Who Murdered Elvis?. Stephen B. Ubaney
the youth of the nation. At the same time, Elvis Presley had many things going through his head, and all roads went through Washington DC. Elvis was fiercely patriotic and didn't like the radical uproar that he saw in America. He was also as fed up with Parker's pushy mob buddies as he was the greasy-haired, drug-infested protesters on the evening news. To Presley, it was a personal call to arms.
He reasoned that a visit to see President Nixon to offer his help in saving America would help solve both of these problems. Presley was very eager to help the US Government as a snitch as long as it was kept private. This was clearly evident in the letter Elvis had written to President Nixon.
This is a typed version of his letter which I acquired copyright at the National Archives. The first sentence of the last paragraph states “I am glad to help just so long as it is kept very private”.
After a short meeting with President Nixon, Elvis outlined his concerns regarding the anti-American sentiment that he believed came from John Lennon. Elvis offered his help and the two men were in total agreement.
When Elvis returned home he made the announcement of his new federal credentials. From that moment on, Tom Parker and the mobsters behind him had a very big problem. Elvis now had the federal badge that allowed him to carry a pistol in Memphis, Las Vegas or anywhere in the country his plane would fly him.
If the mob was gunning for Elvis, they now had the whole federal government behind him to deal with. Suddenly Elvis was much less expendable. With his newfound federal powers, which gave him a sense of confidence against Parker and his thugs, Elvis decided the time was right to dump Colonel Parker once and for all. If he'd said it once, he'd said it a thousand times: "I hate that old man and I'm tired of the old bastard threatening me".
The resentment between the two men had festered and blossomed to the point where almost anything could produce a screaming match. Elvis, tired of being the Colonel's puppet, fumed over the lack of control and was furious over the lack of a worldwide tour that Parker said years ago was in the works.
Millions of dollars in offers continued to pour in from all parts of the globe, including an offer to play at the great pyramids of Giza. All would go unanswered as Parker conjured up one excuse after another. One screaming match in particular started when Elvis heard that an employee of the Hilton was fired while his wife was sick and just diagnosed with cancer.
Elvis blew his stack on stage about the matter, hurling insults at Barron Hilton, then president of the Hilton Hotel chain. This was a direct and public insult to a mob friendly hotel. A hush sprawled over the audience as they listened to what Elvis had to say. The Colonel was purple with rage when he appeared in Presley's dressing room immediately after the show and the two men went ‘nose to nose’.
The tirade continued upstairs in Presley's thirteenth-floor suite. Finally, after the Colonel pounded the floor with his cane for nearly three hours and his pudgy purple face quivered with humiliation, Elvis did what he'd been threatening to do for years: he fired him. With both men threatening to hold a press conference before the other to break the news, they continued to trade threats and insults. The next day Parker produced a bill with itemized expenses for Elvis to buy him out of his contract.
The bill was several million dollars that Elvis simply didn't have and the Colonel knew it. Parker had trumped another ace and because Elvis couldn’t buy him out of his contact he had no choice but to take him back, but bigger troubles were on the horizon for Presley that dwarfed his dislike for the Colonel. Unbeknownst to President Nixon, a mafia leak from within the White House sought to alert his cronies from coast to coast that Elvis had obtained federal agent credentials.
The White House informer quietly contacted one of the mob’s reporters in their many media outlets and the secrecy that Presley demanded in his letter to President Nixon was forever blown. The Washington Post published the following information for all eyes to see. The following article was also acquired at the National Archives.
From the moment this article hit the press Elvis Presley was no longer seen as an entertainer. He was a marked man. This unforeseen media event devastated Presley and put him at great risk but paled in comparison to what followed in his personal life. Back at home Priscilla was succumbing to the pressures of life alone and she was no longer satisfied with the time apart from her husband. The long and secret affair she was having with Elvis' friend and karate instructor would be exposed and prove to be the ultimate insult.
Many women have affairs, but when it's done with your husband's friend, it cuts far deeper into the male ego. Priscilla was much more than just a wife for Elvis; she was a very important part of his mental makeup. She was the one person he poured his guts out to when his mother died, and she became the ultimate confidant and transitional object. In her, Elvis finally had someone whom he could completely and thoroughly trust, but when that ended, his world totally collapsed.
In August of 1972, they filed for divorce and Tom Parker finally got what he wanted all along, but not the way he wanted it. He managed to contort Elvis' marriage into ruin, but Parker now had to deal with a man whose raging drug addiction would prove to be a far bigger nuisance than his marriage ever was.
Presley's lawyer worked out the amicable terms of the settlement. Priscilla would receive $100,000 in a lump sum, plus $1,000 monthly for expenses and $500 monthly for child support. Each went their separate ways and the divorce was finalized.
Most people take drugs to escape physical pain, Elvis took drugs to escape mental pain, and as 1972 turned into 1973 there was plenty of mental anguish to go around. Elvis was on the brink of financial collapse, his wife had left him and was living with one of his friends, and his creativity was being stifled by Parker and the mob.
The stormy relationship between Presley and Parker continued as Presley's drug use escalated. Trying to satisfy the numerous requests and offers from around the globe for Elvis to do a worldwide tour, Parker set up a television broadcast via satellite and arranged to have it pumped into every country.
The show, called Aloha from Hawaii, was to air on January 14, 1973 and was the world's first live-concert satellite broadcast, reaching two billion viewers. To prepare for this major event, Presley dieted down to a mere 175 pounds and stayed off his medication for weeks. He also designed the now-famous jeweled eagle motif for the jumpsuit that he wore. The double album that was created from this show would stay on the charts for 36 weeks and would prove to be his first chart-topping LP in nearly a decade.
By February it was selling over a million copies in the US alone and far more in foreign countries. Sadly, it would prove to be his last and final moment as a glorious superstar – it would be his last No. 1 album in his lifetime. For many, the next time they'd see an image of Elvis Presley, it would be on the front cover of a tabloid magazine in his casket.
As 1973 wore on, Presley and Parker continued to battle. They fought over Elvis' insistence to record his music in Memphis and the new gospel group that Elvis had just signed on for $100,000. Parker was furious and remixed Presley’s songs, not releasing the version that Presley had approved. This was discovered as Elvis was riding in a car with Jerry Schilling and his new song was announced for the first time on the radio, and the version played was nothing Elvis had heard before.
The suppression of creativity that no one understood, combined with the business end of entertainment that he had no say in, put Elvis into deep depression. Interestingly both Presley and Parker had succumbed to their compulsions. Parker wanted desperately to return to the green felt of the casinos but needed to pay off his gambling marker that Hal Wallis, RCA and the Hilton were still holding, and Presley needed to get over this financial hump and go back to losing money the old-fashioned way – by paying for all the expenses and splitting the profits with Parker.
Later that year, Elvis' ex-wife reopened