Click on image to enlarge.

Category: Mystery/Crime/Mainstream
Description: Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935. Also born that day was Jesse Garon Presley, Elvis's twin. The world has believed Jesse Garon was born dead. Until now. Jesse Garon is the story of Private Investigator Phil Allman's pursuit of Jesse Garon Presley, the heretofore thought stillborn fraternal twin of Elvis Presley. In a twisting journey to solving three murders, Allman travels from his hometown of Philadelphia through the bustle of New York City to the New Jersey shore and ultimately, to Memphis. A tough, smart ex-cop and divorced father in his mid-thirties, Allman is approached at an Elvis Forever meeting by attorney Mark Downes, whose "dark hairline seemed to begin smack in the middle of his forehead as if to hide the thoughts therein". Downes reveals a dark Presley secret: Jesse Garon's impoverished parents placed him on the black market unbeknownst to anyone. The baby was sold to the Zimmermans, a middle-class Philadelphia family; Jesse Garon Presley was brought up as Robert Zimmerman. Representing clients whose identity he refuses to reveal, Downes hires Allman to track down Zimmerman, now missing for several years. Allman's arduous search for Zimmerman, while ultimately fruitful, also navigates his personal search for success, love and stability. Harrowing, yet finally revelatory, Jesse Garon is a noir detective novel in the classic sense and the first in a series featuring Allman, a P.I. with a hard-boiled yet modern sensibility, sensitivity, and sense of humor. A Phil Allman PI novel
eBook Publisher: Wild Child Publishing/Wild Child Publishing, 2009 2009
eBookwise Release Date: October 2009

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [183 KB]
Words: 39103
Reading time: 111-156 min.

"Mr. Allman, I am about to tell you the most remarkable tale that you've ever heard. But every word of it is true." I nodded as a sign for him to get on with it and smirked with Philadelphia cynicism. "In late 1934, Gladys Presley went to see her family physician in Tupelo, Mississippi for a routine prenatal checkup. Her doctor then told her for the first time that she was to give birth to twins in early January."

"Elvis and his stillborn brother, Jesse Garon?"

He looked at me with admiration. "Very good, Mr. Allman. Not everyone knows about Jesse Garon Presley. Anyway, as I am sure you also know, Vernon and Gladys Presley were, to say the least, very poor, and the country still struggled in the midst of The Great Depression." I nodded again. "When Gladys Presley learned she was due to have twins, it seems that she panicked. The Presleys could barely afford one more mouth to feed, let alone two. She cried to her young physician, a Dr. Milton Josephs, and told him of their financial predicament. The good doctor was neither displeased nor surprised at her reaction. He informed Mrs. Presley that the black market for white babies remained strong despite the hard economic times." Our waitress brought our drinks. Mr. Downes ignored his, but I savored mine. Downes drew a breath, clearly trying to read my still impassive countenance before he continued.

"When Mrs. Presley betrayed her disgust with the very notion, Dr. Josephs commiserated with her, suggesting that it might just be better for the Presleys to have one child, with a nice nest egg to boot, than attempt raising two children born into poverty. He began to win her over. When Mrs. Presley expressed her concern for Vernon's reaction to all this, not to mention that of the law and the community, Dr. J insisted that only the two of them would ever know about it. He'd contrive a foolproof story of a stillborn birth, and that would be that.

"Dr. Josephs had done his legwork even before Gladys came into his office that day. He informed Mrs. Presley that a trust fund of five thousand dollars would be set aside for the baby she chose to keep. Mrs. Presley expressed concern about her other baby's future, but the doctor assured her that a well-off, educated and very nice couple from Philadelphia would be raising the child."

My jaw had already hit the battered bar. "So Jesse Garon Presley didn't die on January 8th, 1935?"

"No, Mr. Allman. And we strongly believe that he is still alive, probably still in the Philadelphia area."