was a guy named Nigel Winfield, who, as it turned out,
46:52
Speaker 7: was at least friendly with several members of the fraternity,
46:56
Speaker 7: including Frederick Peter pro Now here's a quote from Gail
46:59
Speaker 7: from the book. Upon discovering that Winfield is Presley's airplane broker.
47:03
Speaker 7: Is it possible that the FBI began contemplating a setup
47:08
Speaker 7: where Elvis would become a willing victim of pro and
47:12
Speaker 7: his group via an innocent introduction by Winfield end quote?
47:17
Speaker 7: I think that is a reasonable explanation personally, What if
47:21
Speaker 7: instead of being a victim, Elvis and his dad were
47:24
Speaker 7: just setting these people up? Because why Elvis wanted to
47:28
Speaker 7: be a fucking cop? Once again, it is a long
47:32
Speaker 7: and winding road between meeting Frederick Peter Prow and getting swindled,
47:37
Speaker 7: And it's way too much to go over here. You
47:39
Speaker 7: can read about it in any number of Gaielberg or
47:41
Speaker 7: Giorgio's books out there, But if you dive into those details,
47:44
Speaker 7: you'll know there are several points where Vernon Presley, Elvis's dad,
47:49
Speaker 7: and the man who handled his money, for lack of
47:51
Speaker 7: a better way to put it, he should have just
47:53
Speaker 7: known better. The leeway and the trust Elvis and his
47:58
Speaker 7: dad extend to this relative stranger who shows up in
48:01
Speaker 7: their lives, writes a bunch of bad checks, and then
48:05
Speaker 7: flies away with an ill gotten airplane is astounding. It's
48:09
Speaker 7: almost as if they wanted to get swindled. And again
48:14
Speaker 7: it was this crime that led to the evidence that
48:17
Speaker 7: the FEDS needed to start arresting the members of this group.
48:21
Speaker 7: In the penultimate chapter of Elvis Is Alive, Gail Brewer
48:25
Speaker 7: Georgia runs through a timeline of both the last years
48:28
Speaker 7: of Elvis's public life and the events of the government's
48:31
Speaker 7: case against Frederick Peter pro There is a lot of weirdness.
48:35
Speaker 7: There are a lot of dates that line up, including
48:38
Speaker 7: remember when Wayne Newton came up earlier? The part where
48:41
Speaker 7: he told an audience in Kalamazoo that he was out
48:43
Speaker 7: walking with Elvis earlier that day, even though it was
48:46
Speaker 7: the nineties by then. The part where Wayne Newton said
48:49
Speaker 7: he did not believe Elvis's soul is fulfilled and that
48:52
Speaker 7: we will see him again. Well, here's another weird coincidence.
48:55
Speaker 7: At one point during the investigation, the FBI finds out
48:59
Speaker 7: that Frederick Brow tried to have an associate who'd stolen
49:02
Speaker 7: money from him killed, and the person he contracted for
49:05
Speaker 7: the hit was a guy named Melvin Weinberg. Unbeknownst to him,
49:09
Speaker 7: Weinberg was already cooperating with the FBI on account of
49:14
Speaker 7: how he'd been caught in a scheme very similar to
49:16
Speaker 7: the one pro polled on Elvis, except Weinberg's target was,
49:21
Speaker 7: among others, Wayne Newton, Small World. I won't go through
49:24
Speaker 7: the entire timeline as laid out in the book, as
49:27
Speaker 7: it's several pages long, but among the weird details. For
49:31
Speaker 7: some reason, starting a few months before he died, Elvis
49:34
Speaker 7: was in contact with President Jimmy Carter a bunch. Please
49:38
Speaker 7: note that's not Nixon. It's not the president he met
49:40
Speaker 7: up with to get his DEA badge. No, this is
49:44
Speaker 7: another administration in the midst of a huge FBI investigation,
49:49
Speaker 7: and just months before Elvis dies, he's on the horn
49:53
Speaker 7: with Jimmy Carter. White House logs confirm this. One of
49:58
Speaker 7: those calls happened on June fourteenth, nineteen seventy seven, a
50:01
Speaker 7: day after Elvis tried to call the White House twice.
50:05
Speaker 7: In this case, it was President Carter calling Elvis and
50:09
Speaker 7: they talked for about six minutes. The next call Carter received, again,
50:13
Speaker 7: according to White House logs that you can see in
50:15
Speaker 7: this book, was from Peter Bensinger, administrator of the DA,
50:21
Speaker 7: the law enforcement outfit that made Elvis an agent at large.
50:26
Speaker 7: There were also calls between Elvis and the White House
50:28
Speaker 7: on June fifteenth, nineteen seventy seven. So that's all interesting. Yeah,
50:33
Speaker 7: there's also the disparity between how Elvis looks in his
50:36
Speaker 7: infamous TV special, which was filmed on June twenty first,
50:40
Speaker 7: nineteen seventy seven, and how he looked at his final
50:42
Speaker 7: concert a few days later on June twenty sixth, nineteen
50:46
Speaker 7: seventy seven. On that TV special. Everyone has commented on
50:51
Speaker 7: it in the years since. He looks bloated, he looks sweaty,
50:54
Speaker 7: looks like he can barely move, He looks like he's
50:57
Speaker 7: in a really bad way. Well, I'll link to it.
50:59
Speaker 7: You can also find video of that Indianapolis concert for
51:02
Speaker 7: yourself on YouTube, and he looks remarkably healthier five short
51:07
Speaker 7: days later. Go watch that TV special, not the whole thing,
51:12
Speaker 7: but just the part near the end where they're really
51:16
Speaker 7: tight in close on his face while he's singing I'm sorry.
51:20
Speaker 7: It kind of looks like someone who's dolled up to
51:23
Speaker 7: look like a fat person, Like he looks like he's
51:25
Speaker 7: wearing prosthetics. Also worth noting, the Operation Fountain Pen investigation
51:30
Speaker 7: originated with the FBI Field office in Indianapolis. So many
51:36
Speaker 7: complete and total coincidences here. Huh. How about this one?
51:39
Speaker 7: Where from June to August nineteen seventy seven, memos and
51:43
Speaker 7: reports between the Memphis FBI Field Office and FBI Headquarters
51:48
Speaker 7: involving the Elvis case are going back and forth. One
51:51
Speaker 7: of them mentions that they're looking to present the Elvis v.
51:54
Speaker 7: Frederick Pro case to a grand jury honor before August fifteenth,
51:59
Speaker 7: nineteen six seventy seven. That is precisely one day prior
52:04
Speaker 7: to the day Elvis died. Again, just another shocking coincidence.
52:08
Speaker 7: On August eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, Elvis was initially laid
52:12
Speaker 7: to rest in a secured mausoleum at Forest Hill Cemetery.
52:16
Speaker 7: On October second, the bodies moved to Graceland and put
52:19
Speaker 7: under tight security after someone attempts to break into that mausoleum.
52:23
Speaker 7: Was that just vandals or is it someone looking to
52:25
Speaker 7: confirm Elvis was actually dead? Who knows. What we do
52:29
Speaker 7: know is that on October eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, Frederick
52:34
Speaker 7: Peter Pro was arrested in connection to the Elvis case.
52:38
Speaker 7: On October nineteenth, nineteen seventy seven, news of that case
52:42
Speaker 7: becomes public, and before anyone can even ask if his
52:46
Speaker 7: death and that case are related. On October twenty first,
52:51
Speaker 7: nineteen seventy seven, two days later, after news of this
52:54
Speaker 7: case breaks, doctor Jerry Francisco very conveniently finally releases his
53:00
Speaker 7: controversial report claiming Elvis died of a drug overdose, and
53:05
Speaker 7: the question of whether that is true becomes the whole
53:10
Speaker 7: entire controversy for a long time after that, thanks in
53:13
Speaker 7: large part to a news report by the always reliable
53:17
Speaker 7: and trustworthy Heraldo Rivera working for the American Broadcasting Company. Again,
53:24
Speaker 7: none of this is conclusive proof, but I think if
53:28
Speaker 7: you're being honest with yourself, you have to admit there
53:31
Speaker 7: is a little bit of fire to go along with
53:33
Speaker 7: the smoke when it comes to the idea that Elvis
53:37
Speaker 7: maybe participated in a law enforcement investigation and had to
53:42
Speaker 7: fake his death over it. People aren't just making this
53:45
Speaker 7: shit up out of thin air, you know. Oh, this
53:49
Speaker 7: was long for a solo episode, My god, and we're
53:52
Speaker 7: not even done again. There's another Bill Bixby special that
53:57
Speaker 7: I want to cover on the next episode. I think
54:00
Speaker 7: I'll probably have a guest on. Maybe they'll watch both
54:02
Speaker 7: of them and we'll see how they feel about Gail
54:04
Speaker 7: Brewer Giorgio's opinions and theories, but until then that's where
54:09
Speaker 7: we stand. I am sorry. I think Elvis was just
54:14
Speaker 7: a cop at the end of his public life. Set
54:18
Speaker 7: it at the top of the episode, and I will
54:20
Speaker 7: say it again. Okham's razor baby. Elvis got a de
54:23
Speaker 7: A badge and became a Dea agent. That's what happened.
54:26
Speaker 7: I think. Anyway, that's it for now. Thank you everyone
54:30
Speaker 7: for listening to me yell at a microphone for a
54:33
Speaker 7: solid hour. Check out Adam Todd Brown dot substock dot com,
54:36
Speaker 7: and thanks, we love you. Goodbye, we who me and
54:40
Speaker 7: Elvis
54:45
Speaker 3: People After the extro