Excerpt:
BIG CREEK, Ky. — Authorities confirmed a U.S. Census worker died by asphyxiation but were releasing few other details about the mysterious case nearly two weeks after Bill Sparkman’s body — with the word “fed” scrawled on the chest — was found hanging from a tree near a family cemetery secluded by Appalachian forest.
The substitute teacher, 51, was discovered Sept. 12 in a remote patch of Daniel Boone National Forest in Clay County where he was working part-time for the Census Bureau. Still, law enforcement officials weren’t saying Thursday whether he was working at the time of his death or whether they believed it had anything to do with his job. Nor could they rule out an accident or suicide.
Mary Hibbard, a teacher in Manchester, recalled Sparkman visiting her over the summer to ask typical Census questions, such as the size of her house and the average monthly utility bills. After she answered, she turned the questioning on him — quizzing him about his faith and learning he had a strong belief in God.
She said she was shocked when she saw his picture on the news.
“I think the negative publicity of it is a stigma on our county,” she said. “It makes people think less of us, even though this is an isolated incident. When it happens here, it seems like it’s emphasized.”
While authorities confirmed for the first time Thursday that asphyxiation was the cause of death, even the details behind that were murky. According to a Kentucky State Police statement, the body was hanging from a tree with a noose around the neck, yet it was in contact with the ground.
The word “fed” had been scrawled on his chest, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case.
There was no visual evidence of any crime — or even any police investigation — at the Hoskins family cemetery, which includes dozens of tombstones, many bearing the Hoskins name. It sits on a steep hill less than 200 yards from the narrow road that cuts through the forest.
At the entrance to the path leading there were two white rubber gloves, and there was other litter on the ground, including discarded soda cans and a children’s toy.
Lucy Wagers, who owns a grocery store in the area, said her husband delivers mail around the cemetery, and she often goes with him. Never had she seen any strange activity there, nor noticed any police traffic, even after the body was found.
“Who would have done it like that around here?” she said. “I’ve been here 32 years and never had nobody bother me.”
Although anti-government sentiment was one possibility, some in law enforcement also cited the prevalence of drug activity in the area — including meth labs and marijuana fields — although they had no reason to believe there was a link to Sparkman’s death.
Some notes on this:
a) When done by experts, hanging is something that breaks your neck — the inertia of the body and the snapback of the knot just does it. However, as America’s great history of lynching has shown, it’s not uncommon for people to fuck this up. When the angry mob does it on the fly, they tend not to drop the person from high enough, or place the knot wrong, in which case the person just dies from asphyxiation. So from this, we can conclude that they were most likely amateurs at hanging people. Great, that sure clears up a lot.
b) The guy who started the militia movement Posse Comitatus (best known for the ‘sovereign citizen’ bullshit that we got a heaping dose of with Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, back when they blew up the Oklahoma City federal building) was really into Hangin’ Justice or whatever, and was also not too fond of the federal government. He’s huge in certain circles still.
c) This incident sort of reminds me of that part in the Turner Diaries (stupidest book ever, like a white power trashy housewive smut novel, don’t read it) where the white power factions take over the government and hang all the supporters from buildings with racetraitor signs around their necks.
So what do we know so far?
- Reading these, it seems like a lot of the experts are downplaying the possibility of militiamen being the perpetrators of this murder and are banking on weed or meth dealers. This seems unlikely to me due to the fact that (as I’ve written previously) drug traffickers don’t like to advertise. But this is still not at the rule-out stage yet or anything.
- Either way there’s no conclusive evidence at this point that links the murder to specifically drug traffickers OR to militiamen.
- I’m still calling it as a militia crime, due to the ‘fed’ scrawling on his chest.
3 months ago • 2 notes
