ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

Elvis and Ginger return to Graceland soon after midnight. At about 2:15 AM, Elvis calls Dr. Nick to request some painkillers because the fillings he has just had are bothering him, and his stepbrother Ricky Stanley is sent to the hospital pharmacy with a prescription for six Dilaudid tablets. A couple of hours later, Elvis awakens Billy and Jo with a phone call to see if they will play racquetball. The game between Elvis and Billy is short-lived, but before leaving the racquetball building, Elvis sits down at the piano and sings a couple of gospel numbers and the old country song recently popularized by Willie Nelson, "BLUE EYES CRYING IN THE RAIN."

Back in his bedroom, Elvis take the first of three packets of sleeping pills, depressants and placebos prescribed for him nightly by Dr. Nick, and a few hours later takes the second.

In the morning, he calls for a third, and when his aunt Delta brings it to him, Elvis tells her he plans to get up at around 7:00 p.m.

When Ginger awakens around 1:30 p.m., Elvis is not in bed, and she discovers him shortly thereafter lying facedown in a pool of vomit on the bathroom floor.

An ambulance rushes him to Baptist Memorial Hospital, where all efforts to revive him fail and his death is recorded at 3:30 p.m.

An autopsy will begin at 7:00 p.m., but long before it is completed, the press is informed that Elvis has died of "cardiac arrhythmia due to undetermined heartbeat."

Because the results of the autopsy will remain private, a debate over the real cause of Elvis's death will rage for years, right up to the present day, but two principal lab reports filed two months later will argue convincingly that the underlying cause of his death was polypharmacy, and the Bio-Science Laboratory report, undertaken under a false name as a "blind" study, indicates the detection of fourteen drugs in Elvis's system, ten in significant quantity.

Wednesday, August 17, 1977

At Vernon's request, Larry Geller and Charlie Hodge fix Elvis's hair at the Memphis Funeral Home. Vernon has also insisted that there will be a viewing at Graceland for the fans, who have been gathering outside since news of Elvis' death and by now have swelled to an estimated 50,000. At 3:00 p.m., the mourners begin filing in, from every location and every walk of life, passing by the open copper casket that lies in the front hallway in a steady, tearful stream.

Because the number is so large, viewing is extended from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., after which the coffin is moved into the living room for a private viewing by family and close friends. Sam Thompson and then Dick Grob remain by the body throughout the night.

Thursday, August 18, 1977

The 2:00 p.m. service is held in the living room of Graceland, led by the Reverend C.W. Bradley of the Wooddale Church of Christ, who barely knew Elvis but has been asked by Vernon to preside because he was Version's ex-wife De's pastor. Televangelist Rex Humbard offers a guest sermon, and comedian Jackie Kahane delivers an informal eulogy composed on the plane. J.D. Sumner and the Stamps, the Statesmen, and Kathy Westmoreland all perform some of Elvis's favorite hymns in a ceremony that extends far beyond the half-hour allotted. The body is carried in a white hearse, followed by 17 white limousines, to the Forest Hill cemetery, where [there is] a brief service in the mausoleum chapel