BackinMemphis

Sheriff William N. Morris Jr., second from left, and deputies process James Earl Ray, at right, in the Shelby County Jail. This is one of the newly discovered photographs released by the Shelby County Register of Deeds office. Among the new files are letters Ray wrote to his lawyers and family from the Shelby County Jail, where he spent eight months before pleading guilty to King’s murder. Ray spent the rest of his life in prison and died in 1998. (Photo by Gil Michael/Shelby County Sheriff's Office) The Commercial Appeal recently published these never before seen photos of James Earl Ray, the man who killed Dr. Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. In the photo above is also Sheriff William N. Morris, best known to Elvis fans as ElvisPresley's friend and former mayor of Memphis. Sheriff William N. Morris Jr., escorts James Earl Ray into the Shelby County Jail in Memphis before dawn July 19, 1968. Ray, who was protected by a bulletproof apron, had been ex...

Priscilla Presley keeps her namesake orchids in ornate decorative pots that further enhance their beauty and keep the heavily laden flowers from tipping over.Seedlings of the Cattleya Priscilla Presley bloom during January and February. The one word that best describes the world of orchids is glamour. No group of plants has ever captured the imagination like this strange, exotic and beautiful flower. When they were discovered in the late 1700s and early 1800s, orchids became sought after by European royalty. Cattleyas were especially revered by collectors and were eventually given the title "Queen of the Orchids." From the late 1920s through the 1950s, women wore corsages of cattleya flowers whenever they wanted a touch of glamour. President Eisenhower's wife, Mamie, was never seen in public without her corsage of two or three cattleya flowers. In the 1940s, teenage boys gave their junior or senior prom dates cattleya corsages, because the girls expected them. Holl...

Zsa Zsa Gabor was resting at home today after a being taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday, when her husband found her having trouble breathing and spitting up blood. At her Bel-Air home, which was built for Howard Hughes and once home to Elvis Presley, Gabor has been cleaning out her closets, publicist John Blanchette said. She is donating 285 pieces of clothing for an April 9th auction to raise money for the Vera Davis McClendon Youth and Family Center in Venice, including a Fendi suit and a feather boa dress by Chanel, he said. After her famed 1989 arrest for slapping a Beverly Hills cop, she did her community service at the McClendon center. Gabor, 94, was taken to the hospital Tuesday and spent the night there, before being released. She has been in and out of the hospital over the past year and in poor health since 2002 car wreck, in which her hairdresser was driving. She suffered a stroke in 2005. When she learned that Elizabeth Taylor had died -- Gabor ...

These amazing pictures of Elvis Presley hugging a smitten schoolgirl are seen in public for the first time today after lying hidden for 52 years. The photos show The King, then 24, relaxing on military ­service. He is shown cuddling 15-year-old Sigrid Schulz and letting her wear his cap before signing records for fans. Unseen pictures of Elvis Presley hugging a schoolgirl in his army days are revealed to BBC's Antiques Roadshow. Sigrid handed the photos to a friend to prove she had met the singer at a German army base in 1959. But for many years they lay gathering dust in a drawer. Tonight the photos, worth up to £7,000, will be shown on BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow. Presenter Fiona Bruce said: “These must be some of the most stunning ­pictures of a young Elvis I’ve ever seen. To think they’ve never been seen in public before.” It was pure luck that young Sigrid met Elvis when her father took her to Bad Nauheim, where he was ­staying. She found her hero in a relaxed mood while o...

For New Year’s Eve 1975, I took Elvis Presley to Pontiac, Mich., for a concert at the Silverdome, which is the 80,000-seat stadium right outside Detroit. I ran the concessions, which always did fabulously well. When Elvis sang, he used to take his scarf and give it to girls in the audience. He would change scarves 10 times in a single show: sweat, wipe sweat off his brow, give the scarf to some girl, and she would smell it and faint. I decided as a new item, in addition to all the key chains, pictures, and everything else, I was going to get scarves made. So I went to India, China, somewhere, and bought 35,000 scarves with his picture on them. When I arrived at the football stadium, my concessionaire came to me and said, “We got a big problem. The scarves you bought? Nobody’s buying them. You’re going to get stuck with 35,000 scarves.” Oh, my God, I thought. What a stupid mistake this is! Now I’m going to have to ship these things back. Why the hell did I do this? I was sitting back...