Who Murdered Elvis?. Stephen B. Ubaney
threats and bribery came to this community as a result of gangsters' rise to power."
Dalitz was the main member of organized crime who helped Frank Sinatra get his big break in show business. Frank Sinatra was responsible for helping Tom Parker get the motion picture and recording connections that he needed to make Elvis the star that he was. Knowing the obvious connection between Tom Parker, Frank Sinatra and various other mob members, it should surprise no one that Elvis Presley's co-star in one of his biggest hits of the late 1960s was none other than Nancy Sinatra, Frank Sinatra's daughter.
The added publicity was done as a favor and although Nancy Sinatra was a very capable actress and co-star, it is doubtful her name would have come up for the role without the stark inside influence. Script after script from 1956 through 1969 would punish Presley's brand as he was commanded to sing sub-par songs that were written by unknown composers.
He cowardly suffered through the most moronic and repetitious movie plots in the business. This horror started slowly by Elvis filming one movie a year, but eventually grew to three movies a year until all 31 feature films were completed. These movies were so low budget and so rushed to completion that movies like Girl Happy and Spinout were shot in a mere 30 days. This was an inhuman pace that no entertainer could withstand. Elvis and his Memphis Mafia took to popping pills and staying up for days at a time to meet filming deadlines so Parker’s money flow would remain uninterrupted.
On at least one occasion Elvis had a bloody nose that simply wouldn't stop. When the doctor was called to examine him it was discovered that he was so depleted of sleep brought on by overwork that the nose bleeds wouldn't stop until he got some rest and his resistance could be restored. Finally, with Elvis on the verge of total physical collapse, Parker’s people agreed to give him a few days off.
While Elvis and the Memphis Mafia were keeping busy starring in foolish B rate films, Colonel Parker was adding another famous mobster to his book of contacts. To make the circle of Tom Parker's relationship to the mob complete, enter Las Vegas staple, Milton Prell. Prell had been kicking around Las Vegas as long as there was sand in the desert and had his start in the business of Las Vegas gaming just after the end of World War II.
Prell's first project in Las Vegas, The Bingo Club, was opened in 1947. In 1952 it was closed for renovation and re-opened as "The Sahara – The Jewel in the Desert." Prell was the rumored front-man for the Detroit mob and it was widely rumored that the money that built the Sahara was bookie, extortion and west-coast race-wire profits. Parker went out of his way to become close to Prell, showing him the ultimate in respect and consideration.
Alanna Nash clarifies this in her novel The Colonel where she writes: "The Colonel took a liking to Prell.” - “The two formed an intimacy unlike any other in Parker's personal history, and Prell became the one man the Colonel turned to whenever he needed a favor in Vegas." The two men were soon joined at the hip and when Parker learned that Prell’s neighbor in Palm Springs was none other than Presley movie producer Hal Wallis, Parker became an eager resident. Palm Springs was also the favorite hangout for Frank Sinatra, his friends in the syndicate and many of the seasoned Hollywood celebrities of the day.
Milton Prell with Elvis Presley
Parker, becoming totally absorbed in his life of power began to lose his promotional genius and when Presley’s movie career came to an end Parker was so drunk with power that he has lost his foresight. The radical '60s had taken hold of America and the music scene had become mired in the psychedelic and rock rebellion of the Vietnam era.
There was a new generation afoot that Parker didn't understand. Not because he couldn’t, his attention was elsewhere. By 1967, Presley’s movie contract was almost complete and the next career move was uncertain. Elvis turned restless and soon disobedient. He rebelled against Parker and the result was an impromptu meeting and strong lecture. Parker began to reorganize and take control of everything. He now ran the Memphis Mafia, Elvis' friends and every facet of Elvis' home life.
Parker even dictated who Elvis could spend time with, who had to be removed from his inner group and even the types of books he was permitted to read. After Parker ended the meeting where he laid down the law, he pulled Elvis aside and announced that his managerial percentage for handling him was going to be increased to an even 50% / 50% split.
Then, almost as if he was punishing Elvis, he back dated the new contract to the first day of the year. After all, with all of Parker’s new pull in the mob, who was going to stop him from taking the additional monies that he didn’t deserve? The answer was no one. Elvis knew that he was outmatched and many of the members in his group were amazed at how quickly he signed the new 50% partnership agreement; Marty Lacker was among them.
After the new contract was signed and the other 25% started to leave the Presley payroll to satisfy Parker’s new mob partner the two men became obsessed with personal safety. Bars started appearing over the windows and doors of their homes, and they both wired their homes with extensive security systems.
Elvis, who was already a high-degree black belt in karate, started getting his personal bodyguards enrolled in such training and bringing in additional security staff such as Dick Grob, who was a police sergeant, Dave Hebler, who was a martial arts master, and Sam Thompson, a former Shelby County Sheriff Deputy. Around this time, Elvis also went gun crazy carrying three to five handguns at a time.
Guns became a daily part of his life from this moment on and they lay strewn all over the house. They could be found lying on sofa cushions, on counters and even in bathrooms. He also went to great lengths to make sure everyone around him knew that he was highly armed to ward off anyone that wanted to get cute.
He began working martial arts skits in his performances and appearing in photos with his favorite gold-plated revolvers. He went so over the edge that as best man at Sonny West's wedding, he'd stand at the altar wearing five loaded firearms, including one in his boot. Elvis was definitely sending a message.
When Elvis married, Parker arranged every detail as if it were his own wedding. He selected the guests, found the location and even arranged the transportation. The secret location was at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas – a place that Parker knew very well as it was owned by none other than Milton Prell.
The transportation was also provided by the mafia; it was Frank Sinatra’s private jet. Elvis was in such a cage that he couldn't even plan or enjoy his own wedding without Parker, Sinatra, and Prell calling the shots for him, just as Eddy Arnold had foreseen and warned Elvis against years earlier.
Parker flexed his new mob muscles and assembled the wedding but behind the scenes he never wanted Elvis to marry and did everything to disrupt the couple's happiness. He was good at this: he'd broken up the marriage of both his right-hand men Tom Diskin and Byron Raphael.
This is covered at length in Alanna Nash’s book The Colonel. There she explains that Parker kept the men away from home and talked their brides into divorcing before the ink was dry on their marriage licenses. When the deed was done and he finally got his way Parker handled every aspect of the divorce. The Presley marriage went against everything Parker wanted.
He felt that the marriage of the No. 1 sex symbol in the world would hurt Presley’s sexpot punch from a marketing point of view and he had secret plans to make Elvis single again – quickly. After what seemed like a five-minute honeymoon, Parker pushed Elvis apart from Priscilla and thrust him into yet another labor-intensive project, the 1968 TV concert. Parker had picked December as the month for the special, and planned it to be a Christmas special, but network producer Steve Binder had other ideas.
After meeting with Elvis for several days and making the ever-sheltered Presley understand that his career was almost shot, Binder realized that this was a grand opportunity to re-energize Elvis' career and recapture the raw talent that still lay within. The TV special would soon go from Parker's White Christmas to a black leather unplugged concert that reunited Elvis with his old