Census Worker Killed...

[GoVols]

I was going the tinfoil route to say that ACORN may have done it themselves. It is a common socialist/commie tactic to act like the othersides extreme to distract attention gain the adversary negative attention.

haha gotcha...

could be....

[Guest SUNTZU]

I'm buying stock in ALCOA aluminum right now...

[poak]

wow that's pretty sad...

prolly some pot or meth addict went nuts.

I'll give you meth, but "pot addict" going on a murderous massacre? Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Chief07]

maybe came across the wrong moonshine still Hey you never know. Tennessee ain't the liberal northeast.

[dunndw]

meth or moonshine...one or the other

[Oh Shoot]

maybe came across the wrong moonshine still Hey you never know. Tennessee ain't the liberal northeast.

Hey, it ain't even Kentucky.

- OS

[GoVols]

I'll give you meth, but "pot addict" going on a murderous massacre? Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

yeah but if they were on property that has a huge pot field in the back....you never know...

a friend of mine was working his hunting dogs in a new section of the woods when he stumbled into a huge pot field. some nut jumped out and started screaming and running at him from a pretty good distance! lol a shot in the air from his carry pistol stopped the chase. you know it took forever for the cops to get up there and clean the field up? oh well.

but yeah doubtful on the pot addict more likely meth maybe. Poor census worker. sad state of affairs.

[Guest SUNTZU]

Why would somebody try to bring as many agents as possible to there operation by doing something like this?

[Oh Shoot]

Why would somebody try to bring as many agents as possible to there operation by doing something like this?

Well, he obviously wasn't census taking IN the national park. So he was taken there from somewhere else in Clay county.

Ergo, I discount the notion that he stumbled on some nefarious activity IN the park.

- OS

[NuTcAsE]

I wonder if whoever hung him had a carry permit for the rope???

[Tim Nunan]

Sounds like something out of Unintended Consequences by John Ross.

[Mike.357]

She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death — they told her the body was decomposed — and haven't yet released his body for burial. "I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.

WTH, why would they tell her it would be better to cremate?

Dispose of evidence?

I mean the guy is dead, why couldn't he be buried in a normal manner?

Whats the diff? Very odd!

[BryanP]

WTH, why would they tell her it would be better to cremate?

Dispose of evidence?

I mean the guy is dead, why couldn't he be buried in a normal manner?

Whats the diff? Very odd!

Read it again. The body was there long enough to partially decompose. If you've never seen (or smelled) the results of that in real life ... yeah. She'd be better off having him cremated without seeing him under those circumstances.

[Guest SweetSue]

The female census worker that came to my home was rude. She told me,as she was standing by her car in my driveway, if I didn't answer her questions,I was breaking the law and she would report me. I set my 38 on the deck rail in front of me,now in her view and told her...'This is my land, I didn't invite you here and as far as I am concerned,you are trespassing. Threating me is not a good idea.' She got in her car and rolled up her windows but just sat there. A few minutes later,my husband drove up,(he had to run to town) and he spoke with her. Her lucky day,guess mine too,sigh. These censes workers,(not all of them) think and act like they are the big bad wolf. There is going to be a whole lot more of this if they don't tone down a bit, especially in the rural areas. Anyone else had a bad experience with them?

[greenego]

Body of slain census worker naked Knoxville News Sentinel

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. The two spoke on condition of anonymity.

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.

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.

Story ©2009, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

[Guest SweetSue]

Rudzinsky said investigators hadn't yet determined whether the death was a homicide, suicide or accidental.

What???

[Guest Swamprunner]

My $.02. The local LEO is sayin' that they at this point, can't determine if there was a suicide or a homicide. My prayers to the family, just the same.

However, during the last presidential campaign, this young lady claimed that she was assaulted and burned by the opposition, only to be proven false.

On the other hand, there are some mean folks out there.

[Humble]

Hanging a man while alive takes help.

Hanging a man while dead also takes help (or at least a mechanical advantage).

Duct tape on hands, feet, mouth, and neck?

Died of asphyxiation? From the tape, maybe? And then transported and hung?

One thing for sure: If you are hiding an illegal operation, whether pot, meth, or shine, and a fed stumbles across it, you SSS.

...something else is in play, and I suspect it is EXACTLY what it appears to be: Someone was informed, capable, pissed off, fed up, and acted out in a tragic way. After the initial reaction/action, they enlisted help from like-minded friends and sent a message.

THAT is why the FBI kept this under wraps as long as they could (11 days?).

...to be a fly on the wall...

[BryanP]

I suspect it is EXACTLY what it appears to be: Someone was informed, capable, pissed off, fed up, and acted out in a tragic way.

If this turns out to be the case then hopefully (yes, I know, unlikely) they'll find the murderer and they can be tried and sentenced. I'd like to say "punished appropriately", but being hanged themselves would be unlikely to happen.

[Guest Ralph G. Briscoe]

Hanging a man while alive takes help.

Hanging a man while dead also takes help (or at least a mechanical advantage).

Duct tape on hands, feet, mouth, and neck?

Died of asphyxiation? From the tape, maybe? And then transported and hung?

One thing for sure: If you are hiding an illegal operation, whether pot, meth, or shine, and a fed stumbles across it, you SSS.

...something else is in play, and I suspect it is EXACTLY what it appears to be: Someone was informed, capable, pissed off, fed up, and acted out in a tragic way. After the initial reaction/action, they enlisted help from like-minded friends and sent a message.

THAT is why the FBI kept this under wraps as long as they could (11 days?).

...to be a fly on the wall...

Apparently his feet were in contact with the ground which raises the possibility that he was bound, gagged with a rope around his neck and left there alive. The assailants may have assumed he would have been found alive before collapsing and hanging himself due to exhaustion. Just another theory which I hope isn't correct...what a hell of a way to go. Prayers to his son and the rest of his family. He was, by all accounts a good man. When you review the comments about the census made by the likes of Michelle Bachmann no one should be surprised if he was killed by an anti government nut. People in positions of influence need to be held accountable when their words incite violence....but I'm not optimistic that anything will be done.

[Smith]

Apparently his feet were in contact with the ground which raises the possibility that he was bound, gagged with a rope around his neck and left there alive. The assailants may have assumed he would have been found alive before collapsing and hanging himself due to exhaustion. Just another theory which I hope isn't correct...what a hell of a way to go. Prayers to his son and the rest of his family. He was, by all accounts a good man. When you review the comments about the census made by the likes of Michelle Bachmann no one should be surprised if he was killed by an anti government nut. People in positions of influence need to be held accountable when their words incite violence....but I'm not optimistic that anything will be done.

Wow! Evil Knievel would be proud of that jump.

[Mark@Sea]

Yeah, the right has been implicated in so many assassinations, right? <snerk>

Edited September 29, 2009 by Mark@Sea

[Rightwinger]

Excellent point!

People in positions of influence need to be held accountable when their words incite violence....but I'm not optimistic that anything will be done.

I wonder who we might want to hold accountable for their statements soon?

[towerclimber37]

Just a question here..

How many good men are told to do bad things because it's policy?

I knew quite a few old timers when I was in Germany...many of them were Panzer grenadiers when they were young. they were infantry soldiers who were good men supporting an evil regime.

I am not calling the current administration evil, but I'd like to know something. if a good man supports an administration that takes your very right to choose how you take care of your own body, does that make him an evil man?

if not, what should be done about the good men, should they begin to persecute all of us "evil, no good, murdering taxpayers", simply because it's "their job"? say, they declared martial law, disbanded the Congress and brought federal troops as well as foreign troops in to police the natives?

how would you handle that?

me? I don't advocate violence. as long as the man poses no threat to me, it's simple enough to ask the man to leave or call the sheriff and have him ask the man the man to leave.

I'm asking about that because I can't figure out how one would deal with such a conundrum.

where does one draw the line and say "enough is enough". just how much of the frog has to be slow boiled before he's ready to jump out of the pot?

would it be too far if the Federal government started sending a law enforcement official along with the census worker to both make sure the questions were answered and to protect the census worker?

what if they armed the census workers and told them they had a right to arrest those who didn't comply and answer their questions?

I'm just spit- balling here...

Edited September 29, 2009 by towerclimber37

[mwhuffman]

I don't know anything about Clay county, except that it's very near to Harlan county. My daddy used to hunt and fish in the Harlan area and he told me it wasn't no place to be snooping around without a local with you. He said most of the people were real clannish and extremely suspicious of outsiders. He said he never really feared for his safety, but he was plenty cautious when he was there. He also was pretty much armed all the time, too.