The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Census Worker Hanged, Marked As "Fed"

    By DF on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 9:28pm | Politics

    The AP just broke a story that Bill Sparkman, a 51 year-old U.S. Census worker, has been found hanged in Kentucky, apparently with the word "fed" written on his chest.  Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County, where the body was found.  The FBI is investigating.

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    This is just terrible.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 10:42pm

    I agree.  It puts a fine point on some of the recent discussions here, though I would much rather have it that this man still had his life.


    by DF on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 10:45pm

    I would be delighted to be entirely wrong about my recent fears, and I'm holding out hope that somehow, despite what this looks like, I am wrong, and this is something else.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 11:27pm

    There really isn't enough information in this article alone to draw any conclusions and there's little else that's been published so far.  A couple of good points about the region are made here.


    by DF on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 12:12am

    Yeah, that is a help. The "revenuers aren't welcome" hypothesis is a pretty compelling one.

    Something else to consider is that this may well be a capital murder case. Killing a federal law enforcement officer in her/his course of duty absolutely is; I'm not sure about census workers, or about census workers taken for law enforcement agents.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 10:55am

    I've been thinking a bit about the "knocked on the wrong door" scenario.  Apparently, the Daniel Boone National Forest is known for marijuana operations.  It's the harvest season for outdoor grow efforts right now, for what that's worth.  I don't know much about Kentucky, but I do know enough about CA grow operations to know that there are certain places in Northern CA that you just don't go wandering around.  If you don't see anything you aren't supposed to, you may just get a gun stuck in your face and a curt request to beat it.

    However, upon further consideration it seems unlikely that someone protecting their grow operation would want to draw attention to themselves this way.  More than likely the overly curious party would just disappear, probably buried in the side of a mountain somewhere.

    The FBI was engaging in some curious messaging yesterday.  They said that Sparkman's feet were on the ground, but also confirmed that there was a rope around his neck and that the other end of the rope was tied to a tree.  To top it off, they confirmed that the cause of death was asphyxia.  So, I'm really not sure what to make of the "feet on the ground" qualifier here.

    Today, however, the coroner confirmed that the body did indeed have the word "fed" written on the chest, something that the FBI declined to confirm or deny yesterday, though the death has not officially been ruled a homicide at this point.

    Given what we know so far, suicide seems a less likely verdict, but the facts of the case are being meted out very slowly.  It's been about two weeks since Sparkman died.


    by DF on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 12:28pm

    My two thoughts are that the noose is symbolic (attached to the victim's neck after he was killed) like the word "fed" (which is now confirmed, apparently), or else that the either the rope or the branch broke at some point over the last two weeks.

    I agree that it's irrational to call attention to the crime this way if it's just about protecting your criminal operation. (Unless, of course, the body was left far, far away from that operation, the way mafiosi occasionally leave victims' bodies to be found.)

    But there's never any guarantee that an unknown criminal has behaved perfectly rationally. Some are impulsive; many are not clear thinkers or good planners. I mean, Sparkman's killer may have been unable to differentiate between a census taker and a DEA agent. That doesn't suggest a genius at work.

    And I suspect criminal enterprises that are family businesses tend to have, ah, uneven levels of professionalism. (The Humboldt County pot magnates are newcomers and empire-builders, engaged in a fairly ferocious and Darwinian market competition.) In an area where people tend to be involved in some criminal activity because their families have been doing it for a few generations, or because there's very little legitimate opportunity nearby, I think you get an wide distribution of smart, avergae, and downright stupid criminals.

     


    by Doctor Cleveland on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 2:41pm