Elvis' 'Friend' wants auction items back

The estate of a man who claimed to be a personal friend of Elvis Presley is suing the man's caretaker for stealing collectibles, including Elvis' gold jumpsuit. According to the complaint, Sterling Gary Pepper was a personal friend of Elvis Presley (misspelled "Pressley" throughout the complaint) and President of his fan club, known as the Tankers. Over the years, the complaint states, Presley gave Pepper various items, including "a gold jumpsuit with a black collar, hair of Mr. Pressley, a 1957 Chevy automobile, clothes worn by Mr. Pressley, and numerous articles of fan club and personal memorabilia including autographed photographs of celebrities such as Marilynn Monroe and Clark Gable."

The plaintiff John Tate, described as Pepper's closest relative, asserts that Pepper had cerebral palsy and Elvis Presley hired Nancy Pease Whitehead to care for him. But, after Presley's death, when it was clear Whitehead would no longer be paid, Pepper was moved first to a home in Iowa and then to California to be near his relatives. After Pepper arrived in California, Tate went to Pepper's home in Tennesee and realized that all of his belongings, including the memorabilia, had been removed by Whitehead.

For years, Tate did not know where the memorabilia had gone until learning of the recently scheduled auction by the other defendant named in the lawsuit, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. Now, Tate is suing for, among other things, restoration of the property at issue.

The complete court case:
https://share.acrobat.com/adc/adc.do...d-e84607915644

Published: october 17th 2009 11:25 AM.
Source: Chicago Now / Published by: ElvisMatters - Peter Verbruggen .

Gary Pepper Auction Gets Green Light

The Gary Pepper auction will go fourth. Despite a lawsuit by Gary's relatives.A Chicago judge allowed the sale in spite of an objection by a man claiming to be a relative of one of Elvis' personal friends. The auction is at noon at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

The complaint, filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court by John Tate, says the Elvis collection was stolen by a caretaker for Sterling Gary Pepper, who was president of Elvis' fan club and became friends with Presley. Tate, described in court documents as the late Pepper's closest relative, claims he didn't know where the collection was until he saw media reports of the auction.

Leslie Hindman, the founder of her namesake company, said Friday that she hasn't see any proof that the Elvis collection belongs to Tate. She said the caretaker has had the items for 30 years.

Source: Elvis Unlimited

Click here to watch preview of auction
http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=63235@wbbm.dayport.com

http://www.elvismatters.com/nieuws/a...1021191520.jpg


The fight over the Gary Pepper Collection is far from over, it seems. A nurse stole a dead man's Elvis Presley memorabilia and put it up for sale, the man's family says. The federal lawsuit reflects well on The King, who paid for medical care and lavished gifts upon Sterling Gary Pepper Jr., who suffered from cerebral palsy and was president of Presley's fan club. Among the keepsakes Presley gave Pepper were a gold jumpsuit, a lock of hair, a 1957 Chevy and autographed photos of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, according to the complaint. The family says Presley paid for Pepper's nursing services, which were provided by defendant Nancy Pease Whitehead. After Elvis died in 1977, Pepper was moved to a home for disabled people in Iowa because the Presley estate would no longer pay Whitehead to take care of him, according to the complaint.

Pepper's cousin and closest relative, John Tate, says he decided to bring Pepper to California to be closer to family, and upon arriving at Pepper's Tennessee home, found the house empty. He claims Whitehead had removed all Pepper's belongings "without Mr. Pepper's nor anyone else's knowledge or consent." The family claims that Whitehead put the memorabilia up sale through Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, and has admitted that the items belonged to Pepper and were taken from his home. Pepper died in 1980 and his family says they had no idea of the whereabouts of the memorabilia until they heard about the auction on the news. Chicago media have reported that Whitehead claims Pepper gave her the memorabilia, and will donate half of the auction proceeds to United Cerebral Palsy of the Mid-South. Hindman told CBS 2 that he thought the lock of hair alone could sell for up to $100,000, but hair it was sold at the Oct. 18 auction for $15,000.

Pepper's family accuses Whitehead and Leslie Hindman Auctioneers of conversion. They demand at least $75,000 and restoration of the property. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer denied the family's motion for a temporary restraining order, but ordered Leslie Hindman to hold auction proceeds in escrow until the suit is resolved. Pepper's family is represented by Jason Williams with Sawyier & Williams. The complaint does not state what happened to the gold jumpsuit.







Published: october 21st 2009 06:02 PM.
Source: COURTHOUSE NEWS / Published by: ElvisMatters - David Hamal .

Pressley..tz tz tz!

__________________
Ohne Worte!

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The Pepper Family is determined to have the 304,000.00 $US revenue of the Gary Pepper Auction last weekend wired to their account, instead of Gary's nurse. Here's an email we just received from Becky Bishop, 2nd Cousin to Gary Pepper and family spokesperson. The email is self-explanatory...

"When I saw the news, last Tuesday night about the "Gary Pepper Collection" I about fell out of bed. I was drifting to sleep, the TV was turned down to very low and I was fumbling around for the remote to turn it off when the words "Gary Pepper, nurse, Elvis, property" just rung in my ear as if the volume on the TV shot up, scared me actually. Suddenly I was just wide awake and I turned up the volume to hear that the "Gary Pepper Collection" was being auctioned off by his nurse. I shot out of bed, wanted to wake my husband Dave but he just had hand surgery so I let him sleep but I was on fire. Why? Because Gary's nurse took those without permission and the collection was not hers to sell!

I have to laugh because here I’m a dog trainer in Seattle and here I am up at midnight looking for an estate attorney in Chicago I got lucky! I put out 5 emails to different attorneys. My criteria were quite simple. I wanted a law office that had more than one name, "John Smith Law Office" would not work and they had to have a good looking website. That is about all I could think of doing. Oh, and I prayed hard. Four out of 5 attorneys got back to me but this one called me and dropped everything on his schedule to take the case. Next thing I knew we had served the auction house with an emergency injunction and they were NOT happy. They agreed to work on a settlement with my family as well but that so far has not happened. Discussions are ongoing. We had an injunction so far as the release of Gary’s money. Praise God! No one is getting paid as of yet.

We feel the auction house is also to blame here because they knew the story of how Gary's nurse got the property didn't pass the stink test but they got greedy and took the items and didn't do their homework. Normally auction houses verify stories to be sure the property was legally obtained and that the seller is the rightful owner. I have to wonder how will the Elvis fans feel, who bought these items, now knowing that the items were sold under the guise of a false story? Gary did not give the items up. He did not just leave them behind. They were taken and I don't even think Gary knew the items were not packed up in the boxes we had when we picked him up from the institution where his nurse had abandoned him. When you think about it, what kind of nurse was she? Gary was taken off the payroll by Elvis's dad and sent a letter that he was an "unnecessary employee.” He had an elderly widowed mother who was in deep depression most the time and this nurse states that "Gary gave me the items shortly after Elvis died" Gary was smart, good, sweet, kind but not stupid. He was a business man and he would never in a million years have given these precious gifts from Elvis to his nurse or anyone in his lifetime. It was the only equity he had in the world not to mention just precious to him. Gary also had a guardian, his mother and later my uncle who did not give permission for the property to be taken by that nurse. She convinced Gary and his mother that she would continue to help care for them but would have to move to Iowa where she had family. She could not afford to stay in Memphis. Gary trusted her, he was deemed an "unnecessary employee" by Vernon Presley and Gary thought it best to follow her to Iowa and she promised to get a house and live with his caretaker and his mother like they did in Memphis. But that didn't happen. When he got there she checked him into an awful, we believe it may have been a state run institution for the mentally retarded and if not for my grandmother, Gary's Aunt Rebecca, he may have died there. The nurse never came back for Gary. Calls went unanswered. My uncle was simply shocked, stunned and heartsick when he saw where Gary had been placed by that nurse. My grandmother, Rebecca Tate flew to Iowa, packed him and his mother and drove them back in Gary’s car to California. His mother Nell had been placed in a different home so they were separated for weeks, and she drove them to California where my family took care of both of them. Gary and his mother were without any money and other then the precious Elvis items he had in boxes, and our family, he was basically homeless. My family cared for, and took care of all their needs until they both passed away. There were never put into any home or nursing home or institution. They had a real home with real family that loved them. His "nurse", his "caretaker" his trusted friend who convinced Gary to move to Iowa never called once to see how Gary was doing. We placed calls to her that went unanswered and later her number was not available and we just decided he was better off without her in his life. Words can not convey the hurt he felt.

More of Gary's story will come later. What I need now is for our Gary and Elvis fans to hit the bricks and surf the internet for Gary Pepper Elvis property. There is more out there we believe and our attorney says that as soon as we find it, he will fight to get it back to Gary's family where it will be safe. Margaret Mead once said "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can make a difference, in fact it is the only thing that ever has" I firmly believe this.

Thanks for your help, your support and for the love of Gary. Gary touched the lives of many, not just Elvis Presley but Elvis was Gary's angel on earth and now it's up to us. I loved Elvis for what he did for my cousin Gary and for that I will always be a fan of Elvis. But what I was most while growing up was a fan of Gary Pepper and just know that he was dearly loved by a great family and with the support of his fans I think we can win this battle. Gary Pepper, my cousin is one of the driving forces for me to continue my volunteer work with disabled children.

Here is what the fans and friends of Gary can do now to help our family. Please ask people to email me if they find anything about Gary's property. There are still, we believe items out there on the market. If we can get hundreds of people surfing the net I can’t help but believe we will turn up more than what was just auctioned off. Also, if you see on the internet news any quotes from the nurse if she gives interviews, please forward the article to me. She wanted to remain anonymous at the auction but because we filed the lawsuit, the world now knows who she is. She can't hide anymore. Gary would be so happy that we finally now have her "number." Please email me with any info: becky@puppymanners.com. Or check out our new website, "Stand Up For Gary" (coming soon!)

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