Elvis Presley Threatened to Have His Former Bodyguards Killed While ‘Sobbing’ About Their Betrayal
In 1977, just a few weeks before Elvis Presley’s death, his former bodyguards published a book about him called Elvis: What Happened? The tell-all book terrified Elvis. He spent large portions of his days considering how to address the book publicly and to his loved ones. He also plotted about what he wanted to do about his former bodyguards, Red and Sonny West and David Hebler. According to Elvis’ cousin, he wanted to kill all three of them.
Elvis Presley wanted to have his bodyguards killed because of a book
In the final summer of Elvis’ life, he spent much of his time shut away in his bedroom. He watched visitors on his surveillance cameras and called his cousin, Billy Smith, up to his room when he wanted company.
“All we did,” Smith said in the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick, “was sit up in his room and talk.”
One of the things Elvis frequently talked about was the book. Elvis said that if it negatively impacted his career, he would have them killed.
“One time I said, ‘Look, they’re not worth it. And anyway, you know it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t even change how you feel about them. You know that deep down you really care about them, and that’s what really gets you,'” Smith said. “And he broke down and cried. It wasn’t just a few tears. He was sobbing. And I cried with him because I couldn’t stand to see him in that kind of pain … But then he said, ‘Goddamn them! … If they hurt my career, I will have them killed.”
Elvis Presley’s former bodyguards said they still loved him
Elvis fired the Wests and Hebler not long before they began working on the book. While this was a major blow to their relationship, Red West said he still loved Elvis.
“I had a lot of laughs, a lot of good times with Elvis,” he said, per Rolling Stone. “I also had a lot of rough times with him. Elvis over the years has changed since those days, unfortunately … but I grew to love the sonofab****, and despite everything — maybe I still do.'”
While the book showed the darker parts of Elvis’ life, including his temper and drug use, they said they also wanted to show his good side.
“We lived with the man, you know? We loved him, we cared for him and I think it was reciprocal,” Hebler said. “The book very clearly demonstrates that we had nothing but total respect for the man. We wanted more than anything else to see him as he was in his prime, onstage, just knockin’ em dead. We tried to portray that in the book, we tried to be totally honest about it because we wanted to show the total picture. We aren’t interested in trying to get even or cut him down or anything like that. Our thoughts were all positive. We wanted him to be Elvis Presley, the King.”
They believed Elvis was not concerned about the book
Though Elvis spent time considering having his former bodyguards killed because of the book, they didn’t think he was worried about it. Sonny West claimed that Elvis had said as much. He believed that the love they had for Elvis would cut through his worries about the book.
“He knew, man, that we loved him, and he knew that we weren’t gonna chop him up or anything,” West said, adding, “He knew. He knows that now… I’m telling you….”
