elvisIs this the ghost of young Elvis?

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LOOK closely at the ghostly photo of a child taken at Elvis Presley's home, Graceland.

Has the King of Rock come back from the grave as a God-fearing schoolboy?

Experts say the youngster, apparently clutching a Bible and superimposed on a misty portrait of Elvis, is the spitting image of The King at 13.

In the spooky photo, taken by a tourist with a cheap camera, Elvis seems to be drifting out of the ornate picture frame at his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

The photo has become the latest mystery for Hollywood's private eye to the stars, Don Crutchfield. So far, he has failed to solve it.

Don, whose case files include the names of Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, can't find an explanation for Elvis's "ghost". Crutchfield, who hasn't named the man who snapped the picture, told me: "He is a big Elvis fan who was with a group of other people touring Graceland. He drifted back after the others had gone and was the last person there. Then he saw a portrait of Elvis, wearing a jump suit with the collar turned up."

Hurry

A security guard told the tourist to hurry up because it was getting late and they wanted to close. Don, 52, adds: "My guy said later, 'Something told me to go back and take a picture of the Elvis portrait. So I returned and snapped it.'

"He didn't think any more about it. He took the film to one of a chain of film processors and had some prints made.

"He got his pictures back and was looking at them when he came across this strange one. He shouted, 'My God! What have I got here?' The ghostly image of Elvis really scared him. Before he handed the picture to me, he showed it around and one expert told him that the boy with the Bible was Elvis at 13."

He also learned that Graceland doesn't even have that particular portrait of the young Elvis.

"This means he couldn't have super-imposed it on to another picture on the same roll of film."

Don points out that on the type of simple camera the tourist used, you can't get a double exposure.

He says: "The first thing I did was to compare the negative to the proof sheet and then the final print. All of them tallied.

"Then I took all the evidence I had to the best Hollywood photographers I know.

"They looked at it and came to the same conclusion -- there is no rational way to explain this ghostly shot of Elvis."