Lisa Marie Presley Memoir Recap/Discussion: Chapter 3
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Chapters 1 & 2 recap
Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir From Here to the Great Unknown was 85% done and spread across 16 tapes when she passed away in January 2023. The book consists of Lisa's recollections, daughter Riley Keough's assessments, memories and clarifications, as well as occasional input from Danny Keough, Lisa Marie’s first husband and best friend (and Riley's father).
Chapter Three: The Wall
MASSIVE MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains descriptions of child abuse (physical, emotional and sexual), child neglect and domestic violence among other triggers. Please use caution.
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• Lisa expresses heavy frustration with school, she didn't understand it. Her housekeeper would take her to school and play gospel songs in the car and it comforted Lisa because that's what her father listened to. Going to so many different schools, she liked going to public school because there were no rich kids, no cliques, no uniforms.
• Other schools kicked her out because of her increasing drug use but the scientology schools didn't give up on her, even though she failed every subject. She joined the scientology school on probation and never got off it.
• Priscilla couldn't control Lisa Marie and one day after school, she drove Lisa to the house and told her to pack her clothes because she was going to a scientology boarding school in Ojai. The kids there were all dumped there by their parents and the like-minded kids would get busted for drugs, not going to class and Lisa Marie was in the middle of it.
• Lisa's drugs of choice were pot and coke but she did anything she could get her hands on excluding heroin. She went through phases of being a hippie, a punk and a funk rock kid. She settled into a heavy metal phase and did more drugs. The Ojai school didn't send her home because they knew her life at home wasn't great.
• Riley remembers her mother taking them to Ojai to ride horses because she had happy memories of the experience. She liked the freedom of riding and connecting with horses and Riley notes that her mother didn't realize that Priscilla also had the same connection with horses. During the covid pandemic, Lisa spent her time riding horses in Ojai.
• By Lisa's teenage years, Priscilla was a “stop sign.” Priscilla didn't talk, hang out, or be a friend to her. Lisa Marie says she knew her mother was trying her best and Priscilla was growing up herself and Lisa knew she was giving her mother a hard time. Priscilla didn't know how to handle Lisa's moods and sadness.
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• Priscilla began dating an actor named Michael Edwards who had a temper and did drugs. Priscilla's relationship with Edwards was often violent and at night Lisa Marie could hear Priscilla's screams and furniture flying. The couple would party and there was cocaine everywhere. When Lisa Marie complained about the chicken Priscilla had made not being cooked, Edwards threw his plate and began screaming. He broke Lisa Marie’s record player and told Lisa to get out. Priscilla didn't object and complained about Lisa to Edwards.
• Edwards began molesting Lisa Marie when she was ten years old. The first night/time, he said he was going to teach her what would happen when she's older. She told her mother the next day and her mother made Edwards apologize. He apologized and explained that it was how the kids are taught in Europe. Lisa always felt bad when he apologized, and soon it was routine that he would molest and abuse her calmly while he pleasured himself. One time she showed her mother her butt covered in bruises and Priscilla asked her what she did to cause Edwards to spank her like that. Edwards would say he was drunk or Lisa was flirting with him, Priscilla made him apologize, and Lisa would forgive him. The abuse would go on for three years. [note: Edwards has in the past few days firmly denied Lisa's claims, HOWEVER he admitted to finding Lisa Marie sexually attractive at age ten and falling in love with her in his memoir]
• One day, Edwards complained about Lisa putting her underwear on the dryer, she responded “it's not like you're not enjoying that” and Edwards flung a chair at her which hit her on the back. This caused Lisa to sob all the way to school. There was a lot of violence in the house and Lisa wanted to protect her mother.
• Lisa Marie recalls an incident when Edwards had a modeling gig in the Virgin Islands. Priscilla suspected he was having an affair with a model and recruited Lisa to catch him. A fight broke out between Priscilla and Edwards in their hotel room and Lisa threw herself on his back to protect her mother, resulting in her getting thrown on the bed. Priscilla and Lisa fled with Edwards chasing after them, they escaped back to Lisa's hotel room. Edwards called Priscilla, begging her to come back and Priscilla did, causing an angry Lisa to leave for Memphis.
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• Riley says the sections of Lisa recounting her abuse broke her heart. She knew this was one of Lisa's major traumas but she didn't think anyone- including Lisa- considered how much this contributed to Lisa's lifelong feelings of shame and self-hatred.
• Lisa Marie’s first boyfriend happened at thirteen. He was a boy she went to school with whom she had bickered with, and whom became attractive after summer break. They dated for a year, did everything but sex, and the boy was a good kid but had a bad temper.
• Her next boyfriend was at 14 with a 23 year old actor from a movie Priscilla was doing. She broke up with her teen boyfriend and would call the 23 year old to sit silent on the phone while the guy tried to figure out who it was. Lisa Marie fell hard for him and he would pick her up at school, giving her his ring and Priscilla eventually grounded her, telling her not to see him. They snuck around, and Priscilla eventually relented to them dating but wouldn't let them be alone together so the actor hung out at the house and became friends with Edwards.
• Lisa Marie notes that she was repeating history as her mom started seeing a 24 year old Elvis at 14. While her mom waited until she was 18 to have sex with Elvis, Lisa Marie was 14 when she lost her virginity to the 23 year old actor. The actor was a womanizer who had other girlfriends because Lisa Marie wasn't around all the time.
• Lisa Marie was with the actor for two years until he took her to a park and had his friend take pictures of them to sell to a tabloid. The media at the time didn't care she was underage and it was an illegal relationship, they only cared about the story. The actor denied being involved until Priscilla told Lisa Marie, who then swallowed twenty Valium.
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• After recovering from her suicide attempt (which she says wasn't serious), Lisa Marie wanted revenge. Her mom organized some off duty cops to bust the actor for selling blow because Priscilla wanted him humiliated. She told Lisa the cops did an anal probe on the actor.
• Riley notes that this was her mother's first big experience of feeling used and realizing people had an agenda when it came to her. Lisa Marie talked about the incident regularly and Riley says it contributed to Lisa's trauma and distrust of people that she never got over.
• Lisa continued to fail at school and her mom eventually took her out. Lisa recalls that her report cards since she was little noted she was tired and forlorn. After her father died, a lot of people noted that she looked sad all the time. She was miserable at home and was a terror, her mother didn't want her there, and after failed boarding school efforts, her mom made her pack her bags in the middle of the night and dropped her off at the Scientology Celebrity Center [note: at the time, the Celebrity center was just a building that had apartments for members to stay in and random offices on the main floor].
• The morning after she was placed in a small apartment, she took down her mirror, called her drug dealer and invited a handful of people to party. She was glad to be out of the house and had a four day bender. At that point, she reached a breaking point and was done abusing drugs, kicked everyone out and flushed the cocaine down the toilet. She went down to the auditing center and begged for help.
• After months of doing well at the scientology center, Priscilla tried to make Lisa Marie move back home. Everything blew up. At Christmas, Lisa Marie went with Priscilla and Edwards to Pensacola, Florida to see his daughter. The daughter and Lisa went out to party even though they were told to stay home. There were no drugs, just drinking but Lisa lied and a fight started when Priscilla and Edwards showed up. Priscilla chased Lisa Marie down the street, Lisa got in Priscilla's car with Priscilla following and attempting to slap Lisa. Edwards pulled Priscilla off Lisa and Lisa was punching herself in the face so it would seem like Priscilla did it- she wanted to be removed from Priscilla's care. They returned to California and Priscilla wouldn't let Lisa Marie out of her sight.
• As Priscilla walked Lisa Marie into the celebrity center to get her things, she glanced at a guy in a leather jacket and boots and mouthed “help me.” Priscilla agreed to allow Lisa Marie back to the center, but she had to attend the scientology rehab facility Narconon. Negotiations started between Priscilla, the facility and Lisa, and Lisa insisted she wanted to live in the same room she had at the celebrity center, keep her freedom, and attend Narconon rehab. They all agreed and Lisa Marie ended up passed out drunk in her room.
• Narconon rehab made her take care of a woman legitimately addicted to drugs, a young mother. She started to hook up again with the actor that betrayed her while helping the young mother and felt she thrived helping people. The actor guy wanted her to be more serious with him despite already having a girlfriend, but Lisa refused because at that point she had met and fallen in love with a guy named Danny Keough.
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Chapter four on Tuesday!
Source: me and my handy dandy book and audible account, pics: one, two, three, four, five, six