Copyright (c) 2009 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
After years of speculation, the truth can finally be told: Elvis Presley not only faked his death in 1977, he’s alive today – and we’ve got the photograph to prove it.
The stark, black-and-white snapshot taken by a stunned fan on June 26 clearly shows the aging superstar resting in a wheelchair on the grounds of his Graceland mansion in Memphis.
ELVIS PRESLEY: Photographed at Graceland, say eyewitnesses, just days ago.
And while nobody can say for sure if The King is back at Graceland to stay, Presley insiders hint that the 74-year-old legend, “if he really is alive, might go public at any minute” if he gets some kind of indication that fans still care.
“I’m not saying Elvis is alive – honestly, I’ve always suspected it, but I’ve never known for sure,” said a close friend of the singer and former member of his close-knit “Memphis Mafia.”
“But I’ll tell you one thing – if that picture of him in the wheelchair is authentic, and it sure looks to me like it is, then you can bet your bottom dollar that El set the whole thing up to find out if people still remember him.
“Elvis isn’t stupid. In fact, he’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. If he faked his death and kept himself out of the public eye for 32 years, he sure wouldn’t screw up and let somebody take his picture now, especially one that shows him in a weakened condition and unable to use his legs.
“At least, he wouldn’t ‘screw up’ unless he wanted to. I think that’s what might be going down. He‘s a sensitive guy and I guarantee you he wouldn’t come out of hiding if he felt like fans don’t care about him anymore.
It‘s easy for me to believe he‘s testing the water before he does something drastic like go on Good Morning, America or Larry King and tell everybody he’s alive.”
Nobody officially involved in the maintenance of the Presley estate and its various for-profit enterprises has ever said anything to support the notion that Elvis faked his death of a heart attack on Aug. 16, 1977.
And they certainly aren’t forthcoming with any new information now.
But if the story develops along the lines suggested by the ex Presley insider, they might have to. And that includes The King’s former wife, Priscilla, and only child, rock-star-in-her-own-right, Lisa Marie.
“There are plenty of good reasons for Elvis to come out of hiding now,“ says Wes Thomas, an investigative reporter and Presley expert who has written extensively on the performer.
“He’s certainly no spring chicken. And after the recent death of Michael Jackson, he might have stopped to reflect on his own mortality and decided that if he‘s ever going to tell fans the truth, he better do it now.
“That the kind of man Elvis was. He loved his fans and he never wanted to lie to them or cheat them. If he faked his death to escape the pressures of being a star, those who know Elvis would tell you they always expected him to come out of hiding and explain everything.
“What’s really got me about that picture is the wheelchair. It could mean he’s had a stroke and lost the use of his legs or maybe he has an unsteady gait. Then again, he might be using a prop to generate interest among fans.
“When you see Elvis Presley in a wheelchair 32years after he ‘died’, well, that’s something the whole world will want to see.”
Photo analysts commissioned by YourWorldReport.com say the photograph taken by a 53-year-old woman who sneaked onto the grounds of Graceland through an unlocked gate “absolutely, positively has not been altered or retouched” in any way.
And while they can’t say for sure whether the senior citizen in the wheelchair is Elvis or a mere look-alike, a nationally known aging expert says: “It’s The King.“
“Judging from my analysis of blowups, the man is Elvis or, if not Elvis, someone who aged exactly as our computer models say Elvis would have aged – which is a virtual impossibility,” says Phil Telers, of Washington, D.C. Telers has worked closely with police departments nationwide to “age” abducted children in computer models that are used to help find the kids years after they went missing.
As Elvis fans know all too well, circumstances surrounding The King’s “death” in 1977 were mysterious at best. Officially, he suffered a drug-induced heart attack while reading a book on the Shroud of Turin in the opulent bathroom adjoining his second-floor bedroom at Graceland – while girlfriend Ginger Alden slept just a few feet away in his bed.
But reports from mourners who said Presley was sweating profusely as he lay in his open casket before his funeral fueled persistent and compelling rumors that he was, in fact, alive.
Those rumors intensified when Presley insiders told friends that anybody who bothered to dig up the performer’s coffin would find – not Elvis – but a wax dummy inside.
In fact, Presley’s dad, Vernon, had the casket moved from Forest Lawn Cemetery, where it was originally buried, to Elvis’s beloved “Meditation Garden” at Graceland to keep overzealous fans from digging it up to find out who – or what – really was inside.
“If it’s truly Elvis I saw I’ll just die,“ says the excited fan from Cheraw, South Carolina, who took the wheelchair-bound man’s picture and requested that her name be withheld “so other fans won’t think I‘m trying to take advantage of anything.”
“I just had time to take the one picture and the camera was set to take black and white because my son is studying photograph at the junior college and they’re using black and white,” she adds.
“I was pretty far away and had to use my zoom lens. But I know he saw me because we made eye contact. I felt like it was Elvis and my heart was beating out of my chest. I tried to say something but my mouth was so dry all I could do was croak like a frog.”
The woman says security guards caught up with her “and they were real nice about escorting me out, not mean like you’d think they’d be.
“By then I could talk and I kept saying, ‘That was Elvis! I saw Elvis.’ The funny thing is, they didn’t deny it. And they didn’t make fun of me, either. But when I turned back around, Elvis was gone.
“If I hadn’t taken the picture, I probably wouldn’t have believed any of this ever happened. It still feels like a dream.”
