Census Worker Found Hanged in KY

[Prof]

While the authorities are not certain about this, I think I get the picture.

MANCHESTER, Ky. (AP) — When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drew on years of experience for a warning: "Be careful."
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.
....

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... htm?csp=34

[Pottapaug1938]

This sort of thing has been going on, in certain rural areas, since the Shays Rebellion of 1786 and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.

[Demosthenes]

Rural Kentucky....hmmmm.....bets as to whether or not the poor guy came across someone's pot farm/meth lab/'shine operation and they killed him and scrawled "Fed" on his chest as an attempted diversion.

I would bet real money it is not an anti-government related death, but that he came across something he should not have seen - pot farm/meth lab/'shine operation - and was killed because of it, not because he was a census taker.

I disagree. There's an enormous amount of anger aimed at census workers this year.

[fortinbras]

The fact that he was doing something for the government was probably enough for a meth dealer, moonshiner, etc., to kill him. And the FED was an attempt to scarce off law enforcement (including the ATF or the IRS) generally. Instead, I'd bet the entire area becomes infested with investigators from various agencies.

[Demosthenes]

The fact that he was doing something for the government was probably enough for a meth dealer, moonshiner, etc., to kill him. And the FED was an attempt to scarce off law enforcement (including the ATF or the IRS) generally. Instead, I'd bet the entire area becomes infested with investigators from various agencies.

It's your theory that they hanged and marked up the poor guy in front of their meth and/or moonshine lab to scare away future government meddlers? What do you base this on?

[ASITStands]

The fact that he was doing something for the government was probably enough for a meth dealer, moonshiner, etc., to kill him. And the FED was an attempt to scarce off law enforcement (including the ATF or the IRS) generally. Instead, I'd bet the entire area becomes infested with investigators from various agencies.

It's your theory that they hanged and marked up the poor guy in front of their meth and/or moonshine lab to scare away future investigators?

It wouldn't have to actually be "in front of" a meth lab or moonshine still to have its effect.

It's just too coincidental that it happened in this part of rural Kentucky where there's moonshine stills, meth labs, drug dealers, etc. to blame it all on reaction to a census worker.

I agree with the 'Captain' and 'fortinbras.' A hundred years ago, it'd be "Revenuer!"

[wserra]

It's your theory that they hanged and marked up the poor guy in front of their meth and/or moonshine lab to scare away future government meddlers? What do you base this on?

Generations of inbreeding.

[Demosthenes]

Doesn't add up.

If you want to kill someone who stumbled on your meth lab, you dispose of the body properly. Even if he's later found, the crime will be investigated by the rural police department with minimal staffing and budget.

You don't hang him at the cemetary where he'll be found, and write "Fed" on his body, ensuring that big city investigators with access to big budget crime labs will investigate thoroughly.

If the killers are smart enough to create a diversion ("Fed"), they're smart enough to realize that "Fed" also equals federal involvement in the crime.

FWIW, they found his computer in the victim's car. For those of us who have already had our visit from the new census, they stand at your front door and hit a button on a GPS device which accurately records the main entry to your home. If the guy stumbled on a meth lab, the computer will pinpoint where that took place. Considering that the body was found 12 days ago (September 12th), my guess is that the FBI has already taken a look at the guy's last home visits.

[Judge Roy Bean]

A friend of Mrs. Bean has been routinely harassed by Census Bureau minions for the last three or four years because back in 2005 she made the mistake of responding to a survey but refused to provide answers to most of the questions on a twenty-eight page form. Every few months they show up at her door and leave various informational materials about how important it is to cooperate with their ridiculously intrusive surveys. Living alone, as a rule she does not answer the door unless she wants whoever it is to be there. On more than one occasion one man yelled that he knew she was home and insisted that she was required by law to speak with him. They phoned her and left messages on her home phone and even on her mobile phone. They've sat in cars outside for hours waiting for her to come out or arrive home.

I don't have the kind of patience she does; I'd have a sheriff's deputy pull up behind him and watch the fun.

I know it's decades old, but I like Justice Field's take on privacy:

Of all the rights of the citizen, few are of greater importance or more essential to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves not merely protection of his person from assault, but exemption of his private affairs, books, and papers, from the inspection and scrutiny of others. Without the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.

(Emphasis added.)

IMHO, anything beyond counting heads for the purposes of gerrymandering a House district is none of the Federal government's business.

[Demosthenes]

FWIW, 2000 was the final year for the "long form". Only short forms will be sent out in 2010.

When the census worker came to our door a few months ago, all she was looking for was a GPS reading on our front door and to ask how many families lived in our home so that they could know how many forms to send out in 2010. For example, were we renting out rooms or our garage to anyone else?

[Judge Roy Bean]

FWIW, 2000 was the final year for the "long form". Only short forms will be sent out in 2010.

...

Not quite - the American Community Survey is now done every year, and most of it is none of their damn business.

[Demosthenes]

FWIW, 2000 was the final year for the "long form". Only short forms will be sent out in 2010.

...

Not quite - the American Community Survey is now done every year, and most of it is none of their damn business.

On that we can agree.

[Evil Squirrel Overlord]

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/SQuest09.pdf

What are the total annual costs for personal property taxes, site rent, registration fees, and license fees?

Questions like this would find the survey in the trash at my house or else I would just make shit up because frankly I am not going to spend an hour looking this crap up. And how is my commuting time going to help?

[Brandybuck]

This sort of thing has been going on, in certain rural areas, since the Shays Rebellion of 1786 and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.

Wow! Who knew Glen Beck was so old?

[Unidyne]

Permit to speak from experience as a Census Enumerator back in 1980:

People can get very paranoid when you tell them you work for the Federal Government. I had doors slammed in my face and was told to get the f*ck back to Washington (I was working in a neighborhood several blocks away from where I lived). Today, I probably would have been shot at.

[Paladin]

Police: Census worker died of asphyxiation

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32991672/ns ... nd_courts/

[Demosthenes]

"I heard you was hung Bart."

"You got that right."

All kidding aside, killing a census taker is just so unbelievable. I can readily see somebody firing as round over the guy's head, or using rock salt, but killing the guy? That's another reason why I think it involves a lot more than him being a mere census taker.

It's rural Kentucky. Hatred of the government runs that deep. Remember Steve Anderson of the Kentucky State Militia?

Here's a sample of one of his radio show rants:

Dead men don't arrest anyone, dead men don't kick in doors, dead men don't prosecute anyone, dead men don't sit up on a high bench and knock their rings and black robes and judge and sentence anyone. If you've got to go to the guy's house and wait in his front yard until he gets home or gets up, TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS. It's not a federal matter, it's a state law, they're kickin [sic] in your doors...WHEN, WHEN, WHEN brothers? If you're going to call yourself militia, then BE militia. That's it. They don't try that in KY because we will ENGAGE

[Paladin]

Coroner: 'Fed' written in pen on Ky. Census worker

[Paladin]

Witness: Census worker's hanging body naked, bound
Sept. 25, 2009 05:25 PM Associated Press
BIG CREEK, Ky. - A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago.
Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who discovered the body of 51-year-old Bill Sparkman on Sept. 12.
"The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," Weaver said. "And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something.
"And they even had duct tape around his neck. And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."
Weaver said he couldn't tell if the tag was a Census Bureau I.D. He said he didn't get close enough to read it.
State police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski would not confirm Weaver's description of the crime scene. Two people briefed on the investigation said various details of Weaver's account matched the details of the crime scene, though both people said they were not informed who found the body. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
Both of the people briefed on the investigation said, for instance, that a Census identification badge, which Census workers are instructed to wear when they go on door to door work, was found taped to his head and shoulder area.
Authorities have released very few details on the death. Coroner Jim Trosper has said the word "fed" was written on Sparkman's chest with what was likely a felt-tip pen. Weaver said he was not close enough to see anything written on the body's chest.
State police had announced the cause of death was asphyxiation, then clarified Friday that was a preliminary determination pending a full medical examination of the body. Rudzinsky said investigators hadn't yet determined whether the death was a homicide, suicide or accidental.
Weaver, who works for a family topsoil business in Fairfield, said he was in town for a family reunion and was visiting family gravesites at the cemetery when he and relatives came across the body.
The scene left Weaver without a doubt how Sparkman died.
"He was murdered," he said. "There's no doubt."
Weaver said the body was about 50 years from a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. He said Sparkman's clothes were in the bed of the truck.
"His tailgate was down," Weaver said. "I thought he could have been killed somewhere else and brought there and hanged up for display, or they actually could have killed him right there. It was a bad, bad scene."
"It took me three or four good nights to sleep. My 20-year-old daughter ended up sleeping in the floor in our bedroom." he said.
Clay County Sheriff Kevin Johnson declined to comment on the investigation because the department is only playing a supporting role but said patrols have increased in the Daniel Boone National Forest since the body was found.
The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in the rural county pending the investigation.
Trooper Trosper said it was clear this wasn't a natural death but said all other possibilities were being considered.
"This case has many facets," he said. "To investigate cases, you have to rule out different scenarios. We are not able to rule out many scenarios at this time, and that's what makes this a difficult case.

[Demosthenes]

The victim was naked and hanging with his hands and feet duct taped and they aren't willing to rule out suicide?