Mississippi man charged in ricin attacks was an Elvis impersonator
Paul Kevin Curtis has been arrested and charged with making threats against the president and sending letters threatening to injure other persons. Relatives, who call him a 'super entertainer,' are shocked.
This undated photo was obtained from the Facebook page of Paul Kevin Curtis, arrested Wednesday at his home in Corinth, Mississippi. He is accused of mailing letters containing suspected ricin to President Obama and US Sen. Roger Wicker (R) of Mississippi.
AP Photo
A fuller picture is emerging of the ricin attacks on public officials and private individuals, including confirmation of the poisonous substance and a portrait of the alleged attacker.
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Brad Knickerbocker is a staff writer and editor based in Ashland, Oregon.
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Paul Kevin Curtis is being held in the Lafayette County jail in Oxford, Miss. He was arrested Wednesday at his home in Corinth, near the Tennessee state line. He has been charged with making threats against the president and sending letters threatening to injure other persons, the FBI and the US Attorney’s office announced Thursday.
Officials are awaiting the results of laboratory tests to determine whether ricin in fact was the substance contained in letters sent to US Sen. Roger Wicker (R) of Mississippi and to President Obama. Both letters were intercepted at a government mail screening facility before they reached their intended recipients, and initial field testing indicated the presence of ricin, a poisonous substance made from castor beans.
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Such off-site screening has been conducted on mail addressed to the White House and members of Congress since the anthrax attacks of 2001, which targeted Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont, and then-Senate majority leader Tom Daschle (D) of South Dakota. Media organizations were targeted as well, killing five people and infecting 17 others.
While government officials have yet to release the results of the lab testing for ricin, US Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer tells the Associated Press that testing confirms that the letter to Senator Wicker did contain ricin.
"Our field tests indicate it was ricin. Our lab tests confirm it was ricin. So I don't get why others are continuing to use equivocal words about this," Mr. Gainer told the AP.
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