On the morning of February 4th, 1987, the people who worked for Liberace called the coroner's office and asked them to certify a death certificate over the telephone. No autopsy. No questions. Heart disease and a brain disorder. Sign here.

The coroner said no.

What he found when he ordered the autopsy is the story that Liberace's manager, his publicist, his lawyers, and his doctors had spent two years trying to prevent from reaching the public. The rapid weight loss they called a watermelon diet. The hospitalizations they called anemia. The secret his manager Seymour Heller had known since August 1985 and had categorically denied until the morning there was nothing left to deny.

This is the story behind the candelabra. The boy from Wisconsin who was mocked for being different and decided the world would never see it. The London courtroom where he lied under oath and won. The lawsuit he denied his way through. And the two years at the end when everyone around him kept saying watermelon while the truth was standing at the gate.

The coroner found it. Now you know it too.

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