Rachel Maddow Show: FBI Investigating Hanging Death of U.S. Census Worker
By Heather Thursday Sep 24, 2009 8:00am
Rachal Maddow talks to the AP's Devlin Barrett about the apparent homicide of Census worker Bill Sparkman.
From the AP:
A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had 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.
The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.
The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending.
Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.
"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved — and that's part of the investigation — and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.
Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.
Login or Register to post comments.
Congratulations Rep. Bachmann.
Mission accomplished.
and Mitch McConnell, Joe Wilson, Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, Ann Coulter, BO, and a whole bunch of others.
And it's not mission accomplished. It's likely the first shot.
Remember the murdered Unitarians?
The shooter wanted to kill "libbrulls."
He did. It continues.
Well that was an intelligent comment to add to the discussion. How's your foot taste?
It was only a matter of time. There will be more in the near future.
This is just the beginning.
and it's very disturbing.
this is not the beginning. Having a Dr. murdered, cops murdered, secuity guards murdered and other events this year make it a countinuing of the rethug paranoid whackjobs.
Was homocide a typo? I understand it to mean the killing of a gay person because of sexual orientation.
It's horrific either way, but hate crimes based on sexual orientation would make this even more repugnant.
thanks for bringing it to our attention. I've fixed it.
to Clay County KY until somebody turns these
rednecked murderers in to the authorities.
Group punishment is just as illegal here as it should be in Israel.
that sort of punishment rarely has the desired effect anyway.
I may be wrong but I've only seen this on Rachel and a small part on msnbc.com. No one is covering this.
If this is really about the government and census then Bachmann needs to come out and say something or be held accountable for this disgusting murder.
Nobody knows it's a murder. I think it's only showing respect to the family of this individual to wait until there are more facts before having some media blitz about this, especially when politics are involved.
In the words of John McEnroe "YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!!!" Since when did the media wait for facts on anything before reporting a story? It's a competition for these networks to get a story out before anyone else regardless of facts.
Ok, and your proving what by stating that? If this wasn't a politically charged story we'd hear nothing about this guy. He could be disturbed and have done this to himself, and I wouldn't fault the media for restraining itself before the facts come out. But honestly I think most here only care about the political implications and not about this man or his family (most not all).
I stated the obvious. When does the media wait to cover a story? When? NEVER!!!Maybe you should think for yourself than for other peoples motives on this site. Maybe most people here are worried what the Bachmans and Becks are creating and want it stopped before something serious happens. If you think that's political too effing bad.
oriented blog? Why did they wait 12 days to make this public? Why am I even dignifying you with a response?
"Nobody knows it's a murder"? How else do you explain it?
I seriously doubt the man scratched "Fed" on his chest and then hung himself. But that's just me.
a republican, it would have said "deF."
republicans are rappers?
They're just not very good at it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6qkUheVWVY
this isn't exactly time to be funny.
A man is dead, likely murdered, likely murdered by someone with political motivations.
I'm feeling kinda sad, pisssed off, and disgusted that this sort of thing is happening in our country.
And I know the murderers are Beck fans. So there.
Whaaaaaaa?
Oh, you're right. I suppose it could be one of those suicides where the (usually about to spill the beans) suicidee puts 3 or 4 bullets in their head.
Dios mio.
The worst thing is he's probably some poor sap who got downsized and this was the only job he could find.
Similar to Grafolo's character in "Mystery Men" where she describes her father's death:
"He fell down an elevator shaft - onto three bullets."
Mild mannered 51 year old single dad census worker is going to commit suicide and carve FED into his chest on purpose? WTF?
Go to hell you pathetic troll.
In case you hadn't noticed, "the media" ain't exactly rushing to push this story.
... what are you real objections for reporting that? That it may make wingnuts look like out of control bigots they really are? Oh, noes!
in a tree with his hands bound behind his back. The local authorities deemed it a suicide. There's a lesson you never forget Cronie3.
in the movie "Mystery Men."
Blue Rajah: I heard there was a bit of controversy surrounding your father's death.
The Bowler: Yes. He came home one night and fell down an elevator shaft... on to some bullets.
Blue Rajah: I've always suspected a bit of foul play.
The Bowler: So have I.
Sorry Thndermonkey, I related this above before I read your comment. Brilliant minds think alike, I guess.
I suppose he carved "FED" in his own torso before lynching himself.
TSFW
Too Stupid For Words.
at this point.
I read this this morning, and the first link to this story from Google News was to the foxnews.com site. So they're doing it... unless they're not running it on the TV for the mouth-breathers what never bothered with fancy book learnin' and such.
I would think that if faux noiz doesn't cover this...it wouldn't help their image as rw propagandists...
willing to do a backhanded way to promote copy-cat crimes to take place.
they are after all, The Enemy.
Good question.
The media is too busy covering sarah's big bite of Hong Kong and the M. Phillips incest story to cover what is more than a little likely a death that is the result of all those patriots at the tea parties with their hate signs and vitriol spilling all over the cable networks that give them air time.
Of course, beck, limbaugh, hannity, bachman, et. al. will somehow innocently wash their blood stained hands of any culpability, because, you know, there are a few fringe extremeists at both ends of the spectrum. Except, of course, for the inconvenient truth that their hate speech incites the crazies and gives permission that it is o.k. to kill those that are don't really love their country. You know, people that hold different views than they do.
This poor, poor country. It is on the verge of something really dark and deadly.
.
Took you a mere 16 minutes to be found out as the bigot and troll that you are. GFY.
That was his very first post, I'd say it took him about 1 minute tops. Or however long it took him to drop that pellet.
He's either 13 years old or one of the nastiest trolls I've seen. Just name calling and insults. Not the least bit of fun.
where do you suggest we get our news from?
the liberal compassion and love you've been hearing about doesn't extend to assholes like you.
Poopsie made another poopie.
Oh... we're compassionate. What did you expect when you came trolling through here to toss out the one line that you picked up from another forum.
If you're going to insult people and make fun of their names... at least be original.
trying to change the topic, get us talking about anything but the horrible murder of Mr. Sparkman.
You've been called out, and flagged as such.
Good day to you.
O'Reilly, Hannity and Beck, well...There's a different story right. I mean they just drill them "facts" into your head until your eyes glaze over and you repeat them incoherently. And you disrespectfully use 911 in your name to prove you are some kind of patriot. Your trash, nothing more.
but M1911 is a pistol.
.
http://www.m1911.org/
He's (she's) funny.
... they leave their droppings everywhere, and you have to water and feed them. Can you handle that responsibility? Think about it... it is a big step!
I didn't know work was involved.
I would hate to track it down on other forums and websites to clean up after it.
but wait until you see how ugly it is and how much they eat.
They don't eat that much... just a steady diet of FOX News, some Drudge served up in a tinfoil bowl.
you fuckin fascist troll piece of shit.
I guess his family wasn't valuable.
Census workers should not be sent where they are likely to be killed.
No federal funds for areas that harbor murderers of federal workers.
Michelle Bachmann should be arrested for sedition.
Census workers should not be sent where they are likely to be killed.
And how do you propose to conduct a census without actually counting people? Do you expect the gun-crazy ignorant morons to just line up at the county courthouse?
Then again, perhaps we shouldn't count them. That way, their states will receive less money, and they can be free of all that "gubmint infeerins" they so loathe. More money for the states that have a higher majority of SANE PEOPLE.
We'll just assume that these areas that harbor killers of census workers
must not need funds.
SOMEBODY knows who did this.
Only animals.
outsiders on a good day. And the loudmouth idiots like Blenn Geck et al have riled up some folks down there even more. That's my take.
Is that banjo music I hear??
?
Could be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8
At least thats what they used in Montana.
WE all need to print out this picture:
http://www.wgu.edu/images/testimonials/Bill-S...
And mail it to Bachman so she'll realizes her words do have consequences. Like the death of man trying to do his job for our government by the hands of a lunatic spurred on by her, another lunatic:
6043 Hudson Rd, Suite 330
Woodbury, MN 55125
110 2nd Street S, Suite 232
Waite Park, MN 56387
107 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
that this will make them look bad and, in fact, is almost certainly a false flag operation undertaken just to unfairly smear them.
no sympathy for the man, his family, friends and co workers. no self reflection.
just worry about how this might affect them and paranoid fantasy stories about nefarious conspiracies:
http://blahgblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/cen...
... by blaming the victim.
I enjoyed the concern troll earlier in the thread, basically saying that we should not "rush" to conclusions while at the same time implying it was a suicide. For conservatives it is not the destruction of life and the ruining of a family that matters, but rather the fact that such tragedy may make them look "bad." That is the real "crime" for them.
I will wait until more info comes out, but having spent a few months in that neck of the woods a few years ago, this could very well have nothing to do with Beck or Bauchman. That is pot growing country, a lot of pot, and it guarded with ferver. If this guy walked into a guarded field with a fed id on him, think moonshiners and the g-men of the 30's. I am not saying this is what happened, but I sure could see it happening that way very easily.
You saying they flipped their lids?
the trolls at huffpo are saying.
Why in the FUCK would a pot grower want to draw attention to their operation?
FAIL
This ain't a Mexican drug war; if weed growers offed the guy they'd hide the body, not put a sign on it.
Now the whole area will be crawling with more feds than fleas on hound dawg's hind-quarters.
I gave a plausible evplanation for a crime that I dont all the facts about, nor do you.
As to why would pot growers do something like that, to make a statement. If you have never heard of people that want to protect their money by doing brutal things like this can I refer you to the mafia, why in the world would they kill feds(they do you know) if they didnt want them all over them. mafia dont work for you, lets try LA street gang called the Crips, or maybe the native americans of upper NY who killed a fed over smuglled cigs. Nobody ever say these people were smart.
So fail you and go fail yourself(joke dont take it personel I just hate that term)
but very unlikely.
lets consider the part of the country this took place, and the timing...
rural Kentucky, (not exactly a mafia or street gang stronghold btw)...a body found, on 9/12....NINE TWELVE!!! hanging, with the word "fed" written or carved into his chest. A growing anti-govt sentiment among the less educated and easily manipulated republican voters. Michelle Bachman spouts anti-census paranoia. Right wing radio spews violent rhetoric daily.
Let's say that a weed farmer or meth manufacturer killed this guy... a bit counterproductive considering how many more feds are gonna be combing those woods. And if the killer was growing or making something out there, it doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't a politically motivated murder. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Seems like this case is going to be exactly what it appears to be.
your joke is dumb.
FAIL
I will just say this, I hope that I am right and that you are wrong.
The joke is dumb, as is the use of "fail" to denote a wrong.
If I am right...it would be the beginning of some very bad times in this country.
This sh*t has been going on for a long while. One "unrelated" incident here, another "unrelated" incident there... and soon we will have a pattern. In fact we have had similar "unrelated" incidents for as long as I care to remember. But jee whiz, let's not all jump to "conclusions" now.
Lord knows that a new litter of kittens must be sacrificed if we don't offer the benefit of the doubt to wingnuts even when the murder involves exactly the same group one of their leaders just threatened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=570W6DKg_Oo&fe...
but this may the "isolated incident" that really blows shit up.
... it will be buried in the news. The majority of the country will not even know this happened, since they are too busy wondering how Acorn managed to rig the elections, ruin the economy, and make Bush look bad by feeding him bad intel on Iraq's WMD.
As long as I can remember, liberals, moderates and federal agents have been doing most of the dying. And not a peep back, even though we're supposed to be the "radical left."
I think it's too big of a story to bury...
... but history tells me otherwise.
We'll see. It is a horrific incident none the less, however I am willing to wager that if it had been some cute sorority chick from a good family, we would have had this on the news cycle 24/7 for the past couple of weeks until the end of the quarter.
The Mafia's never been known for showboating murders; there's is always described as "execution style."
Unless they're trying to get info out of someone it's generally a single bullet to the head, definitely not hanging.
A potsman isn't interested in "making a statement." He's interested in nobody finding his patch. He might kill you, but he wouldn't bother to hang you, he'd shoot you. And he stuff your body in a drainpipe two counties over.
Y'know jeff, I hadn't thought about that.
You might very well be right.
Another victim of the "War on Marijuana," a medicinal herb that is
relatively harmless - especially when compared to alchohol.
And our bankrupted country throws users into prison for smoking a weed when they COULD legalize it, tax it and curb drug-related murders.
We COULD imprison the bankers and traders who bankrupted us.
But THAT wouldn't be the Cantservative way!
growers, but as LNM pointed out, why draw attention to your operation. I'm going with your garden-variety redneck, beck listener with nothing better to do...
"he needed killin'" situations.
... with all their solving crime and sh*t.
in the public rights-of-way. I have an orange strobe light on my truck, or, when on the road, my rental car, so that I can park in 'No Parking' zones to do my job. It still amazes me how many morons think "I'm the cops." Fortunately, I've yet to been shot at or robbed, despite working in some really rough places.
that this is exactly what it appears to be.
Pot growers would have disappeared the body, likely.
I do think that there is entirely too much collateral damage with the "drug war.
It was my poor choice to bring it up here.
My apologies.
but Meth... the Hillbilly heroin.
is Hillbilly Heroin.
Meth is coke for white-trash losers.
... usually happen in the middle of the most remote mountain areas in Kentucky. You know the places where law enforcement has to get there via helicopter, humbee or extended foot patrols.
You know the kind of places that tend to be out of the interest/reach of census workers.
Furthermore, drug cartels are well know for murdering federal agents in the most public and f*cked up ways. Because there is nothing that drug dealers love more than making themselves prime targets for the interest of the federal authorities.
So maybe not drug dealers, what about a radical group of kentuckian tree huggers? Lord knows wingnuts are not know for their violence, so that could not be it...
However in Texas, they've been finding indoor farms in the suburbs in makeshift greenhouses.
When they started cracking down on that, that when home sales fell in this state.
.
No, but the tactic may be spreading, especially now that so many homes are being foreclosed or abandoned, due to the sub-prime mortgage loan crisis; the homes can easily be retrofitted for such techniques.
... but that still does not address/explain why would a drug-related incident force the perpetrators to not only hung the federal worker, but desecrate his body. It sort of destroys their whole "under the radar" approach, doesn't it?
nothing anyone posts here as a comment addresses or explains or adds FACTS.
.
.
... that whole stuff about how the casting of stones should be best left for those free of sin then?
That doesn't add FACTS.
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 11:27 — Tyler Durden
That's why as stated earlier I don't believe that this was a drug related crime.
at least, are leasing homes in high-rent neighborhoods, usually paying a year in advance for grow houses. With a year's rent, credit checks are often overlooked, esp. in this economy.
... I find it fascinating how we're not supposed to "speculate" regarding the obvious correlation between the lunatic rhetoric against the census by Bachmann, the rants inciting violence against the federal government (now that a black man is president) of Beck et al, and a crime directed specifically against a federal worker for the Census.
But wild guesses about hordes of suburbanite drug dealers going ape sh*t for no apparent reason are OK.
that the perpetrator(s) of this will be found to be beckmann followers than drug manufacturers/growers, though it certainly wouldn't surprise me if convictions for the latter aren't part of their criminal history.
... if this is indeed a drug-related crime. They might as well send an e-mail to the DEA with a big google maps detailed printout with directions that says "we're here."
I sure as hell don't know inter-agency protocol...but if this were a drug related killing...wouldn't the DEA be investigating it, and not the FBI?
that's why I'm inclined to go with a beck/bachmann-influenced (albeit maybe meth-fueled...) wacko, rather than someone with a shotgun protecting his/her still, farm or lab.
... we should not be jumping to conclusions, only you can do that. Got it...
. I think pot is the #1 crop in Kentucky now.
The ironic thing is as a part-time worker, he probably was underpaid, over-worked, with no health benefits, and only marginally better off than any of the unemployed there (who incidentally need the census, so the government knows where their aid is needed).
He was hung from a tree with the word "Fed" scrawled into his chest. Are you suggesting suicide is a possibility? Natural causes perhaps? Give me a break.
The man's body (who was a census worker) was found on 9/12.
Bachmann went on Glenn Beck's show & said how the 2010 census would be used to round up people into internment camps the same way the 1940 census did.
Let's connect those facts...9/12 & Glenn Beck & census worker
Any questions?
We have to do something about this...let's e-mail all of our local & semi-national papers (for me in NY it would be the Daily News, NY Times, etc.) to demand that they cover this story as it unfolds.
anyone have a link (i used to have) that lists all major publication addy's? I'll search for one in the meantime.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/ap_on_re_...
You guys should cover this story as it unfolds. It's important that the people know that there are crazy people out their that listen to Michele Bachmann & Glenn Beck spew their hate on the 2010 census (which she said would lead to internment camps) while the people act on in via violence. The rhetoric needs to be turned down.
I can truthfully state that it is highly possible this guy was killed because he was doing his job.
Post 9/11, people are paranoid. One day, I fielded about twenty calls from residents who wondered what the hell a census taker was doing on their lawns. I informed them that we were doing address canvassing and needed to get accurate information so the Census Bureau would know where to send the Census forms for the 2010 Census.
My spiel also included how important it was to have the Census conducted so the government would know how to allocate money to the states. Of course I got "why do we need the Census at all" comments, but for the most part, if you let people know what you're doing and why, they tend to cooperate.
However, we had wingnuts in Virginia that were actually shooting at some of our field employees, but you didn't hear about that because the head office told us to keep quiet about that.
I'm rebellious - I didn't shut up at all, because they were asking people to endanger themselves in the course of doing a job that pays $10 - $16 an hour, depending on your county. No benefits or sick leave, but they wanted us to keep quiet about counties like Spotsylvania or Winchester because Pootie might not know that you're a Census Taker and might fill you with buckshot before asking any questions.
Michele Bachmann needs censuring by her House Collegues, since she's the first elected official who shot off at the mouth advocating violence.
I heard about this on Maddow's show last night.
It is indeed very disturbing.
I can't begin to imagine the terror this poor guy was probably subjected to.Just.awful.
I am going to wait until there is more information about this before I claim any right wing conspiracy. Then I will really go off.
There's too much of a connection to deny it.
in one of the poorest areas of the country with a long history of anti-government sentiment in which the term "fed" is associated with
people who busted moonshine operations which later morphed into pot and meth operations.
Given the initial reaction here casting blame, I think restraint on the part of the federal law enforcement officials is called for.
I got to spend time in this area and the folks are not exactly friendly to outsiders, period. They are often hostile to people trying to get them to enroll their 8 year olds in school for the first time.
Is Michelle Bachmann going to roundly condemned for stirring up and promoting this psychotic census paranoia?
I'm not saying she should be arrested, but she should certainly be removed from the public discourse. Right-wing lunatics seem to be violently acting on the words of their leaders these days, and those leaders keep their seat at the media table. They should not.
it's incitement is it not?
1) I wonder which right-wing commentator will have the gall to say that this, just as the Knoxville church shooting, just as the Pittsburgh cop killer, just as the Holocaust Museum shooting, just as the murder of George Tiller, was an "isolated incident."
2) Yesterday was a miserable day to be a Kentuckian. I learned of this after reading about Sen. McConnell(R-Humana) defending his main constituent's right to misinform the public and seeing Sen. Bunning fall asleep during the health care reform hearings. It's been a long time since I've been honestly ashamed to be a Kentuckian, but today I am just that.
I don't know whether to cry, or scream profanities at the top of my lungs.
Being ex-military guess what my choice is.
.
At least you didn't say 69.
that seemed like the limit for you guys...
This thread is not a good place for jokes.
YS just finished his set like a champ.
front for that matter. But I am serious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f06QZCVUHg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVozwW1T9aI
I used to think in lines
But then the Air Force started Golden Waves.
I am not even going to go there. ;-)
I could "understand" a fed murder on the anniversary of Mt Carmel and Oklahoma,
But on 9-11 the feds were the "good-guys."
Since 9/11, the term "real America" has sprung up so many times, it becomes a monotone that most of us ignore. Unfortunately, to the 912ers' ears, the implication is that if you don't live in one of these small podunk, blue-collar towns, you're not living in "real America," and therefore, the people killed in New York City or Washington D.C. weren't "real Americans." It only makes sense as to why the same people who 8 years ago advocated stopping at nothing to prevent terrorism from international fundamentalists aren't so much as lifting a finger now to stop the terrorists in their own back yards, in "real America."
We have yet to learn how long it had been there.
...I've probably just overreacted to the 9-12 coincidence without learning all of the facts yet. Nevertheless, I do feel that there is not enough stress in the national dialogue that these violent acts seen in the past year are acts of domestic terrorism, the same as McVeigh's bombing, and the suspects in these cases should be treated no differently.
but could have been to yours. My point is that the date may be irrelevant.
A man is dead. It could have been a murder by a whacko provoked by right wing politics. It could have been a
murder involving very crazed people whacked out on their own manufacured illegal product. It could have been committed by someone who was discovered in a "marriage" to his eleven year old first cousin.
We do not know yet. And I hate to see people cast blame like Rush Limbaugh did on Obama over a school bus beating, or the nutbergers who assumed a muslim was the shooter at Virginia Tech.
you're exactly right.
the body was decomposing...
so he was murdered before the 12th
Login or Register to post comments.