The Kings of Tupelo: Where Is Paul Kevin Curtis Now After He Was Framed for Attempting to Assassinate a President?

Exactly how Paul Kevin Curtis ended up being framed for a presidential assassination attempt is more complex and conspiratorial than news reports could capture at the time.

But, it’s been 10 years since he was cleared after being framed for sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, and the Mississippi-born Elvis Presley impersonator is telling his side of the story. 

The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga explores the 2013 assassination attempt on President Obama — and how it all tied back to Curtis’ alleged discovery of severed body parts in a hospital refrigerator.  

In the three-part true crime docuseries, which premiered on Netflix on Dec. 11, Curtis alleged that he found a severed head in a refrigerator while cleaning a hospital morgue in 1999. He then began a mission to expose an organ-harvesting conspiracy in Mississippi, a goal he asked fellow Tupelo, Miss., resident and Wayne Newton impersonator James Everett Dutschke to help him with.

After Dutschke refused, the two men became embroiled in a years-long public feud that reached its peak in 2013 when Dutschke framed Curtis by sending poisonous letters to the president and other government officials.

“For someone like Kevin, he felt like he had been muzzled for so long, and his family did as well,” Maclain Way, who directed The Kings of Tupelo with his brother Chapman Way, told Variety in December 2024. “So, everyone felt like this was an amazing opportunity for Kevin to finally be able to tell his story.”

So, where is Paul Kevin Curtis now? Here’s what happened to the Elvis Presley impersonator after he was framed in an attempt to assassinate the president. 

Who is Paul Kevin Curtis?

Paul Kevin Curtis is a janitor and Elvis Presley impersonator from Tupelo, Miss., the birthplace of the legendary singer. Until 2003, he performed in an Elvis act with his brother, Jack Curtis, called “Double Trouble.”

In 1999, Curtis claimed that he discovered a severed head in a refrigerator while cleaning a hospital morgue — an event that put him on a decades-long crusade to raise awareness about his conspiracy that hospitals are trafficking body parts. 

Curtis wrote a book about the incident, Missing Pieces, and drafted a bill to ban the sale of body parts in Mississippi, but he was unsuccessful in getting it passed. In The Kings of Tupelo, he also claimed that he was working on a screenplay, but that it was allegedly “stolen by the Secret Service.” 

Who is J. Everett Dutschke?

J. Everett Dutschke is a former Wayne Newton impersonator and martial arts teacher who moved to Tupelo in 2004. Three years later, he ran as a Republican candidate for the Mississippi House of Representatives and lost. 

After he moved to Tupelo, Dutschke became engaged in a rivalry with Curtis and eventually framed him for attempting to assassinate the president by sending ricin-laced letters.

“During my 25 years in the bureau, I interviewed numerous terrorists, seven different murderers, one serial killer,” FBI Agent Steve Thomason said in The Kings of Tupelo, “But I don’t think I ever talked to anyone that would fit into the category of Everett Dutschke.”

How did the rivalry between Curtis and Dutschke start?

Curtis told the Associated Press in 2013 that he first met Dutschke in 2005 and had “no clue” why the man hated him. That same year, the Presley impersonator told GQ that the years-long rivalry began in 2006 when Dutschke refused to publish Curtis’ conspiracy theory story in his independent newspaper.

Dutschke also mentioned a 2010 falling out to AP but didn’t elaborate on the reasons why. The martial arts instructor did admit that he once threatened to sue Curtis for claiming he was a member of Mensa, a society for people with high IQs.

Curtis’ ex-wife, Laura Curtis, also claimed that tensions were raised after Dutschke started flirting with her when they worked at the same insurance office. Dutschke told GQ that he never made advances.

Who sent ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama? 

In April 2013, Curtis was arrested for allegedly sending threatening letters laced with ricin, a poisonous toxin, to Judge Sadie Holland, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and President Obama. 

Curtis, Wicker and Holland had history as the Presley impersonator had long petitioned them and their family members to take interest in his bill to ban the sale of body parts in Mississippi. Despite this potential motive, Curtis maintained his innocence from the start.

“I thought they said rice and I said I don’t even eat rice,” Curtis told the AP when the charges against him were dropped after investigators found no evidence of the poison in his home. However, the evidence did point to his adversary, Dutschke. The police found traces of ricin in his martial arts studio and on a dust mask he had thrown in the trash, per NBC.

Dutschke denied any involvement and argued that, like Curtis, he was set up because he uncovered sensitive information about the Obama administration. In 2014, NPR reported that during a sentencing hearing, he also “offered to eat the contents of the ricin letters on a peanut butter jelly sandwich to prove the material was nontoxic.” 

Where is Paul Kevin Curtis now?

Since the 2013 incident, Curtis has kept a low profile. However, he occasionally posts videos of himself singing on his public Instagram account. 

“Watch my life story Dec 13, 2024 on #netflix,” Curtis wrote in a November 2024 post. “I am the first Elvis Presley impersonator ever framed in a presidential assassination plot and lived to tell the story.” 

Before the headline-making feud, Curtis and his then-wife welcomed three children, Bramlett, Madison and Kennedy. Madison, who appeared in The Kings of Tupelo, shared about her current relationship with Curtis on Instagram in December 2024.

“Grateful for my parents who have chosen to be in my life from day one through today. Divorced and happy. 😊,” she wrote. “Life has looked so different year after year. Excited to see what 2025 brings to all of our individual lives as well as to our family life.”

Where is J. Everett Dutschke now?

Eventually, Dutschke pleaded guilty to one count of developing and possessing ricin and three subsequent counts of mailing threatening letters laced with the substance.

The Daily Journal reported in January 2014 that he also pleaded guilty to three unrelated fondling charges for inappropriately touching students at his martial arts studio. 

In May 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs announced that he had been sentenced to 25 years in prison.