CURSE STRIKES ELVIS FAMILY AGAIN!
THE Elvis Presley family curse has struck again! The latest tragedy came when his 27-year-old grandson, Benjamin Keough — the spitting image of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll — shockingly blew his brains out at his mother Lisa Marie Presley’s Calabasas, Calif., home in the early hours of July 12.
Now there are fears this new nightmare will plunge devastated Lisa Marie,
52, back into the booze and drugs hell she only recently escaped.
“Lisa Marie is heartbroken,” reveals a close source. “Ben was her baby — more than her other three children. I really worry that [his suicide] might be too much for her to bear.”
The tragedy is the latest in a lifetime of horrific ordeals the Presleys have endured.
“The curse began when Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, and his identical twin brother, Jesse Garon — whose gravestone misspelled his name as Jessie — was stillborn,” says the insider.
“Elvis and his mother, Gladys, formed an inseparable bond, and he was inconsolable when she died suddenly from a heart attack at just 46.
“He admitted, ‘It broke my heart.’ ”
The rock legend wed Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967. Lisa Marie was born the following year, but the marriage was doomed.
After they divorced in 1972, the rocker plunged into prescription drug addiction and binged on junk food, ballooning to almost 400 pounds.
“Lisa Marie was just nine when Elvis was found in his bathroom in 1977, years of addiction triggering a fatal heart attack,” reveals another source. “He was just 42.
father’s body, she screamed, ‘My daddy’s dead! He’s smothered in the carpet!’ The shocking sight has haunted Lisa Marie all her life.”
Adds the insider: “Sadly, the Presley curse continued even as Elvis was buried.
“Hundreds of sobbing, heartbroken fans crowded outside Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, as his funeral was going on, when a car suddenly crashed through the mourners, killing two women and critically injuring another.”
The Presley family — especially Lisa Marie — have struggled to find peace and happiness in the years since.
Elvis’ only child has been married and divorced four times.
Lisa Marie’s Pain
She had a daughter, Riley, 31, and tragic son Ben with first husband Danny Keough, 55, but the couple divorced in 1994 after six years.
She then shocked the world by marrying superstar Michael Jackson, declaring, ‘I dedicate my life to being his wife … and to raising a family.’ It was over less than two years later.
Her third marriage, to actor Nicolas Cage, lasted just four months. “We shouldn’t have been married in the first place,” she said later.
In 2006, she wed musician Michael Lockwood and had twin daughters Harper and Finley. But the marriage exploded after ten years, and the couple became embroiled in a bitter divorce over money and an ongoing custody battle for the girls, now 11.
Then there were the other money woes.
Elvis left behind a cash-crippled estate, with only $5 million in assets and mountains of debt, including a $10 million estate tax bill.
But his ex-wife, Priscilla, turned Graceland into a money-minting tourist attraction, and the estate was soon worth an estimated $1 billion.
“It was all in trust for Lisa Marie,” says another source. “But between 2005 and 2015, she was allegedly left with only $12,000 cash and owed hundreds of thousands in unpaid taxes and other debts. She’s suing an ex-manager for mishandling her assets; he blames her excessive spending.”
And then came addiction: She became hooked on cocaine and painkillers during her last marriage, but now claims to be clean, admitting, “I’m not perfect. My father wasn’t perfect. No one is perfect.”
Including her only son, it seems. Since his suicide, friends say Ben struggled with alcohol and drugs, too, and had recently been to rehab.
“It’s history tragically repeating itself,” adds the source. “Lisa Marie ended up on the same cursed, selfdestructive path as Elvis.
“And now, sadly, it’s claimed another family victim.”