Hearne: About The Local Doc Who Claimed To Be Treating Elvis

Jesse (Elvis?) Circa 2000

Speaking of the hoopla re the new Elvis Presley movie…

What better time to take a trip back in time than now- 21 years after the fact, to be specific – to when area physician Donald Hinton wrote a book claiming Elvis was still alive and he was treating him.

Remember that?

Swell, you won’t find any references to any of that in the new Elvis movie.

But that’s exactly what went down and I covered it extensively at the Kansas City Star at the time. To the extent that Doc Hinton, a woman assistant and an Elvis imitator/cousin named Jerry Presley – came to one of my Super Bowl parties. They shared stories about the King, who allegedly went by Jesse, after his twin brother that died at birth, and is buried in the garden at Graceland in Memphis.

Right next to where Elvis is allegedly buried.

FYI, Elvis head honcho Jack Soden – a friend of mine from Kansas City – said he wasn’t buying the story at the time.

Of course he wasn’t buying it. Even if it were true, why would he?

That said, Hinton’s book and his on-the-record statements claimed it was.

Last time I wrote about it was in 2013, when I spoke with Jerry Presley and he learned that the entire Elvis-is-alive episode had caused any number of problems and difficulties to himself, Hinton and the woman assistant.

“He believed it 100 percent, absolutely,” Presley told me. “There was nothing in Dr. Hinton that was phony or fake. He truly believed he was helping somebody.”

Needless to say, not everybody did.

Take the Missouri Board of Healing Arts that launched an investigation into Hinton for prescribing medicine to whoever Jesse was.

“To be honest, I don’t know what the outcome of that was,” Presley told me. “I don’t think he can prescribe medicine, but he still has his license to practice. You know, he went through a divorce and everything.”

An online check of Hinton reveals he is a psychiatrist in Saint Joseph, Missouri,  with a medical degree from University of Kansas “and has been in practice for more than 20 years.”

Hinton could not be reached for this column. Jerry Presley could.

He’s living large in Branson, keeping his Elvis shtick alive post COVID.

“I saw the Elvis movie and thought it was very well done,” he says. “It does show what kind of person the Colonel was. He was very mean and conniving. I got a cease and desist letter from him in 1971.”

As for the Elvis-is-alive, Jesse schtick, “You know, good question,” Presley says. “I’ve lost contact, but one one who would no, says, no (he’s not still alive)…I really don’t know and haven’t heard anything in years.”

Were the King were still alive he’d be 87, about to turn 88 on Bill Nigro‘s birthday, January 8th.