Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Tried To Kill The President? - The Kevin Curtis Story

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Mississippi Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis was wrongly accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama, Senator Roger Wicker, and a local judge. Curtis had a history of posting online about an alleged hospital cover-up after he claimed to have discovered human body parts in 2001 while working as a janitor.

So this Elvis impersonator just got arrested for trying to assassinate the president of the United States. Now the guy's name is Casey and Casey's about 33 when the story starts and he's living in Mississippi. And Casey, he's a professional Elvis impersonator. He dresses up like Elvis and he like performs and he tours and stuff. But one night in 2001 his whole life changes because he's working his day job as a janitor cleaning this local hospital. And he ends up cleaning out the morgue, which is an area he's not normally allowed into. So he's there cleaning and about three hours go by and he's pretty exhausted and he decides to get himself something to drink. So he finds a nearby refrigerator and he opens it and boom, he is shocked because inside he sees human body parts, arms, legs, hands, feet and stuff like that.

And he even sees a whole ass human head. And KC., of course, freaks out like a lot of people would, and he runs away. Later, he ends up telling all his coworkers, like, guess what? I saw a human head in the morgue refrigerator. And so, word gets back to the hospital admins that he was in an area that he wasn't supposed to be in. The next day, the hospital CEO calls Casey into his office, and there are a bunch of guys in there in suits, and they ask him to sign a bunch of documents. This seems to be some sort of write-up for being in an area that he wasn't authorized to

be in and they say they're going to suspend him with pay while they investigate the matter. And KC, he refuses to sign anything. And so, bam, the hospital fires him. Here's the thing about KC, though. He's very much a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. He thinks the hospital was acting shady, and they were up to no good. And he doesn't know exactly what was going on or why there were body parts in the fridge, but in his mind there's only one explanation that makes sense. The hospital must be part of a black market organ harvesting operation. It's a full-blown conspiracy and the rich elites are involved in the Illuminati must be involved too. And as ridiculous as that sounds, he's convinced and he's determined to tell the whole world about this scandal.

And that's what he does. He tells this to his friends, his family, his acquaintances, anyone who will listen. He's like, look, they're secretly selling black market organs at the hospital. But of course, no one believes him. They're like, yeah, sure, buddy, you saw body parts because you were in a hospital morgue. Sometimes even while he's on stage performing as Elvis, he'll suddenly start going off about the hospital conspiracy and the body parts he saw that night. And he starts posting about it online and chatting with people about it on the internet. He even tries to get the government to help his cause. He meets with a state congressman, he meets with a senator of Mississippi, and they both turn.

him down. After they turn him down, KC gets all mad and he starts trying to blame the government and he starts accusing them of being in on the conspiracy. And he's like going off about how no one wants to help him and how they're all trying to cover it up. So this is not going well for KC. He's convinced of this massive organ harvesting conspiracy and no one believes him and everyone thinks he's just a lunatic. But despite all that, believe it or not, things are about to get much worse for him. Because years pass, and we're now in 2003, and

KC is still obsessed with this crazy idea, and it's starting to consume his life. It's all he ever talks about, he ends up losing his job, his wife ends up leaving him, but then in 2006, he finally gets a little

hope. Because he hears about some local newspaper, it might be online, but it's some news publication that supposedly will publish any story, no matter how crazy or controversial. So KC., hears about this, and he's like, maybe this is it. Maybe these guys will listen to me. And so he sends an email to the owner of the paper. The owner is this guy, Dutchki.

Now here's the thing about Dutchkey. Dutchie doesn't just own this local news publication. He's also the owner of a local martial arts studio where he teaches people taekwondo. And he's also an aspiring politician, and he's currently running for the Mississippi House of Representatives. And while his paper may be willing to publish almost anything, Duchkey doesn't want to be associated with KC's wild claims about the government being involved in some organ harvesting conspiracy. He thinks it might make his campaign look bad. So he ignores the email.

Then KC calls and leaves a voicemail. But Dutchekey ignores that too. And KC eventually finds him in person and he tries to talk to him. But Dutcheke politely rejects him right to his face. And that is when KC just snaps. He can't take this anymore. He sees Dutcheke as a liar. His newspaper won't publish any news story.

Bullshit. And KC. is not going to let this slide. So he goes home and he starts harassing Dutski online. He creates multiple fake Facebook accounts, and he starts posting videos and photos of Dutski and his family. And so then Dutski gets all pissed off, and he decides to retaliate against KC. He starts stalking Casey's social media, and he'll, like, find out when he's scheduled to perform as Elvis, and he'll call up the venues he's performing at, and he'll warn them not to book him. And so this rivalry back and forth goes on for years.

But then, in 2013, something. crazy happens. Dutchie actually gets in trouble with the law for exposing himself to school age girls. And that's a whole other story. But regardless, he gets 90 days in jail. And of course, KC. capitalizes on this. He starts mocking him publicly and posting about it on the internet, making sure that everyone hears about it. And that is when Dutchie finally just loses it. And now he feels like he's got to get the ultimate revenge on KC. And so he comes up with an insane plan to make him stop harassing him once and for all. He's going to frame KC for a crime. So one day, that same year, 2013, he gets some castor beans and he grinds them up in a coffee grinder to make ricin, which is poison,

an extremely deadly poison. And he puts this poison into envelopes with letters, and he mails these letters to people KC. has had beef with in the past. That way it'll look like KC. sent them. Like he sends a poison letter to that Mississippi senator, the one who wouldn't listen to Casey about the conspiracy. He sends another one to a judge who had sentenced him to jail one time. And for some reason, he sends one to the president of the United States at the time, Barack Obama. Now, these letters, they basically say, no one would listen to me. And then he essentially signs them as KC. Now, none of these guys who these letters were sent to opened their own mail, especially the president of the United States. So none of these guys were

hurt by the ricin. But because one was sent to the president, this is now considered an assassination attempt. So now multiple federal agencies have to get involved. And of course, the letters got Casey's name on them. Plus, the feds look him up and they see that he's very openly a nutty conspiracy theory guy who's very angry at the government. So naturally they think he's guilty and bam, they arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him. And so the feds, they bring him in and they question him. And poor Casey, he doesn't even know what ricin is. Like he has no idea what these guys are talking about. And hours go by. And the feds slowly start to realize that maybe this guy's telling the truth. So they ask him if he's

any enemies anyone who might want to frame him and make him look bad and right away Casey says one name dutchkey and so the feds go and they find duchki and bam they arrest him here's his mugshot and they search his studio and they find traces of ricin and all kinds of other evidence and so ultimately duchy takes a plea deal and he's sentenced to 25 years in prison