Credit: Dangerous Minds / Library of Congress / The Arizona Republic

Three-quarters of a century later, we still might not have seen a pop star match the level of cultural ubiquity and worship that Elvis Presley had.

Sure, artists have come close. The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Eminem, and Taylor Swift, all decent shouts, but what The King had over all of them is that he appeared first.

Elvis was making the world shake in a way that quite literally no one had before. Something about him spoke to teenagers in a way that felt natural and authentic to them, and no musician, movie star or dancer had ever done the same. Sure, Swifties would die for their icon, but they do so because a bunch of incredibly smart people drew on the work of people who’d come before to make that happen. Not so with Elvis.

People went ballistic for him, and the vast, vast majority of those who did responded to his presence by picking up a guitar, perfecting their hip-swivel and taking on that iconic Tupelo drawl for themselves. In most cases, this was to make a break for Elvis-style pop stardom. However, some more conniving souls saw the hold that Presley had on young people and decided that they could replicate it with the young people in their lives.

Now, this would be creepy, whatever the circumstances. We’ve all had those people in our lives, the vultures who cotton on to whatever’s popular to seem cool in the eyes of impressionable people half their age. They are never deserving of anything kinder than a slap around the chops and a reminder that no one’s impressed by their sleazy bullshit. Yet they would still be preferable to souls as evil as Charles Schmidt, who utilised his Elvis Presley obsession to do something much more disturbing than most.

He used it to, at least briefly, get away with murder.

How did Charles Schmid use Elvis Presley to murder people?

Born in Tucson, Arizona, to a single mother who gave him up for adoption, something about Schmid was severely wrong from the start.

Put it this way, when he was a teenager, he became sick of his troubled home life with his adopted family, and tried to establish a connection with his birth mother. Upon finding her, Schmidt’s mother angrily told him to never, ever contact her again. For anyone else, this would be devastatingly sad. For Charles Schmid, it’s nothing less than what he deserved.

Because three teenage girls were assaulted and murdered by him. Alleen Rowe, Gretchen Fritz and her sister, Wendy. It was months before these murders came to light because Schmid had a tight-knit group of friends who were in awe of him due to his charisma, charm and ability to ape Elvis Presley. Right down to the fact that he stretched out his lower lip with a clothespin to more resemble his idol. This meant that when his victims disappeared, each of them covered him, despite the fact that they knew exactly what they were doing. Some of them had even taken part.

It sounds unbelievable, but it’s a hundred per cent true. Schmid carried himself like a cult leader due to channelling Elvis Presley, and because of the sheer furore surrounding the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, it worked. In fact, the only reason that he was caught was that one of his friends felt that his girlfriend would be next and went to the cops.

That’s the teenage mindset in a nutshell, though, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s not enough to die for your idols.

Sometimes, you’ve got to kill for them, too.