ELVIS PRESLEY, KARATE, BETRAYAL — AND THE NIGHT HE WANTED MIKE STONE DEAD
What began as a simple karate lesson at Graceland allegedly became one of the darkest chapters in Elvis Presley’s marriage.
And the most shocking part?
Elvis himself was the one who introduced them.
Priscilla Presley was lonely while Elvis spent much of his time performing in Las Vegas and touring across America. According to accounts she later published, Elvis suggested that she take karate lessons. He knew a man he admired deeply — Hawaiian karate champion Mike Stone — and personally arranged the introduction.
At first, it seemed innocent.
Karate was one of the few things Elvis genuinely loved outside music. He respected the discipline, the strength, the philosophy, and the men who had mastered it. Mike Stone was not simply another acquaintance. He was a respected martial artist and instructor.
But the relationship between Priscilla and Stone eventually became something far beyond karate.
And according to Priscilla’s own accounts, the affair continued for a considerable period before Elvis found out.
When she finally told him in February 1972, everything reportedly exploded.
Priscilla later wrote that Elvis reacted with extraordinary anger and allegedly told people around him that Mike Stone had to die. According to accounts from members of Elvis’s entourage, he even asked road manager Joe Esposito to find someone who could kill Stone.
Then came the story that sounds almost unbelievable.
In Las Vegas, Elvis reportedly became convinced that Stone was a threat. After an incident involving people climbing onto the stage, accounts say Elvis returned to his suite, pulled an M-16 from a wardrobe, and raged about wanting Stone dead.
A doctor was called.
He was reportedly sedated.
When the medication wore off, the anger allegedly returned.
Whether every detail of those accounts can be independently verified is another question — and that distinction matters enormously when discussing Elvis Presley’s private life.
Because there is another uncomfortable contradiction at the heart of the story.
Elvis had been unfaithful too.
By many accounts, including those written by people close to him, his affairs were not exactly a secret. Priscilla knew about them. People around Graceland knew about them. The marriage continued despite them.
So why did Mike Stone affect Elvis so differently?
One explanation offered by accounts of the marriage is brutally simple:
Elvis’s affairs were known. Priscilla’s relationship with Stone was concealed.
And there was an even deeper psychological wound.
Elvis had introduced them.
He had effectively placed the man inside the world of his own marriage.
Karate was Elvis’s passion. It was personal. It belonged to a part of his identity that existed beyond the stage, beyond the screaming crowds, beyond Hollywood.
He gave that world to Priscilla.
And according to the story she later told, that same world became part of the reason she ultimately walked away.
But there is another question that makes this entire story even more controversial:
How much of what we know about the Presley marriage comes from one side of the story?
Priscilla’s Elvis and Me, published in 1985, became one of the most influential sources about their relationship. Decades later, additional claims appeared in her later memoir Softly, as I Leave You, published in 2025.
That later book introduced or revisited explosive allegations involving Elvis’s behavior, the Mike Stone episode, and other deeply personal moments.
But Elvis never lived to respond.
That fact cannot be ignored.
Other people who knew Elvis and Priscilla have disputed portions of the narrative over the years, including Ginger Alden and members of Elvis’s extended family. Their disagreements do not automatically prove Priscilla’s account false — but they demonstrate just how complicated the historical record has become.
And then comes perhaps the strangest detail of all.
In her 2025 memoir, Priscilla described a night after their separation when she was in bed with Robert Kardashian. Around 2 a.m., Elvis reportedly called her from the road after a performance, excited about how well the show had gone.
He wanted to tell her.
Even after everything.
Even after the separation.
Even while their lives were moving in different directions.
According to her account, Elvis simply did not know she was with another man — and Robert Kardashian did not know Elvis was calling.
That tiny moment may reveal more about their relationship than all the sensational headlines.
Because beneath the jealousy, betrayal, fame, accusations, and anger was something far more complicated:
Two people who had built a life together, broken it apart, and somehow remained emotionally connected long after the marriage was ending.
Elvis Presley gave Priscilla a karate class because he thought it might give her something of her own.
He never could have imagined where that introduction would eventually lead.
And perhaps that is the most tragic twist in the entire story:
The man Elvis chose to teach his wife karate became the man he allegedly wanted dead.
Was this simply jealousy?
Was it betrayal?
Was it wounded pride?
Or was it the devastating realization that the person Elvis trusted with something he loved had become part of the reason his marriage was falling apart?
The truth may never be completely known.
Because Elvis died before he could tell his side.
And that leaves us with the most uncomfortable question of all:
When only one person survives long enough to tell the story, how much of the story can we ever truly know?