Did Elvis Fake His Death? The Conspiracy Show, with Richard Syrett, Ep.206

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The Conspiracy Show with Richard Syrett Season 2 Episode 6 Did Elvis Fake His Death?  Richard travels to Memphis, Nashville, Fort Worth, Texas, and Washington DC for a serious investigation of the long-held, often parodied, theory that Elvis Presley did not die on August 16th, 1977 but faked his death for a variety of supposed reasons. Jokes of Elvis sightings in Kalamazoo, Michigan aside, there is a considerable volume of evidence to suggest Elvis may not have left the building, evidence that is worthy of consideration. Why didn't Elvis' family cash his life insurance claim with Lloyd's of London? Why did several witnesses at the funeral comment that Elvis' body looked fake? Richard interviews several Elvis investigators, including a member of the LA County Sheriff's Department who has been investigating the 'Elvis is Alive' theory since the late 70s and a noted Elvis historian who steadfastly argues the King is Dead.   Broadcast personality Richard Syrett creates a calm, rational platform on which stars from the worlds of conspiracy thought, the paranormal, alternate health can engage in high quality discourse in these subject arenas.  Director: Jalal Merhi  Writer: Richard Syrett  Stars: Richard Crouse, Patrick Lacey, Paul Monroe

Transcript

00:00Welcome to the Conspiracy Show. My name is Richard Serrett.

00:13On August 16, 1977, the undisputed king of rock and roll passed from this earth, found

00:19face down in the shag carpeting in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

00:25Just from the moment news of his supposed death hit the news media, there were those who

00:29doubted that he was really dead. Wishful thinking? Simple denial? Tonight, The Conspiracy Show

00:37investigates claims and examines new evidence that Elvis not only faked his death, but that

00:43he is alive to this day, living in complete anonymity in a secret location. First, a prominent

00:50rock and roll investigator lays out the whole Elvis is Alive legend. And then, we'll hear

00:55from a member of the Elvis underground who claims to have first-hand knowledge that the

00:59king is still with us. We'll also meet a retired member of the LA Sheriff's Department who has

01:05been investigating reports that Elvis is alive since 1977. And of course, we'll get a skeptical

01:12perspective from researchers who remain convinced Elvis has left the building. Me? I'm just

01:19like you. I want the truth. And I'm willing to follow the truth wherever it leads. Friends,

01:25it is time to redefine reality.

01:28Genetic enigma?

01:29Or a human alien?

01:31There was at least two guns. One was firing from the nose.

01:34Is it possible?

01:35Technology can alter weather patterns.

01:37Created by the corporation of Australia.

01:39Has been engineered by the Illuminati?

01:42There's no doubt.

01:43This is the famous RCA Victor recording studio here in Nashville. After Elvis' initial recordings

01:48with Sun Records, his contract was purchased by RCA. And of course, he made some of his most famous

01:53recordings right here in this building. I guess the question is, if Elvis faked his death

01:58and is still alive today, does he occasionally still show up here to lay down a few tracks?

02:03Two weeks before August 16th, Elvis canceled his tour, fired half his entourage. Two weeks later,

02:12of course, August 16th was when the shenanigans began.

02:23Paul, why are you so convinced that Elvis didn't die August 16th, 1977?

02:28Because the bank account statement showed the checks, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 checks to people.

02:36The checks were written at Elvis' bank and signed by Elvis.

02:41And that morning, around 9.30, a courier delivered a package that Elvis signed.

02:48That piece of paper is still in existence. It just doesn't add up.

02:54There's no way possible you could be sitting on the toilet, signing checks, answering the door and everything else.

03:01I remain a skeptic myself. However, I can't ignore some of the things that came up that I can't explain.

03:08Right after his death, I had another deputy show me some photos supposedly of Elvis getting into a helicopter

03:20with some suited guys with dark glasses.

03:24He told me this was taken supposedly several hours after Elvis was allegedly dead.

03:32You know, that's the mysterious black helicopters, and they were flying over Graceland.

03:37A conspiracy idea that he was lifted out and maybe a body was taken and put in place.

03:47And one of the great rumors was that Elvis weighed over 250 pounds when he died.

03:51But on the autopsy report, the weight said 170.

03:54So the idea of the missing body being exchanged.

03:57But, you know, I think that's where the black helicopter comes in.

04:00But all great conspiracy theories have black helicopters, right?

04:03Yes. There was a man that fit his exact description that left a helicopter from the back of Graceland.

04:12Someone who looked like Elvis? Well, I don't know if you've looked at photos from the other people that were living in that house.

04:17But a lot of people kind of looked like Elvis who were living in that house, especially if you saw them from a distance.

04:27Elvis is someone who traveled by a private jet. He would take helicopters around.

04:32It was probably a fairly common occurrence to see a helicopter land at Graceland.

04:37Even maybe so the day before or the day of his death.

04:40I recall the story, and this sets up one of the great clues of the wax dummy in the coffin.

04:46And a lot of people would look at the body and they'd say, you know, that's not Elvis.

04:50It looks like a dummy. It looks like it's made out of wax.

04:53The body in the casket looked somewhat waxen.

04:57Right.

04:58And one mentioned that he had a pug nose. Elvis didn't have a pug nose.

05:01His hands were too smooth, but they would have been calloused because he was into the martial arts.

05:06Right.

05:07The other thing about it, that a sideburn had fallen off and had to be glued back.

05:11One mentioned beads of sweat or condensation.

05:14Somewhere between two and three hundred people that reported sweat beads.

05:19They actually saw beads of perspiration.

05:21All adding up to the possibility that the body was in fact made of wax.

05:26The Elvis that was in that coffin was a thin-looking 1950s Elvis.

05:32The reason the coffin was so heavy is there's an air conditioner that was placed in the bottom of the coffin

05:38to help keep the wax dummy cool so that it wouldn't melt.

05:42It was about a nine hundred pound casket. That makes perfect sense.

05:46And weren't there eight or twelve?

05:48There was twelve.

05:49Palm barriers, yeah.

05:51If it was in fact a wax Elvis that was inside this coffin, which I don't believe, by the way.

05:56But if it was, maybe to avoid what happened to Charlie Chaplin when people dug up the body and tried to make off with it.

06:02Or maybe people were just sort of imagining things.

06:04I mean, there is talk that the pug nose came from Elvis when he died, he fell over.

06:10And the idea is that he fell, literally, you know, did a face plant into the floor.

06:16Some people saw pudgy hands. Others didn't.

06:18Some people said that he was thin. Others said that he had gained fifty pounds.

06:21It just sort of gives a shroud of confusion that seems to hang over this whole thing.

06:26Of course, if you weren't really dead, you wouldn't want your actual, full, correctly spelled name on a tombstone.

06:37I mean, who would, right?

06:39Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

06:44He lived in Memphis.

06:45But when it came time to make music, he came here.

06:48Music City, USA, Nashville.

06:51We're going to discuss whether or not it's possible Elvis Aaron Presley did not, in fact, leave the building.

06:58Talk to me about the controversy surrounding the casket.

07:03No U.S. flag. The significance of that.

07:06Elvis was a veteran.

07:08And when Elvis died, a lot of people thought it was odd that Vernon did not have an American flag draped over Elvis' coffin,

07:16because he did make it to the rank of sergeant.

07:18But I'm not too sure how Vernon felt about the government taking Elvis into the Army and drafting him,

07:25because he felt like Elvis was really doing a lot for the United States government money-wise,

07:30and now they sort of betrayed him and took him into the Army.

07:33Vernon was never a fan of Elvis being in the Army, and they didn't have taps played or they didn't have the gun salute.

07:39When I spoke to the gentleman who worked at the Memphis Funeral Home at the time,

07:42and he said that while a lot of people put flags on their casket, that was never mentioned to Vernon,

07:48and it was not offered, nor was it asked for.

07:50They had told the funeral home, please handle the arrangements.

07:57And Vernon, in his condition, was not going to be consulting with them.

08:02So they were given pretty much a blank check, do what you think is appropriate, and that's what they did.

08:06So where the claim came from that Vernon was asked that about the flag and that he refused the flag, I don't know.

08:13But the gentleman who worked for the funeral home says that that did not happen.

08:17Elvis was superstitious, and you want to fake death, so if he's going to fake it, he's not going to give death a chance to come and get him.

08:23So you would say, well, I would have a flag on my funeral.

08:26Well, since I'm not really dead, let's just put roses, you know, so when I do die, I can do the funeral the way it should be.

08:32And hence the spelling on the tombstone and everything else.

08:35Of course, if you weren't really dead, you wouldn't want your actual, full, correctly spelled name on a tombstone.

08:44I mean, who would, right?

08:47The apparent misspelling of Elvis' middle name, Aaron, on the tombstone, which is significant because when Elvis was born,

08:53and it was misspelled, spelled with two A's on his birth certificate, apparently Vernon went to great lengths to get that corrected on his birth certificate.

09:03And yet, on the tombstone, it was spelled with two A's.

09:07After 1965 or 1966, he had wanted to go to the state of Mississippi and have his name changed.

09:14When he found out that it was already changed to the double A, they left it at that.

09:18But his father knew that he wanted to make that change.

09:21So to say that Vernon misspelled it is not accurate.

09:24He knew that Elvis wanted the double A spelling and that's why it's on the gravestone.

09:29If Elvis faked his death, what would some of the reasons, what might have been some of the motives for doing that?

09:36Okay.

09:37Why Elvis would fake his death, the first reason was he was too famous.

09:41He had to rent whole movie theaters out after midnight so he could bring his friends in and they could watch film.

09:48Or when he took his daughter out for a birthday, he had to rent the entire amusement park, close it out and use it.

09:54So that here he was a prisoner of his own fame at Graceland.

09:57That was one.

09:58The second one was that Elvis, when he met Richard Nixon and got his special badge for the drug enforcement,

10:05that he had turned in some huge drug ring involving the mafia and that they were taking a contract out on his life.

10:13So Elvis was put into witness protection.

10:16Much has been made that he was a federal agent, that Richard Nixon made him a federal agent.

10:21Well, that simply never happened.

10:23Elvis, who knows in what state of mind, contacted Nixon and said,

10:28listen, I've got contacts all over the music industry.

10:31I can help you.

10:32I could root out the evil that is drugs.

10:34Meanwhile, his clothes are literally rattling with little jars of pills that he has tucked away in all his pockets.

10:40And because he's Elvis Presley, he gets to meet the president.

10:43Because he's Elvis Presley, he gets more than just a set of cufflinks that all the other VIPs get.

10:47Because he's Elvis Presley, he got a badge.

10:49And he got a badge that made him something like a special enforcer for the, which was, it doesn't mean there's no such position.

10:57Elvis had apparently taken part in an FBI sting called Project Fountain Pen, which sent some mobsters to jail.

11:05Because one of Elvis's jets, I believe, had been leased by these mobsters.

11:12Vernon was a horrible money manager.

11:15And it was the mob that basically extorted money out of Elvis and Vernon, and they got in a plane.

11:24And eventually, Frederick Peter Perot along with the rest of his cronies were busted and served their time.

11:34Regarding Operation Fountain Pen, that was an FBI investigation that was actually quite broad.

11:38It didn't focus on Elvis. Elvis was just a part of it.

11:41Well, a lot of people don't know about this, and I spoke to the gentleman who put Operation Fountain Pen together,

11:46and was actually working undercover on the case, on Elvis' part of it,

11:50is that Elvis didn't know about Operation Fountain Pen.

11:53Vernon didn't know about Operation Fountain Pen.

11:55He was never actually a federal agent, which very likely means he was never involved in an FBI operation to take down anybody.

12:04I got an anonymous tip that Elvis Presley's credit history was showing up,

12:09that someone was searching his credit history for a loan.

12:16The Lloyds of London life insurance policy that went uncashed after his death,

12:23apparently it's not illegal to fake your death, but it is illegal to profit from it.

12:27Therefore, the life insurance policy could not be cashed because that would be fraud.

12:31Right. If, in fact, they'd ever taken out a life insurance policy with Lloyds of London.

12:36I have seen the actual documentation that there is still an active life insurance policy for Elvis and Aaron Presley.

12:45You've got to understand, I worked major frauds as a detective.

12:48So I'm used to looking at paper trails and understanding why, trying to reason why people would do things.

12:54So I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking, okay, let's go on the theory.

12:59Let's say he faked his death. If you call a life insurance policy, that's fraud if you didn't really die.

13:07So that's why that was never touched. But other insurance policies, bank accounts and everything was drained.

13:14You would think that there would be some life insurance. He was a huge star.

13:18But Elvis and his business dealings, they weren't, he wasn't a very good businessman

13:23and he wasn't being handled by people who were particularly good business people either.

13:27So it wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of those sort of details just simply weren't looked after.

13:32A month or so prior to that, Elvis took a loan out on Graceland.

13:38Why he would do that when...

13:41He was about to go on tour.

13:43About to go on tour?

13:44Yeah, about to go on tour then cancels the tour.

13:47They writes checks and execs of $20,000 plus to doctors, close friends and stuff.

13:54Paying people off perhaps?

13:55Yeah, physically, possibly paying people off.

13:59I think one of the best things that came up was that I got an anonymous tip

14:04that Elvis Presley's credit history was showing up.

14:07Someone was searching his credit history for a loan.

14:11And the credit history is being run under the name of John Burroughs.

14:16John Burroughs was an AKA that Elvis often used when he checked into hotels

14:23so that people wouldn't know that Elvis Presley was there.

14:26Joe Esposito has admitted to him, he's probably going to get very mad over this,

14:31but Joe Esposito has admitted to Paul on the phone, on speaker, so I heard it.

14:38But he said, quite bluntly, that Elvis did not die that day.

14:42But if you ever tell anybody that, I'll just say you're crazy.

14:45If you were to discover Elvis' whereabouts, found out that he was alive and living

14:50under a witness relocation program, would you ever reveal that information?

14:55No. Nor would I even want to.

15:00Why would I put somebody's life in jeopardy to prove someone's conspiracy theory

15:05when he's not doing anything but just what he agreed to?

15:09No. I would never do that.

15:13What about the supposed tape recordings, audio recordings of Elvis Presley made after 1977?

15:36What can you tell me about that?

15:39I've got one that's been voice printed as Elvis.

15:43The Sylvanora album, with the Do You Know Who I Am, Loving You, I Love Irini Knight,

15:49and so on and so forth, have been voice printed, and they are an exact match to Elvis' voice.

15:56I don't know if you've ever been to Caldingwood, Ontario for Elvis Week,

15:59but there's a lot of people who look and sound like Elvis there.

16:02I don't know. I don't buy it. I think that, you know, they are elaborate hoaxes.

16:06I think that, you know, in some ways it's a bit of fun.

16:12It is a house that, from all outside appearances, not much bigger than this house.

16:20Yeah, it's basically ghetto. From what I saw, it looked like Elvis.

16:25You're saying that 29-01 Columbus Avenue in Fort Worth?

16:32It is a house that, from all outside appearances, not much bigger than this house.

16:41Yeah, it's basically ghetto. We got outside and back, and you can see the full silhouette of a man.

16:48He was kind of heavy set. From what I saw, it looked like Elvis.

16:53You're saying that 29-01 Columbus Avenue in Fort Worth, Texas, is where Elvis Presley is currently residing?

17:00At least that's what the credit report shows. The last known credit transaction was done at that address.

17:08Multiple credit transactions.

17:09Multiple credit transactions.

17:11And prior address to that was 39-77 Elvis Presley Boulevard.

17:18What's some of the other mythology out there that suggests that Elvis might be alive that I haven't, that we haven't covered so far?

17:24Personal sightings. I remember a time when someone saw him in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

17:29Elvis is in Kalamazoo. People come up, I saw this guy, he fixed my car.

17:33I had a flat tire. And I looked at it, and it was Elvis, and he changed my tire for me.

17:38Or I was in a bar, and this guy gets up on stage, and he was a fabulous singer.

17:43And he looked just like Elvis, but his hair was gray, so Elvis is alive.

17:47You know, in some ways, when someone like this passes away, when Michael Jackson goes, when Kurt Cobain went,

17:52you know, even to a lesser extent, Jimi Hendrix and people like that, people want to believe something else.

17:57You know, Elvis really changed things on the landscape, not only musically, but sort of as a pop culture figure.

18:04And he was taken rather suddenly and unexpectedly.

18:07And of course, that leads to conspiracy theories and people wanting him to be alive.

18:11But the only thing that I object to are people who are disingenuous about it.

18:15People who say, well, you know, Elvis calls me, or this is a new Elvis record,

18:19and suck in the fans who really want to believe it, who want to believe it's true.

18:23Is there any late-breaking evidence that you've received to suggest that Elvis may, in fact, still be alive?

18:30As much as I would love to accommodate you with some things that I have learned here just recently,

18:38in the last year or so, I can't. But I will tell you this. I'll make you this promise.

18:45When the time comes that I know for sure what this information, where it leads,

18:53your show will be the only show that I'll reveal that information when I comes out.

18:57For me, many of the questions raised by the Presley Commission have been resolved.

19:03The misspelling of Elvis' middle name, Aaron, on his gravestone.

19:07The supposed uncashed life insurance policy.

19:10And the missing U.S. flag on his casket.

19:13All have reasonable explanations.

19:16And the theory that a wax dummy was placed in the casket to fool mourners is interesting.

19:22But of the thousands of people who filed past Elvis' body,

19:26only two commented that it didn't look like Elvis.

19:30And what about Elvis' motive for faking his death?

19:34That he feared for his life if he testified against several mobsters

19:38in an FBI sting called Project Fountain Pen?

19:42Our skeptic has pretty much dismantled that.

19:45The recordings, supposedly made by Elvis post-1977,

19:50well, most of us now know they were performed by the late Elvis impersonator Jimmy Ellis.

19:56The picture of Muhammad Ali posing outside a New York hospital with Jesse Jackson

20:01and someone who admittedly looks like Elvis.

20:04Well, we now know that individual was a man named Larry Kolb,

20:08who worked as Ali's bodyguard.

20:10What's left are countless supposed Elvis sightings around the United States.

20:15The sad truth is that in any crowd of, say, 1,000 people,

20:19you could probably find someone with a resemblance to Elvis.

20:23Finally, if Elvis faked his death in 1977

20:27and truly wanted to remain out of the public eye,

20:30would he be posing for newspaper photos with Muhammad Ali?

20:34Would he be recording music and releasing it on the Internet?

20:38Not likely.

20:39I've been following this story for years,

20:42and I have to admit, for a time I thought there was a chance Elvis might still be alive.

20:48But now, in the absence of any convincing evidence,

20:52I am finally ready to admit,

20:54the king is gone.

20:56Long live the king.

20:58And now, I'd like to know what you think.

21:01What would you think?

21:02You can contact us here at The Conspiracy Show through our website,

21:05www.theconspiracyshow.com

21:09In the meantime, don't be afraid.

21:12miss Pamela

21:27ja

21:31yeah

21:34yeah

21:38yeah

21:41yeah

21:42yeah

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