Lisa Marie Presley kept the body of her dead son on ice at home for two months as she struggled to cope with the grief brought by his sudden passing, the family revealed in newly published book.
The macabre revelation was made in “From Here to the Great Unknown,” Presley’s memoir that was finished by her daughter, actor Riley Keough, following her death in January last year.
The 54-year-old was the only child of rock icon Elvis Presley.
Elvis’ grandson, 27-year-old Benjamin Keough, died by suicide in 2020, a tragedy that crushed his mother.
“My mom had my brother in the house with us instead of keeping him at the morgue,” Keough wrote. “They told us that if we could tend to the body, we could have him at home, so she kept him in our house for a while on dry ice.”
She continued: “It was really important for my mom to have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad. And I would go and sit in there with him.”
Presley wrote that California has no laws that mandate exactly when a body needs to be buried or otherwise disposed.
“My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months,” according to Presley. “There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately. I found a very empathic funeral home owner. I told her that having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him. She said, ‘We’ll bring Ben Ben to you. You can have him there.'”
Presley wrote: “I think it would scare the living f—ing piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me.”
The room that housed Benjamin Keough’s body was kept at 55 degrees, and his mother “got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there,” according to the memoir.
Benjamin Keough’s mother and sister got tattoos that matched his, thanks to the work of an artist who made a house call.
“Do you happen to have any photos?” the tattoo artist had asked, according to the book.
“No,” Lisa Maria responded, “but I can show you.”
Keough wrote that this tattoo moment was strange, even by Presley standards.
“Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at the body of her dead son, which happened to be right next to us in the casitas. I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five,” she wrote.
The tattoo moment might have also crystalized the moment when everyone agreed Benjamin Keough needed to find a final resting place outside this home.
“Soon after that, we all kind of got this vibe from my brother that he didn’t want his body in this house anymore,” according to Riley Keough.
The actor then channeled her brother, imagining how he would have felt about this situation.
Riley Keough wrote: “‘Guys,’ he seemed to be saying, ‘this is getting weird.’ Even my mom said that she could feel him talking to her, saying, ‘This is insane, Mom, what are you doing? What the f—!'”
Both Benjamin Keough and his mother are now interred at Graceland.