Prosecutors dropped charges Tuesday against an Elvis impersonator accused of mailing poison to Obama, and the FBI is eying the cleared man's alleged nemesis as a possible culprit.
Federal authorities searched the home of J. Everett Dutschke, 41, for links to ricin-tainted letters mailed to Obama and two public officials, The Mississippi Clarion-Ledger reported.
Paul Kevin Curtis, a 45-year-old Elvis impersonator, was cleared Tuesday after authorities found no trace of ricin in his house. His lawyer, Christi McCoy, previously pointed to Dutschke as a possible suspect in the case because he and her client were online rivals.
Dutschke is currently the subject of a child molestation investigation by the Tupelo Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
He ran for a seat on the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2007. His opponent was Steve Holland, whose mother, Judge Sadie Holland received one of the tainted letters.
Dutschke denies that he had anything to do with the ricin letters, and that he and Curtis were rivals. The two men corresponded at one point because Dutschke wanted Curtis to take down a purportedly fake Mensa certificate off his Facebook page, Dutschke told USA Today.
From USA Today:
"He said that caused some arguments, but that he never considered Curtis any kind of rival. He said those correspondences took place in 2010, and that he hasn't heard anything from Curtis since."
Prosecutors immediately zeroed in on Curtis as a suspect because the letters mentioned his unpublished novel "Missing Pieces," which he wrote about on Facebook, according to ABC.
Curtis said during a news conference Tuesday that he's giving up Facebook. He also joked that he's going to give his lawyer a lot of foot massages because he can't afford to pay her the $1 million she deserves.
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