Do you believe Kathy Tatum’s story?
thank you so much for the question because I’ve been needing an excuse to delve into this as I’ve always wondered about the validity of her story 👀
**as always this is long but I found some strong and damning evidence 🤧!!
For context: Kathy Tatum is a Memphis native who claims to have met Elvis, who was 34 at the time, outside the gates of Graceland on July 2, 1969, when she was 16 years old. According to her, they began casually dating from that first initial meeting and continued to do so up until 1972-ish
In 2015 she published her book, “Love beads from Elvis”, which is mainly compromised of entries from the diary she kept during her time with Elvis as well as commentary from her perspective now. Recently, she was also featured in the Amazon documentary “Elvis’ women” where she shared more about her experience
Anyone who has kept a diary knows just how repetitive the entries can get. Every entry/chapter of her book is essentially "woke up, went to school, met with Elvis, went to the Memphian, made out, mom made us come home, went to bed". So it’s definitely not the most exciting read but I will say it’s very immersive, and I definitely felt like I was in her shoes so to speak
Here are Kathy and Elvis pictured when they first met, as well as the shot she snapped of him alone ⬇️
And here is part of the entry describing their first initial meeting (click each photo to read in its entirety) ⬇️
As for the validity…
short answer: either kathy is completely lying or she is just terrible with dates
my vote is with completely lying
long answer: The three best methods, in my opinion, for determining whether a book or story concerning Elvis is true or not are...
1. Check to see if anyone else in Elvis' life, particularly his inner circle, has confirmed or refuted the claim
2. Check to see if Elvis' described behavior matches with how we know he acted based on credible sources
3. Finally, and most importantly, check to determine if the dates match and if Elvis was indeed where the person claimed he was
This 3rd method is definitely the most reliable, as many falsified stories about Elvis tend to get the dates wrong. For example claiming he was in Vegas while, in fact, he was in Memphis
From what I have researched, Kathy fails 2 of the above mentioned methods
Method number one: Kathy fails. Nobody who knew Elvis has even acknowledged Kathy Tatum, let alone denied her story. Essentially, Kathy does not exist in the “Elvis Universe” according to his closest friends/girlfriends/family members
And most damning for Kathy, not even Charlie Hodge, who is talked about nearly as often as Elvis in her book and who also allegedly dated her sister, has spoken about her
So, once again, I find it difficult to believe that Kathy, who claims to have frequented the Memphian with Elvis and Charlie, and occasionally the entire group, has never been mentioned by anyone else
In one entry in Kathy's book, she states that as she got up from her seat in the theater to go to the concession stand, Elvis got up and followed her, and began kissing her in front of the counter worker and a few members of the group…yet no one in his circle has ever talked about the 16-year-old blonde that Elvis would very publicly make out with? And would sit with and kiss inside the theater?
As for method number 2, I would say this is one that Kathy actually passes 🤧
To give an example of how this method can help determine the validity of a story, we can talk about Byron Raphael and his egregious claims
One claim being that Elvis personally asked Byron to have girls give “practice” bl*wjobs (on Byron) so that Byron could evaluate whether she was skilled enough before she went to see Elvis. Another claim made by Byron is that Elvis liked to keep his bedroom door open while having s*x with the girl he was with so that everybody in the hotel could see and hear…
You don’t even have to do much research about Elvis to know that it’s completely uncharacteristic of him, as Elvis was insanely protective of his dates and would get easily jealous. I mean Jerry nearly got fired for just having a casual conversation with Priscilla 😭
And, according to Sonny and Red West, when parties were thrown at the Perugia Way house in Los Angeles and people were skinny dipping and such, Elvis would not allow hisself or his girl for the night to participate ⬇️
so basically… Byron is full of shit (yet Alanna Nash used him as a source, multiple times, which says everything about her credibility 💀)
Now, the reason I feel that Kathy passes this specific method is that their relationship never went beyond kissing/fondling, which, as we all know, was typical of Elvis in some of his relationships. Another is that the food she depicts him eating is consistent with what we know he liked (hamburgers and more hamburgers, basically), and I believe she accurately describes Elvis and his slightly odd sense of humor as well. But still it’s not enough to prove validity as all of this would be easy to research and perhaps the author did, and that’s why it’s so accurately written in her book
Lastly for method number 3, Kathy fails this one quite miserably which again is very damning for the validity of her book
On multiple occasions throughout her book, Elvis was not actually where she claimed he was (based on the dates of her entries)
For example, one of the most terribly obvious mistakes in her dated entries occurs on July 15th, 1970
This is Kathy Tatum’s recollection of that day in Memphis, Tennessee ⬇️
And this is where Elvis actually was, filming rehearsals for MGM in Culver City… California ⬇️
like we have video (and very famous video) evidence that Elvis was not making out with Kathy Tatum in Memphis 🤧
Another example takes place on March 15th, 1971
This is Kathy’s recollection of that day in a motel with Elvis in Memphis, Tennessee ⬇️
And this is where Elvis actually was… in Nashville, Tennessee… rehearsing
(and again, video/auditory evidence that Elvis was not in Memphis making out with Kathy)
So all in all… much like Byron, Kathy is full of shit 🤧
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