Elvis Presley memorial, Graceland.
Photography by Nick Finck - NickFinck.com

ELVIS PRESLEY

In the end, Elvis was nearly bankrupt, his career was on the rocks, and a book was about to be released by his former bodyguards, revealing him as a terminally addicted junkie and a loose cannon who had nearly killed numerous people.

• What was his plan for personal revenge and professional revival?

• Elvis was taking a “miracle” steroid that, in high doses, commonly causes psychosis and suicidal depression. And, for years he had been ingesting the eleven powerful narcotics found in his system – all but one to which he knew he was dangerously allergic.  He secured a bottle of this drug at an emergency midnight dental appointment hours before his death. Why?

• After his death, Elvis’s father, Vernon, arranged the assassination of his pill-pushing doctor, “Needle Nick,” during a college football game. What went wrong?

Elvis Presley

“I’m self-destructive. But there’s not a lot I can do about it.”

.... The King is cruising at 120 miles per hour up the Santa Monica Freeway in his black Dino Ferrari. His twin .45’s are in his show gladiator belt buckled over his black, perspiration-soaked DEA jumpsuit. His derringer in his boot, his Thompson machine gun under the seat, and cocaine-soaked cotton balls fill his nostrils. His kid stepbrother, David Stanley, is at shotgun in the Spyder. The young man has never seen him in such a state.

Elvis broke down the door of his room in the middle of the night, “Get your gear, we’re goin’ head huntin,” he’d ordered him.  “We’re gonna kill those sonsabitches!” It’s November, 1976. Elvis has just completed another grueling national tour, but he seems to be ready for some real breakneck action tonight.

Since leaving their beach condo, David, though ordinarily psyched for pre-dawn adventure, has been trying talk his big brother down. It’s not the speed that bothers him: not only is Elvis a seasoned DUI driver, he is a Hollywood trained Spinout professional. And it’s not the firepower that fazes him either: Elvis has packed heat for years and is a bona fide peace officer. He carries badges from more than fifty police departments coast to coast, not to mention his federal Bureau of Narcotics shield.

No, what bothers David is that this is the first time he’s seen real murder in Elvis’s eye....

“They ain’t worth a bullet, Elvis,” his kid brother keeps pleading. “Nobody’ll believe that crazy shit about you!”