Benjamin Keough suicide: Lisa Marie Presley son kills self. Dead from self inflicted gunshot. What led to Elvis Presley grandson & aspiring singer killing self? Found dead in Calabasas, California after partying into early morning hours as girlfriend pleaded, ‘don’t do it!’
Elvis Presley‘s grandson and Lisa Marie Presley‘s son, Benjamin Keough, 27, has died from a reported self-inflicted gunshot wound. It is thought the shooting death was the apparent result of suicide.
Keough was found dead Sunday in Calabasas, California, according to TMZ.
Offered Lisa Marie’s manager via TMZ: ‘She is completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11 year old twins and her oldest daughter Riley. She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.’
Keough was the son of Lisa Marie and musician Danny Keough. Lisa Marie has previously spoken of her son’s similarity to her dad Elvis, calling their resemblance ‘uncanny’.
Lisa Marie, 51, who has three other children, said: ‘Ben does look so much like Elvis. Everybody was grabbing him for a photo because it is just uncanny. Sometimes I am overwhelmed when I look at him.
Tragic: It’s being reported that Benjamin Keough, the grandson of Elvis Presley, died today from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Calabasas, California. He was just 27 years old.
Over 20,000 Americans will die by gun suicide this year alone. https://t.co/Ql5gSnDwbD
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 12, 2020
‘Don’t do it!’
A neighbor exclusively told the dailymail they heard the residents of the $1.8 million Calabasas property partying at 1am, before a woman was heard screaming loudly, ‘Don’t do it’, at 3.30am – although the neighbor didn’t hear a gunshot.
Another resident of the street told the tabloid that Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department officers arrived at the five-bedroom house in the exclusive Calabasas Park Estates at around 6am.
The neighbor, who asked not to be named, overheard police interviewing a distraught woman, believed to be Benjamin’s girlfriend, Diana Pinto, in the backyard of the house, which boasts a swimming pool and mountain views.
The resident said Benjamin’s mother, Lisa Marie was not in the house at the time of the shooting and they had not seen her at the property for several weeks.
Tall order of living up to a legacy
Benjamin’s grandmother Priscilla married Elvis in 1967 before divorcing six years later. They had only daughter Lisa Marie in 1968.
Lisa Marie and her first husband, Keough, were married on October 3, 1988 and divorced on May 6, 1994.
The couple had two children together, Benjamin and his sister, the actress Riley Keough.
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Don’t do it!’ Distressed girlfriend pleads with Elvis Presley’s grandson Benjamin Keough, 27, before ‘he shot himself in the chest’ https://t.co/a8MgdbrxPN
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) July 13, 2020
A life behind closed doors
Twenty days after officially splitting Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson. In 1996, citing irreconcilable differences, she filed for divorce.
She also had a third marriage to Nicolas Cage that lasted two months in 2002.
And in 2006 she married Michael Lockwood. In 2008 she gave birth to their twin girls, Finley and Harper, who she is said to be engaged in a nasty custody battle over.
In 2009 Benjamin was reported to have signed a $5million record deal with Universal. ‘The music will be nothing like Elvis, nothing like him at all,’ he said in an interview at the time.
It remained unclear what degrees of success the aspiring musician was able to achieve.
Media reported Keough living a ‘relatively quiet life’ away from the spotlight while avoiding performance industries.
