16th August 1977, Tuesday

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Graeme
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16th August 1977, Tuesday

Post by Graeme » Mon Mar 21, 2016 7:39 am

Day number 15562Site Date Map
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ColinB
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Re: 16th August 1977, Tuesday

Post by ColinB » Sun Aug 16, 2020 7:54 am

R.I.P. Elvis Presley

8th January, 1935 - 16th August, 1977


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"I don't sound like nobody !" - Elvis 1953

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silverwings
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Re: 16th August 1977, Tuesday

Post by silverwings » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:47 am

The last known photo in the early morning at the gates of Graceland
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Alan
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Re: 16th August 1977, Tuesday

Post by Alan » Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:34 pm

Alan wrote:This is a webpage that Graeme had saved off line. I've just copied the text and pasted it then tried to finish it as it stopped part way through the day. I've added bits and put them in a quote. I don't know if that was originally how this webpage was on the internet or whether there was a page two, but this is the only page he'd saved.
There's enough books and DVD's covering the subject so this day can't really be improved via this site, but it's the anniversary today so why not have it in some form or another? Please feel free to add relevant bits and I think I'll re-edit this post and place them in a quote to keep it in one post and have the timeline intact.
The following page is a timeline of events from August the 16th 1977.
It is incomplete at the present time but will be updated accordingly.
Not everything is 100 percent accurate if compared to interviews given by those involved.
Times seem to conflict depending on when the interview was carried out.
This is not a deliberate act on those giveing the information, but it is a vague recollection on their part of what the time was as far as they can recall.
I will update this page as and when I can.

12.00am - 12.10am Elvis, Ginger Billy and Charlie leave Dr Hofmans practice and head back to Graceland.
      
12.20am - 12.30am Elvis turns the car back into the drive at Graceland.
There was a small gathering of fans at the gate, including Robert Call, his wife and four year old daughter, Abby from Pierceton, Indiana.
They had been taking pictures of themselves using Graceland as the backdrop for the photo's.
As Elvis turned into Graceland Mrs Call held her daughter Abby up towards the car window, Elvis grinned and raised his hand.
Robert Call, using an Instamatic camera and flash cube captured the moment.
It is still claimed to be the last picture taken of Elvis alive.
1977_aug_16_03.jpg
Most uncropped photo I could find.
Complimented above by silverwings shots of the same moment.
(Elvis must have just missed that huge red arrow!)


Larry Gellar says he was at Graceland when Elvis walked in. He heard him come in and went and approached Elvis.
Elvis paused in front of Larry and raised his hand towards his face and pulled his sunglasses partly away from his face and looked at Larry and shook his head, indicating to Larry that he wasn't feeling too good.
Back upstairs Elvis called down to ask Dick Grob to come up and go over some details of the tour. He mentioned to Dick Grob about adding a few songs into the repertoire and asked him to sort out the lead sheets for the words and music and to make sure they would be available on stage if Elvis needed to refer to them.
Grob later said that the topic of the book, "Elvis, What Happened?" came up and that this would be Elvis' first public appearance since it had been on sale. When he was leaving the room Elvis said to him, "Dick, we'll just show 'em how wrong they are. We'll make this tour the best ever."
Elvis called down to Sam Thompson and asked him to come upstairs. Elvis mentioned to Sam about some of the songs he was thinking of including in the tour and to ask if everything was okay regarding taking Lisa back later on that day.
After Sam left Elvis got on the intercom and asked for Larry Gellar, Larry was told Elvis wanted him right now on the intercom phone, so Larry picks it up and Elvis says, "Larry, how ya doin'?" to which Larry replies, "Fine." Elvis says, "Did you bring me those books from Los Angeles?" Larry says, "Yeah, I gottem here." Elvis says, "Well maybe you should come upstairs, coz there's a lot I wanna talk to you about." Larry replies, "Yeah, but Elvis, you know, we're gonna go on tour tomorrow, we'll have every night to talk, why don't you get some rest?"
As one of the books Larry bought to Elvis was upstairs directly after the racquetball game it would indicate that Larry did take the books up to Elvis.

2.30am Elvis calls Tish Henley and told her Ginger was suffering from menstrual pain. Some books merely say that Tish dispensed one tablet of Dilaudid.
Ginger has always claimed she has no recollection of this whatsoever.
What happened in full is that Elvis called down to Ricky and told him to go to the all night pharmacy to get the prescription that Tish had written.
This was why Ricky was called by Elvis to do the same task a few hours later.

2.30am - 4.00am At some point Elvis changed from his jogging suit and into a striped workout suit.
Ricky returns from the all night pharmacy at the BMH.
During this one and a half hour spell there a two or three stories floating around as to things that happened.
None of them are really significant but it would be nice one day to have a record just for the sake of accuracy.
One seemingly obscure story is that Vernon and Elvis had a conversation that developed from Elvis telling Vernon about his marriage intentions to Ginger and that he was concerned about the differnece in age between them and Vernons comeback to this was What would a 65 year old woman be able to do for him, referring that that is the age that Gladys would have been.
Personally I struggle with that one because who would have known about it in order to tell it later.
Other stories say Elvis continued to call people upstairs to have a chat, but that may refer to prior to 2.30am when he was calling down for people to come up. It may off course have continued for a little while longer.
The other story is that Elvis and Ginger we overheard arguing over her going on the tour.
Elvis wanted that and expected it of her, but Ginger didn't want to go.
This had been a classic at the beginning of the tours Elvis had done since he met Ginger. He wanted her to go and she wouldn't.
I don't think this was a blazing row of any kind, more a mild disagreement with maybe Elvis putting on his lost little boy look in order to get the symapthy he felt he could get and to try and make Ginger feel a little guilty.
Elvis was in good spirits and he didn't show any kind big falling out when he went to play racquetball.

4.00am Elvis called Billy Smith and asked him to play racquetball with him. As Elvis and Ginger emerge from the house to go to the racquetball court he points out to her where her future painting studio would be as they walk under the covered walkway.
Billy comments that he is sick of it raining and he just wished it would stop. Elvis says, "Ain’t no problem... I’ll take care of it." Elvis raises his hand towards the sky and to Billy’s amazement the rain just stopped. He looks at Elvis and Elvis just has that boyish grin on his face and that twinkle in his eye. "See, I told you.. If you’ve got a little faith you can stop the rain."
Elvis and Billy start to play racquetball, no competitive game ensued, Ginger and Jo watch Elvis from the observation pit as he clowns around on the court with what could be interpreted as no more than a warm up. Elvis began showing off trying to perform little trick shots with each successful one making him turn to make sure Ginger had seen it. After a while Elvis began to lose his concentration and as he took a swing at the ball he missed and caught himself hard in the shin with the racquet. At this point he limped off the court and came behind the glass partition to sit down with Ginger. He looked at his leg and it had a welt on it from the impact. Billy threw one of Elvis’ own phrases at him, "If it ain’t bleedin’ it ain’t hurtin’," to which they all laughed and Elvis replied by jovially throwing his racquet at Billy.
After trying to recover he got up and went over to the piano where he started playing I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen and finally Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.
After this session on the piano he got up and walked over to the electric exercycle and spent a few minutes on that.

6.00am They then leave the racquetball building. Jo goes back to the mobile home out the back of the house and Billy goes upstairs with Elvis and Ginger.

6.10am - 6.40am Billy helped Elvis wash his hair and then he dried it for him. Elvis was annoyed and upset that Ginger was not coming out with him at the start of the tour. He told Billy that maybe he should invite Alicia Kerwin out for the first part of the tour, but Billy put it down to idle talk and Elvis gave no real reason to make him think he was going to do anything about it. The subject of the book came up again and went just as quickly with no new thoughts from Elvis as to how he was taking it. His anger with Red and Sonny making him think out aloud of the plot he had schemed in his mind to lure them to Graceland under false pretences and to harm them into withdrawing the book. Then with that thought gone again his mind turned to the tour with Elvis trying to inspire himself by repeating the predictable mantra he was becoming known for, "Billy, we’ll show ‘em, we’ll make this the best tour yet." Whilst Billy dried Elvis’ hair, Elvis idly glanced at one of the books Larry Gellar had bought him. It was Frank O. Adams’ "The Face Of Jesus" about the Shroud Of Tourin.
Billy left just before Ricky Stanley bought Elvis his first med attack pack.

6.40am - 6.45am Is an estimated time for Ricky bring this package up. The package is thought to contain a varying amount of Seconal, Placidyl, Valmid, Tuinal, Demoral and an assortment of other depressants and placebos. Times quoted vary all over the place depending on which source you listen to, the most recent and also one of the most respected volumes of work is Peter Guralnicks’, "Careless Love" with its obvious painstakingly researched information. This quotes:
Elvis was still awake a couple of hours later when Ricky bought him his second "attack," but when he called down for the third. Ricky had disappeared, even though he was supposed to be on duty till noon.
Goldmans’ Elvis quotes:
Around eight in the morning, Ginger was awakened by Elvis calling downstairs for more sleeping medication.
It then goes on to say that Ricky bought it up. So...

8.40am - 8.45am Ricky brings Elvis his second med pack attack.

8.00am - 9.00am Elvis, The final Years by Jerry Hopkins quotes Aunt Delta as knocking on Elvis’ door to deliver the morning newspaper and a glass of iced water.

Elvis had a third med pack attack delivered. The time for this is hard to place.
Elvis called down to Ricky Stanley for him to bring it up. Ricky was not to be found.
It is possible that there was no third pack at all. If this is the case then Ricky may well have thought he could slip away thinking his duties were done and gambling that he would not be called anymore by Elvis as Elvis would be asleep till later on in the day.
Another guide to the time is that Nurse Tish Henley was already at work at Dr Nicks’ practice.
Most likely is that Elvis wanted Ricky to run the same errand as he had done a few hours earlier, picking up the prescription from Tish Henley and picking it up from the pharmacy for him.

Guralnicks’ book, Careless Love, says Elvis asked Aunt Delta to make the call to Tish Henley.

Goldmans’, Elvis, says that Elvis called Tish Henley. Quote:
This morning, apparently, he feared that he would not experience the desired effect because just fifteen minutes after Ricky left his room, Elvis was on the phone to Dr Nick’s office, where he found Nurse Henley. He explained that he was going to have a trying day, what with Lisa going back to California and his own departure imminent: It was vital that he receive some extra sleeping medication so that he would be equal to the days demands. She agreed to help him.
In Hopkin’s, The Final Years, we get a twist in this tale. After the book says Aunt delta bought the paper and iced water up it goes on. Quote:
Elvis told her he was going to sleep until seven that night, then leave for Portland, Maine, about midnight. Between getting up and leaving, he said, he wanted to see Nurse Cocke to say goodbye; would Aunt Delta call the nurse and ask? Aunt Delta did and soon after that Elvis called Marion Cocke himself. She said she’d come to the house when she finished work.

With all of this information about, and the more information that seems to come about, we all get more and more confused as to what events did and didn’t take place. The easiest thing for me to do is just dump the lot onto you and leave you to interpret it as you may wish. But I don’t do easy, so I’m gonna try and fathom what is most likely to have happened and if possible when it happened.

8.45am - 9.00am Aunt Delta knocks on Elvis’ door to deliver the morning newspaper and a glass of iced water. Elvis told her he was going to sleep until seven that night, then leave for Portland, Maine, about midnight. Between getting up and leaving, he said, he wanted to see Nurse Cocke to say goodbye; would Aunt Delta call the nurse and ask? Aunt Delta said she would.

9.00am - 9.05am Elvis wants to have a third med attack at hand to take in a little while after he has read some of his book. He doesn’t want to be disturbed in the bathroom so he requests it before he goes in. No third pack had been scheduled so one will need to be obtained. Elvis calls Ricky to get him to go pick up the meds from the pharmacy, but Ricky is unavailable. Elvis got on the phone to Dr Nick’s office, where he found Nurse Henley. He explained that he was going to have a trying day, what with Lisa going back to California and his own departure imminent: It was vital that he receive some extra sleeping medication so that he would be equal to the days demands but that he couldn't find anyone to go to the pharmacy. She said she would call her husband and instruct him to make up a packet from their home behind Graceland and bring it over to the house for him.

9.05am - 9.10am Elvis calls his Aunt Delta and tells her that Tom Henley, is bringing a packet of medication over to the house, could she see that he gives it to her and then could she bring it up to him? She wasn’t to worry about calling Nusre Marion Cocke, Elvis says he’ll do that himself right now. Meantime Tish is giving instructions to her husband over the phone about what to take over to the house.

9.10 - 9.15am Elvis makes the call to Nurse Marion Cocke and she tells him she will pop in to see him after she finishes work the evening.

9.20am - 9.30am Aunt Delta meets Tom Henley at the door and takes the packet containing the medication from him and goes upstairs to give it to Elvis. Elvis takes this from her and puts it in the bathroom.
Elvis picks up his book and comes back onto the bed and begins to read. Whether it’s a few seconds or a few minutes, Ginger wakes up and finds Elvis reading the book. He tells her, "Precious, I’m gonna go in the bathroom and read for a while." "Okay," said Ginger, "just don’t fall asleep." Elvis replies, "I won’t."

9.30am - 9.45am In the bathroom Elvis takes the packs of medication. There may have been a small period of time between taking them, but it is most likely that Elvis took the packs at the same time or within a very short time span. The effect was to get him to sleep and Elvis would have known this, so he didn’t want to fall asleep after the first pack and then not use the others.
Elvis sat upon his commode and opened the book.
The medication now started to work inside Elvis.
Total specualtion but what caused / brought on the heart attack right at this point in time could be as simple as Elvis trying to have a bowel movement and with the constipation may have strained too hard, add to that the medication he'd taken and.... well, who knows?

9.45am - 9.55pm Though Elvis was unaware, his body now started to die. The heart had stopped, arrested by the extreme increase in the beats it had produced. Any last remaining air in Elvis’ lungs would no longer get into his blood stream and the brain slowly closed itself down without it.
      
[
      Drug:Serum level found:Therapeutic level:Toxic level:
      Codeine1.08 ug/ml0.09-0.117 ug/ml1.6-5.6 ug/ml
      Morphine
      (Codeine Metabolite)
0.03 ug/ml-------------------0.05-3.0 ug/ml
      Methaqualone6.0 ug/ml0.9-8.0 ug/ml>5.0 ug/ml
      Diazepam (Valium)0.02 ug/ml0.1-1.0 ug/ml3.0-14.0 ug/ml
      Diazepam Metabolite0.302 ug/ml0.02-0.05 ug/ml1.0-7.0 ug/ml
      Ethinamate *10-20 ug/ml0.5-11.7 ug/ml---------------------
      Ethchlorvynal **5-10 ug/ml0.5-7.0 ug/ml>20.0 ug/ml
      Pentobarbital+3.4 ug/ml1.0-4.0 ug/ml>5.0 ug/ml
      Butabarbital++11.0 ug/ml10.0-14.0 ug/ml>30.0 ug/ml
      Phenobarbital+++5.0 ug/ml15.0-35.0 ug/ml>40.0 ug/ml
* Ethinamate is Valamin, Valmid, a sedative/hypnotic- is used to treat insomnia.. If ethinamate is used regularly (for example, every day) to help produce sleep, it is usually not effective for more than 7 days.
**Ethchlorvynal is Placidyl, a sedative/hypnotic
+Pentobarbital is Nembutal a barbituate for insomnia
++Butabarbital is Butisol a barbituate for insomnia
+++Phenobarbital, a barbituate commonly used for seizure, can cause drowsiness.


Later on a Toxicology test and two other tests would be carried out, one under the name of Ethel Moore.
They would discover the following results shown in the table above.
How some of it was included in the medication packs is only open to speculation.
One of the first signs for Elvis would have been similar to food poisoning in that his stomach would be upset. This may have been the reason he decided to sit upon his commode. The drugs reacted quickly and Elvis’ heart began beating extremely fast, a searing pain in his chest caused him lean forward and try to stand up. Taking two, maybe three short steps forward, he gradually dropped to his knees, his chest paralysed by the heart attack then he passed into unconsciousness. With one last involuntary body action Elvis vomited, the stomach releasing what it could of the poisons and leaving his tongue protruding from his mouth.

Roughly eight to ten minutes, after the brain began to be starved of oxygen, Elvis was dead in every physical way.

9.55am - 1.45pm Rigor Mortis slowly set in. Living muscle cells expend energy to transport calcium ions to the outside of the cells. The calcium ions that flow into the muscle cells promote the cross-bridge attachment between actin and myosin, two types of fibers that work together in muscle contraction. The muscle fibers ratchet shorter and shorter until they are fully contracted or as long as the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) are present. However, muscles need ATP in order to release from a contracted state (it is used to pump the calcium out of the cells so the fibers can unlatch from each other). ATP reserves are quickly exhausted from the muscle contraction and other cellular processes. This means that the actin and myosin fibers will remain linked until the muscles themselves start to decompose. Temperature is a factor in how quickly rigor mortis sets in, Elvis liked to live in a climate of low temperature, driven down constantly by the air conditioning. But rigor mortis can begin to start after a short period of just ten minutes. The first muscles affected are the facial muscles, as they slowly began to contract on Elvis the jaw tightened up and Elvis’ teeth began to set into his protruding tongue. The rigor then slowly sets in throughout the rest of the body.

And he lay there, undiscovered for approximately four hours.

1.45pm - 2.15pm Ginger calls her friend Cindy Mies, David Stanley's girlfriend, from the phone next to the bed to find out if she is going on the tour. After chatting briefly she learned that Cindy would be going. After talking to Cindy, Ginger decides to call her mother to tell her that she would be coming home directly and to let her know when she was leaving and when she planned to be back in Memphis at the end of the tour. She spoke for about 15 minutes and after she finished it occurred to her that Elvis may still be in the bathroom, maybe he'd fallen asleep in there after all.

2.25pm - 2.30pm Gingers picks up the intercom phone and calls downstairs. Pauline, the cook answers, Ginger asks her who is on duty, the maid says that Al is here and passes the phone to Al. "Al, could you come up, I think there's something wrong with Elvis." Ginger goes towards the stairs to meet Al, she blurts out, "I think something’s really wrong with Elvis! Come and look at him.." she follows Al back into the bathroom. Al took one look at Elvis grabbed the phone saying "Lemme get Joe up here... Joe, I need your help, Elvis has collapsed." Joe Esposito charged up the stairs and ran into the bathroom. He'd seen Elvis in similar situations before and prepared himself to bring Elvis around. As Joe turned Elvis over onto his back, he heard the air which had been trapped in Elvis' lungs exhale itself creating the impression that Elvis may still have been breathing. But the knees stayed in place as if Elvis were trying to touch his chin with them. This along with the appearance of Elvis' face, with his tongue partly protruding from his mouth and with his teeth set into the tongue, the blood filled head giving a blue purple complexion and the eyes totally blood shot made Joe leap for the phone.

2.32pm He got an outside line, tapped the emergency number in and explained that someone was having difficulty breathing at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard. He directed the services to come straight through the gates and up to the front door of the house. Joe begins to try and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR.) but his attempts are based on an instinct, as he had never been trained

2.33pm An ambulance is despatched from Unit Six of the Memphis fire Department based at Engine house no.29 in Whitehaven. Paramedics, Charles Crosby and Ulysses Jones, drove to the postal address they had been given. They knew 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard was Graceland as they had been called previously to attend to Vernon’s heart attack and prepared themselves for the same scenario.

2.33pm - 2.41pm Whilst Joe is continuing the CPR he's telling Al to make calls on the phone. In what order the calls were made is not clear. One of the calls would be down to the gate to tell Elvis' Uncle Vester to have the gates open and ready for the ambulance when it arrives. Other calls were made to try and locate Dr Nicopolous. Dr Nicolpolous was at Doctors' hospital, which was five miles away, the operator told Al she would page Dr Nick on his beeper and advised Al Strada to keep the phone line open. Then he tried to reach Dr. Perry Holmes, a local Whitehaven physician who they had called in the past for minor complaints. Learning that Dr Holmes was also out of his office Al slammed the phone down in frustration. The frustration was being caused by the fact that they were not getting very far, or to put it another way, frustrated that they were not Taking Care Of Business, even though they were doing all they could, their personal perception was that things weren't happening at all. Moments later Dr James Campbell, an associate of Dr Holmes, called back after his receptionist informed him of Al's call. Aunt Delta answered the call and informed Dr Campbell that her nephew was experiencing difficulty in breathing and could he come to the house immediately. Dr Campbell advised Aunt Delta to bring Elvis to his office. As the panic continued in the bathroom, one by one people had made their way up the stairs. Vernon arrived escorted by Patsy Gamble and started wailing, "Son, don't die! Son, don't leave!" Charlie Hodge ran upstairs and when he arrived he knelt down by Elvis and shouted at him, "Breath, Elvis, breathe!" Ginger had been standing there scared and not knowing what she could do to help when she heard Lisa’s voice saying, "What's wrong? What's wrong with my Daddy?" Ginger reached down to pick her up saying, "Nothings wrong," but Lisa evaded her and darted off towards the other door yelling, "Something’s wrong with my Daddy and I'm going to find out." Ginger yelled, "Al! Lisa’s trying to get in!" Al Strada reached across and threw the lock on the bathroom door.

2.40pm The ambulance swings in to Graceland and Uncle Vester motions for them to go on up to the house. The ambulance pulls up outside the front and the two paramedics run up the steps where they are met by another of the staff and told, "He's upstairs and I think it's an OD." The paramedics run up the stairs and enter the bathroom, their approach unheard by those around Elvis. Pushing past those that had gathered, the two men don't recognise the victim. Ulysses Jones kneels down besides Elvis and checked for a pulse, then shines a light in one of his eyes. No pulse and no flicker and his body is cold, unusually cold. A voice amongst various cries and weeping asked, "Is there anything you can do?" Jones was unable to give an answer. David Stanley suddenly says, "I think he OD'd." That was now the second time that that had been mentioned. Whilst the paramedics continued with their procedure, Dr nick gets in touch with Joe Esposito on the phone. After hearing Elvis exhale when he found him, Joe informs Dr Nick that he thinks Elvis is still breathing. Ulysses Jones opened Elvis mouth and cleared an airway by inserting a tube down Elvis' throat and the other end of the tube was connected to a bag, which he gave to the nearest man and told him to squeeze. The stretcher was placed on the floor next to Elvis. Charles Crosby, the other paramedic, recalls, "It took five of us to lift him onto a stretcher. He must have weighed two hundred fifty pounds. Elvis lay on the stretcher, his pyjama top unbuttoned from the CPR and a necklace showing was lifted off the ground and the men manoeuvred the stretcher around the corners and down the stairs. Vernon tried to follow crying hard and calling out behind the tears, "Son, I'm coming... I'll be there... I'll be meeting you there!" Vernon was restrained by two of the guys from going any further.

Alan wrote:
This footage has been around for years. Collectors do have better quality than what's available on youtube. I could try cleaning it up at some point, wouldn't take much just to get rid of the "green" bias in the film.
The paramedics place the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, Dr George Nicopolous drives through the gates and up the driveway in his green Mercedes and comes to a stop just as the ambulance is about to pull away. He gets out of his car and runs over to the ambulance and jumps into the back. Ginger had felt that she should go in the ambulance but just as she had summoned up the resolve to go she saw the door of the ambulance slam shut. aunt Nashville came up to her and put her arm around her and said, "He's going to be all right, he's got so much to live for." In the back of the ambulance and with a fear on his face that the seemingly impossible has just been realised Dr Nick shouts at Elvis, "Breathe Elvis, breathe for me, come on Elvis, BREATHE!" as he begins to massage Elvis heart.

2.48pm The ambulance clears the gates at Graceland and swings to the right into the road and head for the Baptist Memorial Hospital reaching speeds of 80mph.
Alan wrote:
A video made by Spaguy which follows the route the ambulance took
2.50pm - 2.55pm A call goes out on the hospital PA system, "Harvey Team report to ER, ...Harvey Team report to ER"

2.55pm Ambulance arrives at the Baptist Memorial Hospital. Elvis is wheeled into the hospital on the stretched. Joe Esposito and Charlie Hodge follow Elvis into Trauma Room one and are then ushered out to wait in Trauma Room two. Elvis' naked body lay on the surgical table and was covered with monitoring electrodes, and injected with powerful stimulants. Oxygen was forced into Elvis and desperate attempts were made to get his heart pumping. Dr Nick has since said that the ECG monitor registered the heart beating a couple of times but this was probably the muscle reaction to the electrical charges placed on it. But it was a considerable feat to achieve this considering the body had been in a state of rigor mortis for a few hours.
A note from Jordan on this:

This is quite common infact in resucitations. It is known as "PEA" or Pulseless Electrical Activity. I just responded to a "Harvey" this past friday morning with the same scenerio (woman was obviously dead, but had PEA).. Anyway, Your heart has some electrical activity (most commonly caused by epinephrine being injected to "Jump start" the heart, or by other unnatural methods. But, it is not strong enough to cause the heart to "Beat", but strong enough to register on the very sensitive ECG monitors.

      
There was nothing more anyone could do.
Marion Cocke saw that the desperation was growing ever more stronger to get Elvis back to life and her sense intervened when she pleaded with them to stop. The body was being jolted up and down in a battle, which would never be won, and she knew enough was enough.
Alan wrote:
This is quite the ultimate in detail regarding this day and the events that unfolded.
Back at Graceland Vernon, Sandy, Aunt Delta, Aunt Nashville and others wandered into Minnie Mae's room and began to pray for Elvis. Tish Henley would have advised Dr Nick earlier on about the additional prescription Elvis had had made up and delivered by her husband.
With the call going to Dr Nick at his surgery by Joe and Dr Nicks returned call back to Graceland, Tish Henley may have got concerned as to what was going on and called her husband.
Whether anything was gleaned from such a conversation is unknown, but after the paramedics had gone the big clean up began.
Ricky Stanley says in the Book, "The Elvis Encyclopedia," that he was in the bathroom when the body was turned over. He was not. Ricky Stanley was unavailable a little earlier and was officially off duty.
When the body was turned over there was only Joe and Al there with Ginger observing.
In any interviews for books or appearances on video, no one has ever mentioned Ricky Stanley being there when the body was turned over.
I don't think Ricky entered the room until later, maybe whilst Elvis was still laying there, maybe not.
But, by his own admission, he cleaned the bathroom of all traces of medication. Everything. Under whose instructions this came and when those instructions were issued I cannot place yet.
When the detectives turned up there was not even a standard bottle of asprin to be found.
The bathroom had been given a complete makeover.
Even the carpet was scrubbed to remove the vomit, which would have contained vital information within it.
In the video / DVD, "Ultimate Elvis 2," Charlie Hodge says he was in the kitchen reading a newspaper when Vernon walked in on the arm of Patsy Gamble.
He says he thought he heard them laughing, but when he turned to look he saw the were crying and immediately ran upstairs.
But Vernon hadn't come downstairs. Vernon followed the stretcher out of the bathroom wailing "I'm coming son....I'll be there!"
This would mean Charlie was never in the bathroom at all and that the first he knew of anything was after Elvis had gone when Vernon and Patsy came back downstaris, or, he has no proper recollection of what happened.
Charlie Hodge had to have been upstairs to be one of the ones that helped carry the stretcher outside and to also get in the ambulance to go to the hospital.
With all the commotion going on I just do not understand how he could have remained oblivious to it all whilst reading the newspaper.

3.30pm Back at the hospital Dr Nick walked from room one and into the adjacent room where Charlie and Joe were waiting, any hopes they had been holding onto were dashed when they looked at Dr Nick and saw his head shaking.
"It's all over, he's gone. There is nothing we can do.....we tried." Some of the conversation Charlie and Joe had had was centered on a potentially worse outcome. They knew how long at least Elvis had been without oxygen and if he were to be revived his brain would be no more than a vegetable.

3.30pm - 3.45pm Charlie was beside himself, he went to leave the room but Joe stopped him. Through his own tears he told Charlie that they had to be composed before they faced anyone. A few minutes later Marion Cocke emerged from room one with a bag in which she had placed Elvis' pyjamas, his rings, necklace and bracelet. She gave the bag to Dr Nick.
Dr Nick asked Maurice Elliot if he could wait until he had told Vernon and the family before the hospital made any announcement to the press. Elliot said he would, though the media had started assembling on mass since the first reports were heard over the emergency frequency. Joe asked Maurice if he could use his office to make some calls and was told he could. Dr Nick and Maurice agreed that Dr Nick should take an autopsy consent form back for Vernon to sign in order that it could be a private autopsy and the contents of which would be in the control of the family to divulge leaving the state coroners office without any involvement. Dr Nick sought out Charles Crosby and Ulysses Jones and asked if they would take him back to Graceland and wait whilst they saw how Vernon coped with the news. Joe went into Maurices office and closed the door. His first call was to the Colonel. To Joe the Colonels reaction was impossible to read except for the initial stunned silence. Then the Colonel began to reel off a list of things that would have to be done, the first would be to officially cancel the tour. Joe told the Colonel that he would call him back as soon as he got back to Graceland. For now Joe was going to stay at the hospital and wait for Dr Nicks call once Dr Nick had told Vernon. Joe called Priscilla next who received the news with the expected shock and between the tears managed to ask how Lisa was coping.

3.45pm - 4.00pm Dr Nick arrives back at Graceland with the paramedics. Vernon was in the Jungle Room when Dr nick walked in.
As soon as he saw the bag Dr Nick was carrying he froze and then cried out, "Oh, no, no, no..." "I'm sorry.." Dr Nick said, Vernon wailed, "What am I gonna do... Everything I have is gone..." Vernon was not alone in displaying his grief in this way, everyone was moving around crying, wailing, screaming, moaning and feeling helpless. This is where I personally believe the ultimate act of TCB began.
Dr Nick may well have been more informed before he arrived at Graceland, after being given some information at his practice.
Though not armed with all the facts, his instincts may have made him on his guard and could be the reason why he persuaded Maurice Elliot to agree to let him take an autopsy consent form back for Vernon to sign.
When Dr Nick was briefed he was concerned about Joe and Charlie at the hospital. They needed to be bought up to speed and quickly.
But Dr Nick was also concerned about Vernon and it was his priority at that moment to make sure Vernon was stable enough.
The hospital switchboard was jammed anyway, whether anyone tried to call it or not.
Dr Nick could well have enlisted Billy Smith and David Stanley to go over to the hospital and inform Joe and Charlie of what had happened and that no mention was to be made to the press or the media about any of the details which may cause someone to look to closely.
Another reason, or an additional one, may have been that they were taking with them the autopsy consent form after Dr Nick had Vernon sign it.
Thus the beginnings of what was to end up being the "heart attack" story began.

A strange story was seldom told over the years that followed. I cannot remember who told it, and if they did whether they only ever got to say it the once, but I know I've heard it and it centers around something Vernon was wailing out: "They killed my son....they killed him."
Who "they" are to Vernon at the time he alledgedly said it is unknown. It could have been a metaphor for anyone, the pills, the fans, anything.
'Elvis and Kathy' by Kathy Westmoreland wrote:The plane droned on and since I had gotten up so early, I curled up in my seat and went to sleep. The next thing I remember is waking up to find out we were landing. I couldn't believe we had already arrived in Portland---and we hadn't.
      "The pilot was told to land in Pueblo, Colorado so we could call for further orders," someone told me later, but I was asleep and it was only the plane wheels touching on the ground that woke me up.
      We made a rough landing in a heavy wind and everybody got out of the plane to get fresh air and stretch. Marty Harrell had gone to call Memphis, but I didn't know that. My first thought was that the plane radio was out or something had gone wrong in flight because there was always something happening when we chartered that particular plane. If I had been told we had orders to call Memphis, I would have known right away that it was some kind of crisis. It was a beautiful day, bright, clear, and very windy on the tarmac, but the air felt so good and we all strolled near the plane, waiting for a report on why we were being delayed. It all happened so quickly that I had no time and was still too sleepy to do any rational thinking. Marty came out of the airport terminal and walked up the plane steps.
"Everybody gather around, I have something to tell you," he said.
      We all moved slowly toward Marty and then he said in a soft, clear voice: "Elvis died this morning. We are to head back to Las Vegas and Los Angeles right away."
      It was a simple statement that brought moans from some and others looked disbelieving. I felt numb and suddenly very drained. After all those years together, Elvis was gone from my life and even though I had known for months that the ending was near, it was still a shock to hear that it had finally happened. My feelings were mixed--relief for Elvis because he would no longer suffer, yet there was my own sense of loss far beyond tears.
      In fact, years went by before I could really cry about the greatest hurt of my life. My friend, my fun loving, unpredictable Elvis was dead. Even now it is difficult to realize.
      Somehow I boarded the plane, got back in my seat and remembered. I remembered each moment. I remembered so I could bury those beautiful days forever and never relive them again. I guess you might say I had my own memorial ceremony on that plane home. I wanted the pain and the grief to go away from me forever, but of course it never did. Throughout that nightmarish trip back to Los Angeles, my mind carried me through all the years we had been together. My sorrow was so profound that my heart refused to relieve my grief with tears.
4.00pm approx Sam Thompson was being driven to Graceland by his father. As they turn into Graceland they see a car coming toward them. This was being driven by David Stanley. They slow up and Sam believes he mishears what David says to him, thinking it sounded like, "Have you heard? Elvis has died." Sam was being dropped off by his father as Sam was getting a lift from Graceland, along with Lisa Marie, to the airport to take her back to Priscilla. When Sam saw the ambulance he figured it was for Vernon and that that was what David must have called out to him. When Sam walked into the house he found Vernon in the Jungle Room crying. Sam paused for a moment and then stepped into the room and Vernon looked up and said, "Is that you Sam? You come to pick up Lisa? Well there's no need.... my boy is dead." Vernon was shaking and trembling and Dr Nick took him into the kitchen where he tried to calm Vernon down and establish that the shock was not going to give cause for a heart scare and to obtain his signature on the autopsy consent form. It is quite possible that Vernon was given some medication at this point because he was able to be a little calmer very shortly. Lisa got on the phone and called Linda Thompson to tell her. Linda was shocked and hoped that Lisa had misheard what she was telling Linda. Sam picked the phone up and told his sister that it was all true and that she'd better come back to Memphis. Whilst the paramedics stood by, Dr Nick called Maurice Elliot at the hospital to give the go ahead to inform the press. Maurice told Joe that Dr Nick had called.
David Stanley arrives at the hospital along with Billy Smith.
When it came to facing the press Joe struggled to speak, Charlie’s attempts were no better and Maurice Elliot had the dawning realisation that it was then down to him to tell the world that Elvis Presley was dead.
      
After Vernon was calmed he recieved a phone call. A local radio station chanced their arm and rang Graceland on the one in a million chance Vernon would talk to them. He did.
This is the call:


      
Alan wrote:To tie in with the above regarding Vernon this is the following extract which mentions Vernon momentarily being calm talking on the phone:
Careless Love,The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Garulnick wrote:When Shelby County Medical investigator Dan Warlick arrived not long afterward, accompanied by police lieutenant Sam Machern and Assistant District Attorney Jerrry Stauffer, the first person he saw inside the house was Vernon Presley,speaking calmly to someone on the phone. Before Warlick could fully register what was happening, Vernon's voice took on a tone of almost unimaginable desolation as he announced to the party on the other end, "My baby is dead. . . . They've taken him, he's gone, my baby is dead," and burst into uncontrollable tears.
Sam Thompson took the medical investigator upstairs, and after unlocking the doors to Elvis' bedroom suite, showed Warlick and his party into Elvis' study. "Scattered on couches forming a complete perimeter of the room was an assortment of teddy bears," wrote investigative reporters Charles C. Thompson II and James P Cole in their authorative stidy, The Death of Elvis. "They were everywhere, facing obediently towards an oversized desk with a placard reading ELVIS PRESLEY, THE BOSS. The walls were covered with leather or Naugahyde . . . the room blended a childish air with hardreality beginning with the largest animal and ending with the [empty] syringe Warlick noticed in front ofthe placard. . . . Walick walked past the desk and out of the office-den and into the bedroom. On the far wall he spotted two or three television sets perched on a deep bookcase and staring at an angle towards the biggest king-size bed that Warlick . . . had ever seen. On top of the case he found asecond syringe [empty] just like the first."
Warlick immediately ordered the death scene to be secured, but he was aware of the futility of the gesture even before entering the bathroom, where he noted a carpet that was deep red, a yellowish throw rug lying in front of the black toilet, and yet another television set, placed in view of the commode. "'Two telephones and what looked like an intercom were mounted next to the toilet-paper dispenser," wrote Thompson and Cole in vivid summary of Warlick's later testimony. "Comfortable arm chairs were stationed around the bathroom. dominating the room was a circular shower about seven feet in diamter. . . . A cushy vinyl chair rested in the middle of the shower. . . . Tothe right of the doorway was a tweleve-foot-long marble counter with a built-in purple sink. A mirror rimmed with over-sized light bulbs ran along the wall at counter length.stepping to the counter, Warlick inspected a black bag. It was a doctor's bag with a big flap folding down to a latch in front. Inside was a complement of tiny black plastic drawers. All of them were empty.
So was the medicine cabinet, nor was there any evidence of even the most common household remedies in the bedroom. For Warlick it was a first in his four years as an investigator - to discover a total absence of medications, prescription or nonprescription,in the home of anyone but the most fervent Christian Scientist. The story that he got from the various interviews that he conducted that afternoon was santized too. The only thing that appeared to have been missed, aside from the empty syriges, was the book that Elvis had in the bathroom with him when he died, a study of sex and psychic energy that correlated sexual positions with astrological signs.Warlick found a stain on the bathroom carpeting, too, that seemed to indicate where Elvis had thrown up after being striken, apparently while seated on the toilet. It looked to the medical investigator as if he had "stumbled or crawled several feet before he died."
      
6:50 - 6:55pm
Alan wrote:
Careless Love,The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Garulnick wrote:By the time that Warlick got back to the hospital just before seven o'clock, the autopsy was about to begin. Although he had no formal role in the proceedings, Dr. Nick’s presence as an observer underscored the fact that this death from unknown circumstances, and possibly even unnatural causes, would almost certainly be examined as a private, not a public, matter, despite continuing agitation from the attorney general's office to move Elvis' body to the city hospital across the street, where the corroner would operate under official state auspices. Instead, armed with the consent form obtained from Vernon, nine pathologists from Baptist conducted the examination in full knowledge that the world was watching but that the results would be released to Elvis' father alone. “Our pathologists were concerned with somebody of Elvis’ fame [that] the controversies that developed with President Kennedy's autopsy [not develop here]," said Maurice Elliot. "They wanted to be sure that the hospital wasn't embarrassed."
      
8:00pm
Alan wrote:
Careless Love,The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Garulnick wrote:At the same time they were intensely aware of the time constraints involved,and in fact they were scarcely done with the preliminary stages of the process when Shelby County medical examiner Jerry Francisco and Dr. Eric Muirhead, the hospital’s chief of pathology, left with five of the hospital doctors and Dr. Nick to address an eight o'clock press conference that Dr. Franscico had called. There Francisco announced the results of the autopsy, even as the autopsy was still going on. Death, he said, was "due to cardiac arrhythmia dueto undetermined heartbeat." Miurhead,wrote Thompson and Cole in their book,"He was noticeably embarrassed. He winced as Jerry Franscico ran roughshod over the physical evidence with a lot of cardiological double-talk. But he didn't contradict the medical examiner, 'I wish I had spoken up,' Muirhead told his colleagues later.” But there were in fact at that time no results to report.
      
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8:00 - 10:00pm
Alan wrote:
Careless Love,The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Garulnick wrote:The autopsy proper went on for another couple of hours. Specimens were collected and carefully preserved, the internal organs were examined and the heart found to be enlarged, a significant amount of coronary atherosclerosis was observed, the liver showed considerable damage, and the large intestine was clogged with fecal matter, indicating a painful and long standing bowel condition. The bowel condition alone would have strongly suggested to the doctors what by now they had every reasonto suspect from Elvis' hospital history, the observed liver damage, and abundant anecdotal evidence: that drug use was heavily implicated unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease who had been “mobile and functional within eight hours of his death." It was certainly possible that he had been taken while “straining at stool," and no one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist, to which he was known to have had a mild allergy of long standing.
Alan wrote:Late in the evening a live news report from a record store. . .
      
Alan wrote:Joe Esposito called Priscilla and who then arranged for the Lisa Marie airplane to go to California and collect her, her immediate family, Jerry Schilling, Joes then girlfriend Shirley Dieu and also his former wife, Joannie.
They arrived at Memphis Airport later this evening.
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ColinB
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Re: 16th August 1977, Tuesday

Post by ColinB » Mon Aug 16, 2021 10:43 pm

R.I.P. Elvis Presley.
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It's been 44 years today & he's still missed...
"I don't sound like nobody !" - Elvis 1953

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Re: 16th August 1977, Tuesday

Post by ColinB » Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:23 pm

It's 45 years today & he's not forgotten:
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"I don't sound like nobody !" - Elvis 1953

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