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The Death of Elvis Presley Pt. 3: Operation Fountain Pen (Repost) · 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.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: 30, 40 minutes later.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Vernon Presley called us.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Monty Nicholson is an investigator for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: The body may very well not have been Elvis Presley.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Gail Brewer Giorgio is the best-selling author of Is Elvis Alive?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and The Elvis Files.
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: The only place it's misspelled is at the plaque at Graceland,
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: the final resting place.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Paul Wiest is an internationally renowned handwriting expert.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: And handwriting notations were made on them, and Elvis Brothers
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: on handwriting.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Luc Dion is an author and political advisor to the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Quebec government and a foreign consultant.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: But Elvis Presley was a federal agent, there's no doubt
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: 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.
• 1:41
  Speaker 6: Welcome to Conspiracy, the show, the world's most trusted conspiracy.
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: Theory podcast, with your hosts, Adam Todd Brown and Olivia Haidar.
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Conspiracy, the show. I'm your host,
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: Adam Todd Brown. Joining me as co-host this week, ooh,
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: my favorite co-host of all, no co-host. I don't even
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: have any guests because I am, once again, going it
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: alone to bring you the third and final public episode
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: of my deep dive into the death of music legend
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: Elvis Presley. On the first episode... I covered a 1988
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: book called Is Elvis Alive? written by an investigative journalist
• 2:36
  Speaker 6: named Gail Brewer-Giorgio. On the second episode, we covered an
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: ABC 2020 news report about all the weirdness in the
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: medical examiner's report that It was released after Elvis' death.
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: It's got a lot of Geraldo in that episode. Sorry
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: about that. And on this episode, we are covering the
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: follow-up to the 1988 book, Is Elvis Alive? This book
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: came out in 1997. It's called Elvis Is Alive, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: he's coming back. Except shit gets weird immediately in that
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: the title on the cover and the title inside the
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: book are not the same. Again, the cover says Elvis
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: is alive and he's coming back. But when you open
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: that cover, the title page says the Elvis cover up.
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: Is that normal? Maybe it's normal. I don't know. What
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: I do know is that this version of the book
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: that I'm going to be referencing throughout this episode is
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: really hard to find. Once again, the cover says Elvis
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: is alive and he's coming back. The bottom third of
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: the cover is blue and the title is in orange text.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: The rest of the cover is a black and white
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: photo of early days Elvis on stage. We had a
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: guest on a recent episode, an author named David Whelan.
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: He asked me about this book, and I went out
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: on the internet and could not even find a picture
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: of the cover of this book anymore. I promise I
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: own it. I can post a picture. Hell, I'll send
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: it to you if you want a copy with all
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: my scribbles and highlights in it. That said, there is
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: another Gale Brewer-Giorgio book out there called Elvis Undercover, Is
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: He Alive and Coming Back? That seems like it's maybe
• 4:17
  Speaker 6: the hardcover version of this book. It's about 50 pages longer,
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: but the text in the book I'm referring to is
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: kind of gigantic. So that could be a font thing,
• 4:28
  Speaker 6: I reckon. Whatever the case, it's been more than a
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: quarter century since this book was published and and almost
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: half a century since Elvis is alleged to have died.
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: And you might have noticed that in that time, Elvis,
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: in fact, did not come back. I believe Gail Brewer-Giorgio
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: is correct in her theory that Elvis assisted the FBI
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: in a massive criminal investigation and joined witness protection afterward.
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: And we'll get to that, obviously. That said, I'm equally
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: confident that Gail Brewer-Giorgio died was fed a lot of
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: fake information that was meant to discredit her. But also,
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: this is that rarest of conspiracy where I'm kind of
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: on the side of the conspirators. And I think they
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: had a damn good reason to try and knock Gail
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: Brewer-Giorgio's work off course. Because if she's correct... When she
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: claims Elvis joined Witness Protection, this book could have gotten
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: him killed. Which brings us to another piece of Elvis
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: maybe faked his death media that we're going to talk
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: about throughout this episode. Bill Bigsby, television's The Incredible Hulk,
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: against all odds, was also highly interested in the circumstances
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: surrounding Elvis's death. Part of that has to do with
• 5:45
  Speaker 6: the fact that they were friends, of course. But also,
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: Bill Bixby hosted two separate televised documentary programs, both about
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: Elvis's death. I believe they were both live. They were
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: definitely both broadcast on national television. And throughout this episode,
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: I'm going to be dropping in some moments from the
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: first of those two Bill Bixby specials, because it's very
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: much in line with what's in Gail Brewer-Giorgio's book also.
• 6:17
  Speaker 6: The first of those Bill Bixby specials is called The
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: Elvis Files. And that's the one I'll be talking about here.
• 6:23
  Speaker 6: I'm also going to do another bonus episode, a fourth
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: bonus episode, about the second Bill Bixby special. And I'll
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: probably have a guest on that one. I don't think
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: I'm going to do that one by myself. But I
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: bring that up here because Bill Bixby acknowledges the exact
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: thing I just said about Gale Brewer Giorgio, in that
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: if he's right about Bixby, the conclusion he comes to
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: in this episode, he could very well be getting his
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: friend killed. Here goes.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Bill, isn't this show exploiting Elvis's death? Yes, was my feeling.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: In fact, when I was first asked to host this program,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: I said no for exactly that reason. But then a
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: body of evidence was presented to me that made the
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: circumstances of August 16th.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: 1977 debatable.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: The more I considered what was in front of me,
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the more I felt that this was an opportunity to
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: present to the world information which had never been brought
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: to light. Now the next question asked of me, if
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: you're his friend and he is alive, aren't you jeopardizing
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: that same life? Well, anybody interested in using the information
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: presented in this program, information which has been available for
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: at least four years would have done so a long
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: time ago. So if Elvis is alive, he's obviously well protected.
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: Now, we'll get into the details more a bit later,
• 7:50
  Speaker 6: but when it comes to Gail Brewer-Giorgio, in her book,
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: she actually names a city and a state where she
• 7:57
  Speaker 6: thought Elvis might have been living, and even a specific
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: location in that city and state where he might be living.
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: Two locations, actually. So, If she's correct, of course people
• 8:09
  Speaker 6: were trying to discredit her. At the end of the day,
• 8:12
  Speaker 6: this is not a nefarious conspiracy theory. It doesn't involve
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: innocent people getting hurt. There's no huge money swindle, at
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: least not on the part of the conspirators. There's really
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: nothing to be mad about if Elvis faked his death
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: in the manner and for the reason Gail Brewer-Giorgio claims
• 8:31
  Speaker 6: he did. So yeah. Of course people were trying to
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: discredit her. I think the and he's coming back part
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: of this book title is a great example of the
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: author being led astray by way of false information. She
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: got the notion that Elvis would be coming back primarily
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: from a phone call from Elvis himself. I believe a
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: lot of what Gail has to say, but I do
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: not believe a person in witness protection who is hiding
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: from real criminals who who would love to murder them,
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: would call a journalist and tell her how right she
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: is about his disappearance. Don't get me wrong, the phone
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: call definitely happened. You can hear it in its entirety
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: on YouTube. I'll link to it in the show notes.
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: But also, here's a little bit of it right now.
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: Well, at least I'm defending the.
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: Drug story, I was on with Geraldo Rivera and I
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: yelled at him. Do you, when I was on the
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: show with, I wasn't on actually, Sally Jessie Raphael's show,
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: Rick Stanley was on. Do any of the Stanley boys know?
• 9:44
  Speaker 7: I just wondered if they knew. Now, I don't think
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: that is actually Elvis. I couldn't find any record of.
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: It in my limited amount of Googling I did, but
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: it's mentioned in the comments under that video that an
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: impersonator came forward shortly after Gayle went public. with his
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: detail and said he was the voice on the call.
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: And that would not surprise me one bit. But who knows?
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: Whatever the case, I don't think Elvis ever called Gail
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: Brewer Giorgio. But that doesn't mean I think she's wrong
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: about what happened to Elvis. If anything, that she was
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: constantly being fed fake information probably speaks to her being
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: onto something. And on that note, the introduction to this
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: book opens with the following sentence. Quote, what book about
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: Elvis Presley did Tudor Publishing receive one and a half
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: million orders for during its first three weeks on the market?
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: End quote. Of course, the answer is her 1988 book,
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: Is Elvis Alive? I mentioned that just to point out
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: that there was a point in history when the questions
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: around Elvis's death were a thing that the general public,
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: meaning beyond the spectacularly open-minded listener's of niche but shockingly
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: high-quality conspiracy podcasts we're at least willing to listen to
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: and consider. I think that ship has sailed now. That
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: well is way too poisoned at this point. Not for me, though.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: Let's dive in. Right up top in Chapter 1, a
• 11:22
  Speaker 6: chapter called Agent Presley. Gail Brewer-Giorgio reminds us that Elvis was, quote,
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: a bona fide agent at large with the DEA, end quote.
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: And that's true. There's documents that prove it. There's paperwork
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: that you have to fill out to be made an
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: agent at large. And the world has seen that paperwork.
• 11:43
  Speaker 6: I think the general line of thinking in regards to
• 11:47
  Speaker 6: that time Elvis stormed the Nixon White House and came
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: away from it with a DEA badge is that it
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: was more comedy than anything and just a means for
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: Elvis to get drugs through the airport or something. But
• 12:01
  Speaker 6: if you've ever dug into the details of that story,
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: you know it starts with Elvis writing Nixon a six-page
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: letter all about how he agrees that drugs and commies
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: are destroying this country, and that he wanted to help
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: in any way he could. Again, I know we have
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: come to view this meeting with Nixon as a joke,
• 12:21
  Speaker 6: but listen to this snippet from the letter he wrote
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: Nixon and tell me in your own quiet, to yourself,
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: in your own head kind of way, if it sounds
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: like he's joking. Here we go. I talked to Vice
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed
• 12:38
  Speaker 6: my concern for our country, the drug culture, the hippie elements,
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: The SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: their enemy, or as they call it, the establishment. I
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: call it America, and I love it. Sir, I can
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: and will be of any service that I can to
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: help the country out. End quote. Think about what he's
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: saying there. It really boils down to, these groups don't
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: see me as the enemy, but I am the enemy.
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: And again, we think he's joking? Because that would be
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: an absurdly risky joke to make at that point in history.
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: Especially the part where he put it in writing. Somewhere
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: there is an everything, everywhere, all at once alternate universe.
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: Where instead of meeting with Nixon, that letter just ends
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: with its contents being released to the public. And Elvis
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: getting 1970s cancelled. for being a huge fucking narc. Also,
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: and this is mostly a sidebar, but here's another quote
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: from the Elvis Nixon letter. I was nominated this coming
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: year one of America's 10 most outstanding young men, end quote. Now,
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: I thought that was just some sort of silly flex
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: at first, but then there's this quote from Gail Brewer
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: Giorgio's book. Elvis received his commendation as one of the
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: 10 outstanding young men on January 18th, 1971 in Memphis. Notably,
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: another soon-to-be U.S. president presented this award to Elvis, George Bush.
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: End quote. There it is. It is not a conspiracy.
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: until G.H.W.B. makes the scene. Anyway, contrary to popular belief,
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: which is that the Nixon administration treated this moment where
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: Elvis showed up as a curiosity more than anything, there
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: was actually a lot of support within the White House
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: for making Elvis an agent at large with the DEA. Also,
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: that outstanding young man commendation. He got it in early 1971.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: And it was, at least according to one of the
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: White House memos about Elvis's invasion of the White House,
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: he was awarded it for, quote, his work in the
• 14:52
  Speaker 6: field of drugs, end quote. Now, I can't find one-to-one
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: proof of that. But I did find a 1971 article
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: about those awards that mentions that he was sponsored for
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: the award by... Former Memphis Sheriff Bill Morris. So, I
• 15:09
  Speaker 6: don't know, keep that in mind. What was he doing
• 15:11
  Speaker 6: for Bill Morris that warranted that nomination? Was it something
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: in the field of drugs? Barring the distant possibility that
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: they mean he liked to party, it sounds like Elvis
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: was doing side hustle cop work well before he asked
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: Nixon to put a badge on it. Now, I know
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: what you're thinking, but Adam... Elvis did a ton of
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: drugs himself, for one. Not really to the extent you'd
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: think by this point in history. This was 1970, 1971.
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: The drug stuff starts a little later than that. Also,
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: he didn't do illegal drugs. Elvis took prescription drugs. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: whether he was actually doing all of the drugs we've
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: been told he was doing isn't a thing I'm convinced
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: is true. anymore, but we'll get to that later. Also,
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: consider this. There was a little over a year's delay
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: between Elvis meeting Nixon in December 1970 and when he
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: actually got that badge. He received his DEA badge on
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: January 27th, 1972. What do we think was going on
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: in between those two moments? Was Nixon just thinking about
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: it while Elvis was out living a normal Elvis life?
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: Or did Elvis somehow prove his worth to the government?
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: in that time. Interesting thing to note here, I consulted
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: a few different timelines of Elvis' career. I'll link to
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: them in the show notes so you know I'm not lying.
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: Guess what he was doing from 1971 to 1973, career-wise? Nothing.
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: Nothing at all. Those two years are fucking blank spots
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: in the Elvis career timeline. Unless you count apparently becoming
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: an asset in the war on drugs for the Nixon administration.
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: Reminder from episode one, in 1982, a woman named Maria Columbus,
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: who was president of the longest-running Elvis fan club, was
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: also looking into the claims of Elvis faking his death.
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: And at one point, she got a letter from the
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: Department of the Treasury that said this, quote, During the
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: period of 1974 through 1976, Mr. Presley provided one of
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: our undercover agents, who was a musician, a job cover. Mr.
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: Presley confirmed to anyone inquiring that the agent musician was
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: a member of one of his traveling bands. Although Mr.
• 17:25
  Speaker 6: Presley was not actively involved in any of the investigations,
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: his assistance in this regard made it possible for our
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: agent to develop a number of quality investigations. End quote.
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: And then there's a follow-up correspondence between Maria Columbus and
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: the feds that said the files she was asking for
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: that they could not give her were, quote, criminal investigative files. Interesting.
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: Another reminder, a huge chunk of Elvis's FBI files are
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: still classified on national security grounds. And in her fan
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: club newsletter at the time, Maria Columbus asked a pretty
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: solid question. Here goes. I think that's a good question. Also,
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: here's a really fun detail from Gail Brewer-Giorgio's first book
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: that I didn't mention on the first episode. It's one
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: that comes up again in this book. Apparently, More than
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: a few of Elvis's friends suspected that he was sometimes
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: pretending to be high on drugs when he actually wasn't.
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: And Gail Brewer-Giorgio's thought is, was that part of it?
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: Was that part of it? part of his investigative work
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: with the DEA. And let me ask you a question.
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: What's more likely, that in the years after he voluntarily
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: enlisted in the war on drugs, Elvis A. chose that
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: point in life to start taking a ton of drugs,
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: or B. started pretending to be a drug user so
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: he could spy on drug dealers for the government? I
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: know that sounds absolutely insane. but so does becoming a
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: junkie after the DEA joins your band. Also insane, having
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: the DEA join your band. And hey, this is a
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: point where I would certainly appreciate some noise from the
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: Occam's Razor crowd, because if you're being completely honest with yourself,
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: what is the simplest thing outcome and or explanation when
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: it comes to Elvis being given a DEA badge it's
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: that he starts doing DEA stuff because he's a DEA
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: agent everything else you want to say oh it's because
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: he's a celebrity they coddle celebrities okay name all the
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: other celebrities with DEA badges you think he's the only
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: one that fucking loves cops?
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: No.
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: How come he's the only one that has a badge?
• 19:49
  Speaker 6: Because he's a DEA agent. Sorry. Sometimes Occam's razor is
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: going to work for me too. And that he became
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: at least a DEA agent at large is not even
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: a question anymore. The only question is how serious was
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: he about it? Well, it's also worth noting that In
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: addition to the Nixon White House, Elvis visited FBI headquarters
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: in 1970, and a week later was sent a letter
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: from J. Edgar Hoover thanking him for his offer of
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: confidential assistance to the FBI. Just another jokey joke moment
• 20:20
  Speaker 6: of latter-day Elvis buffoonery, I suppose. As is that time when,
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: two months prior to the meeting with Nixon, Elvis was
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: presented with a CNOA membership certificate. What's that mean? Means
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: he was a member in good standing of the California
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: Narcotics Officers Association. It's also mentioned in a bunch of
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: his biographies that he carried a Memphis Sheriff's Department badge
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: on in his wallet. There is a story in a
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: lot of those biographies about him using his federal agent
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: credentials to stop a flight on the tarmac in Las
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: Vegas because he thought a guy who stole from him
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: was on it. That's real. It happened in 1974, such
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: an important year. He was chasing a guy named Hamburger James.
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: Google it if you don't believe me. He was also
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: a member of the National Sheriffs Association. The same sheriff
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: who nominated him for that Outstanding Young Man Award accompanied
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: Elvis on his visit to FBI headquarters. There's also a
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: really curious story in the book, If I Can Dream,
• 21:29
  Speaker 6: Elvis's own story, written by his friend and spiritual advisor,
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: Larry Gellin. He mentions a time when, on Elvis's last
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: tour in 1977 at a hotel in Cincinnati, Elvis showed
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: him a little black book that was issued each year
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: by the Justice Department that lists what? Federal narcotics agents.
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: And Elvis was psyched to show his friend that his
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: name was in that book. Geller also claims Elvis told him,
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: President Carter is planning to create a special post for me.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: I promised him I would serve my country and use
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: whatever influence I had especially with the war on drugs,
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: end quote. Listen, I'm sorry, folks, but I think Elvis
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: was a fed in the 70s. I don't think he
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: got all of those badges and certificates just because he
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: was Elvis and he loved cops. If he loved cops
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: that much, he loved cops enough to do shit for them, obviously.
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: And even in his regular life, Elvis was constantly doing
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: weird spy cop type stuff. In chapter three of her book,
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: a chapter called The Thinker, Gail Brewer Giorgio gets into
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: some of the stories about that. One example, during a
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: radio interview, TV personality Marty Allen said this, quote, Elvis
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: had this ability to read lips. He would be listening
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: to you and talking. and also reading the conversation across
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: the room. He often shocked people by knowing what was
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: going on all around him. He used to play down
• 23:01
  Speaker 6: his intelligence, preferring that people did not know how smart
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: he really was. End quote. He was also apparently really
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: good at disguises, but didn't really need to be. On
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: account of the countless Elvis impersonators of the world that
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: were already in business by the 70s, all Elvis had
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: to do to hide in public was look aggressively like Elvis.
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: Big sunglasses, big sideburns, the whole bit. When he did that,
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: people would just assume he was an impersonator, provided he
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: wasn't walking directly out of Graceland. He was also a
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: big fan of pulling pranks where he pretended to be
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: sick or dead. According to one associate named Red West
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: in the book Elvis What Happened, Elvis once, while performing,
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: started looking sick and staggered offstage. When he got offstage,
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where doctors
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: told everyone to leave him and go back to their
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: hotel immediately. to wait for word on his condition. Not
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: long after they get back, Elvis shows up at the hotel,
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: fit as a fiddle, or as Red West puts it,
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: healthier than a herd of cattle, and tells everyone it
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: was just a joke. In that same book, Red West
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: also talks about a time when at a hotel in Colorado,
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: Elvis called Red and asked him to come to his room.
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: But when he got there, Elvis was passed out on
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: the floor. So Red assumed he was just high or whatever,
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: undressed him, put him in bed, went back to his room,
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: But then he adds this quote. But later, I got
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: to thinking. When he spoke to me on the telephone,
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: he was completely straight. Like he hadn't taken a thing.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: And I got to that room in less than a
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: couple of minutes. Now, no drug hits you that hard.
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: So then I suspected he wasn't asleep or out of
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: it at all. He was wide awake and just faking
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: it just to see how I would handle him. He
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: tested us a lot of times like that. End quote.
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: So Elvis was an undercover cop even before he was
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: an undercover cop, it seems like. There's also a famous
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: story about a time when Elvis orchestrated a fake gunfight,
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: including loaded guns that were loaded with blanks, fortunately, where
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: it appeared that he and everyone else in the room
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: had been shot dead all in the name of pranking
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: a friend of theirs. So Elvis didn't just love law
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: enforcement in America. He also loved shenanigans and plots and
• 25:14
  Speaker 6: plans and covert surveillance and pretending to be someone else.
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: It was also clear that in 1977, Elvis had some
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: big changes planned. Case in point, told several members of
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: his entourage that they should look for other work because
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: he wasn't going to be touring as much the year
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: after that. When one of them asked what he meant,
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: he just said, look for other work. He was also
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: slowly starting to fire the members of the Memphis Mafia,
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: which was the name given to his inner circle of
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: family members and friends and employees. He'd also taken to
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: ending his shows on his last tour by saying adios.
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: which I get seems like a minor thing, but it's
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: still not a thing he'd been doing up to that point.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: He added a cover of My Way by Frank Sinatra
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: to his set list on his final tour, which is
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: very much a song about a person reflecting on the
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: work that they've done and accomplished. He also said this
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: to his stepbrother Rick at one point on that last tour. Quote,
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: End quote. Speaking of all that, there are a few
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: chapters in this book that cover Elvis's fascination with numerology
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: and symbolism and things of the like, and how it
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: could have played into his decision to fake his death.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: But it all sounds like gibberish to me, and I'm
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: not going to get into it. Not that I think
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: Gale is wrong. If Elvis was into numbers the way
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: people say he was, then the date he is alleged
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: to have died does work out from a long, convoluted
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: numerology standpoint that I just do not feel like talking
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: about on this episode. Instead, let's talk about Kalamazoo, Michigan.
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: Against all odds, the bulk of the claimed post-death Elvis
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: sightings happened in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan. Before we get
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: into them, please make note of this exchange Elvis had
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: with the audience at a show in December 1976, less
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: than a year before he died.
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: Elvis.
• 27:12
  Speaker 6: Honey, I don't even live in Tennessee. That's all a joke.
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: I live in, uh, no audience.
• 27:18
  Speaker 7: L.A.
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: Alabama? Honolulu? Elvis. Uh, no, I don't.
• 27:23
  Speaker 7: No.
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: That place in Michigan. Audience. Lansing?
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: Really?
• 27:27
  Speaker 6: They went Lansing first?
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: Pontiac?
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: Detroit?
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: Grand Rapids? Elvis. No, not Lansing. Not Panic. Not Pontiac.
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: What's that place? Kalamazoo. I know, that could be and
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: probably is just a joke. But weirdly, the Kalamazoo connections
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: don't even sort of end there. For starters, the day
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: after he died, the Kalamazoo Gazette ran a story with
• 27:48
  Speaker 6: the headline that said, quote, Elvis saw Kalamazoo incognito. End quote.
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: That was all about how he talked about how much
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: he loved Kalamazoo and the way people treated him there.
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: That's all, though. Just joking. Have you ever heard of
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: Muhammad Ali? Turns out he and Elvis were really close friends. Now,
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: guess who owned a huge ranch in Kalamazoo, Michigan around
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: this time? Goddamn right it was Muhammad Ali. Here's a
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: quote from a 1979 interview with Modern People magazine with
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: Muhammad Ali. Quote, My close personal friend Elvis came to
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: my Deer Lake training camp about two years before he died.
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: He told us he didn't want nobody to bother us.
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: He wanted peace and quiet, and I gave him a
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: cabin in my camp, and nobody even knew it. When
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: the camera started watching me train... He was up on
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: the hill sleeping in the cabin. End quote. Worth noting,
• 28:37
  Speaker 6: Deer Lake is just outside Kalamazoo. There's also the strange
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: case of Wayne Newton. He's actually going to come up
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: later also, but at a Kalamazoo show in 1990, Wayne
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: Newton addressed the audience and asked if anyone had seen
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: him walking that day. When no one responded, he said, quote,
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: Do you mean no one saw me out walking today?
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: See?
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: That's how Elvis does it. In fact, Elvis was with me.
• 29:02
  Speaker 6: He loves this brisk weather. End quote. And, yeah, that's
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: just jokes. But then also there's that time Wayne Newton
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: went on a radio show a year later. And when
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: someone asked him about Elvis, he said, quote, There is
• 29:13
  Speaker 6: no doubt in my mind that Elvis' soul is not
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: fulfilled yet, and we will be seeing him again, too.
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: End quote. Once again, Wayne Newton... does have ties to
• 29:24
  Speaker 6: the FBI investigation that Elvis is alleged to have participated in.
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: We'll get there. But back to Kalamazoo. There were a
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: bunch of reported sightings of a guy who called himself
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: John Burroughs, who looked a whole lot like Elvis himself.
• 29:40
  Speaker 6: spotted in and around an office building in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: A woman named Kelly Burgess, who worked as an editorial
• 29:47
  Speaker 6: feature writer and columnist at Detroit News, claimed she looked
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: into the Kalamazoo sightings and ended up face-to-face with Elvis himself.
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: This is Kelly talking about it on The Billy Goodman Show.
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: You know the one. in 1988.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: It's time now to find out what Elvis Presley looks
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: like today. Kelly, everybody's on the edge of their seats.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: They're waiting to hear you describe Elvis Presley when you
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: saw him in August of this year, 1988. Kelly, what
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: does Elvis Presley look like?
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: He was about six foot, maybe 195 pounds, still with
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: a small pot going. He looked real good. He had
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: a head, a very thick head of white hair without sideburns.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: His hair was kind of done up in kind of
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: a boyish haircut. His same mouth, same high cheekbones. I mean,
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: it was Elvis. Anyway, I followed him into the construction office,
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: and he sat down at his desk, and he put
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: his head down, He spoke very little in the short
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: time that I saw him. I thought he was looking
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: for a pen to give me so I could write
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: my number down, and evidently he didn't find one and
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: I didn't find one, so I ripped out a deposit
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: slip from my checkbook and handed it to him. And
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: he said, all right, Kelly, and I left. And after that,
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: I did get several hang-ups, and hold-ons on my answering machine.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: It was quite an experience. I will never forget it
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: for the rest of my life.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't think you would.
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: I mean, his presence was just electrifying.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Like everybody else.
• 31:44
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: You knew what was in the vibrations, and everything that
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: goes with it.
• 31:47
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: That was Elvis.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: What a great story.
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: Kelly, I understand that you're writing a book.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, I am.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: What's it going to be about?
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: It's going to be about Elvis Presley from 1977 to 1988.
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: You want to tell us what.
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: He's been doing for the past? How about giving us
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: some inside information?
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: No, I'm sorry, I can't.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: Oh, boy.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: There you have the story.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Elvis is alive and well in Kalamazoo, Michigan. At least
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: he was in August of 1988, according to Kelly Burgess.
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: I'll link to that full interview in the show notes
• 32:18
  Speaker 6: if anyone wants to hear it. Did Elvis really flee
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: to Kalamazoo? I don't know. I doubt it. If anything,
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: I could see this being a red herring meant to
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: send people looking in the wrong direction. But maybe not.
• 32:31
  Speaker 6: Did you catch the part in that interview where Kelly
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: Burgess said she was writing a book about Elvis's life
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: from 1977 to 1988? Well, Gail Brewer-Giorgio says she talked
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: to Kelly Burgess about this interview and her book She
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: asked Kelly if she got a picture of Elvis that day.
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: Kelly said she didn't want to say, which obviously means yes.
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: But Gail says Kelly also told her that in the
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: course of researching her book, she uncovered information that was
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: frightening and dangerous and that she felt like the best
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: course of action was to not get involved anymore. Gail
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: says she asked Kelly if the information she uncovered involved
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: the mob. She says Kelly confirmed that it did. Now,
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: Gale leaves us on that cliffhanger and then moves on
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: to a couple of chapters about that medical examiner's report
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: and the alleged phone call from Elvis. Most of that
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: is either stuff I've already talked about in the series or,
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: in the case of that phone call, something I don't
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: find all that compelling as far as evidence goes. Also,
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: when it comes to the inconsistencies with the medical examiner's
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: report and the conflicting accounts of what position the body
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: was in when Elvis was found... stuff like that, it's
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: kind of a meaningless talking point if Gale's theory here
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: is correct. For one thing, it would raise the obvious
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: question of who was in that autopsy room when that
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: report was done. And I think, again, if Gale's theory
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: is correct... The most obvious answer is no one. Because
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: the explanation a lot of fans have come up with,
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: and one that Gale references a few times in both
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: of the books I've read, is that Elvis was approached
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: by a man who was dying of cancer, who also
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: happened to look exactly like Elvis, and... In exchange for
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: making sure that that man's family was financially secure for life,
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: he agreed to be the body double in Elvis' plot
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: to fake his death. Shut the fuck up. There is
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: no way that happened. If it did, it kind of
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: implies Elvis and his team consensually killed a guy to
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: make this plot work? Either that or he died on
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: the exact day they needed him to, which also seems unlikely.
• 34:45
  Speaker 6: That whole part of the story is obviously highly unlikely.
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: The way easier course of action here would be to
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: just pay people to lie. Elvis could afford that. The
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: government could afford that. And the people of Memphis fucking
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: loved Elvis. There would be no shortage of people, especially
• 35:04
  Speaker 6: in his inner circle, people who knew him, who would
• 35:07
  Speaker 6: be more than willing to get paid to lie about
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: what happened at Graceland or in the autopsy room or anywhere. Also,
• 35:16
  Speaker 6: we're talking about the American government. They can always just
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: blackmail people into complying with especially if a lot of
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: them are deeply involved in illegally buying and distributing prescription drugs,
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: as we know they were on account of that 2020 report.
• 35:31
  Speaker 6: I can't prove that's what happened, but it's obviously a
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: thing that could happen. And I know what you're going
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: to say, okay, but someone would have talked eventually. For starters,
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: are you sure? What makes you so sure someone would
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: have talked? Especially if this was a situation where Elvis
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: genuinely feared for his and his family's safety. Who among
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: this icon's inner circle would be willing to spill the
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: beans for whatever piss-ant sum of money the National Enquirer
• 35:58
  Speaker 6: would be willing to pay them if they knew it
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: meant putting his life at risk? Just a reminder, the
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: Elvis machine generated way more money after he died than
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: it ever did when he was alive. There was enough
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: money to keep people quiet. And follow-up question, if someone
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: did come forward and talk, would you believe them? Here's
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: Gene Smith, Elvis' cousin, talking about what Elvis looked like
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: in his casket during that public viewing.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Silently, mourners passed by to say their final farewells. Elvis' cousin,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Gene Smith, felt he had to personally say goodbye to
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the man he had loved so much.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: When we viewed the body for the last time, I
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: stood there quite a while, looking at his hands. Of course,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: he was always breaking bricks with his hands. He had
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: calluses on the bottom of his hand and big old
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: rough-looking knuckles. His nose looked kind of pokey-looking and his
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: right sideburn was sticking out straight out about an inch.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: And his hairline was It looked as if it had
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: been a hairpiece or something glued on somewhere. It just
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: didn't look right. And his hands were just as smooth
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: as a newborn baby's behind, you know. And it seemed
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: like there was sweat around his hairline. It could have
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: been sweat. It could have been glue. I don't know.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: But I just didn't believe it was him.
• 37:48
  Speaker 6: So do you believe him? Because that's someone coming forward
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: and talking. And he seems to have some serious reservations
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: about what Elvis looked like in his coffin. I think
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: the part about his hands not having any calluses or
• 38:02
  Speaker 6: bruises is actually pretty fucking huge. Why weren't there calluses?
• 38:06
  Speaker 6: Why weren't there bruises?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Or bruises?
• 38:09
  Speaker 6: Is Gene Smith lying? You decide. And if you do
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: think Elvis' cousin is just lying about that, who would
• 38:15
  Speaker 6: it have to be for you to accept their story
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: is true? Priscilla? If Priscilla Presley said it, would you
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: believe that? Or would you think Priscilla Presley's just old
• 38:24
  Speaker 6: and Joe Biden-ing out a little bit? What if it
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: was a retired FBI agent or retired military agent? retired
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: law enforcement, because those people show up in documentaries about
• 38:35
  Speaker 6: conspiracy theories all the time, especially if you're talking UFOs.
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: Do you believe in UFOs yet? Probably not. So yeah,
• 38:43
  Speaker 6: someone would have come forward if everyone was paid to lie,
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: and they probably have, and no one believed him. Reminder,
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: Elvis was actually able to go out in public as
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: long as he just looked like the Elvis the public
• 38:56
  Speaker 6: knew and loved, because no one would ever believe it
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: was really him. And that's when he was alive. Do
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: you think any of those same people would believe it if, say,
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: his former touring bassist or some shit came forward and said,
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: you know what? Elvis did actually fake his death. No,
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: you wouldn't. So yeah, when it comes to the medical
• 39:15
  Speaker 6: examiner's report, the sightings in Kalamazoo, the phone calls to Gale,
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: all of that seems like it would just be smokescreen stuff,
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: if Gale's theory is correct. Also, it's been pointed out
• 39:27
  Speaker 6: a bunch of times over the years that there were
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: no photographs taken of the body, there were no fingerprints taken,
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: there were no dental prints made, and there was no
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: analysis of the stomach contents. Again, let's Occam's razor that.
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: Is that because the person who did the autopsy is
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: a sloppy doctor who just doesn't pay attention to detail?
• 39:47
  Speaker 7: No!
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: He was actually known to be a very competent medical examiner.
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: I think the really simple explanation for all that is
• 39:54
  Speaker 6: there was never a body to autopsy. There was no
• 39:56
  Speaker 6: autopsy done. I think all involved parties to Elvis's autopsy
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: are lying. That, again, strikes me as the easiest and
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: most obvious explanation. I know human error happens. The doctor
• 40:11
  Speaker 6: who was overseeing this did not have a history of
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: being a sloppy doctor. And if he did, I don't
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: think it would have started with his work on the
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: most famous autopsy. rock star of all time. That said,
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: the medical examiner's report isn't completely unimportant. The date it
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: was released, October 21st, 1977, matters a whole lot. We'll
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: get there in a second. First, let me run a
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: name by you. Frederick Peter There's a document somewhere in
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: the Elvis FBI files, according to Gail, where Frederick Pro's
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: name is listed as Frederick N. Pro. Someone corrected this
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: on the file in question, so it reflected the name
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: Frederick Peter Pro. According to Gail Brewer-Giorgio's claims and the
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: handwriting expert she contacted, the handwriting on that document correcting
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: that name matches the handwriting of none other person. than
• 41:06
  Speaker 6: Elvis Presley himself. Here's a clip from the Bill Bixby
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: TV documentary.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, Paul, you have seen these documents.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: What is your conclusion?
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: Yes, I certainly have, Bill. This first one, I don't
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: know if they can see it or not, but we
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: have Frederick N. Poole, NL Elvis A. Presley, deceased victim.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: This little circle down here in this cross indicates they
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: should delete this, and here's what was written above to
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: change it and correct it. N-A-M, short for name, they
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: left off the E, Frederick Peter Pro. This handwriting was
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: compared with known handwriting of Elvis Presley, and it matches very,
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: very closely.
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: All right, what about the one that says to Memphis?
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: All right, this is the one that says to Memphis here.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: And this is also references Frederick Peter Pohl, Elvis Presley, deceased, victim.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: And down here on the bottom, we see 0.73 to Memphis, 81578.
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: I have compared this to known handwriting of Elvis Presley's
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: and find that this also matches very, very favorably to
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: the handwriting.
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: Now, to what did you compare all of this writing?
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: I had a great deal of... a great number of
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: samples of his own handwriting. Number one, of course, was
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: the Nixon letter, the letter that he wrote in 1970
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: to President Nixon. I had several canceled checks written by
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: Elvis Presley. I had a Christmas gift list. I had
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: a letter to some other friends. And now that's on
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: a document dated four months after he is believed to
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: have died.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: I'm no handwriting expert, so I don't know if it
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: really does match or not, but I will tell you.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: That Frederick Peter Pro is an absolutely crucial name here.
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: Because you might recall from when I've brought this up
• 43:01
  Speaker 6: previously that the crime syndicate Elvis was allegedly helping the
• 43:05
  Speaker 6: FBI investigate was called the Fraternity. One of the most
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: common objections to this theory is that the Fraternity is
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: never mentioned in the Elvis FBI files. And that is
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: hair splitting of the highest order. No, that particular name
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: is not in the files. But the name Frederick Peter
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: Proe a confirmed member of the criminal syndicate in question
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: is all over those files, including one that lists Elvis
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: Presley as the victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by Frederick Proe.
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: So all those articles that want to tell you that
• 43:45
  Speaker 6: the fraternity isn't mentioned, sure, but Frederick Peter Proe is.
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: Speaking of those FBI files, Gail was able to obtain
• 43:55
  Speaker 6: them after they were declassified in 1985. And what she
• 43:59
  Speaker 6: says she found in them is pretty damn interesting. For example,
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: guess what year Operation Fountain Pen started? 1974, the same
• 44:07
  Speaker 6: year the DEA says Elvis started giving an undercover agent
• 44:11
  Speaker 6: a cover job in his band as a means of
• 44:13
  Speaker 6: furthering their investigations. She says the FBI described the fraternity as, quote,
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: By the time the investigation started, it was claimed the
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: group had already swindled their assorted victims out of $ 3 billion.
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: As for Elvis.
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: I've mentioned before that the gist of what happened to
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: him is that in 1976, this group swindled him out
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: of an airplane and $ 400, 000. The details of how all
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: that happened are kind of long and technical and boring.
• 44:49
  Speaker 6: It involves bounce checks and failed loans and all sorts
• 44:53
  Speaker 6: of other non-sexy stuff. I don't want to get into it.
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: Let's let Bill Bixby tell you how it went down instead.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Our story begins in May of 1976, when Elvis wanted
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: to sell one of his airplanes. Besides the famous Lisa Marie,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Elvis owned three smaller jets, a Lockheed Jetstar, a Jet Commander,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: and a Dassault Falcon. In early 1976, Elvis told his father,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: who handled all of his personal finances, that he wanted
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: to sell the Jetstar. Vernon was loyal to his son,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: but was apparently not a very good businessman. Vernon was
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: introduced to a man named Frederick Peter Pro in May
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: of 1976. Pro talked Vernon into getting involved with a
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: very complicated leasing arrangement with his company. The Jetstar wasn't airworthy,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: and Pro also said he would facilitate repairs. But Frederick
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Peter Pro was, in reality, a con man, a member
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: of a criminal group called the Fraternity, a group with
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: direct ties to organized crimes. It has been estimated that
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the fraternity managed to con at least $ 2 billion from
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: people all over the world. And by the spring of 1977,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: according to an attorney familiar with the case, the Presley
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: estate had lost more than a million dollars.
• 46:12
  Speaker 6: Now, what I do find interesting is Gale's explanation for
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: a plot hole that came up for me in all
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: of this. If Elvis was already helping with the investigation
• 46:22
  Speaker 6: into this group by 1974, how would he have still
• 46:26
  Speaker 6: managed to get swindled by them? in 1976. He should
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: have known about them by now. Before we get to
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: the explanation, I should mention that, at least according to Gale,
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: and as you'd expect anyway, getting witnesses to testify against
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: this group was a tall order on account of how
• 46:42
  Speaker 6: people didn't want to get murdered. Also mentioned, Elvis's airplane broker,
• 46:47
  Speaker 6: he had a few planes, was a guy named Nigel
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: Winfield who, as it turned out, was at least friendly
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: with several members of the fraternity, including Frederick Peter Pro.
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: Now here's a quote from Gale from the book. Upon
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: discovering that Winfield is Presley's airplane broker, is it possible
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: that the FBI began contemplating End quote. I think that
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: is a reasonable explanation, personally. What if, instead of being
• 47:10
  Speaker 6: a victim, Elvis and his dad were... just setting these
• 47:25
  Speaker 6: people up. Because why? Elvis wanted to be a fucking cop.
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: Once again, it is a long and winding road between
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: meeting Frederick Peter Pro and getting swindled. And it's way
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: too much to go over here. You can read about
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: it in any number of Gale Brewer Giorgio's books out there.
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: But if you dive into those details, you'll note there
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: are several points where Vernon Presley, Elvis's dad, and the
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: man who handled his money, for lack of a better
• 47:52
  Speaker 6: way to put it, He should have just known better.
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: The leeway and the trust Elvis and his dad extend
• 47:59
  Speaker 6: to this relative stranger who shows up in their lives,
• 48:02
  Speaker 6: writes a bunch of bad checks, and then flies away
• 48:05
  Speaker 6: with an ill-gotten airplane is astounding. It's almost as if
• 48:11
  Speaker 6: they wanted to get swindled. And again, it was this crime...
• 48:16
  Speaker 6: that led to the evidence that the feds needed to
• 48:19
  Speaker 6: start arresting the members of this group. In the penultimate
• 48:22
  Speaker 6: chapter of Elvis is Alive, Gail Brewer Georgia runs through
• 48:26
  Speaker 6: a timeline of both the last years of Elvis's public
• 48:29
  Speaker 6: life and the events of the government's case against Frederick
• 48:33
  Speaker 6: Peter Proe. There is a lot of weirdness. There are
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: a lot of dates that line up, including, remember when
• 48:39
  Speaker 6: Wayne Newton came up earlier, The part where he told
• 48:41
  Speaker 6: an audience in Kalamazoo that he was out walking with
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: Elvis earlier that day, even though it was the 90s
• 48:47
  Speaker 6: by then. The part where Wayne Newton said he'd did
• 48:50
  Speaker 6: not believe Elvis' soul is fulfilled and that we will
• 48:53
  Speaker 6: see him again. Well, here's another weird coincidence. At one
• 48:56
  Speaker 6: point during the investigation, the FBI finds out that Frederick
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: Proe tried to have an associate who'd stolen money from
• 49:02
  Speaker 6: him killed. And the person he contracted for the hit
• 49:06
  Speaker 6: was a guy named Melvin Weinberg. Unbeknownst to him, Weinberg
• 49:10
  Speaker 6: was already cooperating with the FBI on account of how
• 49:14
  Speaker 6: he'd been caught in a scheme very similar to the
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: one Pro polled on Elvis, except Weinberg's target was, among others,
• 49:21
  Speaker 6: Wayne Newton. Small world. I won't go through the entire
• 49:25
  Speaker 6: timeline as laid out in the book, as it's several
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: pages long. But among the weird details, for some reason,
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: starting a few months before he died, Elvis was in
• 49:34
  Speaker 6: contact with President Jimmy Carter.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: A bunch.
• 49:37
  Speaker 6: Please note, that's not Nixon. It's not the president he
• 49:40
  Speaker 6: met up with to get his DEA badge. No, this
• 49:44
  Speaker 6: is another administration in the midst of a huge FBI investigation.
• 49:49
  Speaker 6: And just months before Elvis dies, he's on the horn
• 49:53
  Speaker 6: with Jimmy Carter. White House logs confirm this. One of
• 49:58
  Speaker 6: those calls happened on June 14th, 1977, a day after
• 50:02
  Speaker 6: Elvis tried to call the White House twice. In this case,
• 50:06
  Speaker 6: it was President Carter calling Elvis. They talked for about
• 50:10
  Speaker 6: six minutes. The next call Carter received, again, according to
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: White House logs, that you can see in this book,
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: was from Peter Bensinger, administrator of the DEA, the law
• 50:21
  Speaker 6: enforcement outfit that made Elvis an agent at large. There
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: were also calls between Elvis and the White House on
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: June 15, 1977. So that's all interesting, yeah? There's also
• 50:33
  Speaker 6: the disparity between how Elvis looks in his infamous TV special,
• 50:38
  Speaker 6: which was filmed on June 21, 1977, and how he
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: looked at his final concert a few days later. on
• 50:44
  Speaker 6: June 26, 1977. On that TV special, everyone has commented
• 50:50
  Speaker 6: on it in the years since. He looks bloated. He
• 50:53
  Speaker 6: looks sweaty. Looks like he can barely move. He looks
• 50:56
  Speaker 6: like he's in a really bad way. Well, I'll link
• 50:59
  Speaker 6: to it. You can also find video of that Indianapolis
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: concert for yourself on YouTube. And he looks remarkably healthier
• 51:06
  Speaker 6: five short days later. Go watch... That TV special. Not
• 51:12
  Speaker 6: the whole thing, but just the part near the end
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: where they're really tight in close on his face while
• 51:18
  Speaker 6: he's singing. I'm sorry, it kind of looks like someone
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: who's dolled up to look like a fat person. Like
• 51:24
  Speaker 6: he looks like he's wearing prosthetics. Also worth noting, the
• 51:28
  Speaker 6: Operation Fountain Pen investigation originated with the FBI field office
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: in Indianapolis. So many complete and total coincidences here, huh?
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: How about this one, where from June to August 1977,
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: memos and reports between the Memphis FBI field office and
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: FBI headquarters involving the Elvis case are going back and forth.
• 51:51
  Speaker 6: One of them mentions that they're looking to present the
• 51:53
  Speaker 6: Elvis case. the Frederick Proe case, to a grand jury
• 51:57
  Speaker 6: on or before August 15th, 1977. That is precisely one
• 52:02
  Speaker 6: day prior to the day Elvis died. Again, just another
• 52:07
  Speaker 6: shocking coincidence. On August 18th, 1977, Elvis was initially laid
• 52:12
  Speaker 6: to rest in a secured mausoleum at Forest Hill Cemetery.
• 52:16
  Speaker 6: On October 2nd, the bodies moved to Graceland and put
• 52:19
  Speaker 6: under tight security after someone attempts to break into that mausoleum.
• 52:23
  Speaker 6: Was that just vandals? Or was it someone looking to
• 52:25
  Speaker 6: confirm Elvis was actually dead? Who knows? What we do
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: know is that on October 18th, 1977, Frederick Peter Pro
• 52:35
  Speaker 6: was arrested in connection to the Elvis case. On October 19th, 1977,
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: news of that case becomes public. And before anyone can
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: even ask if his death and that case are related,
• 52:49
  Speaker 6: on October 21st, 1977. Two days later, after news of
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: this case breaks, Dr. Jerry Francisco very conveniently, finally, releases
• 53:00
  Speaker 6: his controversial report claiming Elvis died of a drug overdose.
• 53:05
  Speaker 6: And the question of whether that is true becomes the
• 53:09
  Speaker 6: whole entire controversy for a long time after that, thanks
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: in large part to a news report by the always
• 53:16
  Speaker 6: reliable and trustworthy Geraldo Rivera of working for the American
• 53:21
  Speaker 6: Broadcasting Company. Again, none of this is conclusive proof, but
• 53:27
  Speaker 6: I think if you're being honest with yourself, you have
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: to admit there is a little bit of fire to
• 53:33
  Speaker 6: go along with the smoke when it comes to the
• 53:35
  Speaker 6: idea that Elvis maybe participated in a law enforcement investigation
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: and had to fake his death over it. People aren't
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: just making this shit up out of thin air.
• 53:48
  Speaker 7: You know?
• 53:48
  Speaker 6: Oh, this was long for a solo episode. My God.
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: And we're not even done. Again, there's another Bill Bixby
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: special that I want to cover on the next episode.
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: I think I'll probably have a guest on. Maybe they'll
• 54:01
  Speaker 6: watch both of them and we'll see how they feel
• 54:04
  Speaker 6: about Gale Brewer-Giorgio's opinions and theories. But until then, that's
• 54:09
  Speaker 6: where we stand. I am sorry. I think Elvis was
• 54:14
  Speaker 6: just a cop at the end of his public life.
• 54:17
  Speaker 6: I said it at the top of the episode and
• 54:20
  Speaker 6: I will say it again. Occam's razor, baby. Elvis got
• 54:23
  Speaker 6: a DEA badge and became a DEA agent. That's what happened,
• 54:26
  Speaker 6: I think. Anyway, that's it for now. Thank you, everyone,
• 54:30
  Speaker 6: for listening to me yell at a microphone for a
• 54:33
  Speaker 6: solid hour. Check out adamtybrown.substack.com. And thanks. We love you. Goodbye.
• 54:39
  Speaker 6: We who? Me and Elvis.
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: People of Earth, your planet is about to be destroyed.
• 54:59
  Speaker 7: Your planet is about to be destroyed.