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By Perry Gil S. Mallari, Reporter
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Elvis in
his trademark jumpsuit |
This Saturday, the 16th of August marks the 31st
anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Three decades past the
demise of the “King of Rock in Roll,”
the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death are still the stuff
of urban legend.
One question remained unanswered to many of his
fans: Did the “King” stage his own death to live a normal life?
Anyone familiar with the life story of Presley
would agree that he has enough reason to do so. Besides the obvious
lack of privacy, Presley’s career was on an all-time low during
the mid 1970s. He was grossly overweight and his indulgence on
nefarious substances made him forget the lyrics of his songs during
performances. And to top all these, his wife Priscilla had left him
for her karate instructor Mike Stone.
Soon after his death in 1977, fans and the press
began questioning strange circumstances concerning the King’s
demise. Among them are: that the figure of Presley in the coffin
appeared waxen and that the casket weighed unusually heavy at 900
pounds, that no one has claimed Presley’s life insurance, that
Presley’s name was misspelled on the tombstone, that Presley’s
personal belongings like books and jewelries were never found and
that Presley’s death certificate was missing.
Some speculated that the coffin contained an air
conditioning unit to prevent the wax dummy from melting.
Debates raged and died over these issues through
the years but two evidences presented by author Gail Brewer-Giorgio
in her controversial book Is Elvis Alive? (Tudor, 1988) proves hard
to ignore. Giorgio, who claimed that someone somewhere exerted clear
effort to nullify the credibility of her book before and during its
circulation, presented two proofs in her work: The first was a taped
conversation allegedly containing Presley’s voice made four years
after his death on August 16, 1977. The second evidence was a
picture of Presley in Graceland taken by photographer Mike Joseph
four months after the King’s “death.”
Here’s a brief excerpt from the mystery tape
transcript: “People ask me all the time where I’m living, and
actually I can’t say but uh, it’s a good place to hide. I, uh,
it actually started when I arrived in Hawaii. I made uh, I made
arrangement with a friend of mine to uh fly me out of the state.”
Here are the actual words in the report of voice print expert L. H.
Williams after analyzing the tape, “I have concluded that there is
a data indicating that the unknown (mystery tape) and known (Elvis
Presley) speakers are the same with a moderate level of
confidence.”
Joseph’s photograph of Presley was featured in
the 10 pm News of KCOP Television, Los Angeles on January 1986. A
quote from anchor Bob Walsh says, “The picture in question is part
of a set. All the negatives are intact, and a spokesman for Playboy
[The magazine bought the temporary rights of the picture]) confirms
the pictures were not doctored. The sequence of pictures including
shots of Elvis’ grave confirms that the pictures were indeed taken
after Presley’s death.”
Regardless of whether Presley hoaxed his own
death or not, it’s clear that he opted to leave the limelight for
good. Let the man get his peace. The King may be gone but his music
lives on forever.
“Well, since my baby left me, I found a new
place to dwell. Its down at the end of lonely street at heartbreak
hotel. …I get so lonely I could die.”
— Elvis Presley
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