Mississippi man faces 25 years for sending ricin letter to Obama

A Mississippi man admitted Friday he sent letters containing toxic ricin to President Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and a Mississippi judge. James Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo entered a guilty plea under an agreement that calls for a 25-year federal prison sentence, CNN reported. He will be formally sentenced in about two months. Ricin, a very toxic substance, occurs naturally in the seeds of the castor oil plant. It was used in 1978 in London to kill Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident, with a ricin pellet delivered by means of an umbrella. The letters to Obama and Wicker were discovered at a federal screening center. Lee County Judge Sadie Holland was the recipient of the third letter. No one was injured by the poisonous letters. The first person arrested in the case, Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis Presley impersonator, was released after his lawyer told federal investigators Dutschke might have framed him. The letters, mailed from Memphis, Tenn., were signed "KC." "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance," the text said.