A secret plot was put into motion in the dark of night in Memphis, Tennessee. The thieves were not aiming for a bank vault or a museum filled with cash. Their target was the final resting place of Elvis Presley. A shocking event was about to unfold at a quiet city cemetery and it would force his family to make a drastic choice to protect him.
Right after his passing, Elvis was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis. This spot was picked because his mother, Gladys, was already resting there. Elvis was put into a very heavy, 800-pound copper-lined casket. His coffin was placed inside a stone building called a mausoleum, resting in a private room directly on top of his mother’s coffin.
Just eleven days after the burial, three men snuck onto the cemetery grounds. They walked up to the stone building and tried to break inside to steal his body. Their plan completely failed, and the police arrested the men for trespassing before they could even enter. The massive weight of the copper casket meant it would have taken at least ten men to lift it, making their crime nearly impossible from the start.
This break-in attempt deeply scared his father, Vernon Presley. He knew that the public cemetery could not offer the high security his son needed. Vernon asked the city for permission to dig up both Elvis and Gladys and move them to Graceland. By October 1977, the family was relocated to the Meditation Garden in the backyard of the house, where security guards could watch over them at all times.
Inside Elvis Presley’s Original Burial Site
Before all of this cemetery chaos happened, the world first had to process the completely unexpected news of his passing. On August 16, 1977, Elvis was found unresponsive inside his Graceland home. His road manager and doctors tried to help him, but he was pronounced gone at three o’clock in the afternoon. The news stopped regular television programs everywhere as reporters announced that the 42-year-old star had died.
The public reaction was massive and instant. Thousands of crying fans flooded the streets of Memphis and stood outside the gates of his home to pay their respects. Inside Graceland, Elvis was laid in state in the music room so people could walk through and see him one last time. Two days later, a long line of cars and a white hearse drove slowly at five miles per hour to carry him to his first burial site.
Elvis Presley – Funeral
Today, the Meditation Garden at Graceland is the permanent and safe home for Elvis and his family. The decision to bring him back to his own property completely solved the security problems. Fans from all over the globe still walk through those gates every single day to leave flowers. Graceland is not just the house where he lived, but the protected place where he will stay forever.