Personal relationships of Elvis Presley "too polite to say." However, Alden finally revealed in her 2014 memoir that they did "make love," indicating sexual intimacy. Apart from his relationships with women, Presley had many male friends. He reportedly spent day and night with friends and employees whom the news media affectionately dubbed the Memphis Mafia. Among them were Sonny West, Red West, Billy Smith, Marty Lacker and Lamar Fike. Gerald Marzorati says that Elvis "couldn't go anywhere else without a phalanx of boyhood friends." Even the girls he dated deplored, "Whenever you were with Elvis for the most part you were with his entourage. Those
Personal relationships of Elvis Presley sexless and gloomy existence." According to Thompson, "There were times when he was very, very difficult. There was a lot of heartache and he exhibited a lot of self-destructive behaviour, which was very difficult for me, you know, watching someone I loved so much destroy himself." In 1976, she left Presley as Elvis began dating Ginger Alden, his last serious girlfriend and the person who found his unresponsive body on the day he died. "Some doubt he ever had sex again," and Alden, whom Elvis had given a diamond engagement ring and presumably planned to marry, has been described as