The Probate Lawyer Blog

The Elvis Presley Conspiracy (Part IV): What does it all mean?

Many people have contacted me wondering about the final installment in The Probate Lawyer Blog's coverage of Eliza Presley and her efforts to prove she's telling the truth about The Elvis Presley Conspiracy.  Here are the prior installments to refresh your memory.  I promised I would share my personal thoughts about Eliza's DNA and other evidence. 

Now I am able to report that I have read all of Eliza's reports from the Paleo-DNA Laboratory in Ontario, Canada, which analyzed the DNA.  In fact, it's only one of many labs that have examined the DNA at different times.  But it's the only lab to have issued reports about all the various samples.

This Paleo-DNA lab reports show:

• Eliza and "Jesse" are "1.6 x 10 [to the fifth power] times more likely to be half-siblings as compared to an untested, unrelated person of the general population.  These statistics indicate that these two individuals are likely to be biologically related as half-siblings sharing one parent."  The report shows a match of 9 out of the 13 "loci" tested.
• The likelihood of Jesse being Eliza's father is zero (apparently 11 out of 13 matching "loci" is needed for that).
• Jesse and Brenda Smith [the recognized maternal first cousin of Elvis] are 418 times more likely to be related than someone from the general population, suggesting they are biologically related.  6 out of 13 "loci" match.
• Jesse and Donna Presley [the recognized paternal first cousin of Elvis] are 45.7 times more likely to be related than the general public, again indicating they are likely to be biologically related.  5 out of 9 "loci" match.
• Eliza and Donna Presley are 31.95 times more likely to be related, so once again, they are likely to be related.  5 out of 9 "loci" match.
• The 2002 FOX TV Jesse sample was a 100% match with the 2008 Jesse sample (the pink envelope sent to Eliza).  All 13 out of 13 "loci" match.

The Elvis Presley Conspiracy (Part III): Eliza's journey

I know, this all sounds crazy.  Elvis can't really be alive, can he?  So he's been in hiding for more than 30 years, without the world finding out?  How can that be?

And while we're at it, who really did shoot JFK ... and what happened in Roswell, New Mexico?

Yes, it all sure sounds like conjecture and speculation.  There have been conspiracy theories floating around for years, but where is the hard evidence?

Well, Eliza Presley says she has it.  But she didn't gather it to prove that Elvis was alive.  Instead, she only wanted to find her father.  So how did she get this evidence?

The Elvis Presley Conspiracy (Part II): The Background

After Eliza Presley shared her DNA evidence with me, as well as the story about how she got it, I spent some time digging around to see what else was out there to corroborate or contradict her story.  Eliza's claim is that she's the daughter of Vernon Presley, the father of Elvis.  But she bases her claim, in part, on evidence from a man who Eliza believes actually IS Elvis Presley, still alive.  Eliza says she never suspected Elvis might be alive when she began her journey.

Rather, according to Eliza, she only wanted to find out who her father was.  Eliza was 13 when she learned that she was adopted as a baby.  Several years later, Eliza met her birth mother, who gave Eliza the name of a man who was supposedly her father.  But when Eliza contacted him, he was adamant he wasn't her father and didn't even know her mother in 1961.  Eliza had to look elsewhere. 

Later in life, she and her husband at the time had been shocked, when seeing pictures of Elvis as a young child, how much he looked like their three-year-old son, Andrew.  Eliza knew that her birth mother had lived across the street from Elvis at Graceland shortly after he bought it in 1957-58 and had been friends with his family [see picture of Elvis and Eliza's birth mother and aunt]. 

Eliza's husband even suggested that Elvis may have been the father, because she shared a family resemblance ... not to mention the fact that Eliza was the only one of four children given up for adoption. 

So Eliza had wondered for some time if she could be the daughter of Elvis.  But she never bought into the whole "Elvis is alive" movement when she started her search.

The Elvis Presley Conspiracy (Part I): Is Elvis Alive?

One of my favorite lines from the movie Men in Black was:

Agent Jay (Will Smith):  You do know that Elvis is dead, right? 

Agent Kay (Tommie Lee Jones):  No, Elvis is not dead.  He just went home.

That line has been running through my mind an awful lot lately.

It all began in the early days of the Probate Lawyer Blog, when I came across a Memphis newspaper story about a woman claiming that she was the secret half-sister of Elvis and that she had the DNA to prove it.  How did she get the DNA?  From Elvis, because he was alive.  She had sued to re-open the Estate of Vernon Presley (Elvis' father) to prove that Vernon was her father.

Eliza Presley suing to prove Elvis is her brother and he's alive

One of my first articles on this blog was about Eliza Presley's lawsuit against the Estate of Vernon Presley (the father of Elvis) to prove she was a legitimate heir of Vernon and half-sister to Elvis.  She sued last year, but withdrew the claim because it was in the wrong court -- probate court, instead of a court that could entertain a paternity case.  Her claim is, legally, to establish paternity -- even though Vernon has been dead since 1979.

Several months ago, I received an email from Eliza Presley.  She directed me to a website, The Elvis Information Network, which includes a detailed interview with Eliza.  Interestingly, this interview goes into great detail about the various DNA reports that Eliza has obtained from cousins of Elvis from both his maternal and paternal sides.  And, according to her verbal descriptions of the DNA analyses, they match.

But, does that mean she is related to Vernon -- or Elvis?  Not yet.  But there's more.  Eliza says she also has DNA results from testing of a man named Jesse.  Eliza says that Jesse actually is Elvis.  That's right, he's alive!

Is Elvis still alive, and does he have a secret half-sister?

Last week, a woman claiming to be Elvis' half-sister and daughter to Elvis' father Vernon Presley (pictured together, below), withdrew her claim from probate court.  She was trying to be declared as Vernon Presley's heir.  In fact, Eliza Presley (who had her name legally changed from Alice Elizabeth Tiffin this summer) was granted the right to re-open Vernon's Estate in October.  Read about it here:  Estate of Elvis' dad reopened for woman claiming she's his daughter (Memphis Commercial Appeal, Oct 8, 2008). 

Eliza's story began when she received a letter from a man named Jessie Presley.  And get this -- this man actually is Elvis according to Eliza (still alive and kicking!) -- and she has the DNA to prove it!  He mailed her a letter and licked the envelope giving her the proof she needs (or so she says).  Eliza only withdrew her claim so she could file it in another court.