Elvis Told a Bizarre Lie About Snapping a Man’s Neck While Helping With a Drug Raid
In 1976, Elvis Presley visited Colorado with his entourage and began peddling a story about a drug raid. Elvis took each member of his entourage aside and told them he had taken a trip to Denver so he could help the police. According to Elvis, he had tagged along on a drug raid and broken the neck of a drug dealer. When members of his entourage investigated this claim further, they found there was no truth to it.
Elvis lied about something he experienced on a drug raid
On a ski trip to Vail, Colorado, Elvis took a day trip to Denver. He bought cars for his friends in the police force and dropped them off. In conversations with his entourage, though, he claimed this was just a cover. The real reason for his trip was to help the police on a drug raid.
“He then told me in very confidential tones the real reason he went to Denver,” bodyguard Dave Hebler said in the book Elvis: What Happened? “He looked all shook up and said that he had been on a drug raid with the Denver narcotics police. Then he told the story about what happened on this raid.”
According to Elvis, the police had allowed him to approach the targeted house on his own. He faced off against one of the drug dealers and was able to easily take him down using his karate skills.
“He said that they had these drug runners trapped and surrounded. Elvis was sneaking up on this one guy who was crouched behind a bush holding a sawed-off shotgun … one of the bad guys,” Hebler said. “He got real close when the guy heard him … pointed the shotgun at him … Whereupon, Elvis, with all his skill and agility, brushed the weapon aside, threw a horrendous karate chop and broke his neck with the blow.”
He told the story to each member of his entourage, but the details changed each time.
His entourage quickly learned that the story was a lie
Hebler and Elvis’ bodyguard, Red West, said they initially believed the story. Elvis told it with such conviction that it was easy to accept what he was saying. When Hebler put the story under any scrutiny, though, it fell apart. In telling the story, Elvis seemed to forget that one of his security guards, Dick Grob, had been with him the entire time they were in Denver.
“I asked Dick what he did the night before with Elvis,” Hebler said. “He told me that they bought some cars, had a sandwich and came back. I asked him whether Elvis or he had been on a drug raid, and he looked at me like I was out of my skull.”
Elvis’ own drug use eventually clashed with his desire to work with the police
Elvis’ involvement with the Denver police eventually created problems for him. While he wanted to involve himself with their narcotics department, he was also abusing prescription medication. Eventually, Denver police officers confronted him about this. Elvis immediately left the city after the conversation.
“The reason he is leaving is that the police had talked to him about going into a sanitarium and drying out and that he was a complete embarrassment to them because they were narcotics officers and he’s stoned out of his mind,” Hebler said. “He’s stoned out of his mind and flaunting it right in front of them. You know, this is kicking them right in the chest.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
