Elvis Presley's grisly autopsy – covered in sores and other tragic death details

The King, Elvis Presley, was pronounced dead on August 16, 1977 after being found in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion, but several factors led to his tragic demise

Elvis Presley's autopsy contained some tragic details about the legend's death.

The King died at the age of 42 on August 16, 1977. He was found in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion by his devastated fiancée Ginger Alden before being rushed to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis.

Elvis was officially pronounced dead after he arrived at the hospital and shipped immediately to the morgue, where an autopsy was carried out that very afternoon. His official cause of death was listed as "hypertensive cardiovascular disease with atherosclerotic heart disease".

Today (January 8) would have marked Elvis' 89th birthday, had he not been taken from us. Daily Star has looked at the details surrounding the legend's death.

Toilet issues

Elvis was constipated for four months(Image: WireImage)

Elvis' body was discovered on his bathroom floor, face down in front of the toilet, having collapsed from his sitting position. The singer wasn't found for hours but he was already dead by the time paramedics arrived, and was so cold he had turned blue.

He had been constipated for four months due to his unhealthy diet and prescription drug abuse, and this was a contributing factor in his death. Dan Warlick, chief investigator for the Tennessee Office of the State Chief Medical Examiner said: "Presley's chronic constipation - the result of years of prescription drug abuse and high-fat, high-cholesterol gorging - brought on what's known as Valsalva's maneuver.

The singer died at the age of 42 in August 1977(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)

"Put simply, the strain of attempting to defecate compressed the singer's abdominal aorta, shutting down his heart." A post-mortem found a compacted stool that was four months old in his bowel.

He had a highly unhealthy diet and often ate cheeseburgers while locked in his room. He also suffered from vertigo, back pain, insomnia and eye infections.

He was taken to hospital in a semi-coma in 1973, suffering from severe respiratory distress. Elvis also had a swollen face and distended abdomen, along with a bleeding ulcer and hepatitis.

Weight gain

Elvis weighed more than 25 stone when he died(Image: YouTube)

Elvis weighed 350 pounds – more than 25 stone - towards the end of his life. He required a full-time nurse and, according to some reports, refused to take a bath for the entirety of 1975, which caused sores to develop all over his body.

His girlfriend Ginger Alden found Elvis' body, pyjama bottoms around his ankles and his bottom in the air. She wrote in her memoir: "His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward.

"It was clear that, from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved. I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose.

"The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red."

Addiction battle

The star had abused prescription drugs for years(Image: Michael Ochs Archives)

Toxicology reports identified a whole host of pharmaceutical drugs in his system – including codeine, which was 10 times the prescribed amount. 14 drugs in total were found in the report, including morphine, diazepam, and several barbiturates.

But conspiracy theories surrounding Elvis' death suggested the facts were "covered up", fuming that neither a drug overdose nor a heart attack killed him. His physician, Doctor Nick, wrote prescriptions for the star of at least 8,805 pills and injectables in less than a year.

From January 1975 until Elvis' death in 1977, he had prescribed 19,012 drugs. Eventually, though, Doctor Nick was absolved of negligence in causing his death in court.

Grisly injury

It's said Elvis suffered a head injury that may have contributed to his declining health(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

In 2013, an incident came to light that may have contributed to Elvis' declining health. Prominent California physician Forest Tennant claims it all stemmed back to a serious head injury the star suffered in 1967. He suggested that tripping over a television cord and knocking himself out on the edge of the bathtub may have triggered a progressive autoimmune inflammatory disorder.

The injury proved so severe that Elvis' brain tissue dislodged and seeped into his blood circulation, where antibodies were produced to destroy the intruder. The response triggered was hypogammaglobulinemia, a disorder of the body's immune system.

Eerie coincidence

Lisa Marie's death bore similarities to her father's(Image: Getty Images for ELLE)

In a tragic twist in the tale, Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley – who died in January 2023 – was also battling a number of health conditions in the lead up to her passing. Lisa Marie was suffering from long-lasting fevers, abdominal pain and vomiting.

She died of a "sequelae of a small bowel obstruction" after undergoing bariatric surgery several years before. Like her father, bowel issues contributed to Lisa Marie's death when she was found unconscious at her Calabasas home by her ex-husband.

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