The Obama family is about to re-live a harrowing poisoning attempt as the man responsible for mailing a ricin-laced letter comes back into the spotlight.
53-year-old pedophile James Dutschke infamously tried to frame his neighbor, Paul Kevin Curtis, for the shocking crime that grabbed national attention in April 2013.
The Netflix series Tupelo Kings highlights their small-town feud in Tupelo, Mississippi, known around the world as Elvis Presley's birthplace.
Dutschke harbored a grudge against Curtis, an Elvis impersonator who claimed to have uncovered an organ trafficking plot at a hospital where he worked.
Over the course of their bitter rivalry, Dutschke compared Curtis to a Barney the Dinosaur impersonator during an unhinged court appearance - and threatened to sue Curtis for claiming membership in Mensa, a society for high-IQ people.
In 2014, Dutschke pled guilty to sending poisoned letters to President Obama, Senator Roger Wicker (R-Ms.) and Judge Sadie Holland. Her son, former state Rep. Steve Holland (D) defeated Dutschke in a landslide election in 2007.
The letters targeting Obama and Wicker never made it to their targets, but Holland opened hers, although she was not harmed.
The FBI initially arrested Curtis for sending the letters, but he was quickly cleared of wrongdoing and the feds turned to accusing Dutschke of framing his neighbor. In his poisoned letters, he impersonated Curtis by quoting from his online postings: "I am KC and I approve this message."
Later, Curtis pursued a series of civil lawsuits against the feds, accusing them of arresting him without evidence, but the cases went nowhere.
Dutschke was sentenced to 25 years in prison after some dramatic twists and turns in court.
He initially pled guilty, then recanted his plea and offered to "dump the contents of the two remaining letters on a peanut and butter sandwich and eat it and wash it down with a glass of chocolate milk," the AP reported at the time, to prove that the letters weren't dangerous.
Faced with life in prison if the case went to trial, he reversed course and pled guilty again. Dutschke also pled guilty to state charges of molesting underage girls at his Tae Kwon studio.
In a trailer for Tupelo Kings, Curtis blamed Dutschke for burning his house down and tranquilizing his dog, Moo Cow.
“My mama raised me on Jesus, Elvis, and cornbread. And, yes, in that order,” Curtis says in a recent trailer. “I had a peaceful, nice life. But one person hated me and made my life a living hell.”
