'His face was blotchy': Elvis Presley's last GF Ginger Alden details singer's grisly death on the toilet
Elvis Presley would have turned 89 yesterday, January 8. The legend died at the young age of 42 on August 16, 1977 at his Graceland home, leaving the world in shock and disbelief.
The circumstances leading up to Elvis Presley's death have remained a closely guarded secret after his family chose to seal the autopsy results for 50 years. This has led to widespread speculation about his death. Some say he died from drug overdose, while others claim it was a heart attack - the list goes on.
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In a recent memoir, his last girlfriend Ginger Alden revealed what his last moments alive were like. It was Alden who found the star's body with his pajama bottoms around his ankles and his bottom in the air. Ginger, who was just 21 at the time, wrote of the distressing scene in her memoir, "His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward."
"It was clear that, from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved," the memoir added. "I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose." She continued, "The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red."
After years of drug abuse, Elvis had spent the last decade of his life in ill-health. Some claim he died from a drug overdose, but coroner Joseph Davis dispelled the rumors after he reopened an investigation into the death in 1994. "The position of Elvis's body was such that he was about to sit down on the commode when the seizure occurred. He pitched forward onto the carpet, his rear in the air, and was dead by the time he hit the floor," he explained. "If it had been a drug overdose, Elvis would have slipped into an increasing state of slumber. He would have pulled up his pyjama bottoms and crawled to the door to seek help. It takes hours to die from drugs," he added.
Another important insight into Elvis's death came from California physician Forest Tennant. Dr Tennant pointed out a major clue was in Elvis's full-body deterioration. Drug abuse and his appalling diet was not enough explaination for Dr Tennant, who wondered what had caused his stomach, liver, lungs, heart, spine, eyes and bowel to deteriorate. He believes it all goes back to a serious head injury the singer suffered in 1967 that triggered a progressive autoimmune inflammatory disorder. The injury was so severe that it caused brain tissue to dislodge and seep into his blood circulation, he claims. He conjectured the body identified the matter as foreign and started producing antibodies to destroy it, further triggering a disorder of the immune system, called hypogammaglobulinemia.
However, the world will have to wait until 2027 to learn what exactly killed the legend, as the results of the autopsy will stay sealed until then.