Census Taker Death in Clay County, Kentucky, Sparks Rampant Speculation

Part-time Census Bureau employee William Sparkman was found hanged in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Clay County, Kentucky with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest September 12, but the story didn't hit the mainstream news media until Associated Press reported it on Wednesday. The FBI is investigating whether Sparkman's death is a homicide and whether anti-government sentiment was the motive. Pending further information, the Census Bureau suspended door-to-door interviews in the rural area of Clay County, Kentucky where Sparkman was assigned.

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry told the Washington Post, "If this is an attack on a federal employee, I can assure you that no resources will be spared to find the perpetrators."

News of Sparkman's death and the possibility that he was killed in connection with his Census duties prompted internet comments ranging from blaming right-wingers to suspicions that his death wasn't connected with the Census at all.

On the Democratic Underground, for example, one commenter proclaimed "It has begun... the wingnuts are becoming unglued." Others chimed in and blamed the killing on Michelle Bachman and Glenn Beck.

One theory set out on the Democratic Underground site is that Sparkman's death was a suicide. The scrawling of the word "Fed" on Sparkman's body does bring to mind the Tawana Brawley and Ashley Todd cases, both involving women who defaced their bodies and attributing the defacement to hate and policitical motives, but nothing that has been publicly reported concerning Sparkman suggest any mental instability or motive that would lend support to such a theory. And unlike Brawley and Todd, the deceased Sparkman would not garner attention from such an action.

Another group of commenters discussed the possibility that Sparkman was in the wrong place at the wrong time and stumbled into a meth lab.

As a former Fed, my first reaction and continuing reaction to this news is skepticism that the subject matter of Sparkman's census work will be found pertinent to his death. The murder of a Census Bureau employee in connection with Census duties would be unusual. Federal law enforcement officers appear to be subject to murder plots more often than other Federal employees. But even those plots are frequently interrupted before they are consummated.

On August 11, John Barker of Kansas was sentenced to one year, one day in prison and two years supervised release. Barker had pled guilty May 11 of sending a threatening communication to the IRS in June 2008. Barker's letter was not addressed to a particular IRS agent but contained a white powder falsely identified as anthrax. The letter said in pertinent part, "YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO ANTHRAX DIE!"

On July 28, IRS agent Albert Bront was charged with threatening to assault and murder two Treasury Department Inspector Genral for Tax Administration Special Agents and one IRS Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent. Bront was under investigation for filing false tax returns.

Randy Nowak, 48, of Mulberry, Florida was arrested July 31, 2008 after he attempted to hire a hitman to kill IRS agent Christine Brandt who was investigating his personal and professional tax obligations. According to the criminal complaint, Nowak allegedly transferred $10,000 as a downpayment on the hit to an FBI undercover agent posing as a hitman. The complaint alleged that Nowak also asked the undercover agent if he would set the Lakeland IRS office on fire. Nowack was convicted in December and on March 5 sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In November 1990, Silver Spring, Maryland accountant Joel D. Davis pled guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison after scheming to murder an IRS agent auditing his books.

In all of these cases except the Barker case, the plotters had far more at stake than giving up some biographical data to a census taker.

Sources: http://www.webcpa.com/news/30240-1.html; http://www.accountingweb.com/item/105683; http://www.theledger.com/article/20090305/NEWS/903050242?Title=Nowak-Gets-30-Years-in-Murder-For-Hire-Plot; http://www.treas.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml; http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,397986,00.html; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/07/national/main4326573.shtml; http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal; eye/2009/09/eye_opener_census_worker_hange.html?hpid=moreheadlines; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/bill-sparkman-census-work_n_297220.html; http://abcnews.go.com/US/census-interviews-suspended-worker-found-hanged-kentucky/story?id=8659585; http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4073850&mesg_id=4073893.