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Wicker Hired Ricin Suspect As Elvis Impersonator

Sen. Roger Wicker told reporters Thursday that, about a decade ago, he met the man who was arrested on charges of sending him a ricin-laced letter.

“I have indeed met the gentleman before,” the Mississippi Republican said of Tupelo resident Paul Kevin Curtis. “He’s an entertainer. He’s an Elvis impersonator. He entertained at a party my wife and I helped give for a young couple that were getting married.”

“Quite entertaining,” Wicker continued. He added, “My impression is that since that time he’s had mental issues and perhaps is not as stable as he was back then.”

Curtis, who is also likely to be charged with sending a ricin-contaminated envelope to President Barack Obama when he appears at an Oxford, Miss., federal courthouse, was arrested in Corinth, Miss., near the Tennessee border.

The letters intercepted in off-site mail facilities before reaching the Capitol and White House were reportedly postmarked in Tennessee and were signed “KC,” which was Curtis’ stage name when performing as a Presley impersonator.

On what appears to be his website, Curtis wrote on March 5, 2008, that he was “attempting once again to expose various parties within the government, FBI, police departments, legal & healthcare systems, etc. that 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, began on the day I accidentally discovered a refrigerator full of dismembered body parts & organs wrapped in plastic in the morgue of the largest non-metropolitan healthcare organization in the United States of America.”

He signed off, “This is Kevin Curtis & I approve this message.”

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