Elvis impersonator—not Curtis. (Via Shutterstock)The FBI arrested a Corinth, Miss. resident yesterday in connection with a series of letters tainted with the deadly poison ricin that were caught this week at White House and U.S. Capitol mail screening facilities. Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, is suspected of sending the letters to President Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). Curtis also allegedly sent a third tainted letter to a Mississippi judicial official, the bureau said in a news release.
The letters to Obama and Wicker were found when authorities in Washington were already on higher-than-usual alert following the explosion of two bombs Monday at the Boston Marathon.
After the letter to Wicker was found on Tuesday, FBI and other law enforcement officials briefed members of the Senate. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said at the time that there was a suspect who frequently sends correspondence to members of Congress, though she did not name Curtis. NBC News reports that the letters to Wicker and Obama contained similar language:
According to the FBI bulletin, both letters, postmarked April 8, 2013 out of Memphis, Tenn., included an identical phrase, “to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.”
In addition, both letters are signed: “I am KC and I approve this message.”
In addition to allegedly sending poisonous letters to Congress, Curtis has another hobby. He makes something of a living impersonating Elvis Presley and other musicians. His booking page advertises him as a “master of impressions,” capable of recreating the hits of the King, as well as those of, among others, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, Prince, Bon Jovi, and Billy Idol. Curtis has also recorded an album of covers, which he sells for $10 a copy.
And then there are the live performances himself. His rendition of Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” serenades a roomful of medical professionals:
But his attempt at Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” to a high-school music class very, very weird:
