The Day Of The Resurrection Series

The day of the resurrection John 20:19-31

Over the years there have been claims that certain famous people have faked their deaths. I say famous because nobody really cares about the rest of us. In the years since he died, hundreds of fans have reported seeing Elvis Presley in small towns across the United States and throughout the rest of the world. One article about his death said, “The circumstances surrounding Elvis’s alleged death are quite mysterious and beg closer attention.” And as it turns out, the article said there are many concrete reasons to believe that the King is still alive.

For instance, they said, the spelling of Elvis’s name was wrong on his headstone. Elvis’s full name is Elvis Aron Presley, but on his grave-marker his middle name is spelled incorrectly with two ‘a’s’ and the unique spelling of Elvis’s name was very important to the Presley family. And they also claimed that Elvis was a very superstitious person; enough so that he wouldn’t tempt fate by putting his real name on a tombstone, or even violate the ground next to his mother until he was ready to be placed there for good. Elvis’s current "resting place" is in between his father and his grandmother and not next to his mother where he had requested. And the writer said, “It was doubtful that the people who were close to him would allow these things to happen if he had really died.”

And then there’s his death certificate. Elvis was very vain, and he was embarrassed about his recent weight gain. They said he had gained an astonishing 50 pounds in the month before his so-called death and even though he weighed about 250 pounds when he died, his death certificate listed him at 170 giving the impression that it wasn’t really him in the coffin.

And then there was the wax body theory. They say that Elvis’s coffin required several extra pall bearers to carry it because it weighed 900 pounds and the attendants of the funeral reported that the air around the coffin was rather cool. So, it was suspected that the coffin contained an air conditioning unit to keep a wax body cool and the body was just a replica of Elvis which was designed to fool those who attended the funeral.

They said Elvis was an 8th degree black belt and his hands were rough with calluses and yet the body in the coffin had hands that were soft and pudgy. The body also had a pug nose and arched eyebrows (unlike Elvis) and most importantly, one of the sideburns on the body was loose and falling off and a hairdresser had to be called to glue the sideburn back on. (When I read that I thought, why would they call a hairdresser, couldn’t someone else get the top off the glue bottle?)

And then there were other unusual things that happened. They said that two hours after his death was announced, a man who looked like Elvis purchased a ticket for Buenos Aeries, paid in cash, and used the name John Burrows which was the same name Elvis had used as an alias several times before.

Then the day after his death, a woman named Lucy De Barbon, a former lover of Elvis, received a single rose in the mail and the card indicated that the flower was from "El Lancelot." This had been her pet name for Elvis, and it was a name that no one else knew and as she said, “Flowers can’t be sent from beyond the grave.” She claimed this was Elvis’s way of letting her know that he wasn’t dead but that he didn’t want to be found.

And then there were the claims that Elvis had many reasons to fake his death. For instance, they say, his life was in danger. He had recently lost $10,000,000 in an airplane/real estate deal with a California based organization called the "Fraternity" that had links to the Mafia. It is speculated that he corroborated with the government to expose the organized crime ring in exchange for protection; perhaps in the form of a new life and identity, compliments of the witness relocation program.

In addition to this, Elvis was a prisoner of his own fame and because of his incredible popularity; he was the recipient of several death threats. So, by faking his death and relocating with a new identity, he was safe from all his enemies and his family could all reap immense financial benefits from all the attention. That is, except for one, no one has collected on his life insurance policy.

It was also interesting to read that more than two decades after his passing, Elvis continues to sell more records dead than most living acts. And they also say that his death has also been a good career move for others. Impersonators existed before 1977, but they were novelties. In the first three years after Presley’s death, Elvis impersonators had multiplied with such speed that it was commonly held that if growth continued at the same rate, the whole world would be gluing on sideburns by 2020.