Paul Kevin Curtis of Tupelo, Mississippi, was known for his eccentric personality and bizarre conspiracy theories, then he made national headlines in April 2013 when he was arrested for allegedly mailing deadly ricin to President Barack Obama — but he was framed by a rival named Everett Dutschke.
ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock PhotoPaul Kevin Curtis, the janitor, Elvis impersonator, and conspiracy theorist who was framed for trying to kill Obama.
On April 17, 2013, more than a dozen vehicles loaded with local and federal investigators swarmed a house in Tupelo, Mississippi. The unsuspecting owner of the home, Paul Kevin Curtis, had just left to meet his ex-wife and children for dinner along with his dog, Moo Cow. When he was ordered to step out of his car, Curtis was understandably confused — and when his dog darted off in fear, he was understandably upset.
But a runaway dog was the least of Curtis’ problems that day.
Over the course of the next seven hours, he was interrogated by members of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Capitol Police. During the ordeal, Curtis was told that his actions had put a young girl in the hospital. He was asked if he knew what ricin was. When he said he didn’t, he was accused of lying. The investigators never told Curtis why he’d been arrested, and his confusion was obvious.
So, as the night wore on, the interrogators started asking themselves questions, instead. Was Paul Kevin Curtis the man they were looking for? Was he really the person who had sent ricin-laced letters to a local judge, a state senator, and President Barack Obama? Or, was he being set up?
It was possible, they concluded. They changed their tactics and asked Curtis if he had any enemies. He immediately gave them a name: Everett Dutschke.
As for why Dutschke might have framed Curtis? It’s a long and truly bizarre story.
How Paul Kevin Curtis Went From An Elvis Impersonator To A Suspected Terrorist
Prior to 2013, Paul Kevin Curtis’ name was only known to Tupelo locals. But in the wake of three government officials receiving ricin-laced letters in their mailboxes, the national spotlight was turned on him, all because the author of those letters had signed them with the phrase, “I am KC and I approve this message.”
Kevin Curtis (KC) was somewhat notorious for ending his wild conspiracy theory posts on his MySpace page with that very same phrase, so it was natural for investigators to conclude he was somehow linked to the letters. The bigger question, however, was whether there was any physical evidence tying Curtis to the crime — or if he was the sort of person who was even capable of committing it.
NetflixKevin Curtis’ dog, Moo Cow, was tranquilized but otherwise returned unharmed following Curtis’ arrest on April 17, 2013.
In the wake of the investigation, GQ published a thorough profile on Curtis detailing his strange journey.
Paul Kevin Curtis was something of a child prodigy in the world of Elvis impersonators. In fact, his mother, Elois, claimed to know Elvis personally, if somewhat distantly. Towards the end of Elvis’ life, he allegedly called Elois often, and the two would pray together. It’s safe to say she was a huge fan.
When Kevin was young, his mother even drove him to Memphis to have a costume created by Elvis’ official suitmaker. He continued his work as an Elvis impersonator into adulthood, booking local gigs with his brother, who also performed as “The King.”
Curtis made ends meet by running his own janitorial company. In the late 1990s, he took a contract to buff floors at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. He was cleaning at the hospital on Dec. 17, 1999, when he opened a refrigerator to find a macabre collection of loose body parts and the severed head of a man he’d seen in the emergency room just a few days prior.
NetflixKevin Curtis striking a martial arts pose. His rival, Everett Dutschke, operated a taekwondo dojo in Tupelo.
Curtis, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, believed he had just stumbled onto a conspiracy: The hospital, he said, was selling organs on the black market.
The next morning, he was called into the office of the hospital’s CEO and allegedly asked to sign a form claiming that he had been in the morgue without authorization and would be willingly resigning. But Curtis wasn’t going to go down without a fight. He launched into a loud, verbal assault directed at the CEO, accusing him of the conspiracy he felt he had discovered. The encounter ended with Curtis being dragged out by security.
Curtis was undeterred. He became obsessed with proving his theory true — at the cost of his relationships with his wife and children, who eventually moved out after a series of unfortunate events that included a car exploding and their house burning down. Curtis felt these incidents were caused by malefactors associated with the conspiracy trying to take him out. Laura disagreed.
Still, Curtis spent years ranting about the “stolen organs” to anyone who would listen. Then, in 2006, he heard about an independent local newspaper that purportedly pledged to publish any story, no matter how controversial. Better yet, the paper was owned by an employee at his now ex-wife’s insurance firm: Everett Dutschke.
The Feud Between Paul Kevin Curtis And Everett Dutschke
James Everett Dutschke was an enigma. He was a martial arts instructor, a member of Mensa, and a hopeful candidate for state legislature. However, he’d been embroiled in several controversies himself, including alleged thefts and affairs.
Curtis reached out to Dutschke to ask him about covering the organ harvesting story in his paper. However, Dutschke didn’t want to harm his political chances by publishing such a bold claim about the local hospital. Curtis called Dutschke a liar — and a years-long feud was born.
ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock PhotoJ. Everett Dutschke, the man who framed Kevin Curtis for trying to poison President Obama.
Dutschke’s campaign was still an abject failure, though. He ran against Democratic incumbent Steve Holland and lost by a wide margin.
No one was happier about Dutschke’s loss than Kevin Curtis.
In the years that followed, both men accused the other of cyberstalking. Dutschke claimed Curtis created social media accounts on which he re-posted photos originally uploaded by Dutschke. Curtis claimed that tracking software on his computer proved that Dutschke was visiting his social media pages hundreds of times per day.
To test this claim, Curtis uploaded a fake Mensa certificate bearing his name in May 2010, knowing it would anger Dutschke, who often bragged about his own Mensa membership. His hypothesis was correct. Just hours after the post went up, Dutschke wrote Curtis an email demanding he remove the certificate, calling him a fraud, and challenging him to a fight at his taekwondo dojo. The fight never happened, and both men claimed the other had failed to show up.
ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock PhotoEverett Dutschke on his way to speak to the media as the police search his house before arresting him on April 27, 2013.
Around town, meanwhile, Dutschke’s reputation continued to decline. In January 2013, he was sentenced to 90 days behind bars for indecent exposure after he stood in his front window naked as young girls walked by. He was also charged with groping three girls under the age of 16 at his dojo. Curtis frequently shared links to news stories about Dutschke’s crimes — and Dutschke swore revenge.
How Paul Kevin Curtis’ Arch-Enemy Framed Him
In April 2013, three letters arrived in the mailboxes of government officials. One found its way to Tupelo’s Judge Sadie Holland — Steve Holland’s mother — another to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, and the third to President Barack Obama. Each letter contained within it a small amount of a coarse-grained powder.
The letters read:
“No one wanted to listen to me before. There are still ‘Missing Pieces.’ Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die. This must stop. To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance. I am KC and I approve this message.”
Judge Holland wrote the letter off as a joke, thinking nothing of it. “I never really once thought that Curtis sent it,” she said. “If he had sent it, why would he have signed off on it like that?”
Federal authorities, however, saw these letters as a much more serious threat. They zeroed in on Curtis because of the language used in the messages. Curtis had written a book and a screenplay called Missing Pieces about his organ harvesting conspiracy, and he often signed his social media posts with: “I am KC and I approve this message.”
So, on April 17, as Curtis and Moo Cow were heading to Laura’s house, federal agents surrounded Curtis. Once he was apprehended, they drove him 90 miles to the Lafayette County jail in Oxford, Mississippi.
ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock PhotoAuthorities searching Kevin Curtis’ home on April 18, 2013.
News of Curtis’ arrest quickly made headlines, and the story spread like wildfire. Not everyone was surprised. David Daniels, who was once attacked by Curtis in the early 2000s, told the Daily Journal at the time, “It appeared that [Curtis] was very, very unstable.”
Others likewise described Curtis as strange and erratic, possibly even threatening. However, investigators were missing one key thing: physical evidence.
Days went by, and they could find no real evidence linking Curtis to the ricin or the envelopes. Finally, after seven hours of interrogation, they asked him if he had any enemies or knew anyone who would want to cause him harm. When he named Everett Dutschke, investigators followed up on the tip.
The Arrest And Conviction Of Everett Dutschke
All charges against Paul Kevin Curtis were dropped on April 23, 2013, due to a lack of evidence. Four days later, Dutschke was arrested, and the more the police investigated, the more the evidence began to pile up against the man. A witness who remained unnamed claimed to have heard Dutschke talking about making poison. An FBI surveillance team watched him carry a box for a coffee grinder, latex gloves, and a dust mask to a dumpster down the street from his dojo.
ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock PhotoKevin Curtis (second from the left) with his brother Jack Curtis (in blue) and two attorneys the day all charges against him were dropped.
Then, when they searched his laptop, they found a document titled “Standard Operating Procedure for Ricin,” as well as eBay and PayPal records showing that he had purchased castor bean seeds. Ricin is made by grinding castor beans.
Although Dutschke maintained his innocence at first, he eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In the end, Moo Cow was returned to Curtis, and he settled back into his normal life. Of course, that meant falling back on his old, favorite conspiracy, which he felt was validated even more by his experience:
“After 13 years I been banging on every door saying, ‘Here I am! I got fired and banned from the hospital after finding a refrigerator full of body parts! My house burned down and my car exploded! My wife left me, lost my business! Now I been framed for trying to assassinate the president with ricin! Now will somebody listen to me?'”
After reading about the strange story of Paul Kevin Curtis, learn about Shannon Richardson, the actress who actually did mail deadly poison to Obama. Then, go inside the shocking conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney died years ago — and was replaced by a double.
