I tend to accept that Vernon Presley was behind the attempt to steal Elvis’s body so as to move it and Gladys, for whom there have been no incidents. More from grief than the eventual Tourist Attraction.
1977
Aug. 29, in 1977, three men were arrested and charged with trying to steal Elvis Presley’s body. As a result the singer’s body was moved to Graceland.
4 Accused of a Plot To Take Presley Body – The New York Times
Early this morning three men entered the cemetery over a back wall and made their way toward the white marble mausoleum. The men apparently became suspicious and turned to leave, the police said. They were then arrested.
No charges were filed immediately against the men, and the police refused to identify them.
What became of the guys who tried to steal Elvis? – The Straight D
The charges against the three men who allegedly tried to swipe Presley’s body were dropped by the Memphis prosecutor when the chief witness and accuser (legalese for “rat”), one Ronnie Lee Adkins, demonstrated his unreliability by getting himself arrested for fraud. Adkins apparently had checked into Memphis’s Doctor’s Hospital posing as a policeman in order to claim that he was covered by the city’s insurance plan.
2002
FBI witness: Presley clan staged Elvis grave-robbing – WND.com
“The scheme had been hatched after the Memphis board had refused the Presley family’s request to bury Elvis at Graceland,” he said.
Smith says Tyler told him years later that former Shelby County sheriff’s deputy Billy Talley set up the hoax.
2012
Crime History: Plot to steal Elvis’ body gets weirder
Twenty-five years later, Adkins confessed that a Shelby County deputy Billy Talley staged the corpse-snatching hoax so the Presley family could convince county officials to allow them to move Elvis to Graceland for security reasons.
In a bizarre twist, Adkins later helped put away Talley in 1997 for conspiring to murder an FBI agent.
Milwaukee production company sheds light on plot to steal Elvis’ body …
https://www.nbc26.com/…/local-media-production-company-sheds-light-on-plot-to-st…Aug 29, 2016 – Elvis Presley died August 16, 1977. Just 12 days later, a group of men tried to steal his remains and hold them for ransom.
see also:
Grave robbers steal Charlie Chaplin’s body – HISTORY
https://www.history.com/this-day-in…/grave-robbers-steal-charlie-chaplins-bodyIn one of history’s most famous cases of body-snatching, two men steal the corpse … the mastermind of the plot, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years of hard labor. … achieved by Elvis Presley had the Dance chart existed during his heyday.
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