Census Worker Found Hanged in KY

[Nikki]

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

One-time coroner's verdict -- accidental death because "he tried to swim acros the river with more chain than he could carry."

[fortinbras]

The reichtwing is already spinning this as "Census worker is killed and LIBERALS celebrate" (because now the Lib'rals have a tangible instance of the sort of rightwing violence that Pelosi spoke about).

Rather obviously the murder of a federal employee - evidently because he was a federal employee - will bring down a serious infestation of federal (and other) investigators on this bit of Dogpatch. The end result may well be that the stupid act of one moonshiner (or meth cooker or whatever) is going to bring the curtain down for a whole bunch of moonshiners, dopers, fugitives, etc., who otherwise might not be disturbed for many years.

[Paladin]

AP Exclusive: Son sure Ky. census taker was slain
By JEFFREY McMURRAY (AP) – 3 hours ago

LONDON, Ky. — Josh Sparkman lost the only family he ever really had when his census worker father was found hanging from a tree in rural Kentucky, his feet and hands duct-taped and the word "fed" scrawled on his chest.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD9B17N482

[DoingHomework]

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.

Aren't census workers "Jackbooted thugs?" <kidding>

Apparently that area is very poor and a large majority of people depend on government assistance. It is not a hot bed of anti-government sentiment. It is likely he stumbled on a meth lab or something. It is also possible he had enemies for other reasons that wanted to misdirect.

But it seems to have backfired. What might have been a local crime has now gotten national attention.

[Lambkin]

But it seems to have backfired. What might have been a local crime has now gotten national attention.

This doesn't seem like a "backfire" to me, it seems intentional. If you run a meth lab and need to disappear some guy who stumbled in, you put him in a hole in the ground or throw him in a river. You don't hang him from a tree with a sign saying "Feds please investigate my crime".

[bmielke]

But it seems to have backfired. What might have been a local crime has now gotten national attention.

This doesn't seem like a "backfire" to me, it seems intentional. If you run a meth lab and need to disappear some guy who stumbled in, you put him in a hole in the ground or throw him in a river. You don't hang him from a tree with a sign saying "Feds please investigate my crime".

I agree, however I think that it seems more likely that this was something personal. I kind of have to doubt that a single anti-government person would hang someone. A group of Anti-Government People, (I don't want to name them because who knows what's in the hills of Kentucky, TP's, Militia, Hate Groups, all of the above) sure, but it seems like it could well be a misdirection for a personal grudge.

[Demosthenes]

Apparently that area is very poor and a large majority of people depend on government assistance. It is not a hot bed of anti-government sentiment.

Rural Kentucky isn't a hotbed?

[DoingHomework]

This doesn't seem like a "backfire" to me, it seems intentional. If you run a meth lab and need to disappear some guy who stumbled in, you put him in a hole in the ground or throw him in a river. You don't hang him from a tree with a sign saying "Feds please investigate my crime".

Surely you're not suggesting meth heads plan ahead!!!. But that was basically my point. If it was some stupid meth lab entrepreneur he clearly did not thing past dinner.

My money is on something personal.

[fortinbras]

I am also inclined to believe that dopers don't think out their crimes very well. But I must add (and I'll hear harsh words about this) that militant types have not been hesitant about threatening to kill LEOs and other govt employees, making reference to body bags and the like.

[Blup]

Could be any reason, really. Hicks in that area aren't exactly Einsteins, so I propose we take them at their word--that they killed him because he was a fed--rather than assume some chess-like psychological strategy in the killing. To paraphrase Kaiser Soze from "The Usual Suspects"... There are no big secrets on the streets. If you think a certain person did it, you're going to find out you're right. In short: occam's razor.

I'm a California lawyer who works in federal court. If I even stepped foot in that area I'd be dead before I was halfway out of my BMW.

And while I certainly don't condone killin' folks, expecially geeky census takers, I kind of admit that I'm happy that there's a certain segment of the population that hates the gov't with a passion. Keeps the gov't honest, IMHO.

[bmielke]

Do Census workers have Badges?

I am trying to understand how he might have been mistaken for law enforcement, I just don't see a hick killing an unarmed man, who wasn't flashing a badge, I thought Census workers looked more like a UPS guy then an FBI Agent. (Hand held computer, laminated id badge) I mean these "Hicks" have daily interaction with federal employees (Postal Workers) and you don't read of them getting hung.

I still say this was personal.

[Blup]

But a freakin' census taker? That's like being angry at your favorite sports team and beating up the developmentally disabled ball boy.

LOL good point. Maybe they're the only feds who step foot in the area, and only because they have to.

And postal workers GIVE ya stuff, whereas census takers want to TAKE stuff from you! (currently just information, but remember, under Obama they will also take your precious bodily fluids!)

[Demosthenes]

I still say this was personal.

He lived Laurel County but was assigned by the census bureau to Clay County, where he was found murdered.

[bmielke]

I still say this was personal.

He lived Laurel County but was assigned by the census bureau to Clay County, where he was found murdered.

They are right next to each other.

http://www.censusfinder.com/mapky.htm

I had to look it up, I am sorry I hadn't done that before.

I would guess alot of people travel between the two every day. I live in Rural Tennessee which I would imagine is similar to Rural Kentuck and we travel between countys here like I traveled between towns when I lived in Massachusetts. In most rural counties you have on major town per county, and even then many times the towns are small enough that there isn't even a walmart in the town.


Having looked it up now I am even more convinced that it is personal.

[Blup]

not enough information. it's all speculation.

[Paladin]

The state medical examiner's office has established the cause of death as asphyxiation but has not determined whether it was a homicide, accident or suicide.

Mike Wilder, executive director of the State Medical Examiner's Office, said the investigation continues, with "bits and pieces of information" still coming to light.

There were "circumstances" that made the Sparkman case particularly difficult to resolve, but Wilder declined to elaborate.

"The cause of death was pretty well determined. The manner of death is still what is under investigation," Wilder said.

[bmielke]

The state medical examiner's office has established the cause of death as asphyxiation but has not determined whether it was a homicide, accident or suicide.

Mike Wilder, executive director of the State Medical Examiner's Office, said the investigation continues, with "bits and pieces of information" still coming to light.

There were "circumstances" that made the Sparkman case particularly difficult to resolve, but Wilder declined to elaborate.

"The cause of death was pretty well determined. The manner of death is still what is under investigation," Wilder said.

There was a lot of talk earlier about Meth Labs, Moonshiners, and pot growers. I think that they may well have stung up a dead body,had they killed him, and may have even written fed on it, but I don;t think they would hang a man to kill him, they would shoot, stab, run over with a car, ot beat with a baseball bat, but not hang him. To me that means he knew the person and they were able to get close to him. I think if he didn't know his attacker there would be trauma to the body that would rule out accident and sucide.

Of course this is all speculation and will be until someone is charged, or the medical examiners report comes back. To Blup you're right we don't have enough information to jump to any conculsion.

[fortinbras]

It may be (based on my devotion to TV cop shows) that the ruling of homicide is being kept from the public while the FBI, et al, hopes to close in a suspect before he bolts.

[bmielke]

It may be (based on my devotion to TV cop shows) that the ruling of homicide is being kept from the public while the FBI, et al, hopes to close in a suspect before he bolts.

That could be.

[bmielke]

Maybe the federal government secretly killed him as an excuse to come into that part of Kentucky and blanket the area with feds, to root out all types of illegal activity - moonshining, pot growing, meth making, being a white supremicist, explosives making and reshowing sporting events without express written permission.

Hey, I am not trying to come off as crazy. I just don;t think that the guy would have died from being hung if it was one of the groups you are talking about. There is every real possibility that one of those groups did it (Not the Federal Government) but until someone is charged, I will continue to believe that this is a personal thing. I just don't think one of those groups could have gotten close enough to hang him with out signifcant injuries to the census worker.