VERY TROUBLING STORY

Thanks to Tony for sharing this with me

This is a very long story, but well worth reading~One every Elvis fan Should Read

This is a Very Troubling Story:  A sweet retired Elvis fan, living in a trailer in the desert, attended Jamie Coyne's Elvis Extravaganza in Laughlin, Nevada, in January, 2002. She had never heard of Donna Presley, but was impressed when Donna took the stage and told how Elvis had helped build a church for her pastor mother, Elvis' Aunt Nash, and how she, Donna, had grown up in the Assembly of God church. The fan was a strong Christian lady, and was moved by this expression of faith.

Elvis Stardust

The fan dressed with a certain sparkle and flair. She wore a baseball cap decorated with pearls, and when Donna gushed over it, saying she planned to open a boutique someday and wanted to carry items just like that, the fan gave it to Donna. She was excited to meet a close relative of Elvis, and happy to bask in the reflected Elvis stardust. It probably appeared to Donna and Buddy that she had money. They invited her to Memphis for the 25th anniversary.

The following January, 2003, the fan traveled to Las Vegas for the Elvis Extravaganza at the Westward Ho, and was at Donna's table helping to sell books when Donna and Buddy were served with legal papers by a Las Vegas process server on behalf of Michael Stephens in the Memphis court case - even though Buddy got Bill Burk to print Buddy's denial that they were ever served any papers that weekend. The fan did not have a computer to go on the internet and had no idea Buddy denied what she saw with her own eyes.

"God would want me to do this"

After she returned home, Buddy called her with an urgent request:  Money was needed  immediately to help purchase an Elvis memorabilia collection owned by a 'Mary' in Memphis, which could make them a lot of money.

It sounded pretty good. "Can you bring us $4,000  cash?" Buddy asked. "I wasn't THAT stupid," she says now. The fan asked for a written agreement but was turned down. "Elvis never made any contracts, he always had oral agreements."  Still, they promised to have their attorney write up an agreement to give to her attorney. AFTER the money was sent; they never did. They needed her 'half,' $4,000, immediately by FedEx.  It cost her over $30 to FedEx it next morning delivery.  

"Don't do it," her son begged.  "It's okay, I know these people," the fan answered.

The day she went to FedEx to send the first check, she remembers thinking, "God would want me to do this."

On receiving her $4,000, Buddy called her and asked, "Where is the rest of the money?"  "I thought you were putting up the other half," she replied, puzzled.  That IS what he had said.  But now he changed his tune: "No, you have to put up all of it. We need the rest of the money right now. FedEx it tomorrow."  "It's in my IRA, it will take a week to withdraw it."  "Okay, do it." 

The fan FedEx'd the first $4,000 check around the 15th of January, 2003, and the second $4,000 check around the 30th of January, 2003, incurring over $60 in FedEx next-morning delivery charges.

In mid-February, 2003, two weeks after FedExing the second check, the fan flew to Memphis to visit Donna and Buddy and view the Elvis collection she had paid for. While she was there, they told her that 'Mary' had changed her mind and decided not to sell her Elvis memorabilia collection. Yet they wouldn't give her back her money. They told her it was gone.

"What did you spend my money on?" Donna and Buddy were not prepared  to answer the question, "What did you spend my money on?"  "Well, I spent $2,000 of it on a truckload of Disney memorabilia," Buddy offered, though a friend of the Earlys insists that somebody else, not Buddy, bought the truckload.  "What about the rest? Where is it?"  He had no answer. They had a big bag of leather.  "What are you going to do with that leather, Buddy?"  "We're going to make leather headbands with Donna's name on them."

Donna had told the fan, "I want to sparkle on stage just like Elvis did." Donna said she loved being on stage and and said, "I want to wear rhinestones and sparkle just like Elvis."  Donna had earlier told her German publicist, Barbara Wawrczeck,  "I want to be as famous as Elvis."

Few people knew at the time that J. D. Stacy had stopped paying the Earlys' rent at the Rivermark, as of November 2002. But it's now clear why the fan's money was needed so urgently:  To pay their rent at the Rivermark penthouse.

Not only did they not give the fan any of her money back, but they asked her for more:  Buddy told her he planned to sell the Disney memorabilia on ebay, but needed $400 to set up an ebay page. He wanted the fan to give him the additional $400. She refused. During her February trip the fan accompanied Jim Browder on his tours every day, and met a lot of people, one of whom was Becky Martin, Elvis' Tupelo classmate who had remained close to Elvis even after he made it big. Elvis would often leave tickets for Becky and her brothers, all of whom loved Elvis.

At some point the fan told Becky about the money she had sent to Donna and Buddy, which was never used for the promised purpose, and which was now apparently all gone. Becky was sympathetic, and later, when the Kinards hired Donna to do PR for them, tried to warn them against getting involved with the Earlys, but was never home at the same time the Kinards were; they kept missing each other.

The fan returned to Memphis again in July, 2003. This time she stayed with Becky Martin for two days and discussed her plight with even more people, one of whom suggested she pay a visit to the Better Business Bureau and also see an attorney. The administrative assistant at the Better Business Bureau of Memphis, Dawn Boone, gave her a list of attorneys. She went through the list, finally settling on one she could afford, Charles D. Wright, whose office was at 150 Court Street in downtown Memphis.

Attorney Wright wrote two letters on the lady's behalf, one to Donna and Buddy Early and the other to Jim Browder, who also had borrowed money from her to help save his truck from being repossessed. Jim promised to repay her in full by September, 2003, but she had not received a single dollar from either Jim or Donna and Buddy. Mr. Wright charged her more than $250 for writing the two letters, but said he could be of no further help to her.

Walking the woman to her car as the Better Business Bureau closed for the day, and seeing the woman near tears and expressing a wish that one of the tabloids would publish a story about being being swindled out of money by a cousin of Elvis',  Dawn Boone had an idea: Perhaps an investigative reporter might be interested in the fan's story.

But word got back to Donna and Buddy that the fan had gone to the Better Business Bureau and consulted an attorney. Buddy was angry with her and said he didn't "take kindly" to her actions.

Death Threat

On September 3rd, 2003, the fan was traveling and called Buddy at home. Finding no answer, she called Buddy's cell phone.  Buddy told her he and Donna were on their way overseas to help open an Elvis bookstore but didn't tell her that he and Donna had been served earlier that morning with a court order and that deputies were loading repossessed goods onto a rental truck. He did not tell her then, or perhaps he did not know, that he and Donna would never again be permitted to live in the Rivermark. The locks were changed, they were denied entry, and it would be weeks before they could collect any of their possessions.

After returning from overseas, Buddy began to accuse the fan of telling the law where they lived. Buddy had warned her repeatedly when she visited them never, ever to tell anyone where they were living. "Why, Buddy, why would I tell anyone where you were living? I would have no reason to." "Someone has a hit contract out on our lives," Buddy explained. "Why would anyone want to kill you?" she asked. "Because of some jewelry," he answered. The fan says she didn't believe him but gave it no further thought.

But now, Buddy started asking about Becky Martin. "Are you friends with Becky?" he demanded to know. The fan wouldn't answer. Why is he asking about Becky Martin, she wondered. Buddy also accused her of knowing what was happening when she called his cell phone on September 3rd. She had no idea what had happened that day; the timing of her call was a coincidence.

Then on December 27, 2003, Buddy called and again accused the fan of tipping off law enforcement to where they had been living, which had led to them being kicked out of the Rivermark.  "I swear to God," Buddy declared, "If I ever find out who told where we were, I may go to prison for the rest of my life BUT I WILL KILL THEM!!!!"   Buddy had accused her all along of revealing where they lived, though she had not. She had aroused Buddy's ire by going to the Better Business Bureau and consulting an attorney about the Earlys' unpaid debt.  She had been swindled, she was angry, and as far anyone knew may have been the one who, in Buddy's view, ruined their lives. No more would they be living in a luxury penthouse overlooking the Mississippi River close to Cybill Shepherd's house, no more would they live near their favorite restaurant, the Butcher Shop; no more could they remain anonymous, living under the names Jim and Susie Dean at the Rivermark while enjoying the vibrancy of downtown Memphis.

On their return from overseas, Donna and Buddy  were offered living space, rent free, in a well-appointed two-bedroom apartment with living room, dining room, kitchen and bath over the garage next to the mansion of a Horn Lake-area realtor, the same apartment where J. D. Stacy, before them, had also lived rent free. The realtor owned property across from the Circle G Ranch that he planned to sell to Circle G as a parking lot if the Circle G Resort ever got built. Donna had done PR for the Circle G project, and the realtor's good will extended to Donna and Buddy. The owner of the mansion also gave Donna and Buddy spending money, at least $700 at Christmas time, according to someone with knowledge of the situation.

But had someone not blown the whistle on them, the owner of the Elvis Presley Heights Memorial Gardens and Fans Forever Wall would still be paying for Donna and Buddy's Rivermark penthouse apartment and would have bought them a new car as he had promised. But due to the Earlys' bad publicity, the man and his wife agreed that their project could not be tainted with scandal and declared their contract with Donna, which had never been signed, null and void and severed ties with them.

"We will sue you and your children and your grandchildren," Buddy threatened as he woke the man in the middle of the night, to taunt him about severing the PR contract with Donna. If Buddy is not threatening one person, he is usually threatening another.  His tactics have successfully silenced at least one victim, Donna's cousin Edie Hand.   "A Presley in Name, But Not in Honor"

The fan did not have a computer and did not go online. But a friend she had met in Memphis spotted an article on elvispresleynews.com titled, "A Presley in Name, But Not in Honor," detailing how the Earlys, dubbed "Arkansas Bonnie and Clyde"  were skilled at conning banks and others.  "I know every word is true," the lady told her friend, "because it happened to me."

The Memphis friend put her in touch with a law enforcement official mentioned in the article. He was very nice to her and listened patiently, telling her things about the case that she hadn't known, and finally giving her a referral to someone he thought might be able to help her.

Endearing Fan

The fan prepared for her guests by baking a coffee cake and buying a bottle of wine. She gave explicit directions and waited outside by the highway, as her trailer was inside the trailer park and she did not want her visitors to get lost . She wore a red satin shirt and black leather jacket and pointed to an Elvis doll she had festooned with an oversize TCB pin with cubic zirconia stones that she had purchased from Dennis Roberts for $1200.

"I told Donna that pin is made with cubic zirconias because I couldn't afford real diamonds. Donna told me that Elvis often used fake stones in his jewelry, because he was afraid of losing real diamonds."  

They had a sweet, bubbly, endearing personality and it was easy to see why Donna and Buddy or anyone else would enjoy being around her. But it was clear she was also scared. Even after several hours of talking to her, looking through her file and copies of her cancelled checks, trying to calm her down, she was still on edge. As we finished a joint call to the Memphis Police Department on her speakerphone to report the death threat from Buddy, she was shaking with fear.

After we called the Police Department, the fan wanted to make a joint call to Edie Hand. She had read about Edie in the 7-page report her friend got off the internet, and she wanted to talk to her. Edie Hand is listed in the Birmingham phone book and easy to reach.

It was very late when we called, 10:30 p.m. Birmingham time. Edie had been reading her Bible in bed, preparing to give a speech in the morning to a woman's group. Yet she gave unselfishly of her time and listened intently as the fan poured out her story of being swindled by Edie's cousin, full of sympathy and compassion for her.

We knew the basic outline of Edie's story even before we called her:  She had co-authored the book, "Elvis: Precious Memories" with her cousin Donna, half of it basically a reprint of Aunt Nash's book, "One Flower While I Live." Donna and Buddy usurped the books and cheated her cousin Edie out of her half of the book profits.

But we were unprepared to hear Edie say, in a soft, sad voice, "I had a written contract. They cheated me out of $20,000 cash when I was a single mother. That was all I had. I found the publisher, Cumberland. They never paid them. I found the investor. I brought in Michael Stephens. I did the research and wrote the notes, did most of the manuscript.

"For two years, I was devastated. It destroyed me. I could not believe my cousin who I loved could do that to me. Finally I had no choice but just to walk away from it. I've had to forgive her so it wouldn't destroy me, but I have nothing to do with them now.  Donna's sister Susie knows all about it. She was there. She knows everything." Asked why Susie publicly proclaims her sister's honesty, Edie offered, "It's a self-protection mechanism. But she definitely knows."

Edie described how Donna and Buddy bilked a series of investors by taking money from them and promising to pay them one-half the book sales until their money was returned to them with interest. They never paid any of them nor gave any of them any books. It was a ruse, pure and simple. Not much different from the way they took the fan's money claiming it was to be used to buy an Elvis memorabilia collection that would likewise earn her money back with interest.

"There's only one person who could help, if he would," Edie said. "Uncle Earl [Donna's father]. He hates Buddy. He knows what happened. He could help you. If he would. But he's old now and probably not well, so I don't know. . ."

One reason Edie did not pursue the $20,000 Donna and Buddy cheated her out of, was that she was afraid of Buddy. He did the same thing to Edie that he continues to do to others to this day.

Where will it end?

Media interest will not get the lady her money back. At best, it will serve as a warning to others not to get blinded by Elvis stardust. But what a sad, expensive, traumatic lesson for a sweet Elvis fan who loves the Lord and who was so impressed by that lady standing on stage telling how Elvis built her Mother a church.

Because the sweet lady believed in Elvis' goodness, she assumed she could trust a member of Elvis' family. She never dreamed that they would cheat her and then try to frighten her into silence.  It isn't going to work.  Not this time.

Buddy Early uses threats and intimidation to silence his victims and critics.  Donna enables it but she has to know in her heart that it's wrong. My heart goes out to this poor sweet lady who is so frightened and so disillusioned--and so ashamed of herself for being taken a fool. It isn't that the fan was a fool so much as she was taken by one of the best.

08/06/04 UPDATE!! More scams are happening!! Go to This New Page for the latest.

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