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'Suspicious' envelope intended for Obama intercepted, contained ricin poison
From POST WIRE SERVICE
Last Updated: 1:59 PM, April 17, 2013
Posted: 10:55 AM, April 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — A letter intended for President Obama has tested positive for the deadly poison ricin, one day after a poison-laced envelope was sent to Sen. Roger Wicker.
The second letter was received at an offsite mail screening facility and was immediately quarantined by the Secret Service, the FBI said in a statement.
The FBI says the letters sent to Obama and Wicker are related and are both postmarked out of Memphis, Tenn., dated April 8.
In an intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI says the letters both say: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both letters are signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."
The US Capitol building
Sources told the Post both letters have tested positive for ricin in two of three tests.
The Secret Service said they are working closely with US Capitol Police and the FBI's investigation.
The FBI says there is no indication of a connection to the bombing at Monday's Boston Marathon.
White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed that a suspicious letter was headed to the president before it was intercepted.
“There was a letter sent to, addressed to, the president at an off-site mail facility [that] was noticed to contain a suspicious substance and tests were undertaken,” he said.
“These investigations, both of the bombings in Boston and the letters in question here, are just underway,” Carney said.
“I would point to the statement of the FBI ... that says they have no indication of a connection to the two.”
Meanwhile, police have swarmed the Hart and Russell Senate Office Buildings. Cops have told Senate employees to stay in their offices and cleared the hallways of any visitors.
Sen. Richard Shelby's office told NBC that Capitol Police are investigating a suspicious package at his office in the building. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin said he also received a suspicious letter at Saginaw regional office, but further details were unavailable. A source told the Post both packages have not yet undergone the preliminary round of tests.
Capitol Police confirmed today that they are investigating two suspicious items and are "controlling access" to parts of two Senate office buildings and the Capitol. It is unclear if they are related to the White House ricin scare.
Authorities last night said they had identified a suspect who may have sent the letter addressed to Sen. Wicker, although he did not appear to be in custody.
The letter was intercepted by an off-site mail-screening facility in DC yesterday afternoon and was later sent to a testing facility in Maryland.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer told senators that the letter had been postmarked in Memphis, Tenn., and carried no return address and no exterior markings making it suspicious.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) said a suspect has already been identified but didn’t address whether he had been arrested. She said the letter was from someone known to frequently write lawmakers, but didn’t give the person’s name.
Ricin has previously been used in assassinations. Just a tiny amount can be deadly. In 2003 and 2004, several letters laced with ricin were intercepted on their way to the White House and the Dirksen Senate Office building.
Investigators are looking at the timing similarities between this attack and 9/11, when in the midst of the confusion surrounding the al Qaeda attack, anthrax letters were dispatched to government and media offices, including The Post.
Man arrested for allegedly sending poison to President Obama, US Senator
From AP
Last Updated: 12:21 AM, April 18, 2013
Posted: 8:00 PM, April 17, 2013
OXFORD, Miss. — The FBI has identified a Mississippi man suspected of mailing letters containing poisonous ricin as 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen said Curtis was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his apartment in Corinth, near the Tennessee state line about 100 miles east of Memphis.
Authorities still waited for definitive tests on the letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said those two letters were postmarked Memphis, Tenn.
A Prince George's County, Md. firefighter dressed in a protective suit walks into a government mail screening facility in Hyattsville. Police swept across the U.S. Capitol complex to chase a flurry of reports of suspicious packages and envelopes Wednesday after preliminary tests indicated poisonous ricin in two letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator.
Both letters said: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."
The letters were intercepted before reaching the White House or Senate. The FBI said Wednesday that more testing was underway. Preliminary field tests can often show false positives for ricin.
As authorities scurried to investigate three questionable packages discovered in Senate office buildings, reports of suspicious items also came in from at least three senators' offices in their home states.
Sen. Carl Levin said a staff member at his Saginaw, Mich., office would spend the night in a hospital as a precaution after discovering a suspicious letter. The staff member had no symptoms, Levin said in a statement. He expected to learn preliminary results of tests on the letter by Thursday.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said suspicious letters at his Phoenix office had been cleared with nothing dangerous found. A package at Sen. John Cornyn's Dallas-area office also was declared harmless, a fire department spokesman said.
All three packages in the Capitol complex turned out to be safe, Capitol police spokeswoman Makema Turner said late Wednesday. But a man was still being questioned after being stopped in connection with the packages, she said.
All the activity came as tensions were high in Washington and across the country following Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170. The FBI said there was no indication of a connection between the letters and the bombing. The letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8, before the marathon.
Capitol Police swiftly ramped up security, and lawmakers and staff were cautioned away from some parts of the Hill complex. After hours of jangled nerves, officials signaled it was safe to move throughout the area and people settled back to normal, if watchful, activity.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that police had a suspect in mind in the Wicker mailing, someone who "writes a lot of letters to members." She made the comment Tuesday as she emerged from a briefing by law enforcement on the Boston bombing. Authorities declined to comment on a possible suspect.
Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, said mail sent to the White House is screened at a remote site for the safety of the recipients and the general public. He declined to comment on the significance of the preliminary ricin result, referring questions to the FBI.
At a House hearing, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe noted there had been ricin alerts since the notorious 2001 anthrax mailings and procedures are in place to protect postal employees and help track down culprits.
"Over the course of years we've had some situations where there have been ricin scares," Donahoe said. "Until this date, there's never been any actually proved that have gone through the system."
After the hearing, Donahoe said he didn't know whether the latest letters had been proven to contain ricin. He also told reporters that people sometimes mail substances that mimic the poison. No postal workers have reported illness connected to the incident, he said. Ricin, derived from the castor plant, is at its deadliest when inhaled.
Even during the flurry of concern, normal business continued across most of the Capitol and its office buildings, with tour groups passing through and visitors streaming in and out of Wicker's office.
Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer said in an email that suspicious packages were dropped off at the offices of two senators. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said in a statement his office had received one of them. A third package was found in an atrium on the first floor of a Senate building.
As the discoveries spread concern, police sealed off a hearing room where Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were testifying. At one point, officers advised Sen. Joe Manchin and aides not to board an elevator because suspicious packages had been found on several floors of the Hart Office Building. "They just told me there's something suspicious and they're looking into it," Manchin said.
Amy Keough of Stow, Mass., and her family were searching for an open entrance to the Russell Senate Office building and walked by a U.S. Capitol Police hazardous materials vehicle. The Keoughs had been visiting Washington for several days, but Monday's marathon bombing was on their minds.
"We don't know really what it is that's going on," Keough said. "We're from Massachusetts, so right now anything is possible, with all the events in Boston."
‘Elvis’ charged with threatening President Obama and others, faces 15 years prison for ricin scare
Mailed poison to Bam: FBI
By GEOFF EARLE in Washington and JOSH MARGOLIN in NY
Last Updated: 1:01 PM, April 18, 2013
Posted: 2:24 AM, April 18, 2013
WASHINGTON — The troubled Mississippi Elvis impersonator arrested yesterday for allegedly sending a poison-laced letter to President Obama has officially been charged with threatening the President and two other officials.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release today that Paul Kevin Curtis faced two federal charges and could face up to 15 years in prison. He was due in court later on Thursday.
Curtis was nabbed at his apartment in Corinth, Miss., at 6 p.m. after the poisoned letters discovered this week were traced back to him, sources told The Post.
ALL SHOOK UP: Paul Kevin Curtis, as Elvis, allegedly mailed toxic letters to the president and a senator that he signed KC (far right).
ALL SHOOK UP: Paul Kevin Curtis, as Elvis and above, allegedly mailed toxic letters to the president and a senator that he signed KC.
Curtis, 45, dresses up as the King and other stars such as Jon Bon Jovi and Prince to entertain at parties and benefits.
The letters were signed “I am KC and I approve this message” — the same initials he uses in his stage name.
The musician can be seen performing via YouTube and Facebook, advertising his services dressed as country stars such as Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Elvis.
He has been arrested numerous times for misdemeanors such as harassment and stalking near Tupelo, Miss., the Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported.
Despite his rock ’n’ roll hobby, Curtis shows his angry side on Facebook, where he lashes out in a conspiracy-filled rant.
“I’m on the hidden front lines of a secret war,” he wrote. “They burned down my home, killed my dogs, my cat, my rabbit, blew up my 1966 Plymouth Valiant . . . and guess what? I am still a thorn in their corrupt anals! I will remain here until Jesus Christ decides it’s time for me to go.”
In addition to the Obama letter, a missive containing ricin was mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and was detected before it reached the Capitol Tuesday.
The letter to Wicker was postmarked April 8, just days before the senator voted to nix a filibuster of the gun-control bill. Curtis was arrested 50 miles from Wicker’s home in Tupelo.
A third letter was sent to a Mississippi judge.
Curtis is “believed to be responsible for the mailings of the three letters sent through the US Postal Inspection Service, which contained a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin,” the FBI said, providing no other details.
The arrest capped a frantic day on Capitol Hill yesterday amid heightened security after the Boston terror bombings and the the ricin letters.
The letter addressed to Obama containing a “suspicious substance” got picked up Tuesday at an outside facility where White House mail is screened, according to the Secret Service.
Federal scientists are conducting additional tests to confirm the results.
The letters to Obama and Wicker, contained the same cryptic message: “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance,” according to an FBI bulletin. They were signed: “I am KC and I approve this message.” – an obvious take on TV political ads. Neither had a return address.
A senior administration source said the situation was a “red alert,” adding: “We are preparing for more.” But another government source noted: “The system worked,” adding, “people are hyped up.”
White House mail, gets screened at a site in DC. Congressional mail gets irradiated, opened, heated, and subjected to multiple screening procedures.
The White House and FBI said there’s no apparent connection to the bombing in Boston, although the feds were looking for any possible link.
“I think it’s related to guns,” former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who preceded Wicker in the Senate and got death threats on multiple occasions when he served in Congress, told The Post.
“Obama got one from Memphis, and Roger got one from Memphis,” he said, noting that gun control was coming up for a controversial vote.
Wicker was among the Republican senators who voted last week to allow a gun-control bill to come up for debate. He voted against the bill yesterday.
Ricin is one of the most deadly — and easiest to make — of the world’s super poisons.
It is highly toxic, has no known antidote, and can be deadly in tiny amounts. It comes from the leftover waste material the seeds of castor beans are reduced to make castor oil, which when purified becomes a poison so deadly that a speck can be deadly if injected or inhaled.
Suspicious letters also were reported in a Michigan office of Sens. Carl Levin and in the office of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). “We don’t know if someone sent them as a hoax or as an effort to scare,” said Flake. He said he was relieved there turned out not to be a threat.
Additional reporting by S.A. Miller and Andy Soltis
Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was arrested on April 18, 2013, for allegedly mailing letters to President Barack Obama and other national leaders authorities suspect may have contained ricin, a toxic substance without an antidote that is deadliest when inhaled. According to an FBI affidavit, the letters sent to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and a judge in Mississippi read: "Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die." Ricky Curtis, who said he was Paul 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. A YouTube channel under the name of Kevin Curtis has dozens of videos of him performing as different famous musicians, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Kid Rock.
From ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 8:00 AM, April 22, 2013
Posted: 7:59 AM, April 22, 2013
OXFORD, Miss. — The man charged with mailing ricin-laced letters to the president and a senator was expected back in court Monday, and the hearing could reveal what evidence authorities have collected from searches of his home and vehicle.
Through his lawyer, Paul Kevin Curtis has denied any involvement in the letters sent to President Barack Obama and Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, as well as a third letter sent to a Lee County, Miss., judge.
A detention and preliminary hearing began Friday in US District Court in Oxford, Miss., but was continued when it ran into the evening.
Paul Kevin Curtis is dressed as an Elvis Impersonator in this picture taken in 1999.
In the hearing, Curtis' lawyer, Christi McCoy, tried to show that authorities had collected little physical evidence.
FBI agent Brandon Grant testified late Friday that searches of Curtis' home and car had not been completed. He also said other tests, such as DNA analysis, were pending.
Prosecutors had wanted to delay the hearing, but McCoy objected, saying her client shouldn't have to stay in jail over the weekend if there wasn't enough evidence to hold him.
US Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander continued the hearing when it ran into the evening and attorneys said it could go on for hours.
After the hearing, Curtis' attorney said the federal government had produced little physical evidence to link her client to the crime.
She is likely to ask during Monday's hearing exactly what the searches uncovered over the weekend.
"He is adamant that he did not do this," McCoy said Friday. She said her client has never been in possession of ricin and doesn't know how to make it.
"I have not seen anything to the contrary, so I have to accept what he is saying as the truth," McCoy said.
Grant testified Friday that authorities tried to track down the sender of the letters by using a list of Wicker's constituents with the initials KC, the same initials in the letters. Grant said the list was whittled from thousands to about 100 when investigators isolated the ones who lived in an area that would have a Memphis, Tenn., postmark, as do some places in north Mississippi. He said Wicker's staff recognized Curtis' name as someone who had written the senator before.
The letters also contained lines that were on Curtis' Facebook page, including the phrase, "I am KC and I approve this message," Grant said.
Grant also testified that there were indentations on the letters from where someone had written on another envelope that had been on top of them in a stack.
The indentations were analyzed under a light source and turned out to be for Curtis' former addresses in Booneville and Tupelo, though one of the addresses was spelled wrong, Grant said.
McCoy said the evidence linking the 45-year-old to the crime has hinged on his writings posted online, which were accessible to anyone.
So far, Curtis is the primary focus for investigators and the only person arrested in connection with sending the letters, but Grant testified Friday that authorities were still trying to determine whether there were any co-conspirators.
Family and acquaintances have described Curtis as a caring father and enthusiastic musician who impersonated Elvis and others but struggled for years with mental illness.
His writings show he was consumed by trying to publicize claims of a conspiracy to sell body parts on the black market.
Curtis' adult daughter, Madison Curtis, and brother Jack Curtis, both said after Friday's hearing that they'd never heard him criticize President Obama, though he was vocal in his feelings about many politicians.
His ex-wife, Laura Curtis, has said she does not believe he sent the letters.
Elvis set free! Sprung from jail as feds drop ricin rap
By S.A. MILLER Post Correspondent
From With Wires
Last Updated: 3:52 AM, April 24, 2013
Posted: 2:20 AM, April 24, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Elvis Presley impersonator accused of sending letters laced with lethal ricin to President Obama and a US senator was released from a Mississippi jail yesterday and the charges were dropped.
“I love this country,” Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, said at a press conference, adding that he respected Obama and would never harm a public servant.
“It feels amazing, it feels wonderful. It was overwhelming, to say the least,” he went on about suddenly winning his freedom.
“The last seven days, staring at these four great walls, and to not know what’s really happening, not having a clue when I’m there. I was just in a state of being overwhelmed.”
JAILHOUSE CROCK: The feds had suspicious minds. Paul Curtis was caught in a trap, couldn’t walk out, but he loves the USA too much, baby. Now he is free.
Curtis’ unexpected release came a day after prosecutors failed to produce hard evidence linking him to the highly toxic ricin or the letters.
“I heard the word ‘ricin’ for the first time in my life,” Curtis told CNN yesterday after his release. “I thought he said ‘rice’ . . . I don’t even eat rice, usually. I’m not even a rice lover.”
Meanwhile, the investigation continued, as authorities searched the Tupelo, Miss., home of J. Everett Dutschke in connection with the ricin scare.
Curtis’ lawyers said Dutschke was a nemesis of the Elvis impersonator and had “framed” him.
Dutschke, a martial-arts instructor and former Mississippi politician, is also under investigation for child molestation, according to WTVA-TV. He was arrested in January after a 7-year-old girl claimed he fondled her at his tae kwan do studio, and authorities are looking into complaints that other students were also molested, the TV station said.
Dutschke once lost a race for a seat in the Mississippi state Legislature against Steve Holland — whose mother, Judge Sadie Holland, was also mailed one of the poisonous letters earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday said another ricin-laced letter was found at Bolling Air Force Base in DC.
