Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Duntz Zeron Burnette So glad to see.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to see me too.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: Right, Look, I got a question for you while you're done.
Speaker 2: Do you what's ridiculous I do?
Speaker 3: Now? Hold on, this is my take a while. Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: we've been inundated with suggestions for a certain spirit, a
Speaker 3: certain liquor. Dorito's is all about disrupting culture and bringing
Speaker 3: our fans unexpected, bold experiences. Okay, So Dorito's has a
Speaker 3: liquor and I don't really know. It's just like a
Speaker 3: distilled whatever. It's apparently vacuum distilled, so it really tastes
Speaker 3: like a Dorito. Oh yeah. The flavor is nacho cheese,
Speaker 3: corn toastata umami in a hint of acidity, and you
Speaker 3: can use it for Margarita's, Bloody Mary's old fashions, neat
Speaker 3: or over ice or anyway Dorito's fans like, says the
Speaker 3: press release. Yeah, okay, so whatever, right, I got that
Speaker 3: out of the way. I mean, it's like, literally hundreds
Speaker 3: of people have been telling us about this, but then
Speaker 3: you know who swooped in, Marie Noel she's a new
Speaker 3: friend of the show. Now. She sent us a great email.
Speaker 3: She said, before I get into all the ridiculous stuff,
Speaker 3: I want to let you know how much I enjoy
Speaker 3: your podcast. It never fails to make me laugh. I
Speaker 3: used to listen to it when I went out for
Speaker 3: a run. But one day I laughed so hard that
Speaker 3: it made me cough and I couldn't catch my breath.
Speaker 3: A nice lady even stopped by to make sure I
Speaker 3: was okay and wasn't about to die. So I did
Speaker 3: the only thing I could do. I stopped running all together.
Speaker 3: Now your podcast makes me giggle during my commute to
Speaker 3: and from work. We've made someone stop running. We did it.
Speaker 2: We did it, Joe.
Speaker 3: Okay. So here's the thing though. She also included that
Speaker 3: she's like, you know what, I'm sure everyone's sending you
Speaker 3: the Doritos thing, but let me let me take you
Speaker 3: to the next level.
Speaker 2: There's another level. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So she sent a link to this Tamworth Distilling company
Speaker 3: and they have a line of booze called House of Tamworth.
Speaker 3: Now there are five. There's smoked trout flavored brandy, right
Speaker 3: Crab trapper, Oh Crab flavored whiskey, o de musk, which
Speaker 3: is I don't know, some sort of like muskrat whatever,
Speaker 3: deerslayer venison flavored whiskey. Then we get to my favorite,
Speaker 3: a favorite unholy rye and the tagline is I drink
Speaker 3: dead people. It's called grave Robber, Grave Robber, unholy rye.
Speaker 3: Grave Robber is an unholy rye whiskey infused with maple
Speaker 3: syrup tapped from graveside maple trees. On the property of
Speaker 3: Tamworth Distilling lies a malignant old maple whose roots burrowed
Speaker 3: deep into the nearly unmarked colonial era graveyard. What would
Speaker 3: happen if we tapped some of the sinister stap sap
Speaker 3: and added it to our whiskey? Spicy yet sweet, evil
Speaker 3: yet divine. The life of a grave robber begins when
Speaker 3: yours ends.
Speaker 2: They broke the Jeff Goldbloom maxim, they said, Rather than asking,
Speaker 2: you know, should we, they just went ahead and did it.
Speaker 3: It is the most god thing to like have, Like
Speaker 3: the I don't know, I can't even get my head
Speaker 3: around was that.
Speaker 2: Considered like goth like whiskey? I mean, like, is that
Speaker 2: like I think you want that?
Speaker 3: You know that it's syrup tapped from the graveside in
Speaker 3: maple trees.
Speaker 2: God, I'm just wooy enough to be like.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, meet me at the cemetery case.
Speaker 2: Luckily I had been prepared for this, I thought by
Speaker 2: listener Eric Buckholt, who sent me ward, will you be
Speaker 2: throwing these doritos at me? And then you still got
Speaker 2: and brought the un whiskey.
Speaker 3: Eric told you, he warned you. I'm not on Twitter anymore,
Speaker 3: but I used to see him on there all the time.
Speaker 3: But see Marie Noel, she brought it. Elizabeth, she's my
Speaker 3: number one roode Dude. Yah, there you go.
Speaker 2: Okay, what do you have?
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous, This is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Beyond ridiculous. I'm sorry that took so long. Pale, Yes,
Speaker 2: I had, Oh my god, how am I going to
Speaker 2: adjust to that? Okay? Well, do you have a second?
Speaker 3: Of course I did.
Speaker 2: I got one.
Speaker 3: What else am I going to do today?
Speaker 2: Okay? You remember when Obama was president? I do?
Speaker 3: I remember that?
Speaker 2: All right? Okay?
Speaker 3: Did you know I went to his first inauguration?
Speaker 2: You did? But how was it was a good?
Speaker 3: You're amazing?
Speaker 2: It was really great. How many stars?
Speaker 3: I'd say eight out of five?
Speaker 2: Wow, big, big, momentous occasion. Okay, so do you I saw.
Speaker 3: Tyne Daily in real life.
Speaker 2: Not the Time Daily, tim Daily's sister Cagney and Lacy
Speaker 2: Tyn Daily from.
Speaker 3: About half a block away.
Speaker 2: Wow, it's pretty crazy. That's what you came away with
Speaker 2: Time Daily also Obama's president. That's do you remember the
Speaker 2: news during the Obama presidency when a taekwondo fighting martial
Speaker 2: arts instructor and part time Elvis impersonator attempted to kill
Speaker 2: the isn't it with rice and powder? Wait?
Speaker 3: No, I miss that. I miss that.
Speaker 2: You're in luck. Have I got a story for you today?
Speaker 4: Hell? Yeah?
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime, A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
Speaker 2: and cons. It's all always ninety nine percent murder free
Speaker 2: and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yes, Elizabeth, I have three
Speaker 2: questions for you today.
Speaker 5: One?
Speaker 3: Two? Three?
Speaker 2: Do you like Mississippi? Sure? You ever been to Tupelo, Mississippi?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 2: Do you you have? You? Did you like it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was all right, memorable? Sure did you go there
Speaker 2: to see Elvis's birthplace? No? Do you like Elvis? That's
Speaker 2: my third question? Okay, I got a bonus question. You
Speaker 2: ever heard of the song the Tupelo, Mississippi Flash. No,
Speaker 2: all right, it kind of goes like this, he said, son,
Speaker 2: my name is Boba god Ripley. I come to you
Speaker 2: from Tupelo, Mississippi. I write songs and sing like a bird,
Speaker 2: and I play licks on me guitar like you ain't
Speaker 2: never heard now. That is a Jerry Reid song. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: aka the Snowman from Smoking the Band or water Boy
Speaker 2: the coach for the rival team and water Boy. Anyway,
Speaker 2: his track is a teasing nod to the fact that
Speaker 2: Elvis is from Tupelo, the true below Mississippi Flash. It
Speaker 2: was a kick for Jerry Reid when Elvis actually performed
Speaker 2: a cover of that very same song, because Elvis was
Speaker 2: one of Jerry Reid's heroes growing up, much like Jerry
Speaker 2: Reid was one of my heroes growing up. But of course,
Speaker 2: just like you were one of my heroes growing up.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly now. Elvis, he's the mountaintop, right, He was
Speaker 2: the goat to mindy a Southerner like, did you know
Speaker 2: even my father loves Elvis.
Speaker 3: I think you've mentioned that my.
Speaker 2: Black nationalist father loves Elvis, which is great. He even
Speaker 2: named his dog.
Speaker 3: Elm Oh he did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's out there king. I'm like, oh, Dad, anyway,
Speaker 2: So tupla, Mississippi birthplace of Elvis. It's steeped in Elvis lore,
Speaker 2: and much like the rest of the South, it's a
Speaker 2: it's a place where you're gonna find a fair share
Speaker 2: of nuts. Sure, who's my man, Jerry Read would say,
Speaker 2: I said, watch him, everybody, that boy squirreling. Now, all
Speaker 2: of this will prime us for the story I'm about
Speaker 2: to tell you the cat that I want to tell
Speaker 2: you about today. This squirrelly dude was an Elvis superfan.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, and like Elvis, he was from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Speaker 3: I've known some serious Elvis superfans totally.
Speaker 2: Well, he was a fellow Tupelo, Mississippi martial arts master.
Speaker 2: Oh that's how far he took it. And one day
Speaker 2: he was accused of trying to kill the president. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's so much more to this story than that. So so so.
Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen, the first news articles announced the FBI
Speaker 2: was investigating this rice in incident. Right the Guardian Over
Speaker 2: in the UK, they reported on April eighteenth, twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: quote a man accused of mailing letters was suspected rising
Speaker 2: to President Barack Obama and other officials believed he'd uncovered
Speaker 2: a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black
Speaker 2: market and claimed, quote various parties within the government quote
Speaker 2: we're trying to ruin his reputation. So Paul Kevin Curtis,
Speaker 2: that's our CATA forty five years old at the time.
Speaker 2: Pksey case, he's the man in question. Beats my friend
Speaker 2: sim So he's accused of threatening Barack Obama with the
Speaker 2: powdery toxin sent through the mail. Right, Okay, Now, on
Speaker 2: the face of it, this story seems outrageous, but yet
Speaker 2: it kind of makes sense. Yeah, no, right for real,
Speaker 2: paranoid man from Mississippi, convinced there's a secret cabal of
Speaker 2: body part brokers working on the black market, protected by
Speaker 2: elected officials, decides I'm going to kill the president, you
Speaker 2: know what. That is ridiculous, But the story it feels
Speaker 2: kind of familiar, like I believe, like well, I mean
Speaker 2: for our days these days, like people I'm gonna blow
Speaker 2: up my RV because of the president or whatever. Right,
Speaker 2: but you throw in the Elvis impersonator part, you got
Speaker 2: a real story. Now it's international, So that's when it sideways. Anyway,
Speaker 2: who is this cat? Paul Kevin Curtis seven? Now for one,
Speaker 2: he prefers to be called Kevin, so we'll call him
Speaker 2: Kevin Curtis, not Paul Curtis now at best as I could,
Speaker 2: gleant Casey. Oh, Casey's early life was strange. Now this
Speaker 2: is primarily due to his Elvis loving mama at a
Speaker 2: very early age. Kevin, he was a childhood prodigy Elizabeth
Speaker 2: as an Elvis impersonator, a child prodigy Elvis will allow Elvis.
Speaker 2: You ever heard of the Mexican Elvis Elves. Yes, he's
Speaker 2: my favorite of the Elvis impersonators. But then there's also
Speaker 2: I think one you like, dread Zeppelin, the Led Zeppelin
Speaker 2: cover band, Elvis impersonator as the front man who would
Speaker 2: perform Zeppelin songs and Elvis krooner voice that Wastelvis. Yes, Tartelvis,
Speaker 2: thank your producer, Dave Tartelvis could not think of that
Speaker 2: cat's name. All right. He had another one for you.
Speaker 2: You ever seen the two thousand and one movie three
Speaker 2: Thousand Miles to Gray Slam? I sure have, yeah, Kevin Cage,
Speaker 2: it's Kevin cost and Kurt Russell, and.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen it with Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 2: Leaving Las Vegas.
Speaker 3: That's not where he dresses up as Elvis.
Speaker 2: No, he does dress up as Elvis in a movie.
Speaker 2: In a movie. Yeah, I'm blanking right now.
Speaker 3: Let's just say it's three thousand miles to.
Speaker 2: So he's one hundred miles to Graceland. Three thousand still
Speaker 2: maybe three hundred page version. It was an indie film,
Speaker 2: three hundred miles. We were close. I live closer to Vegas.
Speaker 2: I live in perump So, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, they
Speaker 2: play Elvis impersonators in three thousand miles to Graceland. So,
Speaker 2: with the help of an army of other Elvis impersonators,
Speaker 2: they pull off an epic heist in Las Vegas, all
Speaker 2: dressed as Vegas era Elvis. I think I have seen that.
Speaker 2: I know to kill the parachuting, Yes, yes, parashooting, all right,
Speaker 2: I thought that would get to you Las Vegas. Baby. Well, anyway,
Speaker 2: this kid, Kevin Curtis, all right, my dude raised in Tupelo,
Speaker 2: Elvis impersonating child prodigy. All right. Now, when I say
Speaker 2: he was steeped in Elvis, his mama was like dunking
Speaker 2: him in the legacy of Elvis. Right, he imagine him
Speaker 2: as a donut and Elvis is the hot coffee that
Speaker 2: mama do. Just dunk, dunk, dunk. Right now, his mama Eloise,
Speaker 2: she'd drive her boy to Memphis, Tennessee, Homa Graceland and
Speaker 2: she'd pay to have a tiny Elvis suit be made,
Speaker 2: a custom made suit for her son, the child prodigy. Right, yeah,
Speaker 2: the suit handcrafted by Elvis is official suit maker.
Speaker 3: So is he young Elvis or old Elvis?
Speaker 2: I think you would do kind of if he's doing
Speaker 2: the suits. It's Vegas Elvis, it's older.
Speaker 3: Like you got to you gotta keep an eye on
Speaker 3: this kid when he goes to the toilet.
Speaker 2: Now, his mama always she didn't just get him the
Speaker 2: handcrafted Elvis official suit maker suit. She also to pair
Speaker 2: with that bespoke Elvis suit. She paid to have a
Speaker 2: custom belt made by Elvis's official belt maker.
Speaker 3: No way, this is like the Queen and the Royal family.
Speaker 3: They have like all the official totally perfum exactly.
Speaker 2: So now you gotta imagine like a big old karate
Speaker 2: champion style belled and crusted in rhyanestones and then shrink
Speaker 2: that down to kid sized, right. Now, pay for all this, Eloise.
Speaker 2: She would take out personal loans for this trip. It
Speaker 2: was three eight hundred and twenty five dollars.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you have to understand, Eloise, she had a
Speaker 2: special connection with the King. She met him once. Oh
Speaker 2: oh yeah, no, and Elvis had performed at the Louisiana
Speaker 2: hay Ride. She you want to carry him around on
Speaker 2: her head? I think so. She actually mentioned that in
Speaker 2: her diary. Now, this was in his early fame days,
Speaker 2: when he was coming up. You could still catch Elvis
Speaker 2: at a hay ride. This was nineteen fifty four. It
Speaker 2: wasn't like seventy No, it wasn't like seventy one hay ride.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 2: So anyway, so these the two clicked when they met
Speaker 2: at the hay Ride. Years later, I mean decades later,
Speaker 2: when he was on his way out, you know, when
Speaker 2: he's all bloated, chomping on pills. Did he die seventy seven? Okay?
Speaker 2: I believe, I'm not certainly, I believe seventy seven. So
Speaker 2: this is like shoot Out your TV era Elvis. Right,
Speaker 2: Elouise was in touch with him at this point of
Speaker 2: his life, and Elvis would call her and then he'd say, oh,
Speaker 2: pray with me, and they would sit on the phone
Speaker 2: and pray together.
Speaker 3: So okay, so I thought he was like I thought
Speaker 3: it was like she had a tying daily moments.
Speaker 2: Elvis is on the phone again, I'm gonna go greet
Speaker 2: by Bible boy. I want to pray with the King.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Now so special bomb with the King. Right, So she
Speaker 2: turns her son into like the princeling and she like,
Speaker 2: you know, eventually, interestingly, he was also a prince fan.
Speaker 2: Huge prince fan was the Kevin Curtis. He would do
Speaker 2: like prince impersonations as well. Did he evolved into Prince No, well,
Speaker 2: she want him to be become the prince to the king.
Speaker 3: Right, he did Elvis impersonations and then he later did Prince.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he went from king to Prince that. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: kid had professional pipes. He could sing. This guy, Kevin Curtis,
Speaker 2: he could. He could front a band, right, and it's
Speaker 2: a town he retained into adulthood. He can still sing
Speaker 2: right now. As an adult. He expanded his repertoire of impersonations.
Speaker 2: He did a really solid version of Buddy Holly.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 2: He also, as they said, he did the Prince songs.
Speaker 2: He also does a wicked kid rock.
Speaker 3: He's like a musical rich Yes, he's just.
Speaker 2: A little jukebox of impersonations. But you know, but you know, okay,
Speaker 2: the thing about kid rock that always find funny is
Speaker 2: he seems like he's from Mississippi, even though the dude
Speaker 2: was raised really wealthy outside of Detroit. Yeah, but yet
Speaker 2: you think, oh, rural South. He's a fancy lad who
Speaker 2: went south totally, I don't. I mean, we know about that.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so before my dude grows up and leaves
Speaker 2: town as he's a small South behind as a teenager,
Speaker 2: he lost a girlfriend who was his fiance because it's
Speaker 2: the South, and uh, you know, before they could wed,
Speaker 2: she died in a car accident. Yeah, and he was driving.
Speaker 2: It was really tragic. Sent him into a downward spiral.
Speaker 2: Then he leaves home, right, so at this point he's
Speaker 2: kind of broken. He ends up living in his car
Speaker 2: in Chicago. He's eating out of supermarket dumpsters, which you know,
Speaker 2: unless you're one of those like radical freakings, not the
Speaker 2: best way to live. So he leaves Chicago, returns home
Speaker 2: to the South. He returns to Tupelo, Mississippi by then
Speaker 2: his late twenties, he does what others do in the South.
Speaker 2: He gets married, he starts a family, has kids.
Speaker 3: You know, hebrush sorry Southerners.
Speaker 2: Well, no, I'm just saying it's far more common than like.
Speaker 2: And then in New York or San Francisco, people don't understand,
Speaker 2: like you have a lot of social pressures like, well
Speaker 2: you back home, we come down to church, will meet
Speaker 2: you a nice girl. I mean that is a very
Speaker 2: common thing. Doesn't matter black, white, or indifferent. It's very Southern. Right,
Speaker 2: So he gets himself a good job as a janitor,
Speaker 2: which he spun into a business where he'd hire others
Speaker 2: to fulfill janitorial contracts. Now he's living the dream. He's
Speaker 2: working making money off of other people's labor, the American dream. Right,
Speaker 2: He's at home lounging. Other people are getting paid and
Speaker 2: he's getting paid off their work. Oh, he loves it.
Speaker 2: And also, meanwhile he's pursuing his career as an Elvis impersonator.
Speaker 2: So living, right, you have to have your hobby. Well,
Speaker 2: he and his older brother Jack, they had a group
Speaker 2: they call themselves Double Trouble. Oh like Stevie Raveon, Yeah,
Speaker 2: kind of. But if you're wondering off. They performed and
Speaker 2: dressed as Elvis, not as Stevie.
Speaker 3: Ravon and what's his brother's name something Va Yeah, mister Vaught,
Speaker 3: Jimmy Vaughan.
Speaker 2: There you go go. Nice job. So they were brother
Speaker 2: Both brothers dressed and performed as Elvis, but one was
Speaker 2: young Elvis. It's like Jailhouse Rock era Elvis. The other
Speaker 2: one was vegas Ol Cats in the Cradle, yes exactly.
Speaker 2: But Elvis once in Rhymestone once got like the black
Speaker 2: hair all greased up. Anyway, So young and old Elvis
Speaker 2: double trouble right. Then fate played a hand. Kevin Curtis
Speaker 2: had a new janitorial contract at a hospital. One day
Speaker 2: he sees something that would ever change his life. Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: The year was nineteen ninety nine. It was December seventeenth,
Speaker 2: the elbos impersonator. He walks in that his day gig.
Speaker 2: You know, he's buffing the floors in North Mississippi Medical
Speaker 2: Center and tupelow and he's trying to clear the sump
Speaker 2: pump drain and you know that's no fun, right, So
Speaker 2: he's down there trying to clear the sump pump drain
Speaker 2: in the floor and he spots something that horrified him.
Speaker 2: As Kevin recalled later on, my whole life turned on
Speaker 2: a dime. Yeah, right, take a break. When we get back,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what Kevin Curtis saw that forever changed him.
Speaker 3: Excellent.
Speaker 2: All right, we're back, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: You know what I was just thinking?
Speaker 2: What were you thinking of?
Speaker 3: How crazy would it be if someone was on PCP
Speaker 3: and they saw Double Trouble performing?
Speaker 2: Why would the PCP factor because it would get frame damn.
Speaker 2: So they'rething so thrown by it they figure they're hallucinating.
Speaker 2: They go home and try to fight one of the
Speaker 2: elvis is because they can't both be real. Only one
Speaker 2: Elvis is the true Elvis.
Speaker 3: He tries to eat their feet.
Speaker 2: I'd worry about what you think about when we're on breaks.
Speaker 2: You know, you gotta think about something, all right. So
Speaker 2: it's nineteen ninety nine, Yes it is. You're going to
Speaker 2: party like it's nineteen ninety nine. It's December seventeenth. Okay,
Speaker 2: bout to be y two k right, kookie, everybody's like
Speaker 2: on edge. Kevin Curtis is working in a hospital, one
Speaker 2: of his janitorial contracts that told you about. While he's working,
Speaker 2: he's asked to leave his usual gig. They're like, normally
Speaker 2: he'd be like slopping a mess on the er floor,
Speaker 2: you know, scooping up blood and the mop. Yeah. Anyway,
Speaker 2: and this night he's asked to go clean up a
Speaker 2: different sort of mess. It's actually rough business, Elizabeth. As
Speaker 2: Kevin Curtis, he recounted in an article with a GQ magazine,
Speaker 2: he said, I'm slipping and sliding in blood and guts.
Speaker 2: After three hours, I'm dehydrated, sweating, burning up. Gotta have
Speaker 2: something to drink, right, So he's down there and mopping
Speaker 2: up whatever this mess was. He goes on the hunt
Speaker 2: for like a doctor pepper or something cold like that.
Speaker 2: Pops open a fridge. There are no cold drinks, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: none whatsoever. No doctor pepper for this poor man.
Speaker 3: What kind of hospital is instead?
Speaker 2: Peering back at him was a severed head. Oh.
Speaker 3: I thought you're gonna say he found like a rabbit
Speaker 3: human hybrid.
Speaker 2: No, but that'd be great though. No, he said, it's
Speaker 2: just this man's head and the back ahead. So as
Speaker 2: Kevin Curtis remembered it, quote, first thing I saw was
Speaker 2: an arm wrapped in a plastic with a barcode and
Speaker 2: a leg wrapped in plastic. The whole bottom portion of
Speaker 2: the refrigerator's legs, arms, feet, hands, and eyes and a brain.
Speaker 2: Oh at the eye level of the fridge was the
Speaker 2: severed heaven of a man I'd seen alive in the
Speaker 2: er a couple nights before. Oh no, right, so he shook.
Speaker 2: He's absolutely just beside himself. The fridge is chocol block
Speaker 2: with chilled body parts. Horrifies him to his innocent cores.
Speaker 2: Right then things got worse, I think, Kevin Curtis, you would. Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is the next night. He's back at where Kevin
Speaker 2: gets called upstairs for a meeting in an executive's office.
Speaker 2: He's escorted there by security. And this is not just
Speaker 2: any executive's office, Elizabeth. He was taken to the hospital
Speaker 2: CEO's office. Yeah, a man named Jeff Barber. So this
Speaker 2: cat Jeff the barbar beef Cake, the CEO of the hospital.
Speaker 2: He's not alone in his office for five other men. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they all had suits on. Look an official. They have
Speaker 2: some legal documents on a table. Kevin was told he'd
Speaker 2: need to sign the documents because he was, in a word,
Speaker 2: a little bit reluctant when he was told this. It
Speaker 2: says Paul K. Curtis agreed that on December the seventeenth,
Speaker 2: I was in an area of the hospital I was
Speaker 2: not authorized to be in and I'm going to be
Speaker 2: suspended without pay. Well, this batter is being investigated, Kevin Curtis,
Speaker 2: He didn't come into that. No, no, no, he done
Speaker 2: nothing wrong. Right, So as he tells it, quote, I
Speaker 2: stood up and I said that that's a lot, and
Speaker 2: I'm not signing that this has something to do with
Speaker 2: those body parts I found. They yanked the PHONA, dialed
Speaker 2: four digits. Six security guards grabbed me, tackled me, handcuffed me,
Speaker 2: walk me across the street, and said you are here
Speaker 2: by banned for life from the North Mississippi Medical Center.
Speaker 2: Oh right. Kevin Curtsey becomes convinced that the largest hospital
Speaker 2: in Tupelo is actually part of a dark trade. It
Speaker 2: was black market orgon harvest in. Well.
Speaker 3: I would just think they're just like doing it for
Speaker 3: scientific research.
Speaker 2: One would think with the arcos and all.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Anyway, this starts a crusade for him to go warn
Speaker 2: the public about the body part of course, Yeah, we've
Speaker 2: got orgon harvesters at Tupelo.
Speaker 3: Well, and if I am going to get that news
Speaker 3: broken to me. I want someone to look like Elvis
Speaker 3: when they're telling.
Speaker 2: A trusted figure. Yes. So this choice to start this
Speaker 2: crusade warning the public about the organ harvesters, it goes
Speaker 2: about as well as you might guess. It ruins his life. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So he gets active online. He finds forums of like
Speaker 2: minded conspiracy theorists. He tells them what all he knows,
Speaker 2: what he saw firsthand, what he was pressured to do.
Speaker 2: His MySpace page becomes this like scroll of body harvesting
Speaker 2: focus post. Friends begin to distance themselves. Elizabeth family worries
Speaker 2: about him. They confront him. They're like, you need to stop,
Speaker 2: and he's like, this only makes me go harder. Oh no,
Speaker 2: because you know he's being suppressed, right, dude. His crusade
Speaker 2: to bring back the black market Oregon harvesting cabal into
Speaker 2: the light. Kevin Curtis loses his job, then he gets
Speaker 2: ANO one. He loses that job, then he loses the
Speaker 2: one after that, and the one after that, starting a
Speaker 2: long string of jobs. Right. He also loses gigs as
Speaker 2: an Elvis impersonator. Oh because okay, but just imagine you're
Speaker 2: in the crowd. Elizabeth and you would expect to hear
Speaker 2: suspicious eyes afterward? Do you not expect to hear suspicious
Speaker 2: eyebrokers in your local hospital? Right?
Speaker 3: So he was like telling everyone from stage.
Speaker 2: He'd be up on stage at like the Tupelo Elvis Festival,
Speaker 2: and Kevin Curtz decided he'd educate the whole gathered crowd
Speaker 2: about all the dangers lurking in the corridors of their
Speaker 2: biggest hospital.
Speaker 3: Well, like I said, if you've got to hear it
Speaker 3: here from from Elvis.
Speaker 2: That's the one, right. But his brother Jack was up.
Speaker 2: They're standing on stage with them because remember it's double
Speaker 2: Trouble Trouble, right, so he had to listen to Kevin
Speaker 2: Curtis ranting about the orgon harvesters, and he knew immediately
Speaker 2: this is bad for Double Trouble. As he said, I thought,
Speaker 2: oh my god, we'll never sing again.
Speaker 3: Wait, is there like footage of this? I would pay
Speaker 3: so much to go back in time.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you get back.
Speaker 3: A VHS there to watch him do this.
Speaker 2: In full helves helves is standing there.
Speaker 3: Embarrassing, and then the guy next to me is on PCP.
Speaker 2: That you've given to him. Huh. So from this point
Speaker 2: on Kevin Curtis, he begins a long run of like
Speaker 2: run ins with the law. Right, He's just like constantly
Speaker 2: getting arrested over and over and over again. Most of the
Speaker 2: charges they're misdemeanors. So he's getting busted for like public
Speaker 2: intoxication things like that. He gets busted twenty two times
Speaker 2: over a thirteen year period. Yeah, so that wasn't all
Speaker 2: because over that same period, his house burned down. Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, car exploded in separate events. Wait, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: his wife though, Laura, she said that it was their
Speaker 2: fault of the car exploded because the battery was not
Speaker 2: wired correctly.
Speaker 3: So what is going on in the car that they're like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, we had the regular wiring and we saw
Speaker 3: it trial some little.
Speaker 2: Because we see if we can juice the air conditions,
Speaker 2: and they made it blow up. Yes, apparently that's what
Speaker 2: she says. I didn't see the reports, but yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: not a mechanic. No, but I don't think it works
Speaker 2: between you, me and the shade tree over there. I'm
Speaker 2: saying this tanky Now, Laura, why she can't endure all this? Right?
Speaker 2: So she and the kids they leave. Now. Meanwhile, Kevin's
Speaker 2: concentrated on his MySpace page Crusades, you know, so his
Speaker 2: post Meanwhile, they always ended in this really dystopian, messianic
Speaker 2: kind of rather cryptic sign off. All this supposts would
Speaker 2: be like, I am case and I approved this message.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. At this point, my space is the one
Speaker 3: where you had music on your land.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly your listen. I'm just trying to imagine.
Speaker 3: I'm visualizing his MySpace and I'm trying to think of this.
Speaker 2: Tom was worried about him. Tom from my space is
Speaker 2: like bro sending him my messages. Anyway, So to those
Speaker 2: who were worried about my man's mental health, Kevin Curtis
Speaker 2: would gladly, proudly, defiantly tell them they ruined my career,
Speaker 2: burned down my home, killed my dogs, my cat, my rabbit,
Speaker 2: blew up my car, destroying my marriage. Have me arrested
Speaker 2: twenty two times, and you want me to quit. I
Speaker 2: will keep on fighting until Jesus Christ decides it's time
Speaker 2: for me to go. So he ain't given them. This
Speaker 2: is what I'm saying. Wow, now you may be thinking,
Speaker 2: I can hear it, Saron, I hear how this guy
Speaker 2: might spiral to the point that he'd send an envelope
Speaker 2: of rice into the Whiteah And you'd be wrong, Elizabeth. Oh,
Speaker 2: but we'd all be wrong because we all think we
Speaker 2: can hear it, because it's right there, right, and so
Speaker 2: much sound. We know this story. But this is ridiculous crime, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: not CNN. So trust this will go nowhere where you
Speaker 2: think it will go. Enter Kevin Curtis's arch enemy and
Speaker 2: sworn rival, Everett Dutsky. But in the South they pronounced
Speaker 2: it dusky.
Speaker 3: Okay, he has ames.
Speaker 2: Poor nemesis and arts rival.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: Evert Duski dusky. He was a Tupelo miss micro celebrity
Speaker 2: of his own nature. Yes. No, Like Kevin Curtis, Everett
Speaker 2: was a taekwondo instructor. He was allo a local musician.
Speaker 2: Originally from Kentucky. He was born in Louisville. His family
Speaker 2: later migrated to Texas, and just like Kevin Curtis, in
Speaker 2: his teen years, he was also visited by tragedy. His
Speaker 2: older brother died of suicide. Oh God, so that sent
Speaker 2: Everett inward right, and it made him mean. According to
Speaker 2: his own father, Lennis dutch Key quote, that was probably
Speaker 2: the event that caused him to learn how to hate.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Now. So eventually, as an adult, old Edward dutch Key,
Speaker 2: he becomes a martial arts instructor, specifically taekwondo, but he
Speaker 2: couldn't keep a gig. He kept getting fired. He was
Speaker 2: fired one place for stealing. At another dojo, he was
Speaker 2: fired for sleeping with the married mother of one of
Speaker 2: his students. Of course, he claimed Innis in Elizabeth. It
Speaker 2: wasn't his fault. He did nothing wrong, and then he
Speaker 2: even he made good on it. He married the student's
Speaker 2: mother once she divorced her husband, and their marriage only
Speaker 2: lasted six months. Anyway, at some point he moves to Tupelo,
Speaker 2: all right, So once there he starts an independent newspaper,
Speaker 2: because of course you need.
Speaker 3: To be into town and start a paper.
Speaker 2: Yes, the tagline for the newspaper was quote, I will
Speaker 2: print any story in northeast Mississippi, no matter how big
Speaker 2: or small or controversial. If the Daily Journal will not
Speaker 2: tell your story, I will amazing. Now the Daily Journal,
Speaker 2: that's the big paper in Tupelo. That quote, by the way,
Speaker 2: is what Kevin Curtis recalled reading this local indie paper.
Speaker 2: It's no longer in print. I couldn't find stuff online,
Speaker 2: very scampyy. Copies apparently remained to check. So we have
Speaker 2: to take his word for it. But anyway, this tagline
Speaker 2: that's stuck with Kevin Curtis. He goes he had a
Speaker 2: story to tell, all right, So two thousand and six,
Speaker 2: he tracked down Edward Ducci, who by then was working
Speaker 2: in the same office as Kevin Curtis's wife, Laura. Right, so,
Speaker 2: when Kevin Curtis spotted Ewart at his wife's work party,
Speaker 2: He's like, most is my opportunity meant to be? He'd
Speaker 2: already called him with his story at this point, and
Speaker 2: Everett had yet to respond, So Kevin came into the
Speaker 2: moment a little heated take it away, Kevin. I walk
Speaker 2: over to Dutchy and I say, hey, I'm Kevin Curtis.
Speaker 2: I reach out to shake his hand. I say, so,
Speaker 2: did you get my phone call? My message? I thought
Speaker 2: you'd print any story, no matter how controversial. Now, at
Speaker 2: this point in his life, Dutchkey had been many things, right.
Speaker 2: He'd been a broadcaster, He'd worked as an insurance salesman.
Speaker 2: He was an aspiring local musician, not to mention taekwondo
Speaker 2: instructor and central to his sense of self was he
Speaker 2: was a member of MENSA. We'll come back to that
Speaker 2: later anyway. Meanwhile, at this point, Everett has decided to
Speaker 2: take a turn in politics. So that's the perfect profession
Speaker 2: for a man like him who's unlikable and mean. Right,
Speaker 2: So he runs for state legislature. Oh yeah, So when
Speaker 2: he and Kevin Curti has met, he had other things
Speaker 2: in his indie paper on his mind. He was thinking
Speaker 2: about his future in politics, and he told Kevin Curtis
Speaker 2: as much. And he told him he wouldn't publish a
Speaker 2: story about the big hospital, not while I'm running for
Speaker 2: state legislature. Right, So Kevin Curtis calls him a liar
Speaker 2: to his face because and there he is at his
Speaker 2: wife's work party, right, and he's getting heated about Oregon
Speaker 2: harvesting and body brokers. Never a good look. Kevin Curtisy
Speaker 2: loses sight of all of this because he's focused on
Speaker 2: the truth. Elizabeth, and I say, and I quote, I said, oh,
Speaker 2: so you're a liar. Your paper says you'll print any story,
Speaker 2: no matter how big or controversial. I got a story,
Speaker 2: So are you gonna interview me? This is all happening
Speaker 2: at a work party. His wife, Laura recalled that first
Speaker 2: meeting of Kevin Curtis and Evert dutch Key. She saw
Speaker 2: her coworker, her work friend, mind you, sweating and shaking
Speaker 2: and I don't know why. So she told her husband
Speaker 2: to leave Evart alone, right, and Kevin did. He leaves
Speaker 2: the party. Ever dutch Key turns to Laura and says,
Speaker 2: I never want to see that guy again. This marked
Speaker 2: the beginning of their seven year long feud. Oh no, no, Interestingly,
Speaker 2: these two men have a lot in comment on the surfaces.
Speaker 2: They were both taekwondo kicking martial arts instructors, they were
Speaker 2: both local musicians, They both liked Laura, they were both
Speaker 2: local legends. And as Laura recalled about ever dutch Key,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth quote, he dressed funny. He'd wear a pinstriped suit,
Speaker 2: and he would wear that same suit all the time.
Speaker 2: He was just a different character. So you got this
Speaker 2: guy walking around Tupelo and in the same pinstripe suit,
Speaker 2: flashing his Mensa badge to anyone who will listen, strolling
Speaker 2: along on his way down to the dojo where he
Speaker 2: teaches local kids to kick ass. That's local legend if
Speaker 2: I've ever heard of it.
Speaker 3: Hey, there are two main characters in the town.
Speaker 2: There's only room for what thig. There you go. Now,
Speaker 2: that's not all Elizabeth ever dutch Key. He also had
Speaker 2: a band, because I remember musicians. So while Kevin Curtison's
Speaker 2: brother had Double Trouble, the Young Elvis Old Elvis Vegas,
Speaker 2: Elvis Duet dutch Key, he didn't have a family act. No,
Speaker 2: not him. He remember a mean and unlikable So he
Speaker 2: had a blues act because of course he's going to
Speaker 2: sing the blues. Sort of a one man band affair.
Speaker 2: He was called Dusty in the robo drum.
Speaker 3: He wanted to call Double Bubble.
Speaker 2: He was described. He described his band as quote progressive
Speaker 2: guitar funk tronica for smart people. Oh for smart people,
Speaker 2: Well count me out. He made music for you and
Speaker 2: your people, Elizabeth, smart people with musical taste. But old
Speaker 2: Dusty in the robo drum they were even worse than
Speaker 2: you might imagine, And I know you're imaginative. So Brock Robbins,
Speaker 2: there's this guy, Brock Robbins. He ran to open mic
Speaker 2: night at a spot called Boondocks. Now Brock recalled two
Speaker 2: GQ how he he grew to resent whenever old Dusty
Speaker 2: in the robo drum would grace his stage.
Speaker 3: It was horrible, just Dusty in the robo drum at Boondocks.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, come on, it's too much, well, he said,
Speaker 2: and I quote, it was horrible every time he got
Speaker 2: up there, and the tarar bar just flooded outside my
Speaker 2: open mic. Knot was his first act of terrorism. He
Speaker 2: killed it. Now on the face of it, as I said,
Speaker 2: you might think these two local legends could be actual friends.
Speaker 2: I mean, boy, why do they have to be sworn rivals.
Speaker 2: They both like Laura, they're both musicians. I run it down,
Speaker 2: even Laura of the wife. She said, quote. I told
Speaker 2: Kevin they really should be friends because they are so alike.
Speaker 2: They were both singers. Dutch Key published a paper and
Speaker 2: Kevin rote papers. Dutchkey hated Steve Holland, and Kevin hated
Speaker 2: this person and that person, so they had hate in common.
Speaker 2: You may be wondering, sin Steve Holland, Who's Steve Holland?
Speaker 2: Just dropped Steve Holland into the story. Steve Holland, he
Speaker 2: was a local politician and he was Everet's opponent, for
Speaker 2: state legislature. See the Steve Yes, Yeah, he was a
Speaker 2: character too. He was a longtime Democratic incumbent from the area.
Speaker 2: To make some noise in his race, old Evert compared
Speaker 2: his opponent to Boss Hogg from Dukes of Hazard.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: When that didn't work, he allege it Holland was somehow
Speaker 2: responsible for nine to eleven. Wait. Yes, So, as Holland
Speaker 2: recalled of this really wild cap campaign, he said, I
Speaker 2: never stood eyeball to eyeball or did with the man,
Speaker 2: but for some reason he just hated the hell out
Speaker 2: of me. He called me everything from gay to communists,
Speaker 2: everything but a child of God. I mean, he had
Speaker 2: no campaign or agenda except to cut my nuts out.
Speaker 2: But you got to get your up early and go
Speaker 2: to bed late to beat my I have held this
Speaker 2: seat for thirty years. I can absolutely make love do
Speaker 2: a bull moose on the steps of the Lee County
Speaker 2: Courthouse and garner more than five percent of the vote. Wow,
Speaker 2: so that's Steve Hollings. So in the end he prevailed.
Speaker 2: He beat it for duch Kes sixty eight to twenty
Speaker 2: seven percent of the vote.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. It's not like oh I could shoot
Speaker 3: someone on fifth Avenue.
Speaker 2: I could see that moose on the courthouse. God when
Speaker 2: he said this before Trump said the fix. So this
Speaker 2: predeates that.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah yeah, wait, so how is he responsible for
Speaker 3: nine to eleven?
Speaker 2: What did he do? Oh, it's just talk. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: like he knew Muhammad Attah. I don't know, I don't
Speaker 2: know whatever he said, roommates with Mohammad Autah something like that. Anyway, Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: when he was not in his public spat with Steve Holland,
Speaker 2: dutch Key was still privately feuding with Kevin Curtis, so
Speaker 2: he would stock his MySpace page that this was the
Speaker 2: one dedicated to Oregon harvesting. Kevin Curtis alleged that dutch
Speaker 2: Key was on his page sometimes like seventy five times
Speaker 2: a day, which is crazy, right, So one day he
Speaker 2: sets trap for his rival, So he baited the track
Speaker 2: with something irresisible to old Everett Dutchkey, an ego based trap. Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: can you guess what he said it with? No? Remember
Speaker 2: how I said he was a MENSA.
Speaker 3: Member knows, oh like IQ.
Speaker 2: Test, No, the perfect spot to hit is the soft underbelly.
Speaker 2: This guy's soft underbelly is MENSA membership. So Kaiskuer question
Speaker 2: was little sure, of course, Elizabeth, are you now or
Speaker 2: have you ever been a member of MENSA?
Speaker 3: Of course not really, There's no way I would qualify
Speaker 3: for MENSA. Also, I kind of feel like I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't really trust IQ tests.
Speaker 2: Okay, so all right, Well, my father was a member
Speaker 2: of MENSA. Used to tell people that I guess I
Speaker 2: do qualify, but I don't join clubs. So through that, right,
Speaker 2: But you already know that. But for some people, though
Speaker 2: being at a club like MENSA super important was definitely
Speaker 2: he gives them identity, gives them a sense of superiority. Ever,
Speaker 2: Dutschki he was one of those people. So Kevin Curtis
Speaker 2: had figured that out. So he put on his MySpace
Speaker 2: page and he was also a member of MENSA, and
Speaker 2: he posted a fake certificate proving it nice. Just a
Speaker 2: few short hours later, at eight to five pm local time,
Speaker 2: Kevin Curtis received an email, Kevin, I put up with
Speaker 2: your lies silently for long time, but this one I
Speaker 2: cannot abide. I am an officer in MENSA, Kevin, of this,
Speaker 2: I am certain you are aware. What you were not
Speaker 2: aware of is that we keep very good records of
Speaker 2: who is and who is not a MENSA member. So
Speaker 2: he consulted those records and he told Kevin Curtis that
Speaker 2: in the email there is one person named Kevin Curtis
Speaker 2: from New York and one named Paul Curtis from Kentucky.
Speaker 2: I know you are not either of them. I'm giving
Speaker 2: you one day to remove your fraudulent claims from your website.
Speaker 2: By the way, Kevin, you cannot be both genius and
Speaker 2: at the same time. Your claim of being a gigging
Speaker 2: musician is one thing. Claiming to be playing at a
Speaker 2: Montgomery Theater when D. L. Hewley was there and claiming
Speaker 2: to be on tour with Carrie Underwood are harmless lies
Speaker 2: that everyone simply laughs at you four. But this claim
Speaker 2: is no laughing matter. This is a serious fraud. One
Speaker 2: day is all you have, Kevin, just one day. So
Speaker 2: that's the email he receives. Trap is now sprung. So
Speaker 2: Kevin Curtis did not do as ever dutch Key demanded.
Speaker 2: He did not take down the fake MENSAS certificate. He
Speaker 2: kept it up. The day passed, Kevin Curtis received another email.
Speaker 2: True to their mutual status is taekwon do experts dutch
Speaker 2: Key challenged Kevin Curtis to come down to his dojo.
Speaker 2: I will meet you next Tuesday at my school at
Speaker 2: one pm and we can finish this once and for all.
Speaker 2: So how does Kevin Curtis respond? Don't? Does he go
Speaker 2: down to the jojo? Elizabeth yea with his fists of
Speaker 2: justice veil. Yes, let's take a break and after these ads,
Speaker 2: I'll take you down to the dojo. Okay, Elizabeth, we're back,
Speaker 2: ready to go to the dojo. I know you love
Speaker 2: dojo's okay, Kevin Curtis. He gets all geed up in
Speaker 2: his martial arts gear and he headed down to Edvard
Speaker 2: dutch Key's dojo. And when he got there, nothing, there's
Speaker 2: no dutch Key. So Kevin Curtis took the MySpace I
Speaker 2: posted on my Space I drove to Taekwondo Plus to
Speaker 2: have a meeting with every Dutchy in the Coward has
Speaker 2: let the building.
Speaker 3: So they were gonna have a show down at the.
Speaker 2: Taekwon Do dojo. Now, if you ask ever dutch Key,
Speaker 2: he was there that day at Taekwondo Plus and it
Speaker 2: was Kevin Curtis who never came through Taekwondol. So I
Speaker 2: guess We'll never know the truth of what happened that day.
Speaker 2: Only know is that there was no Mono emano down
Speaker 2: at the dojo. So yet they weren't done because these
Speaker 2: two nun chuck swinging local rock and rollers and they're
Speaker 2: bitter feud. It was about to go national.
Speaker 3: Oh you ready, I am so ready.
Speaker 2: On a Wednesday morning, April twenty thirteen, an envelope arrived
Speaker 2: at the Tuopolo Justice Courthouse. Someone in the mail room
Speaker 2: noticed this envelope is awfully suspicious, so they noted it
Speaker 2: and they called up to the judge, who was four.
Speaker 2: The envelope was addressed to Judge Sadie Holland. She was
Speaker 2: told about the envelope. She went down to the mailroom
Speaker 2: to retrieve it. And by the way, Judge Sadie Holland,
Speaker 2: you may have guessed, is State Rep. Steve Holland's mother.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that kind of South power. So she's just
Speaker 2: as much of a character. She told GQ the story
Speaker 2: of receiving this envelope. Well, sure enough, is just something
Speaker 2: loose in that envelope. I pulled the letter out, I
Speaker 2: read the letter out loud. Of course, all the mail
Speaker 2: room girls had already played with the letter and shook it,
Speaker 2: and they came in there to listen. And then I
Speaker 2: smelled of it. It didn't have an odor to it.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a joke. I told, Oh, I'm
Speaker 2: sure someone that I performed a wedding for. They've been
Speaker 2: to the beach and they're just sending me some sand. What.
Speaker 2: Oh it was not sand, Elizabeth, it was rice. It
Speaker 2: was actually was actual rising, yes, and which is typically
Speaker 2: a very fatal poison, like just no treatment, nothing, just
Speaker 2: put them in the borg and make some whiskey out
Speaker 2: of their bones. Right, So two matching envelopes were also sent,
Speaker 2: one to President Barack Obama and the other two Mississippi
Speaker 2: State Senator. The letter inside the envelopes, they sure sounded
Speaker 2: like the words of one Kevin Curtis. No one wanted
Speaker 2: to listen to me before. There are still missing pieces.
Speaker 2: Maybe I have your attention now, even if that means
Speaker 2: someone must die. This must stop to see a wrong
Speaker 2: and not expose it is to become a silent partner
Speaker 2: to its continuance. I am case and I approved this message.
Speaker 2: Now that last one was the tell, right, that was
Speaker 2: the one. Now you took, yesci about exactly one Google
Speaker 2: search to come across the MySpace page of one Kevin
Speaker 2: Curtis of Tupelo, Mississippi. They raided his home just days later.
Speaker 3: But did Sadie die from sniff and moment?
Speaker 2: No, this is this is not the one percent. No
Speaker 2: one died. I would have told you that I figured,
Speaker 2: but like I just how okay? But you know what,
Speaker 2: brather me just tell you about all this, like, oh,
Speaker 2: the FBI rated him. I'd prefer that you close your eyes.
Speaker 2: My eyes a close and you picture it. It's April seventeenth,
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, and you, Elizabeth, are a Chihuahuah jack Russell
Speaker 2: Terrier mix, yes, one with a very remief coat. You
Speaker 2: are colored like a hole steam cow. This explains your name,
Speaker 2: moo cow. You are the dog of Kevin Curtis. You
Speaker 2: two are just rocking and rolling down the road back home.
Speaker 2: The windows are down, your little paws are up on
Speaker 2: the edge of the door, your head in the wind,
Speaker 2: your tongue walls out of your mouth. It's doggy heaven
Speaker 2: for you. You live alone with Kevin Curtis, just the
Speaker 2: two of you. You've just had dinner at Laura's house
Speaker 2: with the kids, and now you're almost home. Kevin slows.
Speaker 2: As he gets close to home, he waves at his neighbors,
Speaker 2: but they don't wave back. They just sort of stare
Speaker 2: with rather limpid faces, as if they're waiting for something
Speaker 2: to happen. You hop down and saunter over to Kevin's
Speaker 2: side of the truck, and you climb into his lap
Speaker 2: at the wheel of his white Ford Escape. You feel safe,
Speaker 2: as if you were lying nuzzled by your mom. Kevin
Speaker 2: pulls to a stop. He opens the door and steps
Speaker 2: out to check his mailbox. That's when it happens. All
Speaker 2: of the federal agents in their trucks and patrol cars.
Speaker 2: They're undercover sedans, they're blacked out suburbans. They all descend
Speaker 2: on the white Ford Escape. They surround you in Kevin Curtis.
Speaker 2: Then the agents rush from their vehicles and massive officers
Speaker 2: from different agencies and bureaus. It's alphabet suit, FBI, HF,
Speaker 2: Secret Service, Capitol Police, Homeland Security, local police, state police.
Speaker 2: They're all there. Men in bulletproof vests run up at
Speaker 2: you in the Forida Escape, their assault rifles raised and
Speaker 2: aimed at Kevin Curtis. They are also service firearms in
Speaker 2: hand aimed at you. Kevin Curtis spins around to see
Speaker 2: who the Feds are here to capture, but there's no
Speaker 2: one behind him. He spins back around. It's him. They're
Speaker 2: here for him. One of the cops screams at Kevin
Speaker 2: kurk freeze, do not move, do not he says, way,
Speaker 2: we'll shoot you. You hear your guy? Kevin meekly asked,
Speaker 2: may The cop doesn't answer his question, and Steady shouts back,
Speaker 2: shut up, get out of the car, get on the ground.
Speaker 2: You don't like this cop at all or his attitude,
Speaker 2: and since you're at Chihuahua Jack Russell terrier mix, you
Speaker 2: have no so you start parking at this armed cop
Speaker 2: and Kevin reaches up in scoop chet from the driver's
Speaker 2: seat of his forward escape. He turns back to face
Speaker 2: the gaggle of guns that are now pressed at him.
Speaker 2: You hear Kevin tell the guys with guns in his face, Okay,
Speaker 2: I've got my little new cow. Now. The cops don't
Speaker 2: like that. They shot back, drop the dog. Drop the dog.
Speaker 2: Kevin is not trying to hear that. He asked, can
Speaker 2: I just take her back inside and secure her? Definitely not?
Speaker 2: Kevin sets you back down on the driver's seat. You
Speaker 2: bark to be picked back up. But the agents they
Speaker 2: grab Kevin Curtis says, shove them to the Mississippi soil.
Speaker 2: They handcuff him. He asked the officers, am I being arrested?
Speaker 2: The agents just respond gruffly, don't ask questions. We'll ask
Speaker 2: the questions. You're glad to hear Kevin ask about you?
Speaker 2: But what about my dog? One of the cops he's
Speaker 2: holding an assault rifle. He approaches the Ford escape and
Speaker 2: he tries to grab you by the collar. He's all
Speaker 2: like all fourced, no finesse. So you growl at him
Speaker 2: and then you run. You bound past the cop. You
Speaker 2: hit the ground running. You don't hesitate. The Jack Russell
Speaker 2: terrier part. Those jeans take over. You are gone and
Speaker 2: you disappear into the brush. You hear Kevin Curtis shouting,
Speaker 2: my dog? What about moo cow? The cops say you
Speaker 2: moukow will be fine. Kevin Curtis, he doesn't believe this.
Speaker 2: He hasks the cops, Sir, can you please take off
Speaker 2: your sunglasses? I can see your eyes. Excuse me, Kevin
Speaker 2: explains some stuff. I want to see your eyes when
Speaker 2: you tell me She'll be fine because I don't think
Speaker 2: you give a damn about moocal. Now this is the
Speaker 2: last thing you hear before Kevin Curtis is tossed in
Speaker 2: the back of a Patty Wagon van. Next stop Oxford, Mississippi,
Speaker 2: to be interrogated by the agents from Alphabet Soup. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2: So now that he's in custody, Kevin Curtis, he spent
Speaker 2: three hours chained to a chair all by himself in
Speaker 2: an interrogation room, confused what's going on? Why he's been arrested,
Speaker 2: and he Nelson needs to pee so find now someone
Speaker 2: comes in. They take him to the bathroom. He gets
Speaker 2: some relief. Quote. Three agents walk me to a restroom,
Speaker 2: open the stall and they say, I know it's uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: but we have to watch you have a bowel movement.
Speaker 2: I say, you gonna wipe me too. Now the agent
Speaker 2: they're from all these various letter bureaus, they started to
Speaker 2: crack open the nut that is Kevin Curtis. Right, so
Speaker 2: they told him the victims of what he's done are
Speaker 2: in the hospital. There's one girl barely clinging to life. Now,
Speaker 2: this is what we call in the interrogation business call
Speaker 2: a lie, so no one was in the hospital. The
Speaker 2: agents just wanted to scare Kevin, so he would blurt
Speaker 2: out what he's done, right, And I'm like, what was
Speaker 2: in the what? Then they won't tell me, they want
Speaker 2: me to say it. So this goes on for a while.
Speaker 2: Finally the guy from Homeland Security he just runs out
Speaker 2: of patience. He's like, oh, for Christ's sakes, he just said,
Speaker 2: are you familiar with Rising? And Kevin Curtis had never
Speaker 2: once in his life heard of Rice. And he didn't
Speaker 2: even really hear what the agent said. He's like and
Speaker 2: I said, I don't like rice. I don't even really
Speaker 2: eat rice. Y'all look in my house. You won't find
Speaker 2: any rice. So the agent actually like, now he's had
Speaker 2: to like correct the good old boy from Tuplow. He's like,
Speaker 2: no Rice, and mister Curtis Rice and like anthrax And
Speaker 2: I say, I've never heard of that in my life, sir.
Speaker 2: He says, you are a liar, and I was like, huh. Now.
Speaker 2: Smash cut to seven hours later, the agents were all
Speaker 2: worn out. Kevin Curtis Is just like got them frustrated.
Speaker 2: He's just about as dumb as Rising now as he
Speaker 2: was seven hours earlier, so the agents know we don't
Speaker 2: have our guys due this guy can't be it. Finally
Speaker 2: they know that they aren't getting anywhere, and they asked me,
Speaker 2: do you have any enemies? Do you know of anyone
Speaker 2: who wants to harm you? And I say yeah, ever Dutschki.
Speaker 2: At this point, Kevin Curtis was released from custody and
Speaker 2: the FBI Homeland Security folks they went after their new target,
Speaker 2: the MENSA member Everett doutschke Yes. Meanwhile, a small miracle
Speaker 2: occurred for Old Kevin Curtis. Remember, up to this point,
Speaker 2: he's basically been the organ harvester guy yeah around Tablow. Well,
Speaker 2: now he's the wrongly accused of attempting to murder the
Speaker 2: president guy by the Feds, so they love this. He's
Speaker 2: his conspiracy minded man's idea of a hero, right the
Speaker 2: locals they changed review of Old Kevin Curtis, but he's
Speaker 2: still the same guy. So on April twenty third, twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: on the steps of the courthouse, he gave a press
Speaker 2: conference upon his release. Now and the press asked what
Speaker 2: he planned to do next. Elizabeth Kevin Curtis had answers,
Speaker 2: find my dog moucw she got away when home land
Speaker 2: security swarmed in on me. When I want to go
Speaker 2: check my man. I haven't heard anything. I'm just really
Speaker 2: worried about her. I bought a fish a week before.
Speaker 2: And now his brother's standing behind him on the car steps.
Speaker 2: He's got this great helmet of hair, right, just amazing hair.
Speaker 2: And he interrupts. He said, I found her. Now Kevin
Speaker 2: Curtis is taking him back a moment. He continued, you
Speaker 2: got moo cow. My brothers found moo cow. Thank you, Jack.
Speaker 2: So you see, y'all probably know more than I know.
Speaker 2: But yes, she's an amazing dog, and I want to
Speaker 2: get to her. I want to get to my children.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any of my children a week. So
Speaker 2: my son, my sixteen year old, got his first car
Speaker 2: that max wife and I were working on getting them,
Speaker 2: and I missed his first play when he was a
Speaker 2: bumblebee when he was nine years old, from going to jail.
Speaker 2: So I've been to jail over twenty times and I've
Speaker 2: never been convicted of anything so far. So the press
Speaker 2: at this point is like, what this is amazing? So
Speaker 2: order of business for this guy, simo cow, then go
Speaker 2: see kicks guy gonna say, it's like he established moved.
Speaker 2: He was looking up for you. So later on in
Speaker 2: this press conference, Curtis he speaks to his plans to
Speaker 2: repay his lawyer for her work because she just came
Speaker 2: in said are you He's like, no, I didn't do it.
Speaker 2: He's like, I'll be your lawyer. Right, So now she's
Speaker 2: one of the people he wants to repay, as well
Speaker 2: as all of the citizens of the area who are
Speaker 2: afflicted with sore feet. And I quote, I would like
Speaker 2: to add that right now, I can't really afford to
Speaker 2: pay her the million that she's worth. But I am
Speaker 2: a license certified reflexologist and I'm going to start with
Speaker 2: foot massage therapy with Christy. That's his lawyer who was
Speaker 2: standing right next to him awkwardly laughing through this. Who's
Speaker 2: going to be my first client? And I'm going to
Speaker 2: donate one hundred thousand hours to Community Service Northeast Mississippi
Speaker 2: to all you ladies who need foot massage therapy. That's
Speaker 2: my random act of kindness. There's yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: I can't process happening, that's right.
Speaker 2: So I was keeping score one hundred thousand hours of
Speaker 2: community service. I did the math on that that would
Speaker 2: work out to be four thousand, one hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: six full twenty four hour days of massage with sixteen
Speaker 2: hours of one extra day just to make the math
Speaker 2: work out, so four one hundred and sixty six and
Speaker 2: two thirds days. And if you were wondering, I also
Speaker 2: did the math on that, that would be eleven point
Speaker 2: four to one year's worth of time, all of it
Speaker 2: spent mussaging stranger's feet twenty four hours a day. That
Speaker 2: may be worse than going to prison for a let,
Speaker 2: I would say so. Anyway, Meanwhile, Feds, they're closing it
Speaker 2: on their real culprit, the certified evil genius and martial
Speaker 2: arts instructor Evert. Dutch Key. Four days after Kevin Curtis
Speaker 2: walked out of custody, the federal agents arrest Everett dutch Key.
Speaker 2: Didn't take long for the FBI to prove that they
Speaker 2: had the right man. This time. FBI agents had one
Speaker 2: witnessed Dutchkey leaving his dojo carrying quote the box for
Speaker 2: a Black and Decker Smart Grind coffee grinder, and as well,
Speaker 2: there was quote a box containing latex gloves that went
Speaker 2: along with the dusk mass that was testing positive for risin.
Speaker 2: Oh then there was his desktop computer. That's where the
Speaker 2: FEDS found a doc on his hard drive quote Standard
Speaker 2: Operating Procedure for Risin, which described safe handling its storage
Speaker 2: methods for RISIN. If that wasn't enough, there were also
Speaker 2: the digital records from eBay and PayPal that documented the
Speaker 2: dutchy had paid for fifty red castor bean seeds on
Speaker 2: or about November seventeenth, twenty twelve, and he made a
Speaker 2: second purchase of fifty red castor beans honor about December first.
Speaker 2: If you were wondering, rising is made out of cast seeds.
Speaker 2: So the certified evil genius had just committed the world's
Speaker 2: dumbest version of domestic terroories. He just left a pass
Speaker 2: exactly just all the trail for you, right to his
Speaker 2: front door. Now, all in all his vain attempt to
Speaker 2: frame his rival, the Elvis impersonate in martial arts instructing
Speaker 2: local legend, Kevin Curtis suddenly had a leg to stand
Speaker 2: on in the ear of his community. As he put,
Speaker 2: after thirteen years, I've been banging on every door here
Speaker 2: I am. I got fired and banned from the hospital
Speaker 2: after find a refrigerator full of body parts. My house
Speaker 2: burned down and my car exploded. My wife left me,
Speaker 2: I lost my business. Now I've been framed for trying
Speaker 2: to assassinate the president with Risin. Now, will somebody listen
Speaker 2: to me? Oh? Not only did locals listen, but Kevin
Speaker 2: Curtis was flown out to New York. He appeared on
Speaker 2: The Daily Show when John Sewart was still the host. Yes,
Speaker 2: and he also spoke of Piers Morgan back when he
Speaker 2: had a show on CNS. Kevin Curtis was treated as
Speaker 2: a koop by them, as you might imagine, but he
Speaker 2: was no longer the laughable, pitiable figure he once was.
Speaker 2: He was now a cautionary tale Elizabeth of the Internet age,
Speaker 2: a man who'd survived a personal conspiracy theory weaponized against him. So, meanwhile,
Speaker 2: evert Dutchy, if you were wondering, tried, convicted, sentenced to
Speaker 2: twenty five years in federal presidence. Yeah, he went to
Speaker 2: the Big House at age forty one, which coincidentally makes
Speaker 2: him one year younger than Elvis when he died on
Speaker 2: the toilet. Oh there you go. What's a ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth?
Speaker 3: These are some broken folks, like you think about what
Speaker 3: if it really was like an organ harvesting thing, that
Speaker 3: he is actually correct and this poor guy, I mean.
Speaker 2: He's just distracted away from this time. Exactly. He's actually
Speaker 2: a double hero. Yeah, exactly, My ridiculus take away once again,
Speaker 2: Thank you for asking, is dude, how powerful is Elvis?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: I mean just like I love the idea that the
Speaker 2: mom is praying with him. That's a nice sweet moment.
Speaker 2: But that you know, we can get both three thousand
Speaker 2: miles to Graceland and this story out of one man.
Speaker 2: One man's powerful. Anyway, That's all I got for your
Speaker 2: beautiful As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 2: on Twitter and Instagram. We have a website, ridiculous crime
Speaker 2: dot com. Do we have the talkbacks? Hey?
Speaker 3: Speaking of talkbacks, I kind of feel some coming on.
Speaker 2: You got one to play? Yes? Oh my god?
Speaker 5: Hello gee hello. I would just like to say that
Speaker 5: I enjoy your programs, your podcasts immensely. I'm a truck
Speaker 5: driver that drive the long highways and back roads of
Speaker 5: New Zealand, and when I'm listening to your podcast, I
Speaker 5: find that time goes by much quickly. I feel very entertained.
Speaker 5: So please keep up the work.
Speaker 2: That was nice anyway. Can you go with email us
Speaker 2: if you want Ridiculous crimesgemail dot com and leave more
Speaker 2: talk backs we do. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you
Speaker 2: next Crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and
Speaker 2: Zaron Brenette, produced and edited by our resident Kung Fu
Speaker 2: Master Dave Kusten. Researches by Marissa Big Mama Thornton invented
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Speaker 2: wasn't he on an episode of Scooby Doo Brown?
Speaker 4: Why say it one more time? Crime?
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