The Mississippi man accused of mailing letters with suspected ricin to President Obama has been charged with threatening the Commander-in-Chief, it was revealed today.
Federal agents on Wednesday arrested Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Mississippi, who is accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama, pictured right, and Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi. Ricky Curtis, who says he is the suspect’s cousin, said his cousin was a ‘super entertainer’, left, who impersonated Elvis and other singers. A Facebook page believed to be that of Paul Kevin Curtis contains rants saying ‘I’m on the hidden front lines of a secret war’ and a photograph of a pistol.
Paul Kevin Curtis, who believed he had uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and sometimes performed as an Elvis Presley impersonator, will appear in federal court Thursday.
The 45-year-old was arrested yesterday at his apartment in Corinth, Mississippi near the Tennessee state line about 100 miles east of Memphis, FBI officials announced yesterday.
The Justice Department said today that Curtis faces two federal charges of threatening the president and others.
He is accused of sending ricin-laced letters this week to the President and to Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, that arrived just one day after the deadly bombings in Boston.
Curtis had previously sent letters to Sen. Wicker and officials from his office alerted authorities about the frequency of his correspondence when the suspicious letter was found.
The suspect was originally identified by federal sources as Kenneth Curtis of Tupelo, Miss, according to local media reports. It is not known if Curtis has used Kenneth as an alias.
An affidavit shows the letters sent to Obama and Wicker both warned their intended recipients: ‘Maybe I have your attention now, even if that means that someone must die.’
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Curtis is ‘believed to be responsible for the mailings of the three letters which contained a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin,’ the FBI said in a statement.
Investigators with the Secret Service and the FBI are using the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, in Tupelo, as a staging area for their investigation, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
It is not clear where the suspect is being held.
Last night Ricky Curtis, who said he was Kevin Curtis’ cousin, said the family was shocked by the news of the arrest. He described his cousin as a ‘super entertainer’ who impersonated Elvis and numerous other singers.
‘We’re all in shock. I don’t think anybody had a clue that this kind of stuff was weighing on his mind,’ Ricky Curtis said in a telephone interview.
Ricky Curtis said his cousin had written about problems he had with a cleaning business and that he felt the government had not treated him well, but he said nobody in the family would have expected this. He said the writings were titled Missing Pieces.
A Facebook account entitled Kevin Curtis Live (KC), which is believed to be that of the suspect, contains rants about a body parts conspiracy.
One, posted on Tuesday, said: ‘I’m on the hidden front lines of a secret war. A war that is making Billions of dollars for corrupt mafia related organizations and people. (bone, tissue, organ, body parts harvesting black market) when we lay our loved ones to rest….
‘My mother wants me to SHUT UP. My brothers fear me. My sister hates me. My cousins have hostility towards me (they work in healthcare) I have lost most of my friends. I have spent more than $130,000.00 on legal fees in 13.5 yrs.
‘They burned down my home, killed my dogs, my cat, my rabbit, blew up my 1966 Plymouth Valent. They destroyed my marriage, they distracted my career, they stalked, they trolled, they came in to my home, took my computers, had me arrested 22 times and guess what? I am still a thorn in their corrupt a****!’
On the same day he posted a photograph of a revolver, with the comment ‘say hello to my little friend’.
The page’s author wrote that he was trying to ‘expose various parties within the government, FBI, police departments’ for what he believed was ‘a conspiracy to ruin my reputation in the community as well as an ongoing effort to break down the foundation I worked more than 20 years to build in the country music scene.’
Ricky Curtis said his cousin, a martial arts fan, ran a cleaning business, believed to be called The Cleaning Crew.
He added: ‘As far as him being anti-government, I’m not going to say that, but he had some issues with some stuff that happened with his cleaning business.’
