# Dumbass who sent poisoned letters to the President and Sen. Wicker **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 18, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987 "2013-04-18T00:20:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drew870mitchell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drew870mitchell/32/3946_2.png) [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/1 "2013-04-18T00:20:12Z")
[Officials to announce arrest in ricin case](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/04/17/obama-letter-suspicious-substance/2090465/) - warning, video autoplay because we the mouthbreathing general public are too easily distracted by moving pictures. Dear Dumbass: Poisonings and cowardly threats of violence are antithetical to the American way of life. That’s not what I’m here about. Surely you know that the President does not open his own letters. Right? Then what do you think you’re doing? You’ve done nothing more than endanger the lives of postal workers, and possibly the lowliest Washington staffers and interns, if your little stunt would have slipped past mail screening. Think about this: in your wildest dreams of success, you would have accomplished nothing more than murdering some poor sucker who’s just doing his job, for a pittance as far as DC goes, who has zero influence in making any kind of decision. You have revealed yourself to the world as a nut. Whatever side of whatever issue you are on, everyone else who agrees with you wishes you weren’t on it. You make life harder for them and for every citizen who has legitimate correspondence to make with their representatives. Right now people’s casework documents, pleas for representation, and discussions with their elected officials are languishing in screening because of you and assholes like you. No matter what lawyer you get, or what fire you stoke in the bellies of your fellow nutters, it is a guarantee that the next few years of your life are down the shitter, and I don’t have any sympathy for you, because you are a piece of shit. Sincerely **drew870mitchell** P.S. Go to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/2 "2013-04-18T00:50:57Z")
Apparently you can now direct your rant personally to: Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Mississippi ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/3 "2013-04-18T02:09:21Z")
Who appears to have signed his poison letters with [his actual initials.](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/feds-arrest-paul-kevin-curtis-allegedly-sending-ricin-laced-letters-signed-kc/64335/) :rolleyes: Dumbass is too kind a word. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/4 "2013-04-18T02:11:11Z")
Much like the Boston bomber, it only takes one individual who is mentally ill and reacts to perceived slights to go off track and kill/try to kill people. Thank god they aren’t more successful in doing things in the kind of mass killings that we see overseas. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/5 "2013-04-18T02:17:47Z")
The [suspect](http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130417/NEWS/130417027/Who-Paul-Kevin-Curtis-) is an Elvis impersonator. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/6 "2013-04-18T03:21:58Z")
Wouldn’t it be nice if all criminals were as stupid as this one. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he included his address on the fucking envelope. ---
**Author:** ![drew870mitchell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drew870mitchell/32/3946_2.png) [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/7 "2013-04-18T03:23:34Z")
KC looks like he’s schizophrenic. He’s posted his delusions to a couple websites, about finding bags of body parts in a hospital, then being intimidated by police for years, having his trash searched, cameras pointed at him in public, etc., usual paranoia fare. I happened to speak _just_ too soon. I still think anyone who willfully poisons people is a shitbag, but I wouldn’t have written the OP about an obvious mental case. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/8 "2013-04-18T05:40:44Z")
> **[Sign in - Google Accounts](https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fpaulkevincurtis&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fpaulkevincurtis&ifkv=AXH0vVt7lnem7hoztHvysYa9L_binOBEOZ2mTMHKZl91RTgQ05BuVlrK4oYvg48BlSiLXsyOp835sw&osid=1&passive=1209600&flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin&dsh=S454747909%3A1744306678597336)** > [@](#): > > Let the record show that on this date, March 05, 2008, I, Paul Kevin Curtis, being of sound mind, am attempting once again to expose various parties within the government, FBI, police departments, legal & healthcare systems, etc. that a conspiracy to ruin my reputation in the community as well as an ongoing effort to break down the foundation I worked more than 20 years to build in the country music scene, began on the day I accidentally discovered a refrigerator full of dismembered body parts & organs wrapped in plastic in the morgue of the largest non-metropolitan healthcare organization in the United States of America, AKA Elvis Impersonator: [Elvis Impersonators for Hire Near Me (Updated April 2025) | GigSalad](http://www.gigsalad.com/tribute_to_the_stars_with_kevin_curtis_b) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/9 "2013-04-18T06:17:38Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Wouldn’t it be nice if all criminals were as stupid as this one. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he included his address on the fucking envelope. Return to sender. That was way too easy; someone must have beaten me to it, somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/10 "2013-04-18T10:16:36Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Return to sender. Don’t be cruel. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/11 "2013-04-18T11:09:50Z")
Wonder if he does a James Otto impersonation? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/12 "2013-04-18T12:15:48Z")
OK, so where does a mentally ill Elvis impersonator get ricin? You can actually buy this stuff in the open market easily? And good OP point – poison/bomb letters to high-ranking officials would only take out some humble mailroom staffer. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/13 "2013-04-18T12:17:47Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > OK, so where does a mentally ill Elvis impersonator get ricin? You can actually buy this stuff in the open market easily? Last I heard it involves castor beans and acetone - and note to the FBI, I learned that from a “false positives for ricin” story at a major news site, not by Googling the seedy underbelly of the Internet. Considering this guy apparently had really crappy, barely-harmful ricin, I’m betting that’s the kind of method he used, rather than ordering from Terrorists-R-Us. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/14 "2013-04-18T12:55:32Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > OK, so where does a mentally ill Elvis impersonator get ricin? You can actually buy this stuff in the open market easily? You grow it in your backyard. It comes from the castor bean plant. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/15 "2013-04-18T13:04:41Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > You grow it in your backyard. It comes from the castor bean plant. Really? Wow. Is it legal to grow that or is it banned like marijuana? ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/16 "2013-04-18T13:16:28Z")
Another clearly batshit crazy person gets nabbed for finally breaking the law after years of acting batshit crazy out in front of god & everybody. What do other countries do about this kind of shit? Are there crazy people going around acting crazy in, say, France or Australia? Do French or Australian crazy people eventually snap and attempt to kill other people the way the American ones do? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/17 "2013-04-18T13:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Return to sender. > > Don’t be cruel. > > That was way too easy; someone must have beaten me to it, somewhere. Sorry, I’m late to this thread, but: We can assume that after he gets locked up, the other inmates will treat him like a hound dog, step on his blue sude shoes, and not let him dance to the jailhouse rock. Sorry–I suppose making fun of a schizophrenic patient is not politically correct.. But this is the Pit, and dammit–no matter how crazy somebody is, if he’s dangerous enough to murder innocent people, then he deserves to locked up first, and only later maybe somebody might show some pity on him. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/18 "2013-04-18T13:41:40Z")
> [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > Another clearly batshit crazy person gets nabbed for finally breaking the law after years of acting batshit crazy out in front of god & everybody. > > What do other countries do about this kind of shit? Are there crazy people going around acting crazy in, say, France or Australia? Do French or Australian crazy people eventually snap and attempt to kill other people the way the American ones do? Because they have universal health insurance, they tend to be medicated. Moreover, there are less sane people in Europe who go around spouting conspiracy theories about their governments, so there’s less for crazy people to go on. Having said that, if you want to know what crazy people do in the UK, visit [Hyde Park](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakers%27_Corner#Hyde_Park). Speaker’s Corner is the traditional forum for the politically overwrought. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/19 "2013-04-18T13:57:47Z")
> [@Trion](#): > > Really? Wow. Is it legal to grow that or is it banned like marijuana? Silly question. A single plant can yield enough ricin to kill thousands of people. Of _course_ it’s legal. Growing marijuana, a plant whose toxicity is almost nil, can land you in prison. Try explaining that one to the next batch of alien visitors. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987/20 "2013-04-18T14:33:26Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Silly question. A single plant can yield enough ricin to kill thousands of people. Of _course_ it’s legal. Growing marijuana, a plant whose toxicity is almost nil, can land you in prison. Well, I suspect it’s more complicated than that. If the castor bean plant can yield ricin easily and without processing, then yes, I could consider it weird that the plant itself is more legal than marijuana. But perhaps it’s illegal to own _another_ substance that’s required to turn the plant into ricin? Maybe the processing procedure is itself illegal? I don’t know. Edited to add: I hope people won’t feel the need to fight my ignorance with a detailed description of the ricin making process. I don’t want to know that much and I’m a little uncomfortable with spreading that knowledge any more than is necessary. Feel free to vague it up. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbass-who-sent-poisoned-letters-to-the-president-and-sen-wicker/655987.md?page=2)