Paul Kevin Curtis was an Elvis impersonator from Tupelo, Mississippi who was known by locals for his eccentric personality and bizarre conspiracy theories about the city hospital's involvement in illegal organ harvesting — then he was arrested for mailing deadly ricin to President Barack Obama.
On April 17, 2013, in Tupelo, Mississippi, a 46-year-old Elvis impersonator named Paul Kevin Curtis had just gotten in his car, ready to head out with his dog Moo Cow on his lap when he noticed a commotion on his street. His neighbors, who were typically quiet homebodies, were pacing out on their lawns.
As he slowed down to check his mailbox, he heard the sudden, loud sound of screeching tires. Then, nearly two dozen SUVs came tearing down the street, all closing in on Curtis’ home.
In an instant, he was surrounded by agents from the FBI, Homeland Security, members of the Secret Service, local police, and Capitol Police. They had their guns trained on him and ordered him to step out of the vehicle and drop his dog. Moo Cow, frightened, darted off down the street – but a runaway dog was the least of Curtis’ problems.
Loaded into the back of a van and surrounded by armed guards, Curtis was rushed to the Lafayette County jail in Oxford, more than 90 miles away. He had no idea why he was under arrest, but no one would answer his questions.
How did a man who spent much of his time dressed up as Elvis find himself here?
NetflixPaul Kevin Curtis and his dog Moo Cow.
After a three-hour interrogation, investigators told Curtis that a young girl had been hospitalized due to his actions. They asked him if he knew what ricin was, but when he responded that he had never heard of it before in his life, they called him a liar. Several more hours of questioning followed before investigators began to wonder if they’d grabbed the wrong man. And soon, their man learned why he’d been grabbed in the first place.
Paul Kevin Curtis was accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, and local Mississippi Judge Sadie Holland. These letters were signed with the phrase, “I am KC and I approve this message,” a signature Curtis had previously used in posts he made online.
But what if Curtis was telling the truth and he hadn’t actually sent the letters?
The question weighed on investigators until they finally asked Curtis if he had any enemies or knew anyone who would want to harm him. He answered immediately, “Yeah, Everett Dutschke.”
Dutschke had once been the owner of an independent newspaper that promised to print any story, and Curtis initially met him to try and pitch him on a story about an alleged illegal scheme at a local hospital. Curtis was convinced that the hospital was selling patients’ organs on the black market. He felt that if he could just get the story out there, he’d blow the whole operation wide open – and Dutschke was going to be the man to help him do it.
Unfortunately for Curtis, Dutschke was also trying to get into local politics and no longer wanted to publish controversial stories.
Their meeting ended with the two men wary of each other – and marked the beginning of a seven-year feud, a feud that culminated in Dutschke attempting to frame Curtis for sending the ricin-laced letters.
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