We might be coming to the end of 2024, but Netflix has squeezed in a true crime gem with The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga – quite possibly the most bonkers documentary I’ve seen all year.
This is perfectly exemplified in the opening title card, presenting the William Faulkner quote, “To understand the world, you must understand a place like Mississippi.” As said by state representative Steve Holland, “The South does not have the most spectacular history.
“The Civil War created multiple scars all over us, and I think the South and its struggle to rise above the past learned to tell stories, learned to share tragedy, and then sometimes learned to make up stuff.
“So Southerners were the best storytellers of anywhere in the world. Believe it or not, we actually like drama. And in this story right here we’re proud to show you every characteristic of being a crazy Southerner.” This is not an understatement – every promise here is fulfilled in the story at the center of The Kings of Tupelo.
The Kings of Tupelo case starts with a Dr. Pepper
This colorful introduction sets the tone for a case that could only emerge from a place as steeped in history, myth, and contradictions as Mississippi. And there’s no better backdrop for it than Tupelo itself – the birthplace of Elvis Presley, where the lines between fact and folklore are often blurred.
Right from the off, we’re introduced to the interesting characters who make up this town. You’ve got the cinema clerk telling stories about Elvis having his first kiss there (although she prefaces the anecdote with “rumor has it”); one of the founding members of the OG Elvis fanclub; and the sheriff who “replaced Elvis’ third cousin.”
What follows is a tale so bizarre it feels like it was ripped straight from a movie, yet every twist and turn is jaw-droppingly real.
We’re talking Elvis impersonators, a nasty feud, organ harvesting conspiracy theories, and an attempted assassination on then-President Barack Obama – and it essentially started because of a Dr. Pepper.
You see, Paul Kevin Curtis is at the center of this tale, and he has Tupelo blood through and through. As is said in the new Netflix docu-series, he was raised on “Jesus, Elvis, and corn bread – in that order.”
He and his brother Jack Curtis became the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s first-ever double act, and their performances proved a success – and even attracted fellow singer Laura Curtis, who would go on to marry Kevin.
But when they had children, the double act wasn’t drawing in enough money, and so Kevin started a business as a – you guessed it – Elvis-themed cleaner.
For a while, everything was coming up roses. They had a beautiful family, stable income, and a new house for their family. “It was the American dream,” says Laura.
But everything changed when Kevin booked the “biggest contract” they’d ever had: the North Mississippi Medical Center, aka the Elvis of rural hospitals.
In December 1999, Kevin was at the hospital enjoying its annual Christmas bash when he got a request from one of the workers: the autopsy table was experiencing a backed-up drainage system.
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He went in with a hazmat suit, ready to take on the horrors that awaited him, but after around 30 minutes of hard work, he started to break a sweat and had a hankering for a nice, cool Dr. Pepper.
What happens next is where you get a major indication that this is no ordinary story: Kevin decided to look in the morgue freezer for a soda. Unsurprisingly, there was no Dr. Pepper inside.
Instead, he claims to have found a whole host of body parts, including the head of a man he said he saw in the hospital just a couple of days prior.
While most of us would assume that these belonged to donors (the hospital even confirms this in a statement to Netflix), not Kevin – he told everyone and their mother what he found, inviting them to come and look inside the freezer.
It’s no surprise that he was fired shortly after. Little did Kevin realize that the incident planted a seed in his head, one that would grow into a twisted tree of suspicion and conspiracy theories, pushing everything and everyone in his life away.
But this is only the beginning of the story, and Kevin isn’t the antagonist. That man is James Everett Dutschke, who Holland refers to as “douchebag.” For those of you unfamiliar with the case, we’ll leave it to The Kings of Tupelo to reveal just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
Introducing Netflix’s wildest true crime narrators
The narrators of The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga add to this wild ride of a case. It honestly feels like you’ve just met them at a dive bar and they’re telling you their life story.
After the intro, we start off with Kevin Curtis himself, an undeniably unreliable yet incredibly likable protagonist, as he chills at his “Shangri-La” – a paddling pool in his backyard. He’s at an “undisclosed location,” as Kevin reveals he still gets hounded by people on the streets after what happened.
He might see things differently to everyone around him, but Kevin is the kind of guy you’d happily sit down with over a cold beer, listening to stories for hours without ever getting bored.
Hearing his testimonies cut between those of his brother and ex-wife allows the Netflix doc to build a picture of what went down. And although Jack and Laura are ultimately the voices of reason, they have the Southerner spark. In other words, it never gets boring.
And I’m still only referring to Episode 1; as the many moving parts come together and new characters are introduced along the way, the series soon spirals into a bitter feud, one that culminated in a government plot and a 25-year prison sentence.
Let’s just say, I watch a lot of true crime, and it’s the craziest tale I’ve encountered in a long time.
The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga is streaming on Netflix from December 11. You can also check out our rundown of the best true crime of 2024, what to expect from Natalia Grace Season 3, and where the JonBenet Ramsey family and suspects are now.
