Elvis Presley spent the final years of his career performing various engagements and residencies in Las Vegas, clad in his signature bespoke jumpsuits and with a demeanor and onstage agility far from his early days of hip-wiggling to “Jailhouse Rock”. We often associate Presley’s Vegas years with a slower, less sharp version of the King of Rock and Roll.
But that didn’t mean he didn’t perk up and spring to action when the situation called for it. And during a few particularly hairy moments in Nevada, that’s exactly what he needed to do to remain safe.
Elvis Presley Got Multiple Death Threats While in Las Vegas
Celebrities have long exacerbated those with fragile or unsteady mental health, and Elvis Presley was no exception, even after the apex of his fame had already come and gone. Even as a seasoned performer in Las Vegas, Presley was dealing with irrational and potentially threatening fans. Source verification was difficult at the time, but because the risk was potential harm or death to Presley, his security team—and, in some cases, governmental agencies—took each violent rumor as seriously as possible.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation joined an investigation into an extortion-slash-murder attempt on Presley in 1970 after members of the King’s “Memphis Mafia” received a call claiming that someone was trying to kill Presley for $50,000. One of Presley’s bodyguards, Red West, recalled meeting his boss after the ominous call. “Elvis just stumbled into my arms and hugged me,” West said in Elvis: What Happened? “There was no doubt that he was taking this very seriously. So were we.”
The FBI opened another investigation into a threatening menu someone sent to Presley. The sender scribbled out the face of Presley’s photograph on the promotional material and drew a gun pointed toward his heart. At the bottom of the piece of paper, the sender wrote, “Guess who, and where?” The fact that the anonymous person wrote the message backward was even more unsettling. However, the FBI couldn’t find any fingerprints on the document. The Memphis Mafia positioned themselves with guns during Presley’s live performances, but nothing came of the menacing letter.
Sometimes, Things Got (Nearly) Violent in the Middle of a Show
Elvis Presley, his entourage, which he dubbed the “Memphis Mafia,” and local and governmental law enforcement agencies worked hard to neutralize any threats made by bad actors against the performer before the show started. But sometimes, that wasn’t always possible. In 1972, a maître d’ informed a member of the Memphis Mafia that he had been tipped off to a woman in the audience who had a gun and was going to shoot Presley. In an attempt to avoid alarming the rest of the crowd, Presley continued the performance while his bodyguards put themselves between Presley and the crowd.
The security detail stood in front of the stage as the curtain dropped. Mafia member Sonny West recalled, “That curtain took about twenty seconds to come down, but it felt like an hour.” Red West added, “I was shaking. I was ready to hear that pop of a gun and feel a doggone bullet go right through my heart. And I was thinking about my wife and kids. I was scared.”
Other times, the threats were more imminent, but because they didn’t include firearms or other serious weaponry, Presley was able to handle them on his own. For example, Presley put his 7th-degree black-belt karate skills to good use in 1973 when a group of fans charged the stage, and he swiftly kicked one of the men back into the crowd with one move.
Presley would continue studying karate long after the incident, which undoubtedly fueled his desire to improve at martial arts for his own protection. When anything stronger than an arm or leg was involved, that’s when the Memphis Mafia stepped in.