Census Worker Found Hanged in KY

[bmielke]

Wonder if the family will try to sue the insurance companies. They have little shot of winning but $600,000 is a lot of dough.

I doubt it, that would be a hard case to prove, especially because it has been so public.

[Judge Roy Bean]

In today's news:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34130128/ns/us_news-life/

Sparkman had recently taken out two accidental life insurance policies totaling $600,000 that would not pay out for suicide, authorities said. If Sparkman had been killed on the job, his family also would have been be eligible for up to $10,000 in death gratuity payments from the government.

I am so sorry to hear about this, but I think that it is even worse that his motive in all this was for life insurance.

IMHO life insurance wasn't a motive, it was an enabling circumstance that helped him rationalize the act, i.e., the classic "they'll be better off with me dead" construct that is universally illogical and rarely rational but frequently considered.

People with these kinds of mental defects can take extraordinary steps to achieve an outcome that they won't be around to see.

[Paladin]

Kentucky Police Said Census Worker Told Friend About Suicide Plans

Frankfort, KY — An eastern Kentucky census worker found naked, bound and hanging from a tree had told a friend he intended to kill himself and that he had chosen the time, place and method to do it, police records show.

Those records about the death of Bill Sparkman were released Friday to The Associated Press by the Kentucky State Police.

Sparkman, 51, was found strangled with a rope around his neck near a rural cemetery in September with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest. It triggered a state and federal investigation that ultimately determined he had committed suicide.

The records show that Sparkman’s friend, Lowell Adams, who had worked for Sparkman as a part-time security guard since 2007, told investigators that the federal employee wanted his suicide to look like a murder.

Adams said Sparkman told him that he had even practiced self-asphyxiation and had been able to cause himself to black out before he staged his death.

Sparkman’s body was found Sept. 12 near Hoskins Cemetery in a heavily wooded area of the Daniel Boone National Forest. Investigators said Sparkman’s wrists were bound so loosely that he could have done the taping himself. He was touching the ground almost to his knees. To survive, “all Mr. Sparkman had to do at any time was stand up,” Capt. Lisa Rudzinksi of the Kentucky State Police said.

Adams, who passed a polygraph test on his statements, told authorities Sparkman paid him $7.50 per hour in cash to travel with him in the remote areas when he canvassed door to door for the census.

“In reality Bill spoke with me several times about killing himself and, on the Saturday before his death he told me he was going to kill himself on the next Wednesday,” Adams said in a written statement included in more than 200 pages of investigative records.

Adams said Sparkman, who once had lymphoma, preferred to kill himself rather than to die from cancer.

“Bill said he had chosen a place to kill himself ‘in the woods’ in Clay County and he intended to hang himself,” Adams said. “He said he intended to tie his hands behind his back so it would appear that someone else did it, to appear like a murder.”

Adams said Sparkman asked him if he wanted to get drunk with him the weekend before his death. Adams said Sparkman bought a case of Budweiser beer in Richmond. An autopsy found that Sparkman was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol at the time of his death. It also found that Sparkman did not have cancer.

Sparkman also had taken out two accidental life insurance policies totaling $600,000 that would not pay in case of suicide, authorities said. One policy was taken out in late 2008; the other in May.

Had Sparkman been killed on the job, his family also would have been be eligible for up to $10,000 in death benefits from the government.

Investigators said when they went to Sparkman’s house to investigate his death they found no signs of foul play. What they did find was lots of dust and cobwebs.

“Other than the uncleanness of the residence, it appeared to be undisturbed,” investigators wrote in a lengthy written report. “There were no signs of struggle that would indicate that William Sparkman was taken out of his home against his will.”

Witness said the cemetery where Sparkman committed suicide was known for “a large amount of drug activity” including the production of methamphetamine.

In the days preceding Sparkman’s death, a wrecker driver reported to police that he had been behind a pickup truck with several people in the cab and noticed what he “believed to be a pair of hands bound together rise out of the bed.”

[Blup]

Clearly deranged. Had some great friends though

[Paladin]

Census workers reportedly attacked
HARRINGTON, Maine — Two men were charged last week in separate incidents in which U.S. Census workers allegedly were attacked, according to police.

In Harrington, Wesley Storer, 61, of Bar Harbor was arrested Monday, March 1, and charged with criminal restraint, assault and theft after an incident at an apartment building he owns.

According to Washington County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Timothy Tabbutt, Storer was intoxicated when he ripped the identification badge off a U.S. Census worker’s lanyard. Storer then blocked the 50-year-old woman from leaving the building, Tabbutt said.

Later that evening, Storer allegedly entered two other dwellings without permission, Tabbutt said, and further charges of criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and two counts of criminal trespassing are under review by the District Attorney’s Office for Washington and Hancock counties.

On Friday, a Brooksville man was summoned after he allegedly assaulted a U.S. Census worker on his doorstep. James Swift, 53, was charged with simple assault after the U.S. Census office reported that one of its workers, a 39-year-old woman, had been grabbed and pushed by the man.

Maine State Police Trooper Greg Roy said the woman knocked on Swift’s door and before she could identify herself, Swift reportedly opened the door, said he was not interested and slammed it shut.

“The woman then did exactly what she was trained to do,” Roy said. “She put the bag of papers on the doorknob and prepared to leave.”

Roy said the man then allegedly opened the door, grabbed the woman by her wrist and pushed her backward.

She did not require medical attention, Roy said.

“She wasn’t injured,” he said. “She just reported it was a very frightening incident.”

Roy said Swift denied all accusations.

[bmielke]

I was at a meeting two weeks ago where the head of the Census in Nashville came in and spoke. He said that they were going to be sending most workers out in pairs this year, and in some places groups. He also said that in a few places they intend to go in with police protection. Finally he didn't come out and say it, but he seemed to indicate that there are a few places too dangerous to be counted. He was especially talking about two or three bad rural counties here in Tennessee. He said that there are places with signs that say "Tresspassers will be Shot" and "No Government" he said they don't go near those places.

I got the feeling they were expecting more trouble. He said that in Nashville they are trying to hire people just to work in their neighborhoods, and they were having trouble in some places. In the surrounding counties, they are trying to get locals, and having a little better success. They are hoping the locals will know where they can go and where they should stay away from.

[Number Six]

It shouldn't be that difficult to count heads town by town. Generally the town clerk knows most everyone in a given town. For the reactionary districts which will not even fill out the simple form, a phone call should suffice by a super friendly person just gathering the minimum information.

[grixit]

That might work. Throw in "Gentle Ben" and "The Waltons" while you're at it.

Also, did anyone ever make a movie out of the rockabilly ballad "Thunder Road"? That's about a monshine runner. Today it could be updated to be about meth.

Ooh, i just had an idea that's so stupid, i could probably sell it. But it belongs in the tp section.

[Arthur Rubin]

How did this find its way to the sovrun section, anyway. I don't seen any sovruns....

[bmielke]

How did this find its way to the sovrun section, anyway. I don't seen any sovruns....

When the thread originally started no one knew how the Census worker died, everyone was speculating it was the anti government types.