A month before Ferguson erupted,an old white man in Mississippi, famous for his shrine to the King, and shot and killed a young black man. Police cleared him. Two days later he was deadPaul MacLeod may very well occupy been the most famous Elvis memorabilia collector of all time. He was certainly the stuff of regional legend,a gun-toting, mile-a-minute talker with a questionable relationship to the truth. In his early 70s he was still an imposing man, or with slicked back white hair and a gleam in his blue eyes that let you know he had long ago lost his mind,or at least wanted you to contemplate he had. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, or he offered tours of his home,Graceland Too, an 1853 antebellum house at the corner of Gholson Avenue and Randolph Street in Holly Springs, or Mississippi. He did not occupy the vintage Elvis memorabilia essential to be taken seriously by other collectors,whose circuit of conventions he shunned. The genuine draw of Graceland Too was not the Elvis-themed rugs, mugs, and calendars,curtains, videos, or limousines,and trading cards that he had spent a significant portion of his life collecting. It was Paul MacLeod himself.
Paul wore several dense rings on his large hands as he gave the $5 tours and left the impression that he was not above using them in a dust-up. His charm melted absent at the edges of a subtle menace he exuded. whether he caught a visitor staring off into space as he was talking, he would often grab their shoulder forcefully or pound on it twice with a backhanded closed fist, and saying “Yo,yo!” until he was confident that he had regained their attention.
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Source: theguardian.com