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Elvis "Coffin Photo" Missing

April 01, 2006 | Other
The anthrax cleanup at the former American Media Inc. building in Boca Raton has taken another twist. It may even have some officials all shook up. Some 600 to 800 boxes of decontaminated photos (4.5 million photos) from the tabloid publisher's extensive library have been removed from the building - with permission from the U.S. Environmental Agency, which has been overseeing the cleanup. But no one seems to know where the boxes went. Inside those boxes may be the framed "Elvis in his coffin" photo that graced the cover of the National Enquirer soon after the singer's death in 1977. Palm Beach County health officials don't know where the boxes went. Anthrax was mailed to the AMI building in the Arvida Park of Commerce in October 2001 - only weeks after the 9/11 attacks and before similar outbreaks were reported at other media outlets and government buildings.
Source:Elvis Information Network
elvis_fan wrote on April 01, 2006
Oh Great! Something else for people to get their hands on. I cant wait to see what is going to happen now. It wouldnt suprise me if something about Elvis and his coffin popped up again in the National Enquirer.
JimmyCool wrote on April 02, 2006
I don't think is an importante news... I heard that photo was forgery work (fake)
Dan wrote on April 02, 2006
Yeah, That photo is a fake anyway!!!
sttos wrote on April 02, 2006
That photo is sadly not a fake, when Elvis' body was displayed in the coffin for the fans to view one of elvis's cousins in a last act of betrayal snapped the picture and sold it to the national enquirer. The story is real and if you doubt it just read it in Peter Guranick"s "careless love", and he wrote the best books on elvis.
mikem wrote on April 02, 2006
i 2nd that photo is fake!!!
Shakingruud wrote on April 02, 2006
you´re right sttos, the photo is real, not fake. I got tears in my eyes eveytime i watch it.
RacingRocks wrote on April 02, 2006
My understanding is that the photo was real. However, it was of such low quality that it was "doctored" allowing the body to be actually seen in the photograph for the print media. I believe they used a photograph from the sixties as a guide.
tigerpawl wrote on April 02, 2006
I agree with Racingrocks that is a picture of ELVIS from the 60s. Just look at the style of his hair and the sideburns cut. That was a photo taken from a great distance because of the tight security. There is no doubt that it was Elvis in the coffin but there was some doctoring to that photo. Hey that what the National Enquirer is known for.
Steve V wrote on April 02, 2006
Does anyone know which cousin took that photo? Has this loser ever been heard from again?
RJ wrote on April 03, 2006
Billy Smith didn't do that, he was Elvis closest friend.. It was Billy Mann.
CD King wrote on April 03, 2006
That photo is REAL
cathyreno wrote on April 03, 2006
who is/was Billy Mann??
Nilson Rego wrote on April 03, 2006
Photos are. Billy Mann, not Smith surely, took a morbid picture and even Carolyn Kennedy, received as a daughter by the family at that painful moment, got hers, while in service for Rolling stones. Shame on them! However, where are they and if the ones circulating all around correspond to them, that's the question. For some.
Bill E. Burk wrote on April 03, 2006
Re: Elvis photo in the coffin. (1) That definitely is a photo of the actual body in the coffin, taken by cousin Billy Mann, who was not close to Elvis, but who was recruited by the National Enquirer to snap the shot. (2) National Enquirer's team went to Ed's Camera Shop on Madison and bought all 10 of his miniature 35 mm cameras; then tried to recruit 10 persons who maybe could snap the shot. It was not a "belt buckle" snap. Rather, with this camera, it fit well into a cigarette package. You cut out a hole where the lens was, then acted as if you were taking a cigarette out of the package and snapped the photo. (3) Mann was paid $10,000 (not $30,000, I don't care WHO may have written that in their book); plus, Mann was flown to West Palm Beach, Florida, where he got to spend a week at a hotel ON the beach, expenses paid. (4) When it was learned who had snapped the shot, the Presleys never allowed Mann back on the property. He was later killed in Memphis in a car wreck. (5) It was the German magazine, Der Stern (akin to LIFE magazine in its heyday), that was offering $30,000 for a color photo of Elvis in his casket. Der Stern was actually holding up its deadline in Germany so it could print this photo on the front cover. They could find no takers. These are the FACTS. Anything other than these, raise a suspicious eyebrow.
elvis_fan wrote on April 04, 2006
You know what? i am only 17 and i have been a die hard elvis fan for 5 years now and i am still going strong. I have seen that photo hundreds of times and was always told it was fake and it was easy for me to believe because i know that elvis did not look like that when he died, that is like a 60's picture. All i am looking for is the honest to God truth. If this is indeed the actual real photo like everybody says it is, then how did they get Elvis to look like that? Is it the real photo and just doctored up a bit? Was any of you there to see what he really looked like in the coffin? if not how do you know that this is the true picture? I know that his cousin took it and sold it but did he doctor it up? It is just really hard for me to believe that Elvis looked like that. And i HATE that the picture is all over in the National Enquirer saying that it isnt him and that he is still alive and visits Graceland, and that he is a spying agent,and that he faked his own death. All I know is that people all over say that Elvis is still alive and my responce is that THE REAL ELVIS DIED. So can anybody clear me up on this? Thank You!!
cathyreno wrote on April 04, 2006
Bill you know your stuff... very morbidly interesting. Though the photo is in very poor taste and disrespectful to say the least, still holds everyones attention doesnt it? It will turn up again and make another million... T C B
Teacher wrote on April 04, 2006
The National Enquirer achieved its biggest sales--six million copies--with that issue of Elvis on its cover.
byebye wrote on April 04, 2006
I dont think Elvis would mind much about that pic actually. I mean...-Elvis took Pricilla to Baptist memorial hospital to view other dead people once in a while. Not mainly becouse of morbid curiosity, but due to the fact that he was interrested in the "restoring work" of making corps look better. Thats why he said early in the "70s.. -Well I know that I will look good when I´m dead anyway.... The photo is real thats for sure, And since Elvis appearance was dramatically improved for the better, objections never reached a critical level.
JimmyCool wrote on April 05, 2006
Well, in case the picture WAS true: This is a weird question but... is it probably that he looked so different in his coffin because of the Embalming process he suffered? Nobody mentioned it, but I saw many times on TV that an Embalmed body looks so different, almost like a doll, and they put a lot of make-up on... so that's my theory (if the pic is really real) of why he looked different.
elvis_fan wrote on April 06, 2006
Ok... is there anyone out there who was actually at Graceland in 1977 to view Elvis' body to tell us if it really was true picture, and if that is really what he looked like? This would clear up a lot of questions. Thank you!
CD King wrote on April 06, 2006
JimmyCool, your theory is correct. That photo is REAL.
sunrecords56 wrote on April 08, 2006
So the Photo is gone....does it really matter.....also does it matter who took the photo or how much he was paid.....NO......its all in the past....The KING OF COOL is gone and all is fans are left without the AIR CONDITIONING of His Life.....But the Music remains...
Devon wrote on April 08, 2006
Yes i was there on the day after Elvis past, and yes i did see the body but i will tell you even today i am not sure if it realy was Elvis. I was not allowed to get close to see so it is a matter of it was him. What matters now is to keep his memory alive. Who cares if there is a photo or not.
lvisfan wrote on April 10, 2006
I'm sure it's the real deal. The cover photo was somehow munipulated when they blew it up. If you'll notice Elvis' nose isn't quite right. Almost like Bob Hope's nose. But if you still have a copy of that issue, look inside where the article is and you'll see a smaller coffin photo, where the nose is normal. That one actually looks like Elvis as opposed to the cover shot.
JimmyCool wrote on April 10, 2006
Hi, ya'll! I was looking for other Elvis' stuff, when I found something like "Ask the experts section" on some portuguese or brazilian site. I don't speak portuguese, so I used a translator, and this is what I found: Is the famous photo that shows Elvis in the coffin true? No. The photo is a rude montage that some newspapers published at that time to win some money on the death of Elvis. One of Elvis' cousins tried to take a real photo, pocketing some thousands of dollars, but the photo burned, because of the illumination in the place. For not losing the money of the sales, some tabloids published the montage, affirming that it had been taken by Elvis' cousin. But everything didn't pass of a rude frame, because some people, even today, believe in its truthfulness. It was declared officially false in 1978, when the Presleys won in the justice a process against some of those newspapers of the yellow press. You can still find it today in the Internet, but its credibility is zero. That's enough for me :)
JerryNodak wrote on April 14, 2006
Missing? Oh, no!! How will I ever sleep at night.