The world was shocked by the tragic news of Elvis Presley’s sudden death at just 42-years-old. The King of Rock and Roll had suffered a fatal heart attack, before being discovered by his final girlfriend Ginger Alden. Upon news of his passing, the star’s closest friends and family rushed to Memphis from all over the country to say their goodbyes to the icon.
One of those who flew in from Los Angeles was Elvis’ former girlfriend Mindi Miller, who dated The King around 1975-6. Now in a new interview, Mindi has shared the hidden meaning behind Elvis’ burial that some fans may not have known. "His favourite colour was white. He was in white, all the lining was white, the hearse was white.”(read the full article here)
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Elvis was infatuated with his mistress, Ann-Margret, even beyond breaking up with her. The pair were forced to split against their will.
The crypt with the coffin that Elvis was interred in at Forest Hill is empty now, preserved for tourists, but it is available for sale at a reported price of over one million dollars.
Ronnie Adkins
With this information from Ronnnie Adkins, a police task force was assigned to watch the grave at Forest Hills Cemetery in suburban Memphis and successfully caught three men—Raymond Green, Eugene Nelson, and Ronnie Adkins—snooping around Presley's mausoleum. Just how the men were going to get through the two concrete slabs and solid sheet of marble that covered the coffin is unknown, since no tools or explosives were ever found. That doesn't even take into account how they planned to remove the coffin without a forklift. The Memphis police felt like something about the situation didn't add up, so until further evidence about the plot could be uncovered, they charged the men with criminal trespassing and kept them in jail.
The Memphis board on Sept. 28, 1977, OK’d Presley’s request to move his son’s body to Graceland. And the singer, dressed in a white suit with dark-blue tie and light-blue shirt, was reburied there Oct. 2.
As the investigation continued, it became apparent that the story Adkins told police was full of holes. He said the men were going to be paid $40,000 each by a mysterious criminal mastermind who planned to ransom the body for $10 million. But he couldn't tell police how the men intended to get their reward or how to contact this shadowy kingpin once the deed had been done. With no actual crime being committed (other than the men being in the cemetery after dark), and the evidence against the men being so weak, all charges were eventually dropped.
As a result of the almost, kinda, sorta attempted grave robbery, the Presley estate requested permission to move the bodies of Elvis and his mother to Graceland where they could be monitored 24-hours a day by staff security and closed-circuit TV cameras. Of course they're still at Graceland and have become one of the main attractions to the site.
Elvis Presley is buried on the grounds of Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee (3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, in Memphis, Tennessee), specifically in the Meditation Garden that lies next to the pool. Originally Elvis was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery at 1661 Elvis Presley Blvd. next to his mother, Gladys, but after a failed break-in by graverobbers, it was moved to its present location on October 3rd, 1977. Daughter Lisa Marie stated in 1999 that she was troubled by the number of tourists who visit the site every day and would like the grave moved to a private location.
Vernon did indeed follow his son quickly, dying two years later of what some say was a broken heart.
Did Elvis Presley's family stage a plot to snatch the King's body after he died in 1977? An FBI informant says yes, and was also allegedly involved in the scheme.
The goal was to persuade Memphis officials to move Elvis from the public cemetery to Graceland, which is now a $15 million-a-year tourist attraction.
The late Vernon Presley, Elvis' father and executor of his estate at the time, wanted his son buried on the mansion grounds, but it was in an area not zoned for burials. Three weeks after Elvis died of a heart attack, Vernon had lawyers for the Presley estate petition the Memphis and Shelby County Board of Adjustment for a zoning variance. They cited what they called an attempted theft of Presley's body several days earlier and the expense of round-the-clock security.
Obviously, the grave robbery was a hoax, but nonetheless, three men were arrested on August 29, 1977, near the Forest Hill Cemetery mausoleum where Elvis was entombed in a 900-pound copper coffin. One of them was Ronnie Tyler, who later became an FBI informant.
