MANCHESTER, Ky., Sept. 24, 2009
Feds Probe Census Worker Hanging in Ky.
Victim Had been Warned to be Careful by Co-worker
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(CBS/iStockphoto)
The 51-year-old Sparkman was found this month hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery with 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.
"Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there," said Acciardo, who directs an after-school program at an elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher.
The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, until the investigation is complete, an official said.
Census Worker Hanged with "Fed" on Body
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 Sparkman, who was supplementing his income doing Census field work. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of Daniel Boone National Forest and an autopsy report is pending.
Manchester, the main hub of the southeastern Kentucky county, is an exit off the highway, with a Walmart, a few hotels, chain restaurants and a couple gas stations. The drive away from town and toward the area where Sparkman's body was found goes through sparsely populated forest with no streetlights, on winding roads that run up and down steep hills.
FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to discuss any details of the crime scene. Agents are trying to determine if foul play was involved and whether it had anything to do with Sparkman's job as a Census worker, Beyer said. Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.
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 inside, she said.
Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated Press her son was an Eagle Scout who moved to Kentucky to direct the local Boy Scouts of America. He later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County, adjacent to the county where his body was found.
She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death. They did tell her his body was decomposed and haven't yet released it for burial.
"I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.
Acciardo said he became suspicious and went to police when Sparkman didn't show up for work at the after-school program in Laurel County for two days. Authorities immediately investigated, he said.
"He was such an innocent person," Acciardo said. "I hate to say that he was naive, but he saw the world as all good, and there's a lot of bad in the world."
Sparkman had worked for the Census since 2003 in five counties in the surrounding area, conducting interviews once or twice a month. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.
The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but thousands of field workers are 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.
Mary Hibbard, a teacher in Manchester, said she recognized Sparkman on the news as the census worker who visited her house this summer for about 10 minutes. Hibbard said he asked some basic questions including the size of her house, how many rooms it had and how much she paid monthly for electricity.
"I know he has a Christian background," she said. "You come to my house, we're going to talk religion."
Hibbard said she thinks most people in the area were shocked by the death.
"I think the negative publicity of it is a stigma on our county. It makes people think less of us even though this is an isolated incident."
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.
Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."
Kelsee Brown, a waitress at Huddle House, a 24-hour chain restaurant in Manchester, when asked about the death, said she thinks the government sometimes has the wrong priorities.
"Sometimes I think the government should stick their nose out of people's business and stick their nose in their business at the same time. They care too much about the wrong things," she said.
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 ultra-right-wing, anti-government authors.
Sparkman's mother is simply waiting for answers.
"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."
© MMIX, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- That waitress is a clear illustration of the problem. She hears of a man murdered while doing a job - and she blames the government, not the murderers, doesn't speak of how awful it is for a man to be killed, a good man by all accounts - nope - it's about the government maybe asking a question they shouldn't, so it's OK to murder.
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- by jgg00009 September 24, 2009 3:38 PM EDT
...yeah.... And when all that crying and kicking goes nowhere, ala whitewater, i suppose the neocons will repeat their famous Willy strategy and want BHO to pull his pants down.
You people are obsessed... - Reply to this comment
- by skyk-2009 September 24, 2009 3:14 PM EDT
...the Fringe Right...NO IDEAS...
Indeed. I've seen only 3 minutes of Hannity for the last 2 months, just last week. It's amazing that he's STILL beating the Wright/Ayres drum. And the last time before that, i turned him on & only saw him go on & on about the neocon Dodd Lie, like 4 months after it'd been debunked.
Tired. No wonder the neo-conned are so pissed. It's from boredom.... - Reply to this comment
- Of course the real neocons want rural and poor people to hide from the census takers. Why should their poverty count more against their millions?...
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- Sounds like the work of a local "well-regulated militia".
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- The whole ACORN rant is just for ratings. The organization has no relevance to national politics or government. It's another straw man invention that's just so overblown, but what do you expect from blowhard entertainers.
You've been neo-conned... - Reply to this comment
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- please, explain to me how voter registration fraud, illegal immigrant smuggling and misuse of taxpayer money has nothing to do with national politics or government.
- jgg00009, Oh PLEASE! Do you people ever get the message. EVERYONE knows your old Guilt by Association bit... we LIVED through it with White Water! The Point was made and it's a real point... this is ONLY important to the Fringe Right and will remain that way because the RIGHT has nothing else. NO IDEAS, NO NEW THOUGHTS, NO NEW POLICIES, just the same old tired lines and the same negative attacks... hour after hour after hour of NEGATIVE everything.
- They should train the census folks to not ask if that man's wife is his grandchild!
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- Questionews, ARE you insane? Do you people ever actually LOOK at what you post. THIS is an AMERICAN CITIZEN doing his JOB for crying out loud. NOW you poor losers are telling me that YOU think that citizen, doing his job, asked THAT question? Can I ask just how you KNOW this? You are either INSANE or one of those the FBI is looking for... which I guess would make you INSANE too, wouldn't it? Never mind!!
- I think what many are afraid of is that the Census is now run out of the White House, not that it excuses killing this guy. It is odvious that what they want to do is increase the number of residents in poorer arres and decrease the number in rich areas. This way they can redraw election district borders to give democrats a larger advantage in national elections. It is similar to what the repubs did in Texas on a state wide level and it has odviously worked for them.
Since it has become odvious that those of us who have some wealth are really not into the idea of giving to those who don't, there is alot of distrust of this administration, just like there was of the last one but for opposite reasons.
Since I don't believe govt' should be redistributing wealth and I don't believe they should give any group an advantage over another (this means corporate welfare, affirmative action, giving money to groups like ACORN) I just refuse to give the information. Everyone should be made to play on a level playing field, this way the best and brightest always win, and that is how it should be. - Reply to this comment
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- anti-global2, what are you talking about? The White House and the President want as accurate a count as possible. YOU nor anyone else on the Right has ANY reason to doubt that... well unless you use some stupid Guild by Association Argument. WHAT you and YOUR party can't seem to understand is what you are dealing with. I went THROUGH the Civil Right Days and YOU HAVE NO IDEA what you are dealing with. YOU are into this for a POLITICAL ADVANTAGE... these people have spent ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS trying to tear this nation apart.
- I'm not on the right or the left, and yes this is about gerrymandering. also I voted for Obama, because the other choice sucked even more. If Hillary was more like Bill in her philosophy I could have gone with her but she isn't.
I am just a guy with a family who has worked hard and done well. I don't want the government taking my money to give it to others to then give them an unfair advantange to compete against my son.
The reason I bring this up is I went to our school baord meeting not because my kid is going to that school, my kid is in private school, but because there were rumors flyinh around that they wanted to tax people in the district a higher amount then others based on what the person's income is. Now the school district leaders the mayor ect. were not taking this seriously, since it would not be fair and would cause those of us who do well to up and move, but the yahoos in the room had no problem standing there saying that people who could afford to live in my neighborhood should pay more because things were so tight for them. That just shows that we are at a point when totally stupid peole now have a voice. If they had brains they would realize I already pay way more then them for a school my child does not even attend, because my house is worth 6 or 7 times what most of these people's are.
I really have a problem with people telling others they should have to give them part of what is rightfully ours. Keep your hands and your kids hands out of my pockets
- So many lies - do you really have so much time to post this garbage, and so little to research to find out the truth? Go take a look at the facts - not biased conspiracy theories and lies from echo chambers.
- by anti-global2 September 24, 2009 3:38 PM EDT
I'm not on the right or the left, and yes this is about gerrymandering. also I voted for Obama...
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The 'tactic du jour' of the far-right-fringe lately has been to say that "I voted for Obama", or 'I'm not on any side', or 'I am a Democrat', or 'I was a Democrat', or...
If you can't beat them, meld into them and divide and conquer...a common insurgency tactic.
- You mention that this "redrawing" of district lines is something that was seen some time ago in Texas?
Actually, this redrawing of district lines was completed, state-by-state, for the previous decade by the ruling party.
It isn't some isolated incident that occurred in one state - and it has been done throughout the history of the country - but never so dramatically, vividly and teeterinly so close to the edge of lawful as it has been completed over this past decade.
I've not thought about this idea that you mentioned in your post - that the dems are simply using the Census Bureau as a tool to redistrict.
But, what I do see happening is a huge organization (Fed Gov) attempting to figure out what is happening to its population - attempting to figure out exactly how big its population is and tying to understand how the residents are living.
Sure - some of the information will be used to adjust the districts accordingly - and at times the information will be used to figure out how to distribute tax dollars CORRECTLY.
I'm not naive but I just don't buy into such a deep level of conspiracy. Oh, and no, I'm NOT a D - but a lifelong R - and I'm not, as suggested in a different comment, happy with the party as it currently is - I actually refrain from identification because of the shameful behavior, words and mindset that is conveyed by that (appx.) 17% of the party members that claim to be the national spokespersons for the R party.
- by TheSkirtLifter September 24, 2009 1:19 PM EDT
...we know you think all repub's are extremists.
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Can't speak for stu, although i know he didn't say that. But someone that holds to the kind of leaping logic shown in this post IS being extreme. It's something i noticed in limbaugh's presentation. Anybody that has one thought that fits in the liberal kit bag is totally a liberal, and whatever straw man wackiness limbaugh wants to force into the brains of his "fans". Sells alot of ad time... - Reply to this comment
- Faux news and its hosts are to blame. They teach daily fear and intolerance 24/7. Look at the people who watch faux news. Do you want them watching your children?
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- ignorant, backwoods, hillbillies... reminds me of a movie I saw starring Burt Reynolds.
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- I wouldn't doubt that you have some living within 1 block of you, maybe even in the upstairs apt. That mindset is not confined to the rural areas, look around you and quit going on 'Ego' trips by labeling others.
- I wouldn't doubt that you have some living within 1 block of you, maybe even in the upstairs apt. That mindset is not confined to the rural areas, look around you and quit going on 'Ego' trips by labeling others.
- Agents are trying to determine if foul play was involved and whether it had anything to do with Sparkman's job as a Census worker. DUH.
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- Are you sure the Unpatriot Act doesn't allow for snooping into census information by some curios F.B.I or C.I.A agent
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- The religious reich strikes again.... and this time it draws blood.
Absolutely foul. - Reply to this comment
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- Religion has nothing to do with this.
Right now the only thing I see is one extremist trying to blame some one else for extremism.
- Religion has nothing to do with this.
- Anyone who would murder an innocent person by hanging has to be deranged. Rational, socially-adept, religious, sane and patriotic people understand the importance of the census, paying their fair share of taxes, and obeying laws. If this is indeed a homicide as believed by law enforcement, it is the work of a criminally insane individual or a few psychotic thugs. Thankfully, we have police, prosecuters, courts, prisons and Federal death penalties for these types. Unfortunately these animals exsist. When they show their ugly faces, we have to stomp them out.
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- I hope they find the republican extremist who did this and have a public hanging for him!
You can thank Beck for this one with all his senseless rants against ACORN and the census. Fact is, ACORN has nothing to do with taking the census.
Let's see...two of the biggest fools I know that have incited extremist freaks, Glen Beck and Extremist Fringe-Republican, Michelle Bachman.
She should be censored anyway just for being stupid and un-American. Beck should not be allowed to work in public broadcasting ever again.
And all the republican extremists should be put on notice to cease the hate rhetoric. - Reply to this comment
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- Title 13 Protections
Private Information is Never Published
It is against the law to disclose or publish any private information that identifies an individual or business:
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Wake up! It is not the sharing of infromation with the public that people fear, it is the governement having the information itself.
People are not afraid of Walmart getting the information they are afraid of the IRS and FBI and Homeland Security getting hold of their private information and using it against them.
- I am 'not' saying repugs didn't do it, but I do believe that this is a non-partisan crime. I knew the area when I was young (I lived for 6 years in the Va mountains near Abingdon).. I think there is a 'Still and probably a Marijuana or Poppy field close by. There is also possibly a 'Militia' hideout in the vicinity.
These 'good 'ol boys just stirred up a hornets nest by killing a Fed worker, An unarmed one at that.
- Faux news and it's hosts are to blame. They preach hate and fear to an already unsteady crowd. They are going to create violence in the streets.
- spiritwalk, you are truly a strange person. IF you had actually went to SCHOOL and actually STUDIED our HISTORY, you'd know that the State of Mississippi has brought upon it's citizens, as a government than the entire FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! That's right the GOVERNMENT of Mississippi has trashed the Constitution MANY more times than our Federal Government has AND those people would STILL be carrying out Terrorist Attacks against their OWN Citizens if NOT for that FEDERAL Government. If you are going to be AFRAID of something doesn't it make more sense to be afraid of people who have a LONG HISTORY of doing things to make you afraid. NOT the folks who actually HAVE supported FREEDOM and Equality.
- Title 13 Protections
