In 1961, Elvis Presley bought a chimpanzee. Not a puppy. Not a horse. A forty-pound chimp named Scatter — who would go on to wear tailored suits, drink whiskey straight from the bottle, ride around Beverly Hills in a Rolls-Royce, bite half the Memphis Mafia, and become the single most chaotic member of Elvis’s inner circle.
Scatter came with a résumé. Before Elvis, he was a local television star in Memphis, appearing on a children’s show run by a man called “Captain” Bill Killebrew. Killebrew decided to trim the act down and offered to sell the chimp. One of Elvis’s guys mentioned it to him, Scatter was brought out to the house, and — in the words of Elvis’s road manager Joe Esposito — Elvis fell in love with it. He wasn’t even Elvis’s first exotic pet. Graceland has kept donkeys in an empty swimming pool, a turkey named Bowtie, and a pair of wallabies. Elvis had once wanted to turn the whole estate into a zoo.
Elvis’s Pet Chimp Drank Whiskey And Attacked Women — His Mysterious Death At Graceland Is Disturbing
The trouble was that Scatter had opposable thumbs — which meant he could hold a whiskey bottle. He developed a serious taste for beer and liquor, and the guys around Elvis thought it was hilarious and kept pouring. He also learned to lift women’s skirts, pinch guests, and generally cause havoc in any room he entered. Elvis took him along to Hollywood film sets, where Scatter would tear apart dressing rooms and leave production staff to clean up after him. At hotels, he went after the maids.
And yet, by all accounts, Scatter could also behave like a perfect gentleman. Memphis Mafia member Lamar Fike told a story that says everything about that era. Alan Fortas loved taking the chimp for drives in the Rolls-Royce. He’d buy Scatter little suits, stick a chauffeur’s cap on his head, and balance him on his lap. Then, when another car came the other way, Alan would duck down out of sight so it looked like the chimpanzee was driving. Fike said one driver was so startled that he drove clean off the road.
The Crazy Life of Scatter – Elvis Presley’s Pet Chimp
But chimps grow up, and a grown chimpanzee is enormously strong. Scatter’s behavior turned unpredictable and then genuinely dangerous. He bit several members of the Memphis Mafia. One night the group came home to find he had badly bitten Jimmy, the butler, and the household staff were so shaken they threatened to quit unless Elvis got rid of him. Elvis was furious — and when nobody could get Scatter back into his cage, Elvis walked up and stood over him himself. Fike described the sound the chimp made when he screamed: it would send chills down your spine.
The party was over. Scatter was moved out of the house to somewhere safer for everyone, and the wildest chapter of Graceland’s history quietly closed. He’s still remembered on the estate today, and fans still trade the stories. A chimpanzee in a little suit, drunk in the back of a Rolls-Royce, pretending to drive — that really happened, and Elvis Presley paid for it.