For many years, Netflix has been known as the premiere streamer for documentaries and true crime stories. Nowhere is this more evident than with the recent release of The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga. The series, which spans only three roughly hour-long episodes, was released on Dec. 11, and instantly drew comparison to other Netflix classics such as Tiger King. Those who were already familiar with the gripping tale of sabotage, attempted murder and other fringe crimes were floored by newly revealed information in the doc, while others were enticed to watch based on the absolutely bonkers trailer. The story, as outlined by law enforcement officials and those involved, centers on a pair of Mississippi residents embroiled in a years-long personal feud, resulting in a scandal that almost endangered the life of then-President Barack Obama.
The key players in The Kings of Tupelo are Paul Kevin Curtis, a janitor turned Elvis impersonator, and James Everett Dutschke, a martial arts instructor and publisher of a small local newspaper. Though the Southern Crime Saga is primarily told from the perspective of Curtis, true crime fans everywhere have raised the question of where both men are today, over ten years after the incident that landed them both in federal custody. To understand exactly what’s going on with Paul Kevin Curtis and James Everett Dutschke in 2024, let’s run through a brief history of their tumultuous relationship and see how their mutual hatred for one another ballooned completely out of control. Though the following write-up will unpack some of what’s discussed in the docu-series, the full story reaches levels of insanity that cannot be predicted, so it’s still worth watching the full thing if you haven’t yet seen it.
How Did Paul Kevin Curtis and James Everett Dutschke Meet?
Though the climax of the Paul Kevin Curtis and James Everett Dutschke story came in 2013, the tale ultimately began before the turn of the century. Back in 1999, Curtis was working as a janitor in a Tupelo, Mississippi hospital, when he stumbled upon a discovery that would come to uproot his entire life. As the Elvis super-fan tells it, he went searching for a beverage in the basement of the hospital when he accidentally stumbled onto a morgue freezer, containing a myriad of organs and body parts, wrapped in plastic and labelled with bar codes. Though the hospital maintained that these organs were provided by donors, Curtis became convinced that he had uncovered a human trafficking operation to harvest and sell human bodies.
Over the years, Paul Kevin Curtis has maintained this belief, though there doesn’t seem to be much evidence to support his findings. Nevertheless, he continued voraciously pursuing the supposed human trafficking ring, even writing a book about his discoveries titled Missing Pieces. None of the major news outlets would take him seriously on his quest to expose the evil undercurrent of Tupelo, so he was forced to reach out to small, independently-funded operations, like the one run by local martial arts instructor James Everett Dutschke. Much to Curtis’ chagrin, even small-time acts like Dutschke wouldn’t run the story, leaving his conspiracy dead in the water. From there, the two men engaged in a heated discussion, which escalated to a physical confrontation and eventually sparked a life-long feud. As Curtis claims in the documentary’s trailer, “I had a peaceful, nice life. But one person hated me and made my life a living hell.”
Unpacking the Ricin Letters
As Curtis and his peers explain throughout the narrative of The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga, James Everett Dutschke became obsessed with him after their physical confrontation and cyber-stalked the Elvis impersonator for years to come. Dutschke allegedly harassed Curtis with emails, blog posts and other online attacks, complicating his life at every turn. In 2010, both Curtis and Dutschke lawyered up and sued one another in court on several civil charges, many of which devolved into mocking and name-calling within the courtroom. The feud reached a fever pitch in 2013, when elected officials – including sitting President Barack Obama – received letters in the mail containing cryptic messages, and a threat of poisoning via ricin.
Per a report in The Guardian, the letters read, “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 KC and I approve this message.” It didn’t take long for investigators to find similar messages posted all across the web by Paul Kevin Curtis, and only days after the letters were mailed the Elvis impersonator was in federal custody facing charges of threatening to kill or harm the president. Having faced near-constant harassment from Dutschke up to this point, Curtis quickly surmised that he was being framed. Just days after his initial arrest, FBI investigators confirmed that Curtis did not in fact send the letters, and ultimately arrested Dutschke.
Where Is James Everett Dutschke Today?
In May of 2014, James Everett Dutschke struck a plea deal with the courts and agreed to a sentence of 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole. To make matters worse, several children stepped forward during Dutschke’s trial, alleging that he had sexually abused them while serving as their martial arts sensei. The incidents, which ranged from 2007 through 2013, were severe enough to warrant an additional 20-year prison sentence, which Dutschke is serving concurrently within the United States Penitentiary, Tucson. He is expected to be released no earlier than August of 2034, though he will be forced to join a sex offenders registry and face several years of supervised probation thereafter.
Where Is Paul Kevin Curtis Today?
Though Paul Kevin Curtis was cleared of all charges related to the ricin case, he explains within The Kings of Tupelo that the situation still haunts him to this very day. Curtis claims that he receives frequent online harassment due to the notoriety he garnered from his arrest, and even told the Clarion Ledger that various stalkers and fanatics have keyed his car, slashed his tires, jammed his mailbox and more. He explained, “There is no obscurity after you’ve gone international and been framed in a presidential assassination plot by a karate instructor… Everywhere I go, there’s been this sort of prejudgment upon me.”
Despite the rocky road it took to free himself of his feud with James Everett Dutschke, Curtis seems to be living a serene life in 2024 and beyond. As he explains in the Southern Crime Saga documentary, he now lives alone in an undisclosed Mississippi location and rarely communicates with his family. At the end of the day, The Kings of Tupelo serves as a cautionary tale against infatuation, obsession and escalation in regard to problem-solving. Paul Kevin Curtis effectively lost his family because he couldn’t let go of his obsession with a seemingly non-existent trafficking conspiracy, while James Everett Dutschke lost everything because he couldn’t let go of his obsession with Paul Kevin Curtis. Any way you slice it, the off-the-walls feud makes for some truly fascinating entertainment, as displayed by the positive response the documentary has received from Netflix subscribers.
