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00:00...and who spent millions of dollars buying his records, seeing his movies.
00:03Two days ago, the news came from Nashville of a charge against Elvis Presley's personal physician,
00:09accused by the Tennessee State Board of Medical Examiners of indiscriminately prescribing uppers, downers,
00:16and pain-killing drugs that Elvis Presley consumed in large quantities.
00:20For months, Geraldo Rivera has been investigating this story,
00:24and because of its startling nature, we're devoting our entire hour tonight to Geraldo Rivera's special 2020 report
00:31on the man known as the King of Rock and Roll.
00:34Geraldo.
00:35Thank you, you're the king he was.
00:36Elvis Presley was a giant on America's cultural landscape,
00:39a man filled with passion and fire at a time when most of the rest of the country was sleepwalking
00:45through its cultural life.
00:47He didn't invent rock and roll, he just hand-carried it into the mainstream.
00:51Elvis Presley was different, and because he was good at it, it paid off.
00:55All 28 of his movies were moneymakers,
00:58and his records have sold somewhere between 7 and 800 million copies.
01:03That works out to roughly one Elvis Presley record for each family on the face of the earth.
01:09Despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people worshipped him,
01:12the king demonstrated the fact of his mortality when he died at the age of 42.
01:17They told us of a heart attack.
01:19But did Elvis Presley really die of a heart attack?
01:22That's what this special edition of 2020 is all about.
01:26The police came out and they filmed the show.
01:29So I couldn't move, I had to stand still.
01:32The only thing I moved was my little finger like that.
01:33The police came out and they filmed the show.
01:35It's all about it.
02:02The police came out and they filmed the show.
02:06Ele foi, claro, o primeiro e o maior dos rockistas do mundo.
02:10E o morte choque a população.
02:11O herói do trabalho, o cat de hillbilly, foi morto.
02:14E dois anos depois, milhões de milhares ainda morreram o seu passeio.
02:18Sensitivo, sensual, generoso, talentoso...
02:21Ele havia sido vivendo o prudente de rádos para o riqueiro americano
02:25ainda poderia virar.
02:27Desde o morte, o membro foi tainted de um pouco mais um controvérimento.
02:31O que ele realmente morreu de um ataque, ou foi ele apenas outra vítima
02:34de self-destructive overindulgence?
02:38Eu não acho que ele tinha um ataque.
02:40É o que eu gostaria de acreditar, que ele morreu de um ataque.
02:44Eu sei que ele morreu de um ataque, mas não tem diferença.
02:47Todo mundo deve ser contado o verdadeiro.
02:49Eu estou pensando sobre isso.
02:51Eu espero e espero que ele não tenha feito isso no purpose.
02:55Nós sabemos que, no momento do que ele morreu de um ataque,
02:56antes do que ele morreu de um ataque, não era o sombra,
02:58o sex symbol que ele nunca era.
03:00Como este vídeo do seu último concerto claramente mostra,
03:04em junio de 1977, dois meses antes de que ele morreu,
03:07ele pareceu estranho e deslumado.
03:09Mas, apesar de sua condição aparenta física,
03:11ele ainda poderia acessar o público com o poder de sua voz
03:15e a força de sua personalidade.
03:38Obrigado, senhoras e senhores.
03:45Obrigado, senhoras e senhores.
03:47Olá, meu querido, Ginger.
03:48Ginger, sende-o para mim.
03:52Sit down, Ginger.
03:56Listen up for her.
03:57After Elvis died, were you told what he had died from?
04:02Well, I, uh, all of us had heard at the same time
04:06that it was a heart attack.
04:07Do you believe in your own mind right now
04:10that that, and that alone caused his death?
04:13Right, in the very beginning, I did.
04:17I just, uh, you know, I, I think it,
04:19God, it was Elvis's time to go.
04:21So I, I think he took him.
04:24But, uh, but then again in my mind,
04:26there are a lot of unanswered questions.
04:29Our investigation of the death begins with a reconstruction
04:32of the last 12 hours of Elvis Presley's life.
04:35Like many people in show business,
04:37he and his entourage were night owls.
04:39Their days began after dark.
04:42About an hour before midnight, on the night before he died,
04:46Elvis had a dentist appointment
04:47with a dentist named Lester Hoffman.
04:52Accompanied by his fiancée, Ginger Alden,
04:54his cousin, Billy Smith, and longtime friend, Charlie Hodge,
04:58Elvis drove out of Graceland, his famous home in Memphis, Tennessee.
05:02The next day, August 16th,
05:04was the scheduled beginning of another concert tour.
05:07And Elvis wanted to get his teeth cleaned
05:08and two fillings replaced before he went out on the road.
05:12We returned back to Graceland at about 1.30.
05:16And Elvis and I went upstairs.
05:19And Elvis turned on the television in his room to relax for a little while.
05:23Then Elvis started talking about his tour
05:25and started talking about our wedding plans
05:27and about announcing our engagement at his Memphis concert.
05:31Then it was about four o'clock.
05:35And I asked Elvis if he still wanted to play racquetball,
05:38which he had mentioned playing earlier.
05:39And he said yes.
05:41Elvis got in touch with Billy Smith.
05:44And Billy and his wife, Jo, came up at about 4.30.
05:47We went down to play racquetball.
05:51So Elvis really seemed like he was in a good mood.
05:54He played racquetball for a little while
05:55and then went and played the piano.
05:58It was about six o'clock when we went back into Graceland.
06:01At about 6.30, Elvis called downstairs for Ricky Stanley
06:06to bring up his packet of medication to help him get to sleep.
06:09Because he was so nervous about it.
06:11He was always kind of keyed up for starting a tour.
06:16So Ricky brought it up.
06:18Elvis took his packet of medication
06:19and started reading a book on psychic energy then.
06:22He thought that would help him fall asleep.
06:25Then I fell asleep.
06:27So at about 8 o'clock, I woke up because Elvis was restless,
06:32saying that he just couldn't sleep.
06:34So he called downstairs for Ricky again.
06:37And Ricky came up and brought up another packet of medication.
06:40A second packet.
06:41Right.
06:42Elvis took that.
06:44Then I went back to sleep.
06:46The third time I was awakened again,
06:48Elvis was starting to get up, saying that he still couldn't sleep.
06:51He took the book on psychic energy with him and he started toward the bathroom door.
06:55And I said, no, don't fall asleep.
06:57And he turned and smiled at me and said, oh, okay, I won't.
07:00Then he went to the bathroom.
07:02I went back to sleep and I slept until two o'clock.
07:06At that time, I rolled over and I looked at the clock and it said two o'clock then.
07:10And the bathroom door was still shut.
07:11So at that time, I went in and I knocked on the door and no one answered.
07:15So I opened the door and that was when I saw Elvis.
07:18According to an investigator for the medical examiner's office,
07:21the body was purple or deep blue and rigor mortis had already set in.
07:25Elvis had apparently been dead since early that morning.
07:28After a flurry of desperate activity,
07:30which may have included attempts at mouth to mouth resuscitation
07:32by members of the Presley staff, an ambulance arrived at Graceland.
07:37Two paramedics from the Memphis Fire Department,
07:40Ulysses Jones and Charles Crosby,
07:42needed assistance from several of the aides even to lift Elvis onto their stretcher.
07:46He weighed between 250 and 255 pounds.
07:50The body was rushed to the Baptist Memorial Hospital,
07:53where an emergency resuscitation team, similar to the one shown here,
07:58worked in vain to revive Elvis.
08:00In a very short time, it became apparent the effort was useless.
08:04Even at that time, the authorities at least suspected that the death might be drug-related.
08:10Dan Warlick, the investigator from the medical examiner's office,
08:13received the news of the death from the police.
08:15The message to him read,
08:17E-P-O-D question mark, D-O-A-B-M-H.
08:22Elvis Presley, overdose question mark, dead on arrival, Baptist Memorial Hospital.
08:29At about 3.30 in the afternoon central time,
08:32on August 16th, 1977, Elvis Aaron Presley, age 42, was officially pronounced dead.
08:40It was the lead story on the evening's news broadcasts.
08:43It may have been a heart attack, but police in Memphis, Tennessee, are also investigating the possibility
08:49that Elvis Presley's death this afternoon was caused by a drug overdose.
08:53Presley was found unconscious in his mansion at about 2.30, was pronounced dead an hour later.
08:58Since the crowds had already begun gathering outside Baptist Hospital, the doctors decided to perform the autopsy there,
09:05rather than risk transporting the body to the morgue in the city hospital across the street.
09:10The autopsy was performed by approximately eight doctors on the staff of Baptist Hospital,
09:15and it was, in their words, the most painstakingly complete autopsy they had ever done.
09:21Item. ABC News has learned that no immediate discovery was made of any disease or injury which could have caused
09:30Elvis' death.
09:31His heart was indeed enlarged and muscular, and there was significant blockage of the arteries.
09:37But according to two doctors present at the autopsy, serious heart disease was still years away for Elvis Presley.
09:45The doctors, therefore, decided they would tell the waiting world that Elvis had died from, quote, unknown causes,
09:52and that the investigation was continuing.
09:55But apparently acting on his own initiative, the county medical examiner, Dr. Jerry T. Francisco,
10:01who had been present at the autopsy, went before the cameras and told a much different story.
10:07Without the advice or consent from the doctors from Baptist Hospital, who had actually performed the autopsy,
10:13Dr. Francisco told the waiting world that Elvis Presley had died of a heart attack.
10:19The results of the autopsy are that the cause of death is a cardiac arrhythmia due to undetermined causes.
10:26There are several cardiovascular diseases that are known to be present.
10:30One is a mild degree of hypertension that had been on treatment for some time,
10:34and that there was hardening of the arteries, the coronary arteries of the heart, known as coronary atherosclerosis.
10:43To the millions of people who knew the man and his music and loved it, people like me.
10:47Dr. Francisco's announcement brought almost a sigh of relief.
10:50Elvis Presley was dead, but while that was terrible, at least he had died of natural causes.
10:55At least the king had not followed in the melancholy rock and roll tradition of Janis Joplin,
11:00Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and all the others.
11:03But did Elvis really die of a heart attack?
11:05Sometimes the truth hurts.
11:07Our investigation indicates he did not.
11:10We'll tell you the real story of how and why he died after this.
11:15Shocked and saddened millions of Elvis fans.
11:18The public was told that his death was caused by heart attack.
11:21But almost from the moment he died, rumors began spreading about Elvis Presley's problems with drugs,
11:26and about what really might have killed him.
11:29Geraldo Rivera has completed an extensive investigation of the death of Elvis Presley and the mystery surrounding it.
11:35Geraldo, it seems that you may have located the key to the mystery.
11:38You, the key to the mystery is the Shelby County medical examiner, Dr. Jerry T. Francisco.
11:43And if we had his help, we could have cracked this case months ago, but we did not.
11:46He consistently refused to be interviewed by us.
11:50Claiming that the information is confidential, he has also refused to make public the autopsy results
11:55that would lay to rest once and forever the controversy over how and why Elvis Presley died.
12:00In order to obtain those results, we filed a lawsuit against Dr. Francisco, the medical examiner.
12:06Our motives are simple.
12:08Based on the evidence you're about to see, we believe there's been a cover-up.
12:13Item.
12:13As far as we can determine, no member of the staff of Baptist Hospital,
12:17including Dr. Eric Muirhead, the internationally known pathologist who headed the autopsy team,
12:23has ever agreed with Dr. Francisco, the medical examiner's conclusions.
12:27They have never said that Elvis died of natural causes.
12:32Maurice Elliott, spokesman for Baptist Hospital.
12:34We never confirmed them and we were not able to disagree with them either because of the
12:42fact that we are required to maintain the confidentiality of these records as a private
12:46patient as they now stand.
12:48Maurice Elliott, leading inevitably, Mr. Elliott, to speculation that the staff of Baptist
12:55Hospital arrived at a different conclusion than the staff of the medical examiner's office.
13:00Well, yes, obviously that speculation does exist, but there's just no way we can comment on it or
13:08put it to rest really and still maintain our obligation to respect the confidentiality or to
13:13maintain the confidentiality of the information.
13:16But there is one doctor who was present at the autopsy who did consent to talk with us
13:20on the record. His name is Noel Florendo and he was an assistant to Dr. Muirhead. Dr. Florendo was
13:27called in on the autopsy because he's an expert in the use of the electron microscope.
13:32Working now at another hospital in Memphis, Dr. Florendo had the courage to tell us what really
13:38happened in the autopsy room. Remember, Dr. Francisco is the Shelby County medical examiner
13:44who announced Elvis had died of a heart attack, but Dr. Muirhead is the man who actually supervised
13:50the autopsy. Dr. Florendo, in your medical judgment, was there any evidence that Elvis
13:56Presley died of a heart attack? From what I saw grossly and from what my limited judgment was
14:02at that particular time, there was no gross evidence of a heart attack. There was no gross
14:06evidence of a heart attack? No gross evidence of a heart attack. Were you surprised by Dr.
14:11Francisco's announcement that he had died of cardiac arrhythmia? Personally, yes, I was surprised.
14:17What is cardiac arrhythmia? Cardiac arrhythmia, best explained, is an irregularity in the heartbeat
14:25sufficiently irregular enough to cause death. And in Elvis Presley's case? I could not find any
14:33morphological evidence of that and indeed I do not think there is any morphological evidence grossly
14:38to substantiate cardiac arrhythmia. So in your opinion, he did not die of a heart attack? In my opinion,
14:45I did not see any evidence of a heart attack morphologically. Morphologically meaning?
14:49Meaning there was no gross evidence of a heart attack. I understand that you agree with Dr. Muirhead's
14:56conclusions? Yes, I agree with Dr. Muirhead's conclusions. And those conclusions being?
15:02Polypharmacy. That Elvis Presley died of the interaction of several drugs? Most probably, yes.
15:09Despite the contention by many officials in Memphis that Elvis Presley died of, quote,
15:13natural causes, that contention is disputed by scientific evidence uncovered here at the
15:19bioscience laboratories in Los Angeles. Bioscience was one of the three outside laboratories called in
15:24to help analyze the Presley autopsy. Their findings are depressing. According to those findings,
15:31at the time of his death, Elvis Presley was apparently abusing many different drugs.
15:36Bioscience was called in because it has some of the most advanced and sophisticated equipment
15:40available anywhere in the country. For almost two months, its technicians carefully analyzed the tissue
15:46samples for the autopsy being prepared in Memphis. ABC News obtained a copy of the bioscience test
15:53results. The data revealed the following narcotic drugs in the body of Elvis Aaron Presley. Codeine,
15:59morphine, methaqualum, also known as quaaludes, valium, valmid, placidol, nembutol, phenobarbital,
16:08pentobarbital, and butobarbital. All of them are so-called downers, central nervous system depressants.
16:16Usually taken to bring on relaxation and sleep, the drugs are often abused. Several are addicted.
16:24The list of drugs found in Elvis Presley's body is certainly shocking enough. But in all likelihood,
16:29even that doesn't represent the whole extent of his drug abuse problem. ABC News has learned that
16:34shortly after Elvis's body was brought here to Baptist Memorial Hospital, the contents of his
16:39stomach were pumped out. And although the contents of the stomach are generally considered of vital
16:43importance in pinpointing the cause of death, they were destroyed in this case, without ever having
16:48been analyzed. Given all we know now about Elvis Presley's drug abuse problem, it's reasonable to
16:53assume that vital evidence was therefore destroyed. Evidence of whatever drugs Elvis had taken shortly
16:59before he died. What we've so far been unable to determine is whether that evidence was destroyed
17:04intentionally or merely through neglect. In October of 1977, two months after Elvis was found dead in his
17:11bathroom at Graceland, word of the drugs found began leaking to the newspapers in Memphis. To quiet the
17:16spreading rumors, Dr. Jerry T. Francisco held another press conference. Shelby County Medical Examiner,
17:23Dr. Jerry Francisco told reporters that the conclusion of his two-month autopsy into the death of Elvis
17:29Presley is that the entertainer died of a heart attack and the drugs were not a contributing factor.
17:36The cause of death has been ascribed to hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery heart disease as a
17:43contributory factor. Dr. Raymond Kelly of bioscience. When we undertake to do this sort of analysis,
17:50we do it in the most thorough and conclusive way as we possibly can, and we don't rush ourselves.
17:57We utilize every analytical technique we have available, and that includes some of the most
18:02sophisticated methods anywhere in the country. What about in a case with medical legal implications?
18:12We exercise more care in that sort of analysis than anything else that we do,
18:18because it has potential legal significance. How about the Elvis Presley case specifically? How is
18:25that treated here? Well, that's the most important medical legal case we've ever had,
18:30and so we, if anything, exercise even more care in the analysis of those specimens than we would normally
18:37exercise. How do you respond then to the criticism by Dr. Francisco and others that the results found
18:45here at bioscience could be discounted? That doesn't seem reasonable to me at all. I think that the person
18:51making that statement just couldn't be familiar with the way that we approach these kind of samples.
18:57As you know, doctor, we have obtained by independent means a chart, a table that lists the drugs that were
19:03present in Mr. Presley's body at the time of death. How sure are you that those numbers accurately
19:10represent the levels found in Mr. Presley's body at the time of death? I'm sure beyond a reasonable doubt.
19:19The findings of bioscience were confirmed and amplified by both the other outside laboratories,
19:24the Orange County Coroner's Office and the University of Utah Center for Human Toxicology.
19:29After we verified the authenticity of the report, we took the raw data to a Los Angeles doctor,
19:35Matthew Ellenhorn. We asked him to analyze and review the data thoroughly. Ellenhorn's an expert in
19:41medical malpractice and a certified toxicologist. We asked him for the real cause of death.
19:47The cause of death was an overdose of codeine and an overdose of methaquilone or Qualud,
19:53and that was contributed to by a presence in the bloodstream which indicated that the patient had
20:03taken probably within the previous 24 hours at least five additional drugs known to produce depression
20:09of the central nervous system of depression of the brain. To be certain, we asked for a second expert
20:15opinion. We provided the data to Dr. Cyril Wecht, the coroner for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County for analysis.
20:21Dr. Wecht is one of the foremost medical examiners in the entire country.
20:27I believe that Mr. Presley died as a result of a combined drug effect. Various drugs,
20:33all of which are known to be central nervous system depressants, collectively cause the heart
20:40and lung to be depressed. The brain controls the activities of the heart and lung involuntarily,
20:47and when the brain is depressed by multiple drugs, such as happened in this case, in my opinion,
20:53the heart and lungs will not function properly. What drugs specifically are we referring to, Dr.?
20:59Dr. There were several drugs involved here. The principal offender in this case was codeine,
21:04which is a pain reliever, but which is known to have a CNS depressant effect. Other drugs included
21:12Dr. Valium, a tranquilizer, Valmid, a sedative, Placidil, a sedative, Phenobarbital, a sedative,
21:20and Butabarbital, a sedative. It's incredible, really, that all these drugs should have been
21:27given to the patient simultaneously. There was one other drug involved, Mithaquilone, which is a
21:34tranquilizer. Knowing now about the laundry list of drugs, our investigative team decided to track
21:40down some of the people who knew Elvis best. David Stanley was his stepbrother. David also worked
21:46at Graceland as a security man and personal aid to Elvis. Listen to me, David. This is very important.
21:54You personally witnessed Elvis Presley abusing drugs on many, many occasions, almost daily.
22:02Uh, three times a week. I'd work a day. Ricky would work a day. Two other guys would work. So
22:09that's about
22:10two to three times a week. But every time you were on duty? Every time. Every day. Every day.
22:17Last two years of Elvis's life, it was every day. What would Elvis do if he didn't get the drugs
22:23he wanted?
22:25He'd get upset sometimes. We were in Vegas one time and, uh, like we were there for like eight weeks,
22:31you know, and, uh, I was, was getting his drugs, but it got to a point to where
22:38his doctor wanted to shut him off in Vegas. And, uh, we couldn't reach the doctor anymore.
22:47So he jumped up on the table one day and he pulled out his 45 and he says,
22:51I'll buy a goddamn drug store if I have to. He says, I'm going to get what I want. He
22:55says,
22:56you people better realize that either you're with me or against me.
22:59Either you take it or I'll buy your plane ticket home. Why didn't you stop him?
23:04I tried on different occasions to stop Elvis when I saw him take something that I thought he shouldn't
23:09be taking or taking too much of something. And on the different times he would say, like,
23:14I don't understand that he would, you know, he would say I need it, which I don't understand.
23:19And, uh, when I first started dating Elvis, I was only, I just turned 20 at the time and no
23:27one
23:27ever told me anything about what to expect, how the, the group was or anything like that. I had to
23:33learn everything on my own. And the people that had been around Elvis for all these years,
23:38when I saw Elvis take something or which was mainly before he would go to sleep,
23:43and I thought to myself, well, it must not really be harmful if it's prescribed. And if, uh,
23:50these people over the years of Elvis is still doing it, then it must not really be very harmful for
23:54him. Elvis had a serious drug problem or all it was very serious. Uh, the reason I can say is
23:59because
24:00I used to have a drug problem we've discussed. And, uh, I would say it was very, very bad. And,
24:06uh,
24:07we knew if it continued that something like this would happen. We knew it would just be a matter of
24:12time. Rick Stanley, another of Elvis' stepbrothers, was working at Graceland on the night Elvis died.
24:18Were you the person who filled the prescription at Baptist Memorial? Yes, I was. What was it? It was
24:24Dilaudid. Dilaudid, a very powerful morphine type drug. Class A narcotic.
24:32Dr. Then what did you do with it? Well, I went back to the Elvis' house, went upstairs,
24:36and gave it to him. Talked with him for a moment and left. Who signed that prescription? Dr. Nacopoulos.
24:43What was in the second packet that you brought upstairs? In the second packet were, uh, varieties
24:50of sleeping pills, uh, Quaalude, uh, some Barbiturates, Secondol, Twoanols, uh, Ametol, Valium,
24:58and, uh, a couple of, uh, Demerol tabs. Approximately how many pills? Six to eight
25:06pills. Was that common? Yes, it was. Did it happen every night that you were on duty?
25:12Oh, yeah. Every night I was on duty. Elvis, uh, couldn't sleep without it. W.S. Nash was the
25:18pharmacist on duty when Rick went to get the prescription filled at the Baptist Hospital Pharmacy.
25:23It was for Dilaudid, a powerful morphine-based narcotic. Dilaudid is a painkiller, but because
25:29the drug is so powerful and addictive, it's usually prescribed only in the most severe cases.
25:36And most certainly, Elvis, who had had only two teeth filled that night, had no real medical need
25:42for the drug. Mr. Nash, the druggist, is now retired and living in Kentucky, but he's still pained by the
25:48memory of Elvis's last prescription. I pictured myself as the person dispensing the fatal dose
25:54that killed him, even though that the possibility is that had that been the only drug he had taken,
26:02it probably wouldn't have killed him. But in combination with others, I'm almost sure it did.
26:07As indeed it did. At this point in the story, there's something very important to be added.
26:12Elvis Presley was certainly no street addict. The drugs which destroyed his world and which
26:18finally killed him were all prescription medicine. He got the codeine from his dentist,
26:23the morphine and the quaaludes from his doctor. The drugs were all legal medicine. Legal medicine
26:29prescribed by licensed doctors and dentists. That last prescription, for instance, the morphine,
26:35was written by a man named Dr. George Nicopolis. Dr. Nick, as he was called at Graceland, had been
26:41a close friend and a member of Elvis's so-called Memphis Mafia since 1966. I'll have a lot to say
26:48about Dr. Nick and about some of the other doctors who wrote some of the other prescriptions when 2020
26:54returns after this. Cover up is a special 2020 investigation of the facts and circumstances
27:01surrounding the death of Elvis Presley. When the program continues, we'll be meeting the licensed
27:06doctors who provided Elvis with the legal medicine that killed him, the doctors, and the role they
27:11played in the bizarre life and unnecessary death of Elvis Presley. When 2020 continues in a moment.
27:18Tonight, 2020 is presenting the results of an investigation by Geraldo Rivera into the death
27:23of Elvis Presley. We've established that Elvis Presley was dependent on drugs, drugs prescribed by his own
27:30doctors, doctors who were supposed to help him.
27:38The doctors that wrote the prescriptions, in my opinion, contributed 70 percent of his early demise.
27:45I don't think anybody should die at 42. John O'Grady is a retired police officer who once headed the
27:50narcotics detail of the Los Angeles Police Department. Now a private detective, O'Grady frequently worked for
27:57Vernon Presley, Elvis's father, finding out who was supplying his son with drugs. There were several
28:03investigations between 1969 and 75 concerned primarily with Elvis's life on the west coast.
28:11In your opinion, should his attending physicians have noticed the fact that he was abusing these drugs?
28:19He'd either have to be a retarded alligator not to notice that, or a totally incompetent medical doctor.
28:26In your opinion, did the doctors therefore contribute to Elvis Presley's death? Was Elvis Presley murdered in a sense?
28:34I think anyone that's abandoned and given something that causes their death for whatever reason is murder.
28:41No, I'm not saying first degree, premeditated, but it's a degree of murder. It's negligence. There's negligent homicide.
28:48It could be the same thing. If you go to a bar and the bartender serves you 25 drinks in
28:53a row,
28:54and you die there, somebody's guilty of your death. That's negligent homicide, which is what another term is murder.
29:01And you think the parallel to the Elvis Presley case is-
29:04Is very similar. Except the bartender is a professional bartender. The doctor is a professional physician.
29:10Jack Kelly, who once headed the Los Angeles office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, is now a private detective who
29:16worked with John O'Grady on the Elvis investigations.
29:20He could get whatever he wanted anytime he wanted it. Most of them that I found were only too anxious
29:27to give it to him.
29:29How so? Tell me a little bit more about that.
29:31Well, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, you know, there's doctors who, through carelessness or irresponsibility, will get
29:43their patients addicted.
29:45And there's doctors who do it for monetary gain. And there are doctors, dentists, who do it because they're starstruck.
29:56You find that particularly out here in Hollywood.
29:57And, uh, unfortunately, Elvis was a victim of all three.
30:03What about Max Shapiro?
30:06Max Shapiro was a source of supply for Elvis, uh, unquestionably.
30:11You're sure of that?
30:12Yes. I'm-I'm positive about that.
30:15Dr. Max Shapiro, who asks everyone to call him Dr. Max, is at the very least a highly unusual dentist.
30:23Aside from the fact that he makes frequent house calls, the dentist also has the reputation in Hollywood of being
30:29a Dr. Feelgood,
30:30who makes his patients feel good by prescribing them narcotics, whether or not there's a medical need for the drugs.
30:38How would you respond to being called a Dr. Feelgood?
30:43Dr. Painless would be all right.
30:47But, uh, if I worked on a patient, they would never have pain.
30:53That was one of my very, very strong attitudes.
30:58I would-I myself am afraid of pain.
31:01And I understand what a patient goes through.
31:04I've been lied to by doctors.
31:06They told me things wouldn't hurt.
31:09And they treated me, and it did hurt.
31:12Did you make sure that Elvis suffered no pain?
31:14Yes, of course.
31:16As all patients.
31:18Outside the office after the interview, we decided to ask Dr. Max for just a quick glance inside the metal
31:24case he always carries with him on his so-called house calls.
31:28You wouldn't let me peek inside there, would you?
31:30No, because I have narcotics in there now and things.
31:34So I don't like to have it open and displayed.
31:37I don't like people to even know where I keep things, because I've been robbed.
31:41But there are narcotics in there now.
31:43Yes, there are narcotics in there now.
31:45We did manage an earlier look inside Dr. Shapiro's case.
31:49It contained between 15 and 20 bottles of various narcotic drugs.
31:53There were no dental tools.
31:56Do you ever hear of Dr. Shapiro, Max Shapiro, the dentist from Los Angeles?
31:59Oh, yeah. I know who Max Shapiro is. I know him very well.
32:02Were you ever physically present when he was giving drugs, passing drugs to Elvis?
32:06I sure was all the time, and to me also.
32:09Tell me about it.
32:10Well, Max gave Elvis anything he wanted.
32:13He was like the rest of most of the doctors, just gave him any kind of medication he wanted, volunteered
32:18it.
32:19Like what?
32:21Well, barbiturates, some narcotics, amphetamines, things like that.
32:27Quaaludes?
32:27Oh, yeah, Quaaludes.
32:31Elvis was never a drug taker, and he never took drugs at all.
32:36The only thing he took was sleeping pills just to sleep, just like everybody else, I guess, in his field.
32:42But I've never known Elvis to take any hard drugs whatsoever.
32:46While in Las Vegas, Elvis' principal doctor was Elias Ganim.
32:50Speaking on the night Elvis died, Dr. Ganim told the interviewer that his famous patient did not abuse drugs,
32:56and certainly not drugs prescribed by him.
32:59Rick Stanley remembers it differently.
33:01Well, Elias was no different than the rest.
33:03You know, Elias did the same thing.
33:06Now, I'll say, Elias, to me, seemed like he cared for Elvis.
33:10But, you know, after a while, he fell into it like the rest of them,
33:14and just was giving him whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
33:18Were there any doctors that said no to Elvis Presley?
33:21Not that I know of, and I was around him for a long, long time.
33:25Not that I know of.
33:27Nobody hardly said no to Elvis Presley.
33:32Dr. Ganim refused repeatedly to be interviewed by us.
33:36Elvis, of course, had many doctors over the years,
33:38but the doctor closest to him was a Memphis physician named George Nicopolis,
33:42known by the Presley entourage simply as Dr. Nick.
33:46The records indicate that, especially in the last year of his life,
33:53he prescribed certain medications to Elvis Presley in quite extraordinarily large amounts.
34:04Why?
34:09I can't comment on that, and I don't believe that it's true.
34:14Well, the records we have, doctor, and I'll say this as gently as I possibly can,
34:20indicate that from January 20th, 1977, until August 16th, 1977, the day he died,
34:27you prescribed to Elvis Presley, and the prescriptions are all signed by you,
34:35over 5,000 scheduled to narcotics and or amphetamines.
34:43that comes out to something like 25 per day.
34:51I don't believe that.
34:54Well, is it something that you'd like to refresh your recollection on,
34:58or is it something that you deny?
34:59I deny.
35:00Two days ago, the state of Tennessee initiated proceedings
35:03to suspend or revoke Dr. Nick's license to practice medicine,
35:07principally because of the way he cared for Elvis Presley.
35:10We have charged him with unprofessional conduct, gross incompetence, gross ignorance,
35:17gross negligence, and gross malpractice concerning his dispensing of narcotic substances.
35:22Specifically, we have charged him with dispensing, prescribing,
35:25and issuing narcotic and controlled substances not in good faith to relieve pain
35:30and not for a legitimate medical reason.
35:34Who was the patient?
35:35Well, there were 16 different patients we have charged him with concerning these particular drugs we've talked about.
35:44Is Elvis Presley?
35:45Elvis Presley is one of these individuals.
35:48Was his case the single most glaring case?
35:51Without a doubt, Elvis Presley, from my experience,
35:54was issued more Schedule II uppers, downers, amphetamines, than any other individual I have seen.
36:02This is the worst case of overprescribing, of indiscriminate prescribing,
36:07that I have ever seen in my time as an investigator with the state of Tennessee.
36:11Elvis wasn't Dr. Nick's only patient in the entourage.
36:14Marty Lacker was Elvis' bookkeeper and the best man at his wedding to Priscilla.
36:19Medical authorities were told how Dr. Nick prescribed Lacker more than 13,000 pills in less than four years,
36:27an average of about 10 a day.
36:29He just looked at the records and asked if I was alive, and he said yes.
36:34And asked if I was still taking him, and he said no.
36:39And asked how I got off him, and he said, well, he withdrew from, you know, by himself.
36:46And so the next question they asked if I was in a mental institution.
36:50And he said no, thank God.
36:53It was that bad, Marty?
36:55Sure it was.
36:56The state's complaint against Dr. Nickopoulos lists 16 patients
37:00to whom Dr. Nick was allegedly overprescribing narcotic drugs,
37:04including performer Jerry Lee Lewis and Dr. Nick's own daughter Chrissy.
37:08But the list of narcotic drugs he prescribed to Elvis Presley
37:12just during the last seven months of Elvis' life is quite simply incredible,
37:18averaging about 25 narcotic pills a day.
37:33Why would you prescribe that amount of drugs in that limited period of time?
37:40I think you didn't understand me.
37:42I said I don't think that I did.
37:45You don't think that you did?
37:47I know I did.
37:48You're absolutely stating that you did not?
37:54Friendship was certainly one reason Nick gave Elvis what he wanted,
37:57virtually whenever he wanted it.
37:59But there was another reason.
38:01Elvis and the entourage were Nick's main source of income.
38:05And ABC News has learned that Dr. Nick was in serious financial trouble
38:09in the months preceding Elvis' death.
38:11He was out on a financial limb because of his investment
38:14in this $5.5 million professional building.
38:18The building has been a financial flop.
38:21A quick tour indicates only about one-third occupancy.
38:24Nick also owed Elvis a lot of money.
38:28He'd borrowed $200,000 in 1975.
38:32And in March of 1977, Nick borrowed an additional $55,000
38:36from his famous patient.
38:38Some of the money was used to finance Nick's elaborate Memphis home.
38:42And the records of the Presley estate indicate
38:44at least another $20,000 owed by Nick to Elvis.
38:50May I ask one question?
38:52One general question.
38:54Do you have any regrets, sir?
38:56No regrets.
39:00Most of the prescriptions written by Nick were filled in a drugstore
39:04right across the street from his office.
39:06Jack Kirsch is the pharmacist who filled Elvis' prescriptions,
39:09totaling more than 5,300 pills in just seven months.
39:14More than 600 pills on the day before Elvis died.
39:18Yes, possibly in my own mind I would question this thing,
39:21but I never questioned the doctor.
39:23In light of what happened to Elvis Presley, do you have any regrets?
39:31I feel prescriptions.
39:37Yeah, I did not give the drugs to the patient.
39:40I gave the prescriptions to the doctor.
39:46No, I don't have any regrets.
39:48You were just following orders?
39:49I was following orders.
39:52Only following orders.
39:54There are a lot of people who have a lot to answer for, and they will.
39:58We'll be back after this.
40:00And the pen still writes.
40:041963, Bic shoots its pen from a rifle.
40:07The barrel shatters, but the pen still writes.
40:10Today, Bic is mounted on a jackhammer that slams into concrete
40:13with 1,200 foot-pounds of pressure, and it writes.
40:16For 20 years, Bic's been giving America its money's worth.
40:19The Bic pen, even when you treat it wrong, it writes.
40:22Now save on...
40:23Geraldo Rivera, with more on the Elvis cover-up.
40:27The official investigation of the death of Elvis Presley,
40:30at least insofar as we've been able to determine,
40:33must rank among the worst, most unprofessional investigations of this type ever made.
40:37For whatever reason or motive, essentially no real effort was ever made
40:42to truly unearth the circumstances of Elvis Presley's death.
40:45It seems almost as if the city of Memphis itself just did not care to know the truth
40:50about the death of its most prominent citizen.
40:52Consider, if you will, the following points.
40:56Item.
40:57No real police investigation was ever made.
41:00At nine in the evening on the same day Elvis died,
41:03before it was medically or scientifically possible to know for sure why or how he had died,
41:09the Memphis police declared this case closed.
41:14Item.
41:15Dan Warlick was the man in charge of the medical examiner's investigation.
41:19Dr. Jerry T. Francisco, his boss, claimed Warlick had made an extensive search for drugs
41:24at Elvis' home, Graceland.
41:26In fact, Warlick admitted to us that he had never searched the house trailer
41:30of Graceland's resident nurse, the house trailer where all the drugs were kept.
41:35Item.
41:36Elvis' stomach contents were destroyed without ever having been analyzed.
41:41Item.
41:42There has never been a coroner's inquest.
41:45Item.
41:46The Shelby County District Attorney was never officially notified
41:49or asked to determine if there were any violations of criminal law.
41:54Item.
41:55No attempts were made even after the toxicology reports were completed
41:59to find out where Elvis had been getting all those drugs.
42:02Item.
42:03All the photographs taken of the death scene,
42:05all the notes of the medical examiner's investigator,
42:08and all of the toxicological reports allegedly prepared by the medical examiner
42:12are missing from the official files.
42:14Item.
42:15Officials of the county government believe there's been a cover-up.
42:19The Elvis mystique completely pervades the Memphis area.
42:24And if there are individuals who are so concerned with the mystique
42:28that they do not care to know the truth, then I feel that somewhere along the way,
42:32someone has to take it upon himself to see that the truth is brought up.
42:37But you definitely feel there's a cover-up?
42:39I'm positive about that.
42:41The question is not, you know, did he die because his heart stopped?
42:44Of course he did, but why did his heart stop?
42:46Why did he have an irregular heartbeat?
42:48That's the question that needs to be determined
42:50and needs to be made available to the public.
42:52Because Elvis Presley meant so much to so many people,
42:55it's easy to understand the desire to keep the best memories intact.
43:00But the public also has the right to know the truth,
43:02the right to know if we've been deceived,
43:05the right to make up our own mind.
43:07And regardless of the ultimate conclusions as to why he died,
43:11his death will never diminish or taint the enormous contributions he made during his life.
43:15He was one of a kind.
43:17He was a phenomenon.
43:18He was the king of rock and roll.
43:23Reporting this story has been a melancholy personal experience for me
43:26because I wanted it not to be true.
43:28For the last two years, I've made it the point to ignore the rumors of Elvis' drug abuse,
43:32and I even got angry at the people telling the stories, but they were right.
43:35It was true.
43:36By the end of his life, Elvis Presley had become a medical addict.
43:39The one positive thing about this report came this morning
43:42when the Attorney General of Memphis and Shelby County, Hugh Stanton,
43:46told us that finally, two years after the fact,
43:48he's going to conduct a criminal investigation of the death of Elvis Presley.
43:52A criminal investigation of the doctors who gave him the pills that killed him.
43:57And there's a heavy irony in the fact that the desire to preserve Elvis' whole life
44:02caused a community and a nation of fans to be unwitting participants
44:07in what impeded the early investigation and full disclosure.
44:11And allowed these doctors to go on doing business as usual.
44:13Right. Thank you, Geraldo.
44:15Next Thursday, and on Thursdays to come, 2020 returns to its regular focus.
44:19We'll be bringing you a mix of stories on a wide range of subjects.
44:23We hope you'll be with us.
44:24Remember, we're in touch, so you be in touch.
44:26I'm Hugh Downs. Good night.
44:33Then Michael Parks is a misfit cop.
44:36They put...
44:36I'm Hugh Downs. And this is 2020.
44:48The terrible thing about the COINTEL program is it was deliberate lies.
44:53This nation's federal police force, sworn to uphold the law, lied, broke the law, subverted justice, in order to discredit
45:01tens of thousands of Americans, like actresses Jane Fonda and Gene Seberg, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, and
45:09even a St. Louis housewife.
45:10In a frightening investigative report, Sylvia Chase exposes the FBI's counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO.
45:18She has dinner with me.
45:20And, uh, she goes to bed with me.
45:23But when she's on, she belongs to everybody.
45:27She bounces.
45:28She jiggles.
45:29And in the top-rated threes company, she's a dumb blonde.
45:33Tonight, her story, from pit-up to superstar.
45:38A Dave Marish profile, Suzanne Somers.
45:43No, no, and there he goes again.
45:45Get out there and keep the volley firm.
45:46Abuse, insult, rage, unrelenting pressure, and tennis.
45:51Tennis from dawn till dark.
45:53For this, parents pay Nick Volatari $12,000 a year and hope he'll make their kid a tennis champ.
46:00Tom Gerald reports on what it takes to make the best there is.
46:06You prescribe to Elvis Presley and the prescriptions are all signed by you.
46:11The source, George Nacopoulos, Dr. Nick, Elvis Presley's personal physician.
46:17Now, almost three years after Presley's death as a medical drug addict, Dr. Nick is indicted.
46:22Tonight, a 2020 follow-up report by Geraldo Rivera.
46:26The indictment of Dr. Nick.
46:31Tonight, these two men are facing charges of damaging government property.
46:39Now, three years after Presley's death, Dr. Nick is indicted.
46:43Coming up, a follow-up report by Geraldo Rivera.
46:46The indictment of Dr. Nick.
46:49And she was in parochial...
47:00...development in the investigation of the death of Elvis Presley.
47:05It's been almost a year since we began the first independent investigation into the death of Elvis Presley, the king
47:10of rock and roll.
47:11We had no idea back then where the investigation would take us.
47:15Tonight, we have a better picture.
47:16There's been an important development, an indictment.
47:20Here, with a follow-up on his investigative reports on Presley's death, is Geraldo Rivera.
47:24Thank you, Hugh.
47:26All we knew when we began this investigation was that many of the people closest to Elvis Presley simply did
47:31not believe he really died of a heart attack.
47:34Now, the first break in this story came when we obtained a report on the drugs found in Elvis' body
47:38at the time of his death.
47:40They were all prescription drugs, legal medicine.
47:42So, he started looking for the licensed doctors who supplied Elvis whatever drug he wanted, whenever he wanted it.
47:48Were there any doctors that said no to Elvis Presley?
47:51Not that I know of. And I was around him for a long, long time. Not that I know of.
47:58Nobody hardly said no to Elvis Presley.
48:01Our investigation uncovered willing doctors in Los Angeles and in Las Vegas.
48:05But it was in Elvis' hometown of Memphis that the evidence began pointing to Dr. George Nikopoulos.
48:10Dr. Nik was Presley's personal physician on and off for 11 years.
48:14He was a member of the inner circle of the entourage.
48:17The entourage that surrounded and helped isolate Elvis inside the walls of Graceland and under a mountain of prescription medicine.
48:24You prescribe to Elvis Presley, and the prescriptions are all signed by you, over 5,000 scheduled to narcotics and
48:38or amphetamines.
48:40That comes out to something like 25 per day.
48:48I don't believe that.
48:51Well, is it something that you'd like to refresh your recollection on, or is it something that you deny?
48:56I deny.
48:57Last September's interview happened just days before the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners began proceedings to revoke or suspend Dr.
49:03Nik's license to practice medicine.
49:05According to the board, the doctor had prescribed more than 12,000 narcotic pills and injections to Presley in just
49:11the last 20 months of his life.
49:13In his own defense, Dr. Nik explained how he cared for Elvis.
49:16You can't imagine how big a nightmare this was for me.
49:20I mean, I tried to get psychiatric help.
49:22I tried to get him to go to sleep clinics.
49:24I tried to get him to get help from some other sources, and it was always either we'll do better
49:35or something.
49:37He just would not do it.
49:40Two facts were confirmed during the week-long hearing.
49:42First, that Elvis had been a medical drug addict, hospitalized at least three times for detoxification.
49:48The second thing concerned Dr. Nik.
49:50It became clear that he led two lives.
49:53To most of his patients, he was a conscientious traditional family doctor.
49:57But to Elvis and to others who testified at the hearing, Dr. Nik was the source, the drug supplier.
50:03So, Dr. Nikopoulos, your license will be suspended for a period of three months, and the board will observe your
50:09activities in your practice for a period of three years.
50:13Found guilty of 10 counts of overprescription, Dr. Nik's medical license was suspended for three months.
50:19He got off easily, but his legal problems were just beginning.
50:22A Shelby County grand jury began hearing testimony.
50:25Between February 20th and May 16th, 36 witnesses, most of them relatives, employees, and close friends of the late singer,
50:34pieced together the melancholy story of the last days of his life.
50:37Among the witnesses were Ginger Alden, who discovered his body on August 16th, 1977.
50:43Marty Lacker, best man in Presley's wedding to Priscilla, who testified as to his own addiction at the hands of
50:50Dr. Nik.
50:51Stepbrothers David and Ricky Stanley, who told the grand jury of Elvis' addiction.
50:56And Dr. Eric Muirhead, chief pathologist at Baptist Hospital in Memphis, who presented the autopsy report to the jurors and
51:03told them that Elvis had died of a combination of drugs.
51:07The investigators for the state of Tennessee screened all 40 hours of medical board hearings.
51:11In addition, they traveled to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, obtaining voluntary testimony from some other Presley intimates, like longtime
51:19manager Colonel Tom Parker.
51:21And from Linda Thompson, who went with Elvis after his divorce from Priscilla.
51:25Last Friday, the grand jury handed down its indictment.
51:28It accuses Dr. Nikopoulos of unlawfully prescribing prescription drugs to Elvis Presley and to 10 other people, including another legend
51:37of rock and roll, Jerry Lee Lewis.
51:45In the case of both Jerry Lee and Elvis, there are actually two counts in the indictment.
51:51District Attorney General Hugh Stanton.
51:53The second count alleges that those two individuals were addicted to controlled substances.
52:00It names the controlled substances.
52:01And it says that he continued to prescribe or did prescribe to them, not in a good faith effort to
52:08cure their addiction.
52:10So almost three years after the death of Elvis Presley, his longtime personal physician has finally been indicted, in part
52:16because of the way he cared for his famous patient.
52:18If convicted, Dr. Nikopoulos would face between two and 10 years in prison for each of the 14 counts.
52:26And ABC News has learned that the prosecution feels the case against him is airtight.
52:31For instance, in April and again in July of 1977, Dr. Nik's medical bag was reported stolen.
52:38After the contents had been taken, the bags were recovered by the police.
52:41Before returning the bag to the doctor, the police apparently copied down his schedules for dispensing drugs to Elvis Presley.
52:49In other words, from the doctor's own notes, found inside his own medical bag, the state knows exactly what he
52:56gave to Elvis and when.
52:58Deborah Richardson worked briefly for Dr. Nik.
53:01Deborah, was there ever an occasion when you had access to Dr. Nikopoulos' office when you saw drugs in there
53:07that were earmarked for Graceland?
53:09That was Presley's home here in Memphis?
53:11Yes, I went into his office one day and there was a grocery bag on his desk.
53:16You know, about this wide, about this tall.
53:19It was on his desk and a piece of paper was stapled to the bag.
53:23It had Graceland run across it.
53:24And I looked in it and it was pharmaceutical samples.
53:28Pharmaceutical samples heading toward Graceland.
53:30About how filled was that big grocery bag?
53:32About half full.
53:33Half full of drugs?
53:34Mm-hmm.
53:35The indictment of Dr. Nik is the end of just part of this story.
53:39There is still what we call the Elvis cover up.
53:42It is the usual practice in criminal cases like this one for the county medical examiner to assist the state
53:48in its presentation to the grand jury.
53:50But in the case of Dr. Nik, Jerry T. Francisco, the Shelby County medical examiner, was not even called in
53:57as an expert witness.
53:58Dr. Francisco, you may recall, is the man who has continued to insist that Elvis Presley died of a heart
54:03attack.
54:04Despite the fact that the doctors who actually performed that autopsy almost three years ago have insisted since the beginning
54:10that Elvis Presley was apparently the victim of an accidental overdose of prescription medicine.
54:15Last summer, 2020 producer Charles Thompson and investigative reporter James Cole filed a lawsuit to force Dr. Francisco to make
54:24public the secret Elvis Presley autopsy.
54:27We maintain that that autopsy will prove that Elvis Presley died from the interaction of the prescription drugs in his
54:34system.
54:35Final arguments in that lawsuit will take place tomorrow morning in Memphis.
54:41Thank you, Geraldo. We'll be right back.
54:43We'll be right back.
54:51We'll be right back.
54:59We'll be right back.
55:01We'll be right back.
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