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Elizabeth Duntz Zeron Burnette So glad to see.
I'm glad to see me too.
I know.
Right, Look, I got a question for you while you're done. Do you what's ridiculous I do?
Now? Hold on, this is my take a while. Okay, okay, we've been inundated with suggestions for a certain spirit, a certain liquor. Dorito's is all about disrupting culture and bringing our fans unexpected, bold experiences. Okay, So Dorito's has a liquor and I don't really know. It's just like a distilled whatever. It's apparently vacuum distilled, so it really tastes
like a Dorito. Oh yeah. The flavor is nacho cheese, corn toastata umami in a hint of acidity, and you can use it for Margarita's, Bloody Mary's old fashions, neat or over ice or anyway Dorito's fans like, says the press release. Yeah, okay, so whatever, right, I got that out of the way. I mean, it's like, literally hundreds of people have been telling us about this, but then you know who swooped in, Marie Noel she's a new friend of the show. Now. She sent us a great email.
She said, before I get into all the ridiculous stuff, I want to let you know how much I enjoy your podcast. It never fails to make me laugh. I used to listen to it when I went out for a run. But one day I laughed so hard that it made me cough and I couldn't catch my breath. A nice lady even stopped by to make sure I was okay and wasn't about to die. So I did the only thing I could do. I stopped running all together. Now your podcast makes me giggle during my commute to
and from work. We've made someone stop running. We did it.
We did it, Joe.
Okay. So here's the thing though. She also included that she's like, you know what, I'm sure everyone's sending you the Doritos thing, but let me let me take you to the next level.
There's another level. Yeah.
So she sent a link to this Tamworth Distilling company and they have a line of booze called House of Tamworth. Now there are five. There's smoked trout flavored brandy, right Crab trapper, Oh Crab flavored whiskey, o de musk, which is I don't know, some sort of like muskrat whatever, deerslayer venison flavored whiskey. Then we get to my favorite, a favorite unholy rye and the tagline is I drink dead people. It's called grave Robber, Grave Robber, unholy rye.
Grave Robber is an unholy rye whiskey infused with maple syrup tapped from graveside maple trees. On the property of Tamworth Distilling lies a malignant old maple whose roots burrowed deep into the nearly unmarked colonial era graveyard. What would happen if we tapped some of the sinister stap sap and added it to our whiskey? Spicy yet sweet, evil yet divine. The life of a grave robber begins when yours ends.
They broke the Jeff Goldbloom maxim, they said, Rather than asking, you know, should we, they just went ahead and did it.
It is the most god thing to like have, Like the I don't know, I can't even get my head around was that.
Considered like goth like whiskey? I mean, like, is that like I think you want that?
You know that it's syrup tapped from the graveside in maple trees.
God, I'm just wooy enough to be like.
No, yeah, meet me at the cemetery case.
Luckily I had been prepared for this, I thought by listener Eric Buckholt, who sent me ward, will you be throwing these doritos at me? And then you still got and brought the un whiskey.
Eric told you, he warned you. I'm not on Twitter anymore, but I used to see him on there all the time. But see Marie Noel, she brought it. Elizabeth, she's my number one roode Dude. Yah, there you go.
Okay, what do you have?
It's ridiculous, This is what I'm saying.
Beyond ridiculous. I'm sorry that took so long. Pale, Yes, I had, Oh my god, how am I going to adjust to that? Okay? Well, do you have a second?
Of course I did.
I got one.
What else am I going to do today?
Okay? You remember when Obama was president? I do?
I remember that?
All right? Okay?
Did you know I went to his first inauguration?
You did? But how was it was a good?
You're amazing?
It was really great. How many stars?
I'd say eight out of five?
Wow, big, big, momentous occasion. Okay, so do you I saw.
Tyne Daily in real life.
Not the Time Daily, tim Daily's sister Cagney and Lacy Tyn Daily from.
About half a block away.
Wow, it's pretty crazy. That's what you came away with Time Daily also Obama's president. That's do you remember the news during the Obama presidency when a taekwondo fighting martial arts instructor and part time Elvis impersonator attempted to kill the isn't it with rice and powder? Wait?
No, I miss that. I miss that.
You're in luck. Have I got a story for you today?
Hell? Yeah?
This is Ridiculous Crime, A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's all always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yes, Elizabeth, I have three questions for you today.
One?
Two? Three?
Do you like Mississippi? Sure? You ever been to Tupelo, Mississippi?
Yes?
Do you you have? You? Did you like it? Yeah? I was all right, memorable? Sure did you go there to see Elvis's birthplace? No? Do you like Elvis? That's my third question? Okay, I got a bonus question. You ever heard of the song the Tupelo, Mississippi Flash. No, all right, it kind of goes like this, he said, son, my name is Boba god Ripley. I come to you from Tupelo, Mississippi. I write songs and sing like a bird, and I play licks on me guitar like you ain't
never heard now. That is a Jerry Reid song. Oh okay, aka the Snowman from Smoking the Band or water Boy the coach for the rival team and water Boy. Anyway, his track is a teasing nod to the fact that Elvis is from Tupelo, the true below Mississippi Flash. It was a kick for Jerry Reid when Elvis actually performed a cover of that very same song, because Elvis was one of Jerry Reid's heroes growing up, much like Jerry
Reid was one of my heroes growing up. But of course, just like you were one of my heroes growing up. Exactly exactly now. Elvis, he's the mountaintop, right, He was the goat to mindy a Southerner like, did you know even my father loves Elvis.
I think you've mentioned that my.
Black nationalist father loves Elvis, which is great. He even named his dog.
Elm Oh he did.
Yeah, he's out there king. I'm like, oh, Dad, anyway, So tupla, Mississippi birthplace of Elvis. It's steeped in Elvis lore, and much like the rest of the South, it's a it's a place where you're gonna find a fair share of nuts. Sure, who's my man, Jerry Read would say, I said, watch him, everybody, that boy squirreling. Now, all of this will prime us for the story I'm about to tell you the cat that I want to tell you about today. This squirrelly dude was an Elvis superfan.
Oh okay, and like Elvis, he was from Tupelo, Mississippi.
I've known some serious Elvis superfans totally.
Well, he was a fellow Tupelo, Mississippi martial arts master. Oh that's how far he took it. And one day he was accused of trying to kill the president. Yeah, there's so much more to this story than that. So so so. In twenty thirteen, the first news articles announced the FBI
was investigating this rice in incident. Right the Guardian Over in the UK, they reported on April eighteenth, twenty thirteen, quote a man accused of mailing letters was suspected rising to President Barack Obama and other officials believed he'd uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and claimed, quote various parties within the government quote we're trying to ruin his reputation. So Paul Kevin Curtis, that's our CATA forty five years old at the time.
Pksey case, he's the man in question. Beats my friend sim So he's accused of threatening Barack Obama with the powdery toxin sent through the mail. Right, Okay, Now, on the face of it, this story seems outrageous, but yet it kind of makes sense. Yeah, no, right for real, paranoid man from Mississippi, convinced there's a secret cabal of body part brokers working on the black market, protected by elected officials, decides I'm going to kill the president, you
know what. That is ridiculous, But the story it feels kind of familiar, like I believe, like well, I mean for our days these days, like people I'm gonna blow up my RV because of the president or whatever. Right, but you throw in the Elvis impersonator part, you got a real story. Now it's international, So that's when it sideways. Anyway, who is this cat? Paul Kevin Curtis seven? Now for one, he prefers to be called Kevin, so we'll call him Kevin Curtis, not Paul Curtis now at best as I could,
gleant Casey. Oh, Casey's early life was strange. Now this is primarily due to his Elvis loving mama at a very early age. Kevin, he was a childhood prodigy Elizabeth as an Elvis impersonator, a child prodigy Elvis will allow Elvis. You ever heard of the Mexican Elvis Elves. Yes, he's my favorite of the Elvis impersonators. But then there's also I think one you like, dread Zeppelin, the Led Zeppelin cover band, Elvis impersonator as the front man who would
perform Zeppelin songs and Elvis krooner voice that Wastelvis. Yes, Tartelvis, thank your producer, Dave Tartelvis could not think of that cat's name. All right. He had another one for you. You ever seen the two thousand and one movie three Thousand Miles to Gray Slam? I sure have, yeah, Kevin Cage, it's Kevin cost and Kurt Russell, and.
I haven't seen it with Nicholas Cage.
Leaving Las Vegas.
That's not where he dresses up as Elvis.
No, he does dress up as Elvis in a movie. In a movie. Yeah, I'm blanking right now.
Let's just say it's three thousand miles to.
So he's one hundred miles to Graceland. Three thousand still maybe three hundred page version. It was an indie film, three hundred miles. We were close. I live closer to Vegas. I live in perump So, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, they play Elvis impersonators in three thousand miles to Graceland. So, with the help of an army of other Elvis impersonators, they pull off an epic heist in Las Vegas, all dressed as Vegas era Elvis. I think I have seen that.
I know to kill the parachuting, Yes, yes, parashooting, all right, I thought that would get to you Las Vegas. Baby. Well, anyway, this kid, Kevin Curtis, all right, my dude raised in Tupelo, Elvis impersonating child prodigy. All right. Now, when I say he was steeped in Elvis, his mama was like dunking him in the legacy of Elvis. Right, he imagine him as a donut and Elvis is the hot coffee that
mama do. Just dunk, dunk, dunk. Right now, his mama Eloise, she'd drive her boy to Memphis, Tennessee, Homa Graceland and she'd pay to have a tiny Elvis suit be made, a custom made suit for her son, the child prodigy. Right, yeah, the suit handcrafted by Elvis is official suit maker.
So is he young Elvis or old Elvis?
I think you would do kind of if he's doing the suits. It's Vegas Elvis, it's older.
Like you got to you gotta keep an eye on this kid when he goes to the toilet.
Now, his mama always she didn't just get him the handcrafted Elvis official suit maker suit. She also to pair with that bespoke Elvis suit. She paid to have a custom belt made by Elvis's official belt maker.
No way, this is like the Queen and the Royal family. They have like all the official totally perfum exactly.
So now you gotta imagine like a big old karate champion style belled and crusted in rhyanestones and then shrink that down to kid sized, right. Now, pay for all this, Eloise. She would take out personal loans for this trip. It was three eight hundred and twenty five dollars.
Oh my god.
Yeah, but you have to understand, Eloise, she had a special connection with the King. She met him once. Oh oh yeah, no, and Elvis had performed at the Louisiana hay Ride. She you want to carry him around on her head? I think so. She actually mentioned that in her diary. Now, this was in his early fame days, when he was coming up. You could still catch Elvis at a hay ride. This was nineteen fifty four. It wasn't like seventy No, it wasn't like seventy one hay ride.
No.
So anyway, so these the two clicked when they met at the hay Ride. Years later, I mean decades later, when he was on his way out, you know, when he's all bloated, chomping on pills. Did he die seventy seven? Okay? I believe, I'm not certainly, I believe seventy seven. So this is like shoot Out your TV era Elvis. Right, Elouise was in touch with him at this point of his life, and Elvis would call her and then he'd say, oh, pray with me, and they would sit on the phone and pray together.
So okay, so I thought he was like I thought it was like she had a tying daily moments.
Elvis is on the phone again, I'm gonna go greet by Bible boy. I want to pray with the King.
Wow.
Now so special bomb with the King. Right, So she turns her son into like the princeling and she like, you know, eventually, interestingly, he was also a prince fan. Huge prince fan was the Kevin Curtis. He would do like prince impersonations as well. Did he evolved into Prince No, well, she want him to be become the prince to the king.
Right, he did Elvis impersonations and then he later did Prince.
Yeah, he went from king to Prince that. Yeah, the kid had professional pipes. He could sing. This guy, Kevin Curtis, he could. He could front a band, right, and it's a town he retained into adulthood. He can still sing right now. As an adult. He expanded his repertoire of impersonations. He did a really solid version of Buddy Holly.
Oh.
He also, as they said, he did the Prince songs. He also does a wicked kid rock.
He's like a musical rich Yes, he's just.
A little jukebox of impersonations. But you know, but you know, okay, the thing about kid rock that always find funny is he seems like he's from Mississippi, even though the dude was raised really wealthy outside of Detroit. Yeah, but yet you think, oh, rural South. He's a fancy lad who went south totally, I don't. I mean, we know about that.
But anyway, so before my dude grows up and leaves town as he's a small South behind as a teenager, he lost a girlfriend who was his fiance because it's the South, and uh, you know, before they could wed, she died in a car accident. Yeah, and he was driving. It was really tragic. Sent him into a downward spiral. Then he leaves home, right, so at this point he's kind of broken. He ends up living in his car
in Chicago. He's eating out of supermarket dumpsters, which you know, unless you're one of those like radical freakings, not the best way to live. So he leaves Chicago, returns home to the South. He returns to Tupelo, Mississippi by then his late twenties, he does what others do in the South. He gets married, he starts a family, has kids.
You know, hebrush sorry Southerners.
Well, no, I'm just saying it's far more common than like. And then in New York or San Francisco, people don't understand, like you have a lot of social pressures like, well you back home, we come down to church, will meet you a nice girl. I mean that is a very common thing. Doesn't matter black, white, or indifferent. It's very Southern. Right, So he gets himself a good job as a janitor, which he spun into a business where he'd hire others
to fulfill janitorial contracts. Now he's living the dream. He's working making money off of other people's labor, the American dream. Right, He's at home lounging. Other people are getting paid and he's getting paid off their work. Oh, he loves it. And also, meanwhile he's pursuing his career as an Elvis impersonator. So living, right, you have to have your hobby. Well, he and his older brother Jack, they had a group they call themselves Double Trouble. Oh like Stevie Raveon, Yeah,
kind of. But if you're wondering off. They performed and dressed as Elvis, not as Stevie.
Ravon and what's his brother's name something Va Yeah, mister Vaught, Jimmy Vaughan.
There you go go. Nice job. So they were brother Both brothers dressed and performed as Elvis, but one was young Elvis. It's like Jailhouse Rock era Elvis. The other one was vegas Ol Cats in the Cradle, yes exactly. But Elvis once in Rhymestone once got like the black hair all greased up. Anyway, So young and old Elvis double trouble right. Then fate played a hand. Kevin Curtis had a new janitorial contract at a hospital. One day he sees something that would ever change his life. Elizabeth.
The year was nineteen ninety nine. It was December seventeenth, the elbos impersonator. He walks in that his day gig. You know, he's buffing the floors in North Mississippi Medical Center and tupelow and he's trying to clear the sump pump drain and you know that's no fun, right, So he's down there trying to clear the sump pump drain in the floor and he spots something that horrified him. As Kevin recalled later on, my whole life turned on
a dime. Yeah, right, take a break. When we get back, I'll tell you what Kevin Curtis saw that forever changed him.
Excellent.
All right, we're back, Elizabeth.
You know what I was just thinking?
What were you thinking of?
How crazy would it be if someone was on PCP and they saw Double Trouble performing?
Why would the PCP factor because it would get frame damn. So they'rething so thrown by it they figure they're hallucinating. They go home and try to fight one of the elvis is because they can't both be real. Only one Elvis is the true Elvis.
He tries to eat their feet.
I'd worry about what you think about when we're on breaks. You know, you gotta think about something, all right. So it's nineteen ninety nine, Yes it is. You're going to party like it's nineteen ninety nine. It's December seventeenth. Okay, bout to be y two k right, kookie, everybody's like on edge. Kevin Curtis is working in a hospital, one of his janitorial contracts that told you about. While he's working,
he's asked to leave his usual gig. They're like, normally he'd be like slopping a mess on the er floor, you know, scooping up blood and the mop. Yeah. Anyway, and this night he's asked to go clean up a different sort of mess. It's actually rough business, Elizabeth. As Kevin Curtis, he recounted in an article with a GQ magazine, he said, I'm slipping and sliding in blood and guts.
After three hours, I'm dehydrated, sweating, burning up. Gotta have something to drink, right, So he's down there and mopping up whatever this mess was. He goes on the hunt for like a doctor pepper or something cold like that. Pops open a fridge. There are no cold drinks, Elizabeth, none whatsoever. No doctor pepper for this poor man.
What kind of hospital is instead?
Peering back at him was a severed head. Oh.
I thought you're gonna say he found like a rabbit human hybrid.
No, but that'd be great though. No, he said, it's just this man's head and the back ahead. So as Kevin Curtis remembered it, quote, first thing I saw was an arm wrapped in a plastic with a barcode and a leg wrapped in plastic. The whole bottom portion of the refrigerator's legs, arms, feet, hands, and eyes and a brain. Oh at the eye level of the fridge was the severed heaven of a man I'd seen alive in the er a couple nights before. Oh no, right, so he shook.
He's absolutely just beside himself. The fridge is chocol block with chilled body parts. Horrifies him to his innocent cores. Right then things got worse, I think, Kevin Curtis, you would. Yeah. This is the next night. He's back at where Kevin gets called upstairs for a meeting in an executive's office. He's escorted there by security. And this is not just any executive's office, Elizabeth. He was taken to the hospital
CEO's office. Yeah, a man named Jeff Barber. So this cat Jeff the barbar beef Cake, the CEO of the hospital. He's not alone in his office for five other men. Yeah, they all had suits on. Look an official. They have some legal documents on a table. Kevin was told he'd need to sign the documents because he was, in a word,
a little bit reluctant when he was told this. It says Paul K. Curtis agreed that on December the seventeenth, I was in an area of the hospital I was not authorized to be in and I'm going to be suspended without pay. Well, this batter is being investigated, Kevin Curtis, He didn't come into that. No, no, no, he done nothing wrong. Right, So as he tells it, quote, I stood up and I said that that's a lot, and I'm not signing that this has something to do with
those body parts I found. They yanked the PHONA, dialed four digits. Six security guards grabbed me, tackled me, handcuffed me, walk me across the street, and said you are here by banned for life from the North Mississippi Medical Center. Oh right. Kevin Curtsey becomes convinced that the largest hospital in Tupelo is actually part of a dark trade. It was black market orgon harvest in. Well.
I would just think they're just like doing it for scientific research.
One would think with the arcos and all.
You know.
Anyway, this starts a crusade for him to go warn the public about the body part of course, Yeah, we've got orgon harvesters at Tupelo.
Well, and if I am going to get that news broken to me. I want someone to look like Elvis when they're telling.
A trusted figure. Yes. So this choice to start this crusade warning the public about the organ harvesters, it goes about as well as you might guess. It ruins his life. Yeah, So he gets active online. He finds forums of like minded conspiracy theorists. He tells them what all he knows, what he saw firsthand, what he was pressured to do. His MySpace page becomes this like scroll of body harvesting focus post. Friends begin to distance themselves. Elizabeth family worries
about him. They confront him. They're like, you need to stop, and he's like, this only makes me go harder. Oh no, because you know he's being suppressed, right, dude. His crusade to bring back the black market Oregon harvesting cabal into the light. Kevin Curtis loses his job, then he gets ANO one. He loses that job, then he loses the one after that, and the one after that, starting a long string of jobs. Right. He also loses gigs as
an Elvis impersonator. Oh because okay, but just imagine you're in the crowd. Elizabeth and you would expect to hear suspicious eyes afterward? Do you not expect to hear suspicious eyebrokers in your local hospital? Right?
So he was like telling everyone from stage.
He'd be up on stage at like the Tupelo Elvis Festival, and Kevin Curtz decided he'd educate the whole gathered crowd about all the dangers lurking in the corridors of their biggest hospital.
Well, like I said, if you've got to hear it here from from Elvis.
That's the one, right. But his brother Jack was up. They're standing on stage with them because remember it's double Trouble Trouble, right, so he had to listen to Kevin Curtis ranting about the orgon harvesters, and he knew immediately this is bad for Double Trouble. As he said, I thought, oh my god, we'll never sing again.
Wait, is there like footage of this? I would pay so much to go back in time.
I'm sure you get back.
A VHS there to watch him do this.
In full helves helves is standing there.
Embarrassing, and then the guy next to me is on PCP.
That you've given to him. Huh. So from this point on Kevin Curtis, he begins a long run of like run ins with the law. Right, He's just like constantly getting arrested over and over and over again. Most of the charges they're misdemeanors. So he's getting busted for like public intoxication things like that. He gets busted twenty two times over a thirteen year period. Yeah, so that wasn't all because over that same period, his house burned down. Oh
my gosh, car exploded in separate events. Wait, oh yeah, his wife though, Laura, she said that it was their fault of the car exploded because the battery was not wired correctly.
So what is going on in the car that they're like, well, you know, we had the regular wiring and we saw it trial some little.
Because we see if we can juice the air conditions, and they made it blow up. Yes, apparently that's what she says. I didn't see the reports, but yeah, I'm not a mechanic. No, but I don't think it works between you, me and the shade tree over there. I'm saying this tanky Now, Laura, why she can't endure all this? Right?
So she and the kids they leave. Now. Meanwhile, Kevin's concentrated on his MySpace page Crusades, you know, so his post Meanwhile, they always ended in this really dystopian, messianic kind of rather cryptic sign off. All this supposts would be like, I am case and I approved this message.
That's amazing. At this point, my space is the one where you had music on your land.
Yeah, yeah, exactly your listen. I'm just trying to imagine.
I'm visualizing his MySpace and I'm trying to think of this.
Tom was worried about him. Tom from my space is like bro sending him my messages. Anyway, So to those who were worried about my man's mental health, Kevin Curtis would gladly, proudly, defiantly tell them they ruined my career, burned down my home, killed my dogs, my cat, my rabbit, blew up my car, destroying my marriage. Have me arrested twenty two times, and you want me to quit. I will keep on fighting until Jesus Christ decides it's time for me to go. So he ain't given them. This
is what I'm saying. Wow, now you may be thinking, I can hear it, Saron, I hear how this guy might spiral to the point that he'd send an envelope of rice into the Whiteah And you'd be wrong, Elizabeth. Oh, but we'd all be wrong because we all think we can hear it, because it's right there, right, and so much sound. We know this story. But this is ridiculous crime, Elizabeth, not CNN. So trust this will go nowhere where you think it will go. Enter Kevin Curtis's arch enemy and
sworn rival, Everett Dutsky. But in the South they pronounced it dusky.
Okay, he has ames.
Poor nemesis and arts rival.
That's amazing.
Evert Duski dusky. He was a Tupelo miss micro celebrity of his own nature. Yes. No, Like Kevin Curtis, Everett was a taekwondo instructor. He was allo a local musician. Originally from Kentucky. He was born in Louisville. His family later migrated to Texas, and just like Kevin Curtis, in his teen years, he was also visited by tragedy. His older brother died of suicide. Oh God, so that sent
Everett inward right, and it made him mean. According to his own father, Lennis dutch Key quote, that was probably the event that caused him to learn how to hate.
Oh.
Now. So eventually, as an adult, old Edward dutch Key, he becomes a martial arts instructor, specifically taekwondo, but he couldn't keep a gig. He kept getting fired. He was fired one place for stealing. At another dojo, he was fired for sleeping with the married mother of one of his students. Of course, he claimed Innis in Elizabeth. It wasn't his fault. He did nothing wrong, and then he
even he made good on it. He married the student's mother once she divorced her husband, and their marriage only lasted six months. Anyway, at some point he moves to Tupelo, all right, So once there he starts an independent newspaper, because of course you need.
To be into town and start a paper.
Yes, the tagline for the newspaper was quote, I will print any story in northeast Mississippi, no matter how big or small or controversial. If the Daily Journal will not tell your story, I will amazing. Now the Daily Journal, that's the big paper in Tupelo. That quote, by the way, is what Kevin Curtis recalled reading this local indie paper. It's no longer in print. I couldn't find stuff online, very scampyy. Copies apparently remained to check. So we have
to take his word for it. But anyway, this tagline that's stuck with Kevin Curtis. He goes he had a story to tell, all right, So two thousand and six, he tracked down Edward Ducci, who by then was working in the same office as Kevin Curtis's wife, Laura. Right, so, when Kevin Curtis spotted Ewart at his wife's work party, He's like, most is my opportunity meant to be? He'd already called him with his story at this point, and Everett had yet to respond, So Kevin came into the
moment a little heated take it away, Kevin. I walk over to Dutchy and I say, hey, I'm Kevin Curtis. I reach out to shake his hand. I say, so, did you get my phone call? My message? I thought you'd print any story, no matter how controversial. Now, at this point in his life, Dutchkey had been many things, right. He'd been a broadcaster, He'd worked as an insurance salesman. He was an aspiring local musician, not to mention taekwondo instructor and central to his sense of self was he
was a member of MENSA. We'll come back to that later anyway. Meanwhile, at this point, Everett has decided to take a turn in politics. So that's the perfect profession for a man like him who's unlikable and mean. Right, So he runs for state legislature. Oh yeah, So when he and Kevin Curti has met, he had other things in his indie paper on his mind. He was thinking about his future in politics, and he told Kevin Curtis
as much. And he told him he wouldn't publish a story about the big hospital, not while I'm running for state legislature. Right, So Kevin Curtis calls him a liar to his face because and there he is at his wife's work party, right, and he's getting heated about Oregon harvesting and body brokers. Never a good look. Kevin Curtisy loses sight of all of this because he's focused on the truth. Elizabeth, and I say, and I quote, I said, oh, so you're a liar. Your paper says you'll print any story,
no matter how big or controversial. I got a story, So are you gonna interview me? This is all happening at a work party. His wife, Laura recalled that first meeting of Kevin Curtis and Evert dutch Key. She saw her coworker, her work friend, mind you, sweating and shaking and I don't know why. So she told her husband to leave Evart alone, right, and Kevin did. He leaves the party. Ever dutch Key turns to Laura and says, I never want to see that guy again. This marked
the beginning of their seven year long feud. Oh no, no, Interestingly, these two men have a lot in comment on the surfaces. They were both taekwondo kicking martial arts instructors, they were both local musicians, They both liked Laura, they were both local legends. And as Laura recalled about ever dutch Key, Elizabeth quote, he dressed funny. He'd wear a pinstriped suit, and he would wear that same suit all the time.
He was just a different character. So you got this guy walking around Tupelo and in the same pinstripe suit, flashing his Mensa badge to anyone who will listen, strolling along on his way down to the dojo where he teaches local kids to kick ass. That's local legend if I've ever heard of it.
Hey, there are two main characters in the town.
There's only room for what thig. There you go. Now, that's not all Elizabeth ever dutch Key. He also had a band, because I remember musicians. So while Kevin Curtison's brother had Double Trouble, the Young Elvis Old Elvis Vegas, Elvis Duet dutch Key, he didn't have a family act. No, not him. He remember a mean and unlikable So he had a blues act because of course he's going to sing the blues. Sort of a one man band affair. He was called Dusty in the robo drum.
He wanted to call Double Bubble.
He was described. He described his band as quote progressive guitar funk tronica for smart people. Oh for smart people, Well count me out. He made music for you and your people, Elizabeth, smart people with musical taste. But old Dusty in the robo drum they were even worse than you might imagine, And I know you're imaginative. So Brock Robbins, there's this guy, Brock Robbins. He ran to open mic
night at a spot called Boondocks. Now Brock recalled two GQ how he he grew to resent whenever old Dusty in the robo drum would grace his stage.
It was horrible, just Dusty in the robo drum at Boondocks.
Yes, exactly, come on, it's too much, well, he said, and I quote, it was horrible every time he got up there, and the tarar bar just flooded outside my open mic. Knot was his first act of terrorism. He killed it. Now on the face of it, as I said, you might think these two local legends could be actual friends. I mean, boy, why do they have to be sworn rivals. They both like Laura, they're both musicians. I run it down,
even Laura of the wife. She said, quote. I told Kevin they really should be friends because they are so alike. They were both singers. Dutch Key published a paper and Kevin rote papers. Dutchkey hated Steve Holland, and Kevin hated this person and that person, so they had hate in common. You may be wondering, sin Steve Holland, Who's Steve Holland? Just dropped Steve Holland into the story. Steve Holland, he was a local politician and he was Everet's opponent, for
state legislature. See the Steve Yes, Yeah, he was a character too. He was a longtime Democratic incumbent from the area. To make some noise in his race, old Evert compared his opponent to Boss Hogg from Dukes of Hazard.
Yeah.
When that didn't work, he allege it Holland was somehow responsible for nine to eleven. Wait. Yes, So, as Holland recalled of this really wild cap campaign, he said, I never stood eyeball to eyeball or did with the man, but for some reason he just hated the hell out of me. He called me everything from gay to communists, everything but a child of God. I mean, he had no campaign or agenda except to cut my nuts out. But you got to get your up early and go to bed late to beat my I have held this
seat for thirty years. I can absolutely make love do a bull moose on the steps of the Lee County Courthouse and garner more than five percent of the vote. Wow, so that's Steve Hollings. So in the end he prevailed. He beat it for duch Kes sixty eight to twenty seven percent of the vote.
Oh my god. It's not like oh I could shoot someone on fifth Avenue.
I could see that moose on the courthouse. God when he said this before Trump said the fix. So this predeates that.
Oh yeah yeah, wait, so how is he responsible for nine to eleven?
What did he do? Oh, it's just talk. Yeah, he like he knew Muhammad Attah. I don't know, I don't know whatever he said, roommates with Mohammad Autah something like that. Anyway, Meanwhile, when he was not in his public spat with Steve Holland, dutch Key was still privately feuding with Kevin Curtis, so he would stock his MySpace page that this was the
one dedicated to Oregon harvesting. Kevin Curtis alleged that dutch Key was on his page sometimes like seventy five times a day, which is crazy, right, So one day he sets trap for his rival, So he baited the track with something irresisible to old Everett Dutchkey, an ego based trap. Elizabeth, can you guess what he said it with? No? Remember how I said he was a MENSA.
Member knows, oh like IQ.
Test, No, the perfect spot to hit is the soft underbelly. This guy's soft underbelly is MENSA membership. So Kaiskuer question was little sure, of course, Elizabeth, are you now or have you ever been a member of MENSA?
Of course not really, There's no way I would qualify for MENSA. Also, I kind of feel like I don't know. I don't really trust IQ tests.
Okay, so all right, Well, my father was a member of MENSA. Used to tell people that I guess I do qualify, but I don't join clubs. So through that, right, But you already know that. But for some people, though being at a club like MENSA super important was definitely he gives them identity, gives them a sense of superiority. Ever, Dutschki he was one of those people. So Kevin Curtis had figured that out. So he put on his MySpace page and he was also a member of MENSA, and
he posted a fake certificate proving it nice. Just a few short hours later, at eight to five pm local time, Kevin Curtis received an email, Kevin, I put up with your lies silently for long time, but this one I cannot abide. I am an officer in MENSA, Kevin, of this, I am certain you are aware. What you were not aware of is that we keep very good records of
who is and who is not a MENSA member. So he consulted those records and he told Kevin Curtis that in the email there is one person named Kevin Curtis from New York and one named Paul Curtis from Kentucky. I know you are not either of them. I'm giving you one day to remove your fraudulent claims from your website. By the way, Kevin, you cannot be both genius and at the same time. Your claim of being a gigging
musician is one thing. Claiming to be playing at a Montgomery Theater when D. L. Hewley was there and claiming to be on tour with Carrie Underwood are harmless lies that everyone simply laughs at you four. But this claim is no laughing matter. This is a serious fraud. One day is all you have, Kevin, just one day. So that's the email he receives. Trap is now sprung. So Kevin Curtis did not do as ever dutch Key demanded. He did not take down the fake MENSAS certificate. He
kept it up. The day passed, Kevin Curtis received another email. True to their mutual status is taekwon do experts dutch Key challenged Kevin Curtis to come down to his dojo. I will meet you next Tuesday at my school at one pm and we can finish this once and for all. So how does Kevin Curtis respond? Don't? Does he go down to the jojo? Elizabeth yea with his fists of justice veil. Yes, let's take a break and after these ads, I'll take you down to the dojo. Okay, Elizabeth, we're back,
ready to go to the dojo. I know you love dojo's okay, Kevin Curtis. He gets all geed up in his martial arts gear and he headed down to Edvard dutch Key's dojo. And when he got there, nothing, there's no dutch Key. So Kevin Curtis took the MySpace I posted on my Space I drove to Taekwondo Plus to have a meeting with every Dutchy in the Coward has let the building.
So they were gonna have a show down at the.
Taekwon Do dojo. Now, if you ask ever dutch Key, he was there that day at Taekwondo Plus and it was Kevin Curtis who never came through Taekwondol. So I guess We'll never know the truth of what happened that day. Only know is that there was no Mono emano down at the dojo. So yet they weren't done because these two nun chuck swinging local rock and rollers and they're bitter feud. It was about to go national.
Oh you ready, I am so ready.
On a Wednesday morning, April twenty thirteen, an envelope arrived at the Tuopolo Justice Courthouse. Someone in the mail room noticed this envelope is awfully suspicious, so they noted it and they called up to the judge, who was four. The envelope was addressed to Judge Sadie Holland. She was told about the envelope. She went down to the mailroom to retrieve it. And by the way, Judge Sadie Holland, you may have guessed, is State Rep. Steve Holland's mother.
Oh yeah, that kind of South power. So she's just as much of a character. She told GQ the story of receiving this envelope. Well, sure enough, is just something loose in that envelope. I pulled the letter out, I read the letter out loud. Of course, all the mail room girls had already played with the letter and shook it, and they came in there to listen. And then I smelled of it. It didn't have an odor to it. I thought it was a joke. I told, Oh, I'm
sure someone that I performed a wedding for. They've been to the beach and they're just sending me some sand. What. Oh it was not sand, Elizabeth, it was rice. It was actually was actual rising, yes, and which is typically a very fatal poison, like just no treatment, nothing, just put them in the borg and make some whiskey out of their bones. Right, So two matching envelopes were also sent, one to President Barack Obama and the other two Mississippi
State Senator. The letter inside the envelopes, they sure sounded like the words of one Kevin Curtis. 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 case and I approved this message. Now that last one was the tell, right, that was
the one. Now you took, yesci about exactly one Google search to come across the MySpace page of one Kevin Curtis of Tupelo, Mississippi. They raided his home just days later.
But did Sadie die from sniff and moment?
No, this is this is not the one percent. No one died. I would have told you that I figured, but like I just how okay? But you know what, brather me just tell you about all this, like, oh, the FBI rated him. I'd prefer that you close your eyes. My eyes a close and you picture it. It's April seventeenth, twenty thirteen, and you, Elizabeth, are a Chihuahuah jack Russell Terrier mix, yes, one with a very remief coat. You are colored like a hole steam cow. This explains your name,
moo cow. You are the dog of Kevin Curtis. You two are just rocking and rolling down the road back home. The windows are down, your little paws are up on the edge of the door, your head in the wind, your tongue walls out of your mouth. It's doggy heaven for you. You live alone with Kevin Curtis, just the two of you. You've just had dinner at Laura's house with the kids, and now you're almost home. Kevin slows. As he gets close to home, he waves at his neighbors,
but they don't wave back. They just sort of stare with rather limpid faces, as if they're waiting for something to happen. You hop down and saunter over to Kevin's side of the truck, and you climb into his lap at the wheel of his white Ford Escape. You feel safe, as if you were lying nuzzled by your mom. Kevin pulls to a stop. He opens the door and steps out to check his mailbox. That's when it happens. All of the federal agents in their trucks and patrol cars.
They're undercover sedans, they're blacked out suburbans. They all descend on the white Ford Escape. They surround you in Kevin Curtis. Then the agents rush from their vehicles and massive officers from different agencies and bureaus. It's alphabet suit, FBI, HF, Secret Service, Capitol Police, Homeland Security, local police, state police. They're all there. Men in bulletproof vests run up at you in the Forida Escape, their assault rifles raised and
aimed at Kevin Curtis. They are also service firearms in hand aimed at you. Kevin Curtis spins around to see who the Feds are here to capture, but there's no one behind him. He spins back around. It's him. They're here for him. One of the cops screams at Kevin kurk freeze, do not move, do not he says, way, we'll shoot you. You hear your guy? Kevin meekly asked, may The cop doesn't answer his question, and Steady shouts back, shut up, get out of the car, get on the ground.
You don't like this cop at all or his attitude, and since you're at Chihuahua Jack Russell terrier mix, you have no so you start parking at this armed cop and Kevin reaches up in scoop chet from the driver's seat of his forward escape. He turns back to face the gaggle of guns that are now pressed at him. You hear Kevin tell the guys with guns in his face, Okay, I've got my little new cow. Now. The cops don't like that. They shot back, drop the dog. Drop the dog.
Kevin is not trying to hear that. He asked, can I just take her back inside and secure her? Definitely not? Kevin sets you back down on the driver's seat. You bark to be picked back up. But the agents they grab Kevin Curtis says, shove them to the Mississippi soil. They handcuff him. He asked the officers, am I being arrested? The agents just respond gruffly, don't ask questions. We'll ask the questions. You're glad to hear Kevin ask about you? But what about my dog? One of the cops he's
holding an assault rifle. He approaches the Ford escape and he tries to grab you by the collar. He's all like all fourced, no finesse. So you growl at him and then you run. You bound past the cop. You hit the ground running. You don't hesitate. The Jack Russell terrier part. Those jeans take over. You are gone and you disappear into the brush. You hear Kevin Curtis shouting, my dog? What about moo cow? The cops say you moukow will be fine. Kevin Curtis, he doesn't believe this.
He hasks the cops, Sir, can you please take off your sunglasses? I can see your eyes. Excuse me, Kevin explains some stuff. I want to see your eyes when you tell me She'll be fine because I don't think you give a damn about moocal. Now this is the last thing you hear before Kevin Curtis is tossed in the back of a Patty Wagon van. Next stop Oxford, Mississippi, to be interrogated by the agents from Alphabet Soup. Okay, okay.
So now that he's in custody, Kevin Curtis, he spent three hours chained to a chair all by himself in an interrogation room, confused what's going on? Why he's been arrested, and he Nelson needs to pee so find now someone comes in. They take him to the bathroom. He gets some relief. Quote. Three agents walk me to a restroom, open the stall and they say, I know it's uncomfortable, but we have to watch you have a bowel movement.
I say, you gonna wipe me too. Now the agent they're from all these various letter bureaus, they started to crack open the nut that is Kevin Curtis. Right, so they told him the victims of what he's done are in the hospital. There's one girl barely clinging to life. Now, this is what we call in the interrogation business call a lie, so no one was in the hospital. The agents just wanted to scare Kevin, so he would blurt out what he's done, right, And I'm like, what was
in the what? Then they won't tell me, they want me to say it. So this goes on for a while. Finally the guy from Homeland Security he just runs out of patience. He's like, oh, for Christ's sakes, he just said, are you familiar with Rising? And Kevin Curtis had never once in his life heard of Rice. And he didn't even really hear what the agent said. He's like and I said, I don't like rice. I don't even really eat rice. Y'all look in my house. You won't find
any rice. So the agent actually like, now he's had to like correct the good old boy from Tuplow. He's like, no Rice, and mister Curtis Rice and like anthrax And I say, I've never heard of that in my life, sir. He says, you are a liar, and I was like, huh. Now. Smash cut to seven hours later, the agents were all worn out. Kevin Curtis Is just like got them frustrated. He's just about as dumb as Rising now as he was seven hours earlier, so the agents know we don't
have our guys due this guy can't be it. Finally they know that they aren't getting anywhere, and they asked me, do you have any enemies? Do you know of anyone who wants to harm you? And I say yeah, ever Dutschki. At this point, Kevin Curtis was released from custody and the FBI Homeland Security folks they went after their new target, the MENSA member Everett doutschke Yes. Meanwhile, a small miracle occurred for Old Kevin Curtis. Remember, up to this point,
he's basically been the organ harvester guy yeah around Tablow. Well, now he's the wrongly accused of attempting to murder the president guy by the Feds, so they love this. He's his conspiracy minded man's idea of a hero, right the locals they changed review of Old Kevin Curtis, but he's still the same guy. So on April twenty third, twenty thirteen, on the steps of the courthouse, he gave a press conference upon his release. Now and the press asked what
he planned to do next. Elizabeth Kevin Curtis had answers, find my dog moucw she got away when home land security swarmed in on me. When I want to go check my man. I haven't heard anything. I'm just really worried about her. I bought a fish a week before. And now his brother's standing behind him on the car steps. He's got this great helmet of hair, right, just amazing hair. And he interrupts. He said, I found her. Now Kevin Curtis is taking him back a moment. He continued, you
got moo cow. My brothers found moo cow. Thank you, Jack. So you see, y'all probably know more than I know. But yes, she's an amazing dog, and I want to get to her. I want to get to my children. I haven't seen any of my children a week. So my son, my sixteen year old, got his first car that max wife and I were working on getting them, and I missed his first play when he was a bumblebee when he was nine years old, from going to jail. So I've been to jail over twenty times and I've
never been convicted of anything so far. So the press at this point is like, what this is amazing? So order of business for this guy, simo cow, then go see kicks guy gonna say, it's like he established moved. He was looking up for you. So later on in this press conference, Curtis he speaks to his plans to repay his lawyer for her work because she just came in said are you He's like, no, I didn't do it.
He's like, I'll be your lawyer. Right, So now she's one of the people he wants to repay, as well as all of the citizens of the area who are afflicted with sore feet. And I quote, I would like to add that right now, I can't really afford to pay her the million that she's worth. But I am a license certified reflexologist and I'm going to start with foot massage therapy with Christy. That's his lawyer who was standing right next to him awkwardly laughing through this. Who's
going to be my first client? And I'm going to donate one hundred thousand hours to Community Service Northeast Mississippi to all you ladies who need foot massage therapy. That's my random act of kindness. There's yes, exactly.
I can't process happening, that's right.
So I was keeping score one hundred thousand hours of community service. I did the math on that that would work out to be four thousand, one hundred and sixty six full twenty four hour days of massage with sixteen hours of one extra day just to make the math work out, so four one hundred and sixty six and two thirds days. And if you were wondering, I also did the math on that, that would be eleven point four to one year's worth of time, all of it
spent mussaging stranger's feet twenty four hours a day. That may be worse than going to prison for a let, I would say so. Anyway, Meanwhile, Feds, they're closing it on their real culprit, the certified evil genius and martial arts instructor Evert. Dutch Key. Four days after Kevin Curtis walked out of custody, the federal agents arrest Everett dutch Key. Didn't take long for the FBI to prove that they
had the right man. This time. FBI agents had one witnessed Dutchkey leaving his dojo carrying quote the box for a Black and Decker Smart Grind coffee grinder, and as well, there was quote a box containing latex gloves that went along with the dusk mass that was testing positive for risin. Oh then there was his desktop computer. That's where the FEDS found a doc on his hard drive quote Standard Operating Procedure for Risin, which described safe handling its storage
methods for RISIN. If that wasn't enough, there were also the digital records from eBay and PayPal that documented the dutchy had paid for fifty red castor bean seeds on or about November seventeenth, twenty twelve, and he made a second purchase of fifty red castor beans honor about December first. If you were wondering, rising is made out of cast seeds. So the certified evil genius had just committed the world's
dumbest version of domestic terroories. He just left a pass exactly just all the trail for you, right to his front door. Now, all in all his vain attempt to frame his rival, the Elvis impersonate in martial arts instructing local legend, Kevin Curtis suddenly had a leg to stand on in the ear of his community. As he put, after thirteen years, I've been banging on every door here I am. I got fired and banned from the hospital after find a refrigerator full of body parts. My house
burned down and my car exploded. My wife left me, I lost my business. Now I've been framed for trying to assassinate the president with Risin. Now, will somebody listen to me? Oh? Not only did locals listen, but Kevin Curtis was flown out to New York. He appeared on The Daily Show when John Sewart was still the host. Yes, and he also spoke of Piers Morgan back when he
had a show on CNS. Kevin Curtis was treated as a koop by them, as you might imagine, but he was no longer the laughable, pitiable figure he once was. He was now a cautionary tale Elizabeth of the Internet age, a man who'd survived a personal conspiracy theory weaponized against him. So, meanwhile, evert Dutchy, if you were wondering, tried, convicted, sentenced to
twenty five years in federal presidence. Yeah, he went to the Big House at age forty one, which coincidentally makes him one year younger than Elvis when he died on the toilet. Oh there you go. What's a ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth?
These are some broken folks, like you think about what if it really was like an organ harvesting thing, that he is actually correct and this poor guy, I mean.
He's just distracted away from this time. Exactly. He's actually a double hero. Yeah, exactly, My ridiculus take away once again, Thank you for asking, is dude, how powerful is Elvis?
Right?
Right?
I mean just like I love the idea that the mom is praying with him. That's a nice sweet moment. But that you know, we can get both three thousand miles to Graceland and this story out of one man. One man's powerful. Anyway, That's all I got for your beautiful As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram. We have a website, ridiculous crime dot com. Do we have the talkbacks? Hey?
Speaking of talkbacks, I kind of feel some coming on.
You got one to play? Yes? Oh my god?
Hello gee hello. I would just like to say that I enjoy your programs, your podcasts immensely. I'm a truck driver that drive the long highways and back roads of New Zealand, and when I'm listening to your podcast, I find that time goes by much quickly. I feel very entertained. So please keep up the work.
That was nice anyway. Can you go with email us if you want Ridiculous crimesgemail dot com and leave more talk backs we do. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you next Crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Brenette, produced and edited by our resident Kung Fu Master Dave Kusten. Researches by Marissa Big Mama Thornton invented rock and Roll, Brown and Andrea You Damn Right song
Sharpened Tear. Our theme song is by Thomas the Finnish, Elvis Lee and Travis the Bohemian Karl Perkins dot The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben what would Jerry Reed do? Poland and know Wait wasn't he on an episode of Scooby Doo Brown?
Why say it one more time? Crime?
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
