Who killed Elvis Presley? A special investigation | 60 Minutes Australia

to his millions of fans Elvis Presley was simply the king he didn't invent rock and roll but he did carry it into millions of living rooms around the world then in August 1977 at the age of 42 the king proved that he was mortal his death as they say was the end of an era but it was also the start of an extensive cover-up elvis sold nearly 800 million records that's one for every family on earth without exception his 28 movies all made money at the box office [Music] [Applause] as the years wore on the swivel hip idol of the 50s became bloated and prematurely old he remained an idol nonetheless exalted in life and suddenly in death the body of Elvis Aaron Presley was taken to the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis there eight doctors carried out an autopsy they could find no illness or injury likely to result in death but the County Medical Examiner dr. Jerry Francisco overruled them acting on his own initiative without consulting the doctors who carried out the autopsy dr. francisco announced that Elvis Presley had died of a heart attack was after the autopsy are that the cause of death as a cardiac arrhythmia due to undetermined causes Elvis's fans and his fiance ginger Alden were left in the dark all of us had heard at the same time that it was a heart attack do you believe right in the very beginning I did I just you know III think it God it was Elvis it's time to go so I think he took him but uh but then again in my mind there are a lot of unanswered questions did it overs Presley died of a heart attack or was there another more sinister cause dr. Francisco consistently refused to release results of the autopsy or to be interviewed eventually though one of the eight doctors who examined Elvis's body no Fleur endo agreed to tell what he knew in my opinion I did not see any evidence of a heart attack morphologically morphologically meaning meaning there was no gross evidence of a heart attack so what was the cause of death polypharmacy that Elvis Presley died of the interaction of several drugs most probably yes tests by three separate laboratories confirmed the doctors suspicions after analyzing body tissue they reported traces of ten separate drugs Elvis Presley had died not from a heart attack but from drug abuse I take vitamin E Elvis Presley was no Street addict the drugs that killed him illegal provided on prescription by doctors who were so loyal starstruck or whatever that they forgot the interest of their patient as you'll see Elvis Presley was prescribed more than five thousand pills sedatives and tranquilizers in the last seven months of his life that's an average of 25 pills a day and as I said they were all prescribed by doctors giving rise to the question who killed Elvis what follows is a special investigation of the death of Elvis Presley from a reporting team led by Geraldo Rivera of the American Broadcasting Company it starts with a reconstruction of the last few hours of Elvis's life like many people in show business he was a night owl his day began after dark about an hour before midnight on August the 15th 1977 Elvis leaves his mansion Graceland's to keep a dental appointment with dr. Lester Hoffman with him or his fiancee ginger Alden his cousin Billy Smith and his longtime friend Lester Hodge Elvis is due to start a new concert tour the following day and wants his teeth cleaned and two fillings replaced we returned back to Graceland at about 1:30 now my snot went upstairs and I'll just turn on the television in his room to relax for a little while then how this started talking about his tour and started talking about our wedding plans and about announcing our engagement at his memphis concert about 6:30 elvis called downstairs for ricky stanley to bring up his pack of medication to help him get to sleep because he was so nervous about he was always kind of keyed up before starting a tour so ricky brought it up elvis took his packet of medication and started reading a book on psychic energy then he thought that would help him fall asleep then I fell asleep so at about 8 o'clock I woke up because that was restless saying that he just couldn't sleep so he called downstairs for Ricky again and Ricky came up and brought up another pack of medication a second packet right Elvis took that and then I went back to sleep the third time I was awakened again I almost was starting to get up saying that he still couldn't sleep he took the book on psychic energy with him and he started toward the bathroom door and I said no don't fall asleep and he turned and smiled at me and said oh okay I won't then he went to the bathroom I went back to sleep and I slept until 2 o'clock at that time I rolled over and I looked at the clock and said 2 o'clock then and the bathroom door was still shut so at that time I went in and I knocked on the door and no one answered so I opened the door and that was when I saw Elvis according to the Medical Investigator the body was purple or deep blue and rigor mortis had set in Elvis had apparently been dead for several hours after a flurry of desperate activity two paramedics arrived from the Memphis fire department they needed help to lift Elvis on to their stretcher he weighed 18 stone at the Baptist Memorial Hospital an emergency resuscitation team worked on Elvis but it soon became obvious they could do nothing even at this stage there was some suggestion that drugs may have played a part in his death Don Wallach from the medical examiner's office was handed a cryptic from the police ep OD question mark do a B mhm Elvis Presley overdose question mark dead on arrival Baptist Memorial Hospital at 3:30 in the afternoon Elvis Aaron Presley was pronounced dead but despite all the rumors and as it later turned out all the hard evidence to the contrary dr. jerry francisco continued to maintain that Elvis had died of a heart attack because of death has been ascribed to hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery heart disease as a contributory factor but as we said tissue samples analyzed at three different laboratories told a different story after two months of tests the bioscience organization in Los Angeles discovered that Elvis had been abusing a wide range of drugs these included codeine morphine quaalude and so the list continues valium Valmet Placid ill Nembutal phenobarbital pentobarbital and beauty bar betal all these drugs are Downers used to bring on relaxation and sleep several are addictive the findings were confirmed and amplified by two other laboratories the final step was to take the data to two doctors for analysis first Los Angeles toxicologist dr. matthew ellen horn cause of death was in LA was an overdose of codeine and an overdose of meth a cologne or quad and that was contributed to by an presence in the bloodstream which indicated that the patient had taken probably within the previous 24 hours at least five additional drugs known to produce depression of the central nervous system of depression of the brain a second opinion from dr. Cyril wick one of the foremost medical examiner's in the United States there were several drugs involved here the principal offender in this case was Cody which is a pain reliever but which is known to have a CNS depressant effect other drugs included valium a tranquilizer eval mid a sedative Placid ill a sedative phenobarbital a sedative and buta Barbasol a sedative it's incredible really that all these drugs should have been given to the patient simultaneously there was one other drug involved in the [ __ ] alone which is a tranquilizer knowing now about the virtual laundry list of drugs Rivera track down some of Elvis Presley's closest friends David Stanley was his stepbrother and worked at Graceland's as a security man how often did he see of us taking drugs every day last two years of Elvis's life it was every day what would elvis do if he didn't get the drugs he wanted he'd get upset sometimes we were in Vegas one time and uh like we were for like eight weeks you know and I was was getting his drugs but it got to a point to where his doctor wanted to shut him off in Vegas and we couldn't reach the doctor anymore so he jumped up on the table one day and he pulled out his 35 and he says I'll buy a goddamn drugstore if I have to he says I'm gonna get what I want he says you people better realize that either you're with me or against me either you're taking or you I'll buy your plane ticket home when I first started dating Elvis I was only I just turned 20 at the time and no one ever told me anything about what to expect how the the group was or anything like that I had to learn everything on my own and the people that had been around of us for all these years when I saw Elvis takes something or which was mainly before he would go to sleep I thought to myself well it must not really be harmful if it's prescribed and if these people over the years of Elvis is still doing it then it must not really be very harmful for him I would say it was very very bad and we knew if it continued there's something like this would happen we knew were just be a matter of time Rick Stanley another step brother was on duty at Graceland the night Elvis died were you the person who filled the prescription at Baptist Memorial yes I was what was it it was a lot the Lord is a very powerful morphine type of class a narcotic then what did you do with it well I went back to the Elvis's house went upstairs and gave it to him approximately how many pills six to eight pills was that common yes it was it happened every night that you were on duty oh yeah every night I was on duty Elvis couldn't sleep without it WS Nash was the pharmacist on duty when Rick Stanley went to have the prescription filled it was Ford allowed a drug so powerful but scripts are usually issued only in serious cases and Elvis remember had only had a couple of fillings mr. Nash has now retired but he's still haunted by the night of August the 15th 1977 and that been the only drug he had taken it probably wouldn't have killed him but in combination with others I was almost surely there so far we've established that Elvis Presley was dependent on drugs drugs prescribed by doctors who were supposed to help him instead by helped Elvis to destroy him you it was once in charge of the Narcotics Division of the Los Angeles Police Department he retired to become a private investigator and between 1969 and 1975 made several inquiries into the people who were supplying Elvis Presley with drugs his client was Vernon Presley Elvis's own father in your opinion should his attending physicians have noticed the fact that he was abusing these drugs he'd either have to be a [ __ ] alligator and not to notice that or a totally incompetent medical doctor in your opinion did the doctors therefore contribute to Elvis Presley's death was Elvis Presley murdered in a sense I think anyone would Seban Dhin and given something that causes their death for whatever reason is murder no I'm not saying first-degree premeditated but it's a degree of murder it's negligence there's negligent homicide it could be the same thing if you go to a bar and the bartender serves you 25 drinks in a row and you die there somebody's guilty of your death that's negligent homicide which is what another term is murder Jack Kelly another former narcotics officer and he too worked on the Presley case he could get whatever he wanted anytime you wanted it most of them that I found were only too anxious to give it to him how so tell me a little bit more about that well there for a variety of reasons for one thing you know there's doctors who through carelessness or irresponsibility will get their patients addicted and there's doctors who do it for monetary gain and there are doctors dentists who do it because they're because they're starstruck you find that particularly out here in Hollywood and unfortunately Elvis was a victim of all three what about max appear Mack Shapiro was a source of supply for Elvis unquestionably you're sure of that yes dr. max Shapiro dr. max to his patients is certainly a very unusual dentist to start with he makes house calls he's also known in Hollywood as a dr. feelgood a man who makes his patients feel no pain by prescribing narcotics whether there's a medical need for them or not how did you respond to being called a dr. feelgood dr. painless would be alright but if I worked on the patient they would never have pain that was one of my very very strong attitudes I would I myself am afraid of pain and I understand what the patient goes through I've been lied to by doctors they told me things wouldn't hurt and they treated me and it did hurt did you make sure that Elvis suffered no pain yes of course as all patients outside the office Leiter Rivera asked dr. max for a quick glance inside his briefcase I don't like people even know where I keep things because I've been robbed but there are narcotics in there now yes earlier Rivera managed a brief look he saw 15 to 20 bottles of narcotics but no dental tools max he was like the rest of the doctors just gave him any kind of medication he wanted volunteered it like what well barbiturates some narcotics amphetamines things like that Gregor oh yeah quaaludes delvis was noted like taker and he never took thanks at all um the only thing he took was sleeping pills just to sleep just like everybody else I guess in his field but I've never known Elvis to take any hard drives dr. Elias Gannon was Elvis's doctor in West bogus Rick Stanley disputes his claim that he never provided the singer with narcotics arrest no Elias did the same thing now I'll say Elias to me he seemed like he cared for hours but you know after a while I fell into it like the rest of them and just was giving him whatever he wanted whenever you want were there any doctors that said no to not that I know uh and I was around him for a long long time it's nothing I know uh nobody hardly said no to Elvis Presley dr. Gannon refused to be interviewed but the doctor closest to Elvis Presley was George Nikolas known to members of the so-called Memphis mafia as dr. Nick the records indicate that especially in the last year of his life you prescribed certain medications - Elvis Presley in quite extraordinarily large amounts why I can't come in on that and I don't believe that it's true well the records we have dr. and mm-hmm I'll say this as gently as I possibly can indicate that from January 20th 1977 until August 16th 1977 the day he died you prescribed to Elvis Presley and the prescriptions are all signed by you over 5000 schedule two narcotics and or amphetamines that comes out to something like 25 per day I don't believe that well is it something that you'd like to refresh your recollection on or is it something that you do not had to know after that interview the state of Tennessee began proceedings to stop dr. Nick from practicing medicine principally because of his treatment of Elvis Presley we have charged him with unprofessional conduct gross incompetence gross ignorance gross negligence and gross malpractice concerning his dispensing of narcotic substances specifically we have charged him with dispensing prescribing and issuing narcotic and controlled substances not in good faith relief pain and not for a legitimate legitimate medical reason this is the worst case of over prescribing of indiscriminate prescribing that I have ever seen in my time as a as an investigator with the state of Tennessee the charges against dr. NIC lists 16 patients including Jerry Lee Lewis and the doctors own daughter Chrissy but it was Elvis Presley who got the lion's share more than 5,400 pills in the last seven months of his life 25 pills a day why would you prescribe that amount of drugs in that limited period of time I think you didn't understand me I said I don't think that I did you don't think that you did I know I did you absolutely saying that you did not friendship was certainly one reason why doctor Nick gave Elvis whatever he wanted virtually whenever he wanted it but he also depended heavily on Elvis and his entourage for financial support doctor Nick is in big trouble because of his investment in this five million dollar office complex only one-third of the building is occupied the record shows that the doctor borrowed $200,000 from Elvis in 1975 and another $55,000 in 1977 much of the money went towards his elaborate home in Memphis may I ask one question do you have any regrets right opposite the doctor's office is the pharmacy where most of the prescriptions were filled Jack Kirsch never thought to question the dosage more than 5,000 pills in seven months 600 on the day before Elvis died yes possibly in my own man I would question this thing but I never questioned the doctor in light of what happened to Elvis Presley do you have any regrets I feel prescriptions you know I did not give I did not give the drugs to the patient I gave the prescriptions to the doctor no I don't have any regrets you were just following orders I was following orders for two years Memphis did more than mourn its favorite son it also covered up for him and for the people who had a hand in his death point 1 there was no real police investigation six hours after Elvis was pronounced dead long before the medical or scientific evidence was available the Memphis Police said the case was closed point to medical authorities who searched Graceland's for drugs now admit they didn't search the resident nurses Caravan where all the drugs were kept 0.3 Elvis Presley's stomach contents were destroyed without being analyzed 0.4 there was no inquest point 5 no attempt was made to find where Elvis got his drugs 0.6 all photographs of the death scene tox illogical reports and notes made by the medical examiner were destroyed little wonder city officials suspect to cover-up the Elvis mystique completely pervades the Memphis area and if there are individuals who are so concerned with a mystique that they do not care to know the truth and I feel that somewhere along the way someone has to take it upon himself to see that the truth is brought up but you definitely feel there's a cover-up I'm positive about that the question is not you know did he die because his heart stopped of course he did why did his heart stop why did he have an irregular heartbeat that's the question that needs to be determined it needs to be made available the problem for Memphis I suppose it was a choice between the legend and the truth in any event as a result of that report a lot of things have happened first a criminal investigation is finally underway second a judge has ordered the Baptist Memorial Hospital to make the results of the autopsy a violin to the producers of the television program third dr. Mac Shapiro or dr. feelgood is now under investigation in California and finally on top of his other troubles with the law dr. Nick is being sued for more than half a million dollars by another of his patients who claims to have been a victim of over-prescription but whatever the truth about Elvis Presley nothing you hello I'm Liam bartlett thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 2,131,463

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Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam, Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Elvis Presley, 1977, crime, coverup, conspiracy, music, legend, King, icon, Memphis Mafia, George Negus

Id: 8hOJFqawlPU

Length: 26min 12sec (1572 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 16 2018