Census Worker Hanged with "Fed" on Body

FBI Investigating Whether Worker Was Victim of Anti-Government Sentiment

(AP)  A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending.

Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved - and that's part of the investigation - and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.

Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.

Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated Press her son was an Eagle scout who moved to the area to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. She said he later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County and supplemented that income as a Census worker.

She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death - they told her the body was decomposed - and haven't yet released his body for burial. "I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.

Henrie Sparkman said her son's death is a mystery to her.

"I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point," she said. "Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion."

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.

Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a month.

Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.

Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said.

The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but it has thousands of field workers doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees to locate hard-to-find residents.

The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."

Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."

Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in other parts of the country.

"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast Community College.

The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing, carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.

A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce environmental regulations, but the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't share data on instances of violence against employees.

From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent incidents against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service workers soared from 55 to 290.

Ruch said that after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, "we kept getting reports from employees that attacks and intimidation against federal employees had not diminished, and that's why we've been tracking them."

"Even as illustrated in town hall meetings today, there is a distinct hostility in a large segment of the population toward people who work for their government," Ruch said.

[starting9]

Correction, there is the 10 year census, as mandated in the bill of rights and that is mandatory. Then there are 7 or so ongoing surveys, some are mandatory, some not. The CPS or current population survey has been going on since the 40's It is a large country and some data needs to be collected to know what's going on, who is working or not, who is hurting and who is not. Its not mandatory, just YOUR country asking if you are employed or not, disabled or not. All the personal info is encrypted and striped for the data alone per sec 13 of the census code. No reason to be killed.

[TyroneHoglegg]

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved "

That had to be a misquote, right?

*man hanging from tree dead in a national forest
*words FED carved into his body
*in Kentucky, where men are men and sheeep are a little nervous

[UNeed2GetReal]

Okay, I'm tired of this and I finally feel compelled to respond. This was obviously a heinous crime, committed by someone who probably has a serious mental instability. Now in my opinion, the generalization of "right wing nutjob" is inaccurate in that not all gun hoarders are politically conservative, and not all people who are fearful of government intervention are nutjobs.

Please allow me to offer my explanation. I live in a semi-rural area just outside Austin, Texas - the liberal mecca of the state; and I have two neighbors whom I will describe below. Please understand this is not an exercise in hypotheticals, these are real people and I will describe them as accurately as I can. I find both neighbors personally agreeable and would like to think that I don't really have a bias toward or against either one. Both despise my "middle-of-the-road" politcal attitude equally, and both think I'm politically non-committal.

Neighbor 1 is a hard-line conservative Anglo male, who is married with several adult children who have all moved off. He graduated high school, yet never went to college. He is a part-time rancher and is part-owner of a small construction company. His family immigrated to Texas (legally, I might add) when the state was still part of Mexico. They fought and died for Texas Independence from Mexico, they supported statehood and assimilation into the United States, they were Union sympathizers during the Civil War, they fought in the Spanish-American War, WW's I & II, Korea, Vietnam, and both Gulf Wars. He's an active member of the NRA and volunteered with the Texas chapter of the Minutemen. They now occupy roughly 100 out of the 1,000+ acres their family originally owned - it's been whittled away over time by family expansion, sale of land, and government acquisition (under the auspices of imminent domain) for highways, railways and a sewage plant as the nearby town grew around his property.

Neighbor number 2 is a recent college-educated (PhD, in fact) transplant from a "blue state" up north, and is as "bleeding-heart" liberal as I've ever seen. He and his Anglo live-in partner have several adult children - two of whom live with them currently. Neighbor 2 is a Director for an NGO and often travels to disadvantaged countries to help in administration of aid and dissemination of funds - both donated and federally-sponsored, the mother tends to their commune-style family farm, and the two kids spend too much of their time doing drugs to be able to work. His family's first military engagement came with Vietnam, where he was regrettably drafted in the first round and served for almost 1 year, after which he went AWOL while on CONUS leave and ultimately rec'd DD and was imprisoned, ending in late 1972. He then became actively involved in the Black Panther Party and apparently even knew Geronimo Pratt personally. In the early 80's he went back to school and rec'd his PhD in Gov't Affairs (or something like that), which was apparently very rare for an African American at that time. He has changed his militant ways and is a self-described pacifist, but was active in protests against the US engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq. He firmly believes that Bush is a liar, a cheat, and that he and his cabinet (i.e. Cheney and Rummy) are evil incarnate and he called me a "tea-bagger" for my participation in our local Tea Party demonstration (which was conincidentally my first foray into public protest).

We live in semi-rural Texas, so it's no surprise that all three of us own guns. I have a hunting rifle, a shotgun, and a small-caliber pistol. Neighbor 1 owns fewer than 10 guns - all of which (except for 1) are registered. The one gun that is not registered is a turn-of-the-century Colt which has been in his family for generations and was mfg'd without a serial number. Neighbor 2 owns a large cache of firearms and none of which are registered due to his felony status resulting from the DD(TX allows felons to own a gun for home defense, but federal law prohibts it). I don't know how many guns he owns, but I'd venture to say it's in the 30 - 35 range.

It's Neighbor 2 who fears a David Koresh-style invasion. Perhaps too much acid in his youth has instilled a general paranoia? Perhaps the knowledge that he's likely on a "watch list" for funding, working with and sympathizing with communist and even suspected terrorist organizations has him "on edge"? Perhaps he's afraid his militant past will catch up with him? For whatever reason, if black suburbans start rolling down the road - my money is on them hitting Neighbor 2's place.

[dragon8me]

UNeed2GetReal you only think your middle of the road.

[dragon8me]

Devide and conqure. Our real enemies are not the "government" it's the people who "own" the government. The corporate elete! We have the government they bought and paid for and have for over 100 years.

[dragon8me]

Recently some teenagers my kids know were talking about forming a militia. Aftere I talked to them it was clear they had been listening to these tea baggers and admitted they were confused and didn't know who to listen to. I told them not to listen to anybody. To do the research and educate themselves. Even some of the school teachers here in Texas are telling kids things like Obama is not an American. No wonder there confused.

[hungry1968-16]

"Hey Jethro!! Lookee here!! We got us one of them thar "census workers"! I'll bet he's one of them "ACORN guys" that Beck and Rush keeps a warnin' us about!!"

"You got that right Billy Bob!! Hurry up and get a rope!!"




Poor guy probably never had a chance.

[MiddleClassWorker]

Poor guy probably ran into some psycho dope growers near the National Forest. RIP.

[dragon8me]

No, just some whiskey puking alcoholic.

[docpeter1953]

From the above article, "Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved - and that's part of the investigation - and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer."
___________________________

Ya think foul play was involved. Why not self mutilation and suicide?

[hungry1968-16]

by dragon8me September 24, 2009 10:25 AM EDT





You're wasting your time with little Joey. He's a pre-pubescent troll, that doesn't understand ANY issues, other than what the Fox Noise talking heads tell him to believe.

[NewYork-Joey]

by dragon8me September 24, 2009 10:11 AM EDT
ErnestNM-
Here's a website that keeps track of hate groups;
http://www.splcenter.org/center/petitions/standstrong/index.jsp
_________________

What is considered a "hate group" in your eyes ?? does that include anyone who disagrees ? anyone who doesn't want the goverment taking over all industries, including healthcare ?? or just those groups that didn't vote for Obama are considered "hate groups" ?

I think the Link you gave, has a virus...TrojanLib virus

[dragon8me]

What is considered a "hate group" in your eyes ?? does that include anyone who disagrees ? anyone who doesn't want the goverment taking over all industries, including healthcare ?? or just those groups that didn't vote for Obama are considered "hate groups" ?

I think the Link you gave, has a virus...TrojanLib virus
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cute. A hate group is someone that endorsed violence against others.
Kinda like the neocon virus of death.

[pensacola8-2009]

It just occurred to me that the killer may be a Ron Paul fanatic.

Ron Paul teaches his followers that government is bad and not neccessary.

[NewYork-Joey]

Looks like a case of Democrat Extremists or a former Acorn worker, who were angry that ACORN was removed from the Census.....I'm sure the libs are placing blame on republicans as we speak.....oh no, nothing related to the recent finding that Acorn was corrupt.

For an organization who the libs claimed wasn't closely involved with this administration or wasn't receiving money, has a lot of agencies "cutting ties" and a lot of "defunding" going on.

[midlclass]

it is wrong to have killed this man? regaurdless of what questions he was asking if you refuse to answer what is a cencus worker going to do ? shoot you! these are not law enforcement people! even in the early 1900 names ages grade of schooling occupation and langusge spoken in the house, also if you were a resident of the house or a renter or boarder, this was murder i hope they find and convict the group that did this!

[dragon8me]

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved - and that's part of the investigation - and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.

Duh! A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest.

Oh it was suicide. Yeah right.
Of course it was murder and anti-gov. I think they should withhold all federal money to that county and maybe the state. See how long before these people come begging for fed money. It's like Texans wanting to secede. I gar on tee, they would be begging to be let back back in pretty quick once they figure out how much they need the rest of the country.
On the other hand, I don't trust the government any more than anyone else, I believe we're too far to the right. Some think, wrongly according to world standards, that we're too far to the left.
We need change, we need less government in some areas and socialism in others. Less millitary spending for one. No privite prisons, free heatlh care, an end to prohibition, and it's not the governments job to protect us from ourselves. Like banning flavored cigerettes. Any tine they want to ban something they claim it's "for the children". BS, and use national security as an excuse to keep things from us and lie to us.
Yes I would like to see change, but killing people is not the way to bring positive change.

[bantamei]

Faux News is partly responsible for this outrage because they are the ones who stir up this hate. 100% this murderer(s) is/are conservative(s). And one more thing, the only Nazis in this country are the right wing white supremacist who it can be guaranteed are conservatives. The right gets loonier every day.

[wyodutch]

Let's not jump to conclusions here.
.
What if the census taker had come to a house just as a large group of homeless people were being wined and dined. If the crowd was really large, they'd need some sort of means to prevent people from going thru the food line a second time.
.
What better way than to write "fed" on the chest of people who had already eaten?
.

[pensacola8-2009]

Clearly savage and uneducated, but a follower in a prominent church in his local community.

[winslowe1]

So they're looking for someone who doesn't like the government ... well, I'm sure they have more than a couple hundred million suspects.

[bill0bob]

The right wing nut bags have been stirred up by Fox, by Limbaugh, by Beck, by Malkin, by Bachmann, etc. They are completely INSANE, PARANOID, and DELUSIONAL. Fear is not just their primary motivation, it is their ONLY motivation. Reality is unimportant to them.

We don't need more wars, we don't need more prisons, we need more insane assylums!

[ekucrew]

This worker probably stumbled upon people that were operating a meth lab or cultivating pot on their property. The counties mentioned and the Daniel Boone Forest are rural and keep the KSP and local authorities busy with meth raids and burning pot patches.

[dragon8me]

ekucrew September 24, 2009 8:22 AM EDT
This worker probably stumbled upon people that were operating a meth lab or cultivating pot on their property. The counties mentioned and the Daniel Boone Forest are rural and keep the KSP and local authorities busy with meth raids and burning pot patches.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
If that's the case, it's another good reason to end prohibition. Take it out of the hands of the criminals. You would think in a capitolist country we would embrace ending prohibition.

[eiddam]

I put the blame on the new radial republicans who, thanks to the likes of Palin. Beck, Wilson, Rush, Ann, Fox News, to name a few, that has stirred up the hate and anger across our country, that really started by the pervious administration, and who are the very ones acting out the terrorists actions, and Facism, Socialism, communism they pretend to hate, and the dictatorship Palin and Beck wish to obtain. Wake up before they destroy America like the Nazi's did to Germany in the past.