How Did Elvis Presley Die? How Did Elvis Presley Die? How Did Elvis Presley Die? Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images How Did Elvis Presley Die? Answer Elvis died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom at Graceland . After being found on the bathroom floor, Elvis was rushed to the hospital where he was officially pronounced dead. The coroner recorded the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia. While true in the strictest sense (cardiac arrhythmia basically means that the heart was beating irregularly and in this case, finally stopped), the attending physicians deliberately omitted the fact that what had apparently caused Elvis' heart to beat irregularly and then stop was an overdose of prescription drugs. These drugs included codeine, Valium, morphine, and Demorol, to name a few. After this information was revealed, Vernon Presley, Elvis' father, had the complete autopsy report sealed. It will remain sealed until 2027, fifty years after The King's death. Because of the controversy surrounding the autopsy as well as a few other questionable circumstances, some people believe that Elvis Presley is still alive or at least, that he didn't actually die in 1977.

continue reading below our video 5 Tips to Make Coach Feel Like First Class While I don't believe that Elvis is still alive, it is an interesting idea to explore. You can read more about the theory here . Assuming you do believe that Elvis died in 1977, though, you can actually visit his grave site at Graceland . More Frequently Asked Questions About Elvis When did Elvis Die - When was Elvis Born - Elvis FAQs Film & TV Elvis FAQ When was Elvis Born? When did Elvis die? How many movies did he star in? How many records has he sold? We get a lot of questions about Elvis’ life and legacy – here are some of the most common questions we get, along with official answers from Elvis Presley Enterprises. When was Elvis born? January 8, 1935 When did Elvis die? Elvis Presley passed away due to heart failure August 16, 1977, at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 42 years old. What year did Elvis graduate from Humes High School? 1953 When did Elvis get his first guitar?

He received one purchased from Tupelo Hardware Company on January 8, 1946 - his 11th birthday. When did the Presley family move to Memphis? November of 1948 Before becoming famous Elvis drove a delivery truck for what Memphis company? Crown Electric When did Elvis record his first record at Sun Studio? He recorded "That's All Right" on July 5, 1954. Where was Elvis' first billed performance? He performed at Overton Park Shell on July 30, 1954 On what Saturday radio show did Elvis regularly perform? Louisiana Hayride from Shreveport, Louisiana For what product did Elvis make his only commercial? Southern Made Doughnuts radio jingle while on the Louisiana Hayride What was Elvis' first gold record? "Heartbreak Hotel" On what show was Elvis' first national TV appearance? Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Stage Show on January 28, 1956 What year is the pink Cadillac in the Elvis Presley Car Museum? 1955 Fleetwood Where was the first house Elvis purchased? 1034 Audubon Drive, Memphis, Tennessee When did Elvis purchase Graceland?

March of 1957 for $102,500 Who did Elvis buy Graceland from? Mrs. Ruth Brown Moore, former wife of Dr. Thomas Moore How many movies did Elvis make? 31 feature films and 2 concert documentaries What was Elvis' first movie? "Love Me Tender" Name the only three cities outside of the U.S., where Elvis performed. Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada. Who did Elvis marry? Elvis Presley's wife was Priscilla (Beaulieu) Presley. At what hotel in Las Vegas were Elvis and Priscilla married? Aladdin Hotel on May 1, 1967 When was Elvis Presley's daughter born? Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968 at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee What does TCB and the lightning bolt stand for? Taking care of business quickly or in a flash How many Grammy Awards did Elvis receive in his lifetime? Three Grammys - all for his Gospel music. How many records is it estimated that Elvis has sold worldwide? Over one billion units sold Where was his last concert?

Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, IN on June 26, 1977 The Elvis Presley coverup: What America didn’t hear about the death of the king - Salon.com Sunday, Nov 16, 2014 11:59 AM UTC The Elvis Presley coverup: What America didn’t hear about the death of the king After Presley's death, an effort was launched to protect the reputation of the hospital that had treated him Excerpted from “Elvis Presley: A Southern Life.” The call came to Memphis Fire Station No. 29 at 2:33 p.m. on Tuesday, August 16, 1977. The dispatcher indicated that someone at 3754 Elvis Presley Boulevard was having difficulty breathing. “Go to the front gate and go to the front of the mansion,” the voice directed. Ambulance Unit No. 6 swung out of the station onto Elvis Presley Boulevard and headed south, siren wailing, advertising a speed that the ponderous machine had not yet achieved. The two medics manning the ambulance recognized the address right away.

The “mansion,” as the dispatcher called it, was Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland, three miles south of the fire station. They had been there often, to take care of fans fainting at the front gate and pedestrians injured by passing automobiles. Two years before, one of the medics, Charles Crosby, had come to assist Elvis’s father, Vernon Presley, after he suffered a heart attack. He thought it might be Vernon again. On this run Crosby was driving the ambulance. He was thirty-eight, stoutly built, dark-haired, and heavily mustached. His partner, Ulysses Jones, twenty-six, sat in the passenger seat. Members of the Memphis Fire Department, they had received eighty-eight hours of special training to become emergency medical technicians and had years of experience. On each call, they alternated between driving and riding in the back with the ill or injured. This time, Ulysses Jones would ride with the patient. Crosby expertly threaded the boxy white, blue, and orange vehicle through the thin midafternoon traffic with lights flashing. Heat waves shimmered up from the asphalt in front of him.

During the day, the mercury had risen into the mid-90s and hovered there. In a city not yet fully air-conditioned, many working Memphians breathed the hot, damp air, mopped their brows, and thought fondly about getting home to an icy drink on their shady screened-in porches. As the ambulance crested a low hill and swooped down the broad six-lane boulevard toward Graceland, the gates swung open and the crowd milling around the entrance parted. Making a wide sweeping turn to the left, the vehicle bounced heavily across the sidewalk and hurtled through the entranceway, striking one of the swinging metal gates a clanging blow. One of the several musical notes welded to the gate fell off. Crosby accelerated up the curving drive toward the mansion. He braked hard in front of the two-story, white-columned portico. Climbing down from the ambulance, Crosby and Jones were met by one of Elvis’s bodyguards. “He’s upstairs,” the man exclaimed, “and I think it’s an OD.” Grabbing their equipment, the two medics rushed into the house and up the stairs.

They pushed through Elvis’s bedroom, noticing the deep-pile red rug and the huge unmade bed facing three television consoles, one for each of the three major networks. Passing through a wide doorway, they entered Elvis’s enormous bathroom, what had been two rooms combined into a sitting room, dressing room, and bathroom. Ulysses Jones told a reporter later that day that he saw “as many as a dozen people huddled over the body of a man clothed in pajamas—a yellow top and blue bottoms.” At first sight Jones didn’t recognize Elvis. The man was stretched out on his back on the thick red rug with his pajama top open and his bottoms pulled down below his knees. Rolls of fat girded his belly. He was very dark, almost black. Jones thought that he might have been a black man. “From his shoulders up, his skin was dark blue,” he told a reporter for the Memphis Press-Scimitar. “Around his neck, which seemed fat and bloated, was a very large gold medallion. His sideburns were gray.” A young man was pressing Elvis’s chest rhythmically, while a middle-aged woman gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Jones knelt quickly to search for any sign of life in the prostrate form. He felt no pulse, and he saw no flicker of response when he flashed a penlight into his eyes. “Elvis was cold,” he said, “unusually cold.” People in the room began frantically asking the medics what should be done. Suddenly, as if in response, one young man blurted out helpfully, “We think he OD’d.” It was the second time the medics had heard that opinion. The man seemed to speak for the whole group. No one dissented, but Jones thought the statement caused “a kind of funny stir in the room.” Elvis’s employees were rigorously trained never to mention Elvis and drugs in the same breath. Elvis did not take “drugs” of any kind. If they ever had to say anything at all, they were to say that he was on “medication” prescribed by his physicians. One of the medics asked for the container that held the drugs taken by the victim. None was ever produced. Jones and Crosby quickly concluded that emergency treatment in a hospital offered the only hope. It took five men to lift the body onto the stretcher.

“He must have weighed 250 pounds,” Crosby said. With much difficulty, they negotiated the stretcher around the corners and down the stairs. Two men had to hold back Elvis’s father, Vernon, as he cried and called out, “Son, I’m coming . . . I’ll be there . . . I’ll meet you there.” As they were about to leave, a Mercedes-Benz raced up the driveway and lurched to a stop. A stocky middle-aged man with a thatch of white hair dashed from the car and leaped into the back of the ambulance just as the doors closed. It was Elvis’s doctor, George Nichopoulos. Dr. “Nick” Nichopoulos Four years later it would be established in court that during the seven and a half months preceding Elvis’s death, from January 1, 1977, to August 16, 1977, Dr. Nichopoulos had written prescriptions for him for at least 8,805 pills, tablets, vials, and injectables. Going back to January 1975, the count was 19,012.

The numbers defied belief, but they came from an experienced team of investigators who visited 153 pharmacies and spent 1,090 hours going through 6,570,175 prescriptions and then, with the aid of two secretaries, spent another 1,120 hours organizing the evidence. The drugs included uppers, downers, and powerful painkillers such as Dilaudid, Quaalude, Percodan, Demerol, and cocaine hydrochloride in quantities more appropriate for those terminally ill with cancer. In fact, at about 2:00 a.m. on the morning of his death, Dr. Nick was again ready to prescribe. He responded to a telephone call from Elvis by prescribing six doses of Dilaudid, an opiate that was Elvis’s favorite drug. One of Elvis’s bodyguards, Billy Stanley, drove over to Baptist Memorial Hospital, picked up the pills at the all-night pharmacy, and brought them to Graceland. The bodyguard said that he saw Elvis take the pills. The autopsy, however, showed no traces of Dilaudid in Elvis’s body. In the fall of 1981 the state tried Dr.

Nichopoulos in criminal court for overprescribing drugs to Elvis and a number of other patients. Dr. Nick testified that if he had not given Elvis a large proportion of the drugs he demanded, other doctors would have. By supplying Elvis, he had at least some control over his patient’s intake. His defense was weakened substantially by evidence that he had prescribed an excessive amount of drugs to at least ten other patients, including rock star Jerry Lee Lewis and his own teenage daughter, Chrissy. On the other hand, it was clearly established that Elvis could, would, and did get any drug he wanted from show business doctors in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. One of his suppliers was a Las Vegas physician called “Flash” by Elvis’s staff, since he would appear on a moment’s notice, syringe in hand, ready to inject Elvis with whatever drug he wanted. The guys said that “Flash liked to attend Elvis’s parties to mix with the overflow of attractive young women present and perhaps find a companion for the evening.” At home in Memphis, Elvis would get packages containing drugs mailed from the West. Sometimes he sent his private plane, the four-engine Lisa Marie, to Las Vegas or Los Angeles to secure drugs from doctors in those cities and ferry them back to Memphis.

Sometimes he flew out himself. Dr. Nick, like Elvis’s other physicians, had been seduced by the frothy glitter of show business, and with his tanned and striking appearance he fit right in. His style diverged from the practice of medicine that was increasingly a matter of business and less a matter of personal service. He was born and reared in Anniston, Alabama, where his father was a highly respected restaurant owner and businessman. George Nichopoulos, however, had not at first been a high achiever. He had not progressed smoothly through college and medical school. He had first entered the University of Alabama on a football scholarship, but dropped out before the school year ended, and he served in the army for two years. He was a student at Birmingham Southern University for a year and then moved on to the University of the South at Sewanee, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. He worked in a research lab at Vanderbilt University before his admission to the medical school in 1952. He failed biochemistry and physiology, was put on probation, and tried to make up for his failures during summer school, but failed again. In the fall, he was not readmitted.

He moved to Memphis and for three years worked in the University of Tennessee’s medical school. In 1956, he was readmitted to Vanderbilt Medical School, graduating in 1959. After finishing his training, in 1962 he entered practice in Memphis with several doctors who called themselves the Medical Group. Other doctors looked askance at George Nichopoulos’s personal and sartorial style. Too much informality, they thought. He allowed his patients, friends, and acquaintances to call him “Dr. Nick.” He seemed unduly proud of the stylishly arranged thatch of white hair that crowned his head, and he was not averse to revealing his chest hair. He often wore his shirts open at the throat, showing off a very large, tasteless gold medallion suspended by a necklace and resting against his bare chest. The medallion was a special gift from Elvis Presley and marked him as a member of the star’s inner circle, some of whom were macho young men who proudly called themselves “the Memphis Mafia.” Dr. Nick usually sported a highly visible array of expensive rings, bracelets, and wristwatches, some of which were gifts from Elvis.

Without his white smock and dangling stethoscope, one would have difficulty recognizing him as a doctor, even in a medical office or hospital. How could he command sufficient authority among his patients? his medical colleagues wondered. How could he justify his fees? Dr. Nichopoulos was making his rounds at Doctors Hospital far out on the east side of Memphis when the call came that Elvis was in trouble. Dropping everything, he rushed to Graceland in the green Mercedes-Benz Elvis had given him. He was taken by surprise by the call. He had done everything he could think of to preserve Elvis’s life in the face of his drug addiction, and he thought he was succeeding. He was looking forward to flying off in the Lisa Marie with Elvis to Portland, Maine, for a ten-day tour. For years the doctor had often toured with Elvis, carrying all the necessary drugs with him. Elvis would sometimes introduce him to his adoring audiences, publicly expressing his fond appreciation for his physician as thousands of people looked on and Dr. Nichopoulos stood in the spotlight graciously accepting their applause. Now and again, when Elvis was mad at Dr. Nick, he would punish him by not letting him come along on a tour. The day before Elvis died, Dr.

Nick had loaded up his bag at the Prescription House, a pharmacy just across the street from his office. Later, investigators found that for this ten-day trip, Dr. Nick had picked up 682 pills and tablets, including Dilaudids, Percodans, Amytals, Quaaludes, Dexadrines, and Bephetamines, along with 20 cc’s of liquid Dilaudid. Elvis paid the doctor $800 a day for his services on tours, which lasted from about ten to twenty days. He also paid the doctors with whom Nichopoulos practiced $1,000 a day to cover for him while he was gone. Between 1970 and 1977, Elvis paid Dr. Nick more than $76,000 for his services on the road and $147,000 to the medical group. The material benefits that Dr. Nichopoulos enjoyed from his association with Elvis did not stop at gifts and fees. In 1975 he had persuaded Elvis to loan him $200,000 to build a house in a newly developing and affluent neighborhood well east of town.

With a tennis court, a swimming pool, and an enclosed racquetball court, the banks found the home too costly even for its well-to-do neighborhood and refused to lend Dr. Nick the money he needed. Elvis did so, and before he passed away $55,000 more. They did draw up a paper shortly before Elvis’s death that would pool the loans and obligate Nichopoulos to repay the amount over a period of twenty-five years at 7 percent interest, but Elvis never got around to signing the document. Only days after the funeral, Vernon summoned Nichopoulos to Graceland and with insulting haste compelled him to sign a document in which he mortgaged his home to Elvis’s estate for the total amount he owed. He also increased the interest rate to 8 percent and warned Nichopoulos that if he was late on even one month’s payment, foreclosure would summarily follow. Vernon had never trusted Dr. Nick. Court records indicate that as of June 27, 1979, Nichopoulos had not missed a single payment and still owed the estate $245,807.33.

As the ambulance raced down the driveway and up the boulevard on the afternoon of the death, Dr. Nichopoulos could not accept the reality that lay before him. Working desperately on the body, the doctor kept shouting to the dead man. Later that day, Jones described the scene in the ambulance. “All the way to the hospital,” he said, “the doctor had this look of sheer disbelief that this could happen to Elvis.” He recalled that Dr. Nichopoulos kept shouting, “Breathe, Elvis . . . come on, breathe for me.” Baptist Memorial Hospital The ambulance left Graceland at 2:48, sixteen minutes after it arrived. At 2:56, it pulled up at the emergency room at Baptist Memorial Hospital. The hospital maintained a superbly well trained crew of eighteen doctors, nurses, and medical specialists to deal with life-or-death situations. Dubbed the Harvey Team, it could gather at a given point in the building within minutes after the alert was sounded. Already assembled and waiting when this patient arrived, the team rushed him into Emergency Room B and went to work. They had not been officially told that it was Elvis.

“Why are we working on this guy?” asked one young medic, seeing that he was already dead. “Because he’s Elvis Presley,” answered one of her older teammates. Ulysses Jones watched while the Harvey Team worked with professional steadiness. After some twenty minutes, they gave up. Dr. Nick turned to Joe Esposito, Elvis’s road manager. “There is nothing we can do,” he said. “We tried.” Jones saw Nichopoulos’s eyes begin to water as he shepherded people out of the room. “Then he left too,” Jones said, “shutting the door behind him.” Jones and Crosby drove Dr. Nick back to Graceland in the ambulance. The corpse was wheeled to the hospital morgue, where a resourceful, if graceless, newspaper photographer was lying on a gurney under a white sheet, pretending he was a cadaver, waiting for an opportunity to snap a photograph of Elvis’s body. Such a photo would be worth thousands of dollars to the tabloids. The would-be photographer was quickly discovered and roughly expelled, and a guard was set until the autopsy began. Sergeant John Peel of the Memphis Police Department arrived at Baptist Hospital about 3:45 p.m.

and began to take notes for the official police report. He wrote that by 4:10 the body was already in the morgue. He had learned that the victim “appeared to have been sitting on commode & lunged forward.” He “had gone to the bathroom to read.” He noted that “Dr. Nick” had left the “hospital en route to get autopsy papers at Graceland.” His last entry indicated that Dr. Nichopoulos “wouldn’t give cause of death.” At Graceland, Nichopoulos secured Vernon Presley’s signature to a document authorizing an autopsy of his son’s body by the staff of Baptist Hospital, to be paid for by the Presley estate. Thus, Vernon might share—or not share—the resulting report with anyone he chose. If the object was to keep the cause of Elvis’s death a secret, it was an excellent move both for the Presley family and for Dr. Nichopoulos. If Elvis died by his own hand from popping too many pills, only trusted people needed to know the truth, and the carefully constructed public image of Elvis would be secure. Also, if Dr.

Nichopoulos had prescribed too many pills for Elvis, that fact might be kept from authorities who might otherwise take away his medical license or even bring him up on criminal charges. The Cover-Up Baptist Hospital administrators realized that in dealing with the death of Elvis Presley they were involved in a public relations matter that might damage the hospital’s sterling reputation. Over the years they had carefully concealed the nature and seriousness of his often embarrassing illnesses, including those resulting from drug abuse. Dr. Nichopoulos had always checked Elvis into Baptist Hospital because he knew they were discreet. That was surely one reason why he ordered Charles Crosby to drive the ambulance some seven miles to Baptist Hospital rather than to the nearest emergency room, at Methodist South Hospital, only blocks away from Graceland. The autopsy was conducted by a specially selected and highly skilled team of nine pathologists headed by the hospital’s chief of pathology, Dr. E. Eric Muirhead. Dr. Jerry Francisco, the medical examiner for Shelby County, closely observed the proceedings. It would be his responsibility to declare to the world the official cause of Elvis Presley’s death. Early on, a meticulous dissection of the body revealed what Elvis did not die from.

It was not heart failure, stroke, cancer, or lung disease— the usual killers. It also confirmed what his doctors already knew: Elvis was chronically ill with diabetes, glaucoma, and constipation. As they proceeded, the doctors saw evidence that his body had been wracked over a span of years by a large and constant stream of drugs. They had also studied his hospital records, which included two admissions for drug detoxification and methadone treatments. Over time, Elvis had, in effect, been poisoned. The bloated body, the puffy eyelids, and the constipation reflected the slow death. They prepared multiple specimens from the corpse’s fluids and organs to be identified anonymously and sent to several well-respected laboratories across America for analysis. Chances seemed high that Elvis had, in fact, overdosed. Dan Warlick, Dr. Francisco’s aide, had driven to Graceland after Elvis’s death was confirmed to investigate the scene. Several hours later, he summarized what he had found. Sadly, ignominiously, the crisis had come Tuesday morning while Elvis was sitting on the black leather padded seat on his black ceramic commode reading a book. There had been a trauma of some sort.

Probably, Elvis stood up, dropped the book aside, took a halting short step or two, then sank to his knees and pitched forward. Perhaps he crawled a foot or two more before he collapsed, came to rest in the fetal position face down on the deep pile rug, and regurgitated slightly. Warlick told Dr. Francisco that the site had been cleaned up before he arrived, but even so, he had found two syringes and an empty medicine bag in Elvis’s quarters. He thought that drugs were involved in the death. Dr. Francisco seemed uninterested in Warlick’s findings. He smoked a cigarette while Warlick talked. In front of them, the hospital pathologists continued to dissect Elvis’s body, piece by piece, on a porcelain table. Francisco cut Warlick off before he had finished his report, but invited him to stay and witness the autopsy. The Shelby County medical examiner, perhaps, had already decided what the official cause of death would be. Francisco and the hospital authorities knew that the world was waiting for their announcement about what killed Elvis Presley. News people were swarming around inside and outside of the hospital.

Maurice Elliott, the hospital’s vice president, knew that he had to give the journalists something to report. After Elvis’s body had been wheeled away to the morgue, he told them that Elvis had been pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m., apparently of heart failure. He also scheduled a press conference with the pathologists for 8:00 p.m. As that hour approached, the pathologists were still working on the body and realized that they could not say with scientific certainty what had killed this man. They knew that he did not die of the usual causes, and they knew that addiction to drugs was the probable cause, but they could say nothing with confidence until they got the results back from the laboratories, if then. That would be a matter of weeks. The press and the world were not likely to wait patiently for their verdict. At eight o’clock the hospital conference room was crowded with journalists when a team of doctors entered and took places behind tables in the front of the room. Dr. Francisco made himself the spokesman for the physicians. He sat down in front of a bank of microphones, flanked by Dr. Nichopoulos, Dr. Muirhead, and five other physicians.

All of the hospital doctors still wore their white smocks, while Dr. Nick sported an open-necked black silk shirt, diamond rings, and gold jewelry. Dr. Muirhead thought that Francisco would say that they would need to study the lab results before they could complete the autopsy and offer their judgment. Instead, Francisco opened with the flat statement that “the results of the autopsy are that the cause of death is cardiac arrhythmia due to undetermined heartbeat.” Muirhead could not believe his ears. Francisco had not only presumed to speak for the hospital’s team of pathologists, he had announced a conclusion that they had not reached. He said that Elvis had simply died of heart failure. Francisco continued his indictment of Elvis’s heart. “There are several cardiovascular diseases that are known to be present,” he said. “One is a mild degree of hypertension that had been under treatment for some time, and that there was hardening of the arteries, the coronary arteries of the heart, known as coronary atherosclerosis.” During the autopsy, the doctors had decided that these conditions were indeed present but not involved in Elvis’s death.

Francisco talked pointedly about the existence of these two conditions as if they were important, but he was also careful to indicate that they were not serious. He wasn’t lying, but he really hadn’t said anything of substance either. If Francisco wanted the world to leap to the conclusion that Elvis died of a heart attack without his actually saying so, it was a brilliant presentation. The message was that Elvis’s physicians had been monitoring his heart closely for a substantial period of time and there had been no indication that heart failure would kill him. The press and soon the world understood that a prestigious team of pathologists had said that Elvis died of heart failure, suddenly and without warning. It was a crisis that could not have been avoided. No one was at fault in Elvis’s demise. Francisco properly cautioned that the final and official determination of the cause of death would take days or weeks. Indeed, he warned, the cause “may never be discovered.” Nevertheless, he proceeded to announce that he was absolutely certain of one thing: it was not drugs. Elvis was taking medication for high blood pressure and his colon problem, he said, but “there is no evidence of any chronic abuse of drugs, whatsoever.” Again, Dr.

Francisco was marvelously ingenious in his use of language. If he referred only to street drugs, he was correct. If he meant to include prescription drugs, he was lying. Dr. Muirhead was sorely embarrassed for himself, his staff of pathologists, and his hospital. He later said that he wished he had spoken up, but did not because he did not know what the laboratory reports would show. Even later, he was silenced by the fact that the autopsy report belonged to Elvis’s estate, not to the state, and hence was not public knowledge. During the press conference, Dr. Francisco did not invite Dr. Muirhead or any of the other pathologists to speak after he finished, but rather turned the microphone directly over to Dr. Nichopoulos. Dr. Nick seemed “positively jubilant” over the medical examiner’s pronouncement that drugs were in no way involved and, in effect, no one was responsible for Elvis’s death. He told the journalists that he had been Elvis’s private physician for a decade and he knew positively that he had not been taking hard drugs.

“If he was taking cocaine,” he declared, “I would have known about it.” He had given Elvis a complete physical only five days before, he said. “He was getting over an eye infection and a sore throat, but overall he was a healthy man.” Elvis’s death was simply a bolt out of the blue, a tragedy that no one could have prevented. Excerpted from “Elvis Presley: A Southern Life” by Joel Williamson. Copyright © 2014 by Joel Williamson. Reprinted by arrangement with Oxford University Press, a division of Oxford University. All rights reserved. Elvis death: Shocking new DNA results reveal he suffered from genetic heart muscle disease - Mirror Online Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email It is news that could leave Elvis Presley's family and fans all shook up. DNA from Elvis' hair suggests he suffered from a genetic heart muscle disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He appeared to suffer symptoms of the condition in his final years, including an irregular heartbeat, fatigue, fainting and high blood pressure. The new findings suggest that regardless of his diet, the iconic singer was always destined to die young.

Dead Famous DNA gives a new insight into Elvis' death extracting DNA to analyse his genome – the genetic blueprint of life. 1970: In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the Houston Astrodome (Photo: Getty) The results were obtained after buying Elvis' hair from a friend of his barbers for $2000. Presenter Mark Evans said: "Some of the results are remarkable - not least those of the DNA we believe came from Elvis. “Elvis and his doctor have both been blamed over the years for his premature death. It was thought his overeating or overdosing on drugs had killed him. "Whilst those addictions would have helped, this new evidence suggests Elvis may have had a flaw in his DNA and his early death was his genetic destiny." During three months of DNA testing, problems were found on chromosome 11 - a variant known to cause hypertophic cardiomyopathy - a heart muscle disease that usually occurs in men between 20 and 40. Chromosome 19 showed variant for obesity. Chromosome 17 found glaucoma and chromosome 1 found variant for migraine.

Mr Evans said he was "very very confident" the hair was genuine and he was dealing with Elvis' DNA because of the provinence of the hair. Asked if the find is significant, Dr Stephen Kingsmore, who did the analysis at the Centre for Paediatric Genomic Medicine in Kansas, said of the heart defect: "Its definitely a smoking gun. “We could have advised him to modify his diet. He may have had a different life.” The programme makers contacted daughter Lisa Marie Presley's office but said it had not had a response. 1977: An overweight and declining Elvis no longer resembled the superstar that had shot to fame off the back of his good looks (Photo: Rex) Elvis died in his bathroom on August 16, 1977 aged 42 but the majority of details of his death were kept from the public. At this time he was suffering from aucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon. Dead Famous DNA also tries to look at the genetic make up of the likes of Hitler, Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.

* Dead Famous DNA starts on Channel4 tonight, Wednesday 26 March, at 9pm We're testing a new site: This content is coming soon How Did Elvis Die? How Did Elvis Die? Pinterest ‘Elvis was probably an addict,’ his doctor admits—but did those prescriptions kill him? Shortly after 2 p.m. August 16, 1977 Ginger Alden, awaking from a long day’s sleep, walked into the bathroom adjoining the palatial master bedroom of Graceland and discovered that Elvis Presley was dead at 42. It was a seismic event and a national tragedy. To cope with it, to capitalize on it, in some cases as if to deny it, his former retinue and his most fanatic fans have pored over his effects hungrily for relics and talismans, turning his death into a macabre sideshow. Kidnappers have tried to steal his body from its grave. Fortunes have been made in retrospective schlock and dime-store Presleyana. Dozens of relatives and “friends” have published increasingly lurid accounts of his life.

One old retainer, security chief Dick Grob, recently tried to sell a book outline retailing the theory that Elvis was dying of cancer; now, reportedly, Grob says he made it up. Someone, presumably a vengeful fan, fired a shot at Elvis’ physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos, at a football game last year. One ghoul has tried to sell the vial in which Elvis’ last drug prescription was packaged. The price: $1,000. Perhaps the most insistent consequence of Presley’s death has been the growing debate over how he died. On one side is the medical examiner of Memphis, arguing that the cause was (as his death certificate states) “hypertensive cardiovascular disease associated with atherosclerotic heart disease.” In short, heart attack. On the other side is an army of onetime associates, some of his fans and an ABC-TV news producer who attribute his death to dependence on a lethal combination of powerful prescription drugs. Two weeks ago a state agency accused Memphis pharmacist Irving Jack Kirsch of filling over 200 narcotics prescriptions for the singer despite the fact that he “knew or should have known” that Elvis was a drug abuser.

Last week in Memphis a state panel convened to hear charges that his personal physician, Dr. Nichopoulos, had prescribed a phenomenal amount of drugs for Presley—more than 5,000 narcotics capsules and pills alone—in the seven months before he died. On the stand, Nichopoulos confirmed for the first time that Elvis had indeed been a drug addict. Fueled by new information and theories unearthed by journalistic and official investigations, the mystery of Elvis’ death is today deeper than ever. The controversy began virtually at the moment of his death, when Memphis ambulance attendant Ulysses Jones arrived at Graceland and a Presley staff member greeted him at the door with the news: “We think he’s OD’d.” A notation to that effect was entered on Presley’s admitting form at the Baptist Hospital emergency room. Toxicologists who studied Presley’s tissues isolated at least eight different barbiturates and narcotics—including Valmid, Quaaludes, codeine, Placidyl and phenobarbitol. According to ABC, the doctors who performed the autopsy personally advised Vernon Presley that his son had died of a drug overdose.

But then, three days later, Tennessee’s Chief Medical Examiner Jerry Francisco signed and issued the official certificate, ascribing death only to coronary problems. “Elvis Presley died of heart disease, and prescription drugs found in his blood were not a contributing factor,” Francisco later stated categorically to the American Medical News. “Had these drugs not been there, he still would have died.” Francisco has come under increasingly virulent attack in the two years since that finding. At least one of the 10 members of the autopsy team—and reportedly others—wanted to attribute Elvis’ death to “polypharmacy,” or a toxic combination of dangerous drugs. After a six-month investigation, Memphis-born ABC News producer Charles Thompson has also come to the conclusion that only drugs could have killed Presley. “He had in his system enough narcotics to kill almost anybody,” says Thompson, who somehow wangled a copy of the toxicologist’s report. “The quantity of drugs in the man was truly amazing,” marvels former Pittsburgh Medical Examiner Cyril Wecht, who was called on by ABC to examine the lab reports.

New York Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Michael Baden agreed: “A street addict could not possibly take that amount of drugs and survive.” Actress Linda (Hee Haw) Thompson, who lived with Elvis for years after his 1973 divorce from wife Priscilla, says he had been abusing prescription drugs since the 1950s. Reports from his old entourage confirm the fact that he was indeed hooked. “I have never seen a human being in my life abuse drugs like Elvis,” Presley’s stepbrother David Stanley recalls. “I am not talking about street drugs—I am talking about prescribed drugs. Some of the doctors were out for the almighty buck.” Adds former bodyguard Sonny West bitterly: “They called them ‘prescribed’ drugs, but he was addicted to them. He was taking narcotics shots—as far as I know in the muscles, not intravenously—of liquid demerol and stuff like that.

He would use an excuse like a sprained ankle for taking Dilaudid; that’s the strongest pain medication you can get—they usually prescribe it for terminal cancer patients.” But West, too, was taking drugs, and so were Stanley and his two brothers and most of the other members of the “Memphis Mafia.” In the reconstructions, Graceland seems to have been a veritable drug emporium. Marty Lacker, a buddy since high school and the best man at Elvis’ wedding, had to leave the entourage after 20 years to detoxify in 1976. Others did the same, including Elvis’ three stepbrothers. The cost to Presley’s health was apparent—he reportedly fell into stupors with alarming frequency, was hospitalized for overdoses at least twice, and once in 1976 would have died if his father hadn’t given him artificial respiration. “Dr. Nick” testified in his own hearing last week that he brought in two psychiatrists specializing in drug addiction. Elvis saw them twice, according to Nichopoulos, then dismissed them because the idea of treatment by a shrink was anathema. Presley’s drug problem worried those closest to him much more than the public ever guessed.

“His death,” claims actress Thompson, “could have happened any number of times during the years I spent with him had I not been so acutely attuned to his habits and needs.” She finally moved out of Graceland a few months before Elvis died, fed up, she says, with his drug use. “When a person knocks himself out each night with sleeping pills, he is just as apt to fall asleep face down on the floor as he is to be safely tucked away in bed when the medication hits. For that reason, Elvis required an unfathomable amount of attention.” How could she leave him? “Elvis had a self-destructive vein,” explains Linda, “and I couldn’t watch him self-destruct.” Vernon Presley was simultaneously so worried about his son’s habits that he hired two former narcotics agents to trace the source of Elvis’ supply. They named two doctors and a dentist, but by one account Elvis threatened to cut off his father’s $75,000 yearly salary if Vernon took any action. The problem, says Vernon’s ex-wife and Elvis’ stepmother, Dee, was simply that “there wasn’t a person in the world that would say no to him.

If there was a woman or man strong enough, Elvis would be alive today.” A few of Presley’s associates still maintain that he had no drug problem. They point out that Dr. Nichopoulos ordered all medication administered to Elvis by a licensed nurse and argue that his dosage was controlled. “A lot of the shots given to Elvis by his nurse were just saline solution,” insists last girlfriend Ginger Alden. “That was on Dr. Nick’s orders.” In her new book, Elvis: We Love You Tender, Presley’s stepmother, Dee, offers a wishful compromise. “It may yet be proven that Elvis was extremely ill,” she says, “and he had to take that amount of drugs to deaden the pain.” The amount of drugs—and the reasons for them—were of paramount interest to the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners as it began hearings this month. Dr. Nichopoulos was charged with dangerously overprescribing drugs not only for Elvis Presley but for 19 other patients as well (among them: his own teenage daughter, Chrissie, and rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis). Nichopoulos denies outright that he ever prescribed codeine or two of the three barbiturates found in Presley’s tissues.

As for the most startling charge, that he prescribed 12,000 pills for Elvis in the 20 months before his death, Nichopoulos argues that those drugs were in fact intended for Presley’s entire road entourage, and were to be administered by a nurse under his direction. “Although I was not the only source of drugs available to Elvis Presley,” Nichopoulos states in his defense brief, “I did undertake as best I could from the time I became his personal physician to control his intake of habit-forming substances, and to keep him in good health and physically able to perform for his millions of admirers.” A finding by the medical board that Nichopoulos was indeed a Dr. Feel-good will no doubt encourage the drug-death theory, but Medical Examiner Francisco believes that would be wrong. “Let’s look at the entire record upon which I base my decision,” was the way he put it to the medical journal. “The heart was enlarged to twice its normal size. There was severe coronary artery disease. His records showed a pattern of abnormal electrocardiogram readings. And he had a history of diabetes, depression, insomnia, overweight and blood pressure as high as 160/110.

Then there was the circumstantial evidence,” Francisco continued. “His body was found in a flexed position, with a pressure point on the side of his head. Had he died of drugs, the body would have gone into a coma and been found in a comfortable resting position.” Finally, in defense of the heart-attack finding, Francisco notes the family’s history (Elvis’ mother also died of a coronary at 42), and points out that Presley rarely used alcohol, a common synergistic agent in OD deaths. If the autopsy is ever made public—and ABC News is suing to obtain it—some significant new facts may be added to the dispute. But the deep and acrimonious dissension among doctors could also prove finally unresolvable—with Elvis’ death wrapped in impenetrable layers of medicalese. That, according to Elvis’ uncle, Vester Presley, would be just as well. “We’re very sad over all this talk about Elvis—and it makes us feel very bad about the human race,” mourns Vester, 65, who still works as the gatekeeper at Graceland, as he has for 22 years.

Elvis’ grandmother Minnie Mae, 90, and his aunt, Delta Mae Biggs, are the last inhabitants of the old mansion now, and they’re trying to keep the place just as it was on that August day. Elvis’ clothes still hang in his closet, the television over his bed stands ready for use, and the towels are in place in the bathroom where he died. The building has the air of a shrine. But these days the number of visitors to Graceland is way down—to about the same level as before Elvis died. That, too, is just as Vester thinks it should be. “Elvis was just a human being, just like everybody else,” the old man shrugs as he goes about his duty, guarding the gate at the big, empty house. Slowly, perhaps, even the King’s most obsessive followers will learn to accept that truth.

Show Full Article EXCLUSIVE: Elvis Presley's Doctor Claims He Died of an 'Embarrassing' Case of Chronic Constipation | Fox News EXCLUSIVE: Elvis Presley's Doctor Claims He Died of an 'Embarrassing' Case of Chronic Constipation By Hollie McKay Facebook 0 Twitter 0 livefyre Email Print A photo of Elvis (center) with his doctor Nick Nichopoulos (back) taken shortly before his death. (Courtesy of Nick Nichopoulos) LOS ANGELES – It has been widely reported that Elvis Presley died in 1977 from cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat, possibly brought on by drug dependency, obesity and a weak heart. But the music legend's longtime friend and physician, Dr. George “Nick” Nichopoulos, has put pen to paper for the first time and revealed his belief that it was chronic constipation that actually killed the King of Rock and Roll. “After he died we weren’t sure (of the exact cause of death) so I continued to do some research and I had some doctors call me from different places and different med schools that were doing research on constipation and different problems you can get into with it.

I just want to get the story straight – it all made sense with the new research that was done,” the now retired Memphis M.D told Pop Tarts. "Dr. Nick" was by Presley's side for the last twelve years of his life and tried to resuscitate him the day he died. He recently released the book “The King and Dr. Nick” about his time with The King, and his theory on the death that shocked America. “We didn’t realize until the autopsy that his constipation was as bad – we knew it was bad because it was hard for us to treat, but we didn’t realize what it had done," the doctor explains of Elvis' condition. "We just assumed that the constipation was secondary to the meds that he was taking for his arthritic pain and for his insomnia .” According to Dr. Nick, the autopsy revealed that Presley’s colon was 5 to 6 inches in diameter (whereas the normal width is 2 to 3 inches) and instead of being the standard 4 to 5 feet long, his colon was 8 to 9 feet in length.

“The constipation upset him quite a bit because Elvis thought that he could handle almost anything, he thought he was really a man’s man and he wasn’t going to let something like this … he thought that this was a sign of weakness and he wasn’t going to be weak,” Nichopoulos said. “And it’s not the kind of thing you table talk. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s you didn’t’ talk about constipation much, you didn’t’ hear people complaining about it, or saying what they did or how much trouble they had with it.” In 1975, the primary treatment for this kind of problem involved removing part of the colon, known as a colostomy, and at the time Dr. Nick was in talks with a surgeon at the University of Memphis to perform the procedure. However Presley’s “ego” got in the way. “He would get embarrassed, he’d have accidents onstage. He’d have to change clothes and come back because of the way we were trying to treat his constipation,” Nichopoulos said. “So if they had done the colostomy then, he’d probably still be here. But it wasn’t acceptable treatment at that time.

Now the treatment is short.” Nichopoulos also believes that Presley’s prominent weight gain in the years prior to his death, was not a result of overeating or eating the wrong foods, as they initially assumed. The doctor reveals that Elvis' bloated appearance was due to his severe constipation. “It was really a physiological problem. During the last few years we were going back and comparing pictures, some of them were taken just two weeks a part but he looked like he’d gained 20 pounds when the only difference was that he had a good healthy bowel movement and then lost a lot of weight from that,” Dr. Nick explained. “Usually you pass it all in two or three days, but at the autopsy we found stool in his colon which had been there for four or five months because of the poor motility of the bowel.” So how would Presley feel about all the details of this “debilitating” disease being made public? “I still think it’d be embarrassing for him, but that may be because we couldn’t explain it at that time the way we can now. But bowel paralysis is hereditary and you can in fact pass it down to your children,” he continued.

“His condition was either something he was born with like Hershberger’s disease, or some viruses cause the paralysis of the nerves in the colon. The nerves weren’t functioning enough in places, or weren’t functioning at all because his colon would not push food out, it would just accumulate.” And even through all the trials and tribulations of their personal and professional relationship, Nichopoulos will first and foremost remember the captivating yet compassionate person that was our beloved American icon, Elvis Presley. “He was well-written, a very kind person, a very giving person. He was just one of a kind. You couldn’t ask for a better friend,” Dr. Nick added. “The main thing that he enjoyed in life was doing his shows. He would change from one person to another as soon as he walked on the stage. He would just go through a metamorphosis – all of a sudden he flipped a switch and looked like a toy soldier dancing up there.” Advertisement Elvis killed by chronic constipation, reveals his doctor | Daily Mail Online For years Elvis Presley's death has been the subject of ever more far-fetched conspiracy theories. But it seems that the real mystery may have been missed - the cause of his death.

Rather than an irregular heartbeat, as had previously been reported, his personal doctor has revealed Elvis died of chronic constipation. Revelations: Elvis Presley, centre, with Dr Nick George Nichopoulos and friends shortly before his death; the doctor has revealed that he thinks Elvis's constipation led to his premature death The debilitating problem caused the singer severe problems, according to Dr George Nichopoulos, Elvis's doctor for the last 12 years of his life. The doctor, who attempted to resuscitate Elvis on the day of his death, said that it wasn't until the autopsy that he realised had severe the constipation had been. According to Dr Nichopoulos, the autopsy found Elvis’s colon to be five to six inches in diameter, compared to an average of two to three inches. And rather than the standard four to five feet long, Elvis's colon was eight to nine feet. 'After he died we weren’t sure [of his cause of death] so I continued to do some research and I had some doctors call me from different places and different med schools that were doing research on constipation and different problems you can get into with it.

'I just want to get the story straight – it all made sense with the new research that was done,' he told Pop Tarts. He said that although he offered Elvis a colostomy, to remove part of his bowel, his pride meant he rejected the treatment. And Dr Nichopoulos thinks that if Elvis had undergone the treatment he might still be alive today. 'He would get embarrassed, he’d have accidents onstage,' said Dr Nichopoulos. 'He’d have to change clothes and come back because of the way we were trying to treat his constipation. 'So if they had done the colostomy then, he’d probably still be here. But it wasn’t acceptable treatment at that time. Now the treatment is short.' Dr Nichopoulos also says that Elvis's weight gain in the years before his death was at least partly due to his constipation. 'During the last few years we were going back and comparing pictures, some of them were taken just two weeks a part but he looked like he’d gained 20 pounds when the only difference was that he had a good healthy bowel movement and then lost a lot of weight from that,' he said.

Elvis died on August 16, 1977, at the age of just 42. His body was found in the bathroom at his home Graceland. The Doctor recently released his book The King And Dr Nick, about his time with Elvis. Last moments of Elvis Presley’s life revealed by former fiancée - Telegraph USA Last moments of Elvis Presley’s life revealed by former fiancée Ginger Alden recall’s Presley’s erratic behaviour and his 'wedding of the century promise' in new memoir Elvis Presley and Ginger Alden By David Millward , US Correspondent 3:37PM BST 21 Aug 2014 Follow Elvis Presley promised his fiancee the “wedding of the century” but months later he was dead. After years of silence, Ginger Alden, a former beauty queen, has told of her often tempestuous time with Presley in the months before he died, aged 42, at Graceland, his mansion in Memphis. Miss Alden has written the story of their courtship, laying bare life in Graceland which was punctuated by angry outbursts and violent moodswings.

They had first met many years previously at a fairground, while she was a child. Decades later in November 1976 Presley invited her sister, Terry, the reigning Miss Tennessee, to the mansion. Related Articles 07 Jan 2013 However it was Miss Alden, who made the trip along with another sister, Rosemary, who captivated Presley. "I know this sounds funny but when Elvis entered the room, I thought trumpets would sound. He looked so handsome,” she recalled. Miss Alden accompanied Presley on a tour to Las Vegas, where he presented her with not only a huge diamond ring, but a second encrusted with diamonds and sapphires. He proposed marriage in the bathroom at Graceland on January 26 1977. Elvis and Ginger (Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty) But according to the memoir, Elvis & Ginger, it did not take long for Presley’s darker side to emerge. On one occasion he ran into the garden with a machine gun after seeing his daughter Lisa being chased by somebody with a “gun”, which turned out to be a toy pistol.

He shot at his telephone when it disturbed him and even fired at the television because a programme displeased him. Presley gorged on food and when Miss Alden chided him about his eating habits he hurled a dish of ice cream at her. But he always apologised afterwards for his outbursts. She also describes the night Presley died on August 16, 1977. Unable to sleep, he told Miss Alden, “I’m going to the bathroom to read” . They were to be his last words. A few hours later Miss Alden woke up and saw the light in the bathroom was still on and found Presley slumped on the floor. Elvis & Ginger by Ginger Alden Elvis & Ginger: Elvis Presley's Fiancée and Last Love Finally Tells Her Story is published on September 2. How and When Did Elvis Presley Die? How and when did Elvis Presley die? How and when did Elvis Presley die? nydailynews. com Updated August 15, 2015. Question: How and when did Elvis Presley die?

Answer: Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 42 at the time of death. He had been on the toilet, but fallen off onto the floor, where he lay in a pool of his own vomit. Panicked, his staff contacted an ambulance, which rushed him to nearby Baptist Memorial Hospital, where, after several attempts to revive him, he died at 3:30 pm CST. His autopsy was performed at 7:00 pm. The official coroner's report lists "cardiac arrhythmia" as the cause of Presley's death, but this was later admitted to be a ruse entered into by the Presley family along with autopsy physicians Dr. Jerry T. Francisco, Dr. Eric Muirhead and Dr. Noel Florredo to cover up the real cause of death, a cocktail of ten prescribed drugs, taken in doses no doctor would prescribe: The painkillers Morphine and Demerol. Chloropheniramine, an antihistamine. The tranquilizers Placidyl and Valium.

continue reading below our video Highest Paid Female Actors Ever Finally, four drugs were found in "significant" quantities: Codeine, an opiate, Ethinamate, largely prescribed at the time as a "sleeping pill," Quaaludes, and a barbituate, or depressant, that has never been identified. It has also been rumored that Diazepam, Amytal, Nembutal, Carbrital, Sinutab, Elavil, Avental, and Valmid were found in his system at death. The phrase "cardiac arrhythmia," in the context of the coroner's report, means little more than a stopped heart; the report initially tried to attribute the arrhythmia to cardiovascular disease, but Elvis' own personal physician has stated that Presley had no such chronic problems at the time. Most of Elvis' many health problems can and have been traced back to rampant abuse of prescription drugs. Elvis had visited his dentist on August 15th to have a temporary crown put in; it has also been suggested that the codeine the dentist gave him that day resulted in an anaphylactic shock that assisted in his death. (He had suffered allergic reactions to the drug previously.)

Question: In which year did Elvis die?
Answer: 1977