Man lynched in Kentucky for involvement with Census Bureau.

[Glocksman]

Neither Ringo or Weber were published authors in the early 90's, Glocksman. It's too early for them.

Could either one of them have written it before they made it 'big', so to speak?

Though like I said, it's a wild ass guess on my part that Ringo or Weber had anything to do with the book.
For all I know it could have been written by 'Joseph P Rosenberger', the author of The Death Merchant series from Pinnacle Books back during the 70's and 80's because it also reminds me of his style.

[Samuel]

Weber first published in 1992 and Ringo in 2000.

Though like I said, it's a wild ass guess on my part that Ringo or Weber had anything to do with the book.

Hey, Card wrote his first story in the 70s and wrote Empire- that has more precedent.

[Big Orange]

These isolated, paranoid rural people seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum to city gang members.

Yes, in many ways, although both use drugs and both can be extremely dangerous.

That and also developing strange, lazy forms of speech that outsiders find hard to understand.

These rural people are dangerous and could eventually be officially announced as a clear and present danger if we have more McVeigh style movements, but at the same time that would lead to an internal War on Terror, which means more Waco syle incidents. The Branch Davidians were an odd bunch who fired the first shots, but all the same it still led to 76 citizens getting gassed then burned alive by Federal spies and cops playing at soldiers.

[Atlan]

These isolated, paranoid rural people seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum to city gang members.

Yes, in many ways, although both use drugs and both can be extremely dangerous.

That and also developing strange, lazy forms of speech that outsiders find hard to understand.

These rural people are dangerous and could eventually be officially announced as a clear and present danger if we have more McVeigh style movements, but at the same time that would lead to an internal War on Terror, which means more Waco syle incidents. The Branch Davidians were an odd bunch who fired the first shots, but all the same it still led to 76 citizens getting gassed then burned alive by Federal spies and cops playing at soldiers.

You'll provide proof then that the Feds set the fires, as opposed to the official report, supported by the Davidians own lawyers (Danforth Report, PDF) which concluded that it was in fact the Davidians themselves who set the fire, and shot themselves.

[Broomstick]

These isolated, paranoid rural people seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum to city gang members.

Yes, in many ways, although both use drugs and both can be extremely dangerous.

That and also developing strange, lazy forms of speech that outsiders find hard to understand.

Sure... we talk properly, THEY talk funny. Really, I don't appreciate the dig at their dialect. It's no more degraded or "lazy" than any other dialect.

While I acknowledge the faults of those people, I am part of the family by marriage and do also appreciate the good things about them, so no, I don't want to turn this into "beat up the hillbillies".

These rural people are dangerous and could eventually be officially announced as a clear and present danger if we have more McVeigh style movements,

SOME of them are dangerous. Most of them just want to be left the hell alone. Since, for the most part, they do keep to themselves that is why they have largely been left alone.

Of course, killing of government officials can't be ignored. Nor would any movement on the part of a subgroup towards leaving the mountains and causing problems be tolerable. But, remember - these folks are been up there since before the US existed, from their viewpoint they're defending their territory and are not the aggressors. Don't confuse them with outside agitators.

That is, of course, assuming it is the hillbillies and not some organized group. I am happy to let the FBI do the investigating in this case.

[Raj Ahten]

The sort of xenophobia recounted here seems bizarre to me as all the "mountain men" I've met have always had a real sense of hospitality.

Unless you're going back into the holler yourself you're not likely to meet the Xenophobes as they are the ones who don't come down the mountain, but they are there.

That might have very well been the case. The coal miners I interviewed were not really that isolated. Some worked in company towns while others ran their own small companies selling the coal to local towns and even local universities like Virginia Tech. I guess they were more "Valley Folk" than anything else.

[Big Orange]

You'll provide proof then that the Feds set the fires, as opposed to the official report, supported by the Davidians own lawyers (Danforth Report, PDF) which concluded that it was in fact the Davidians themselves who set the fire, and shot themselves.

That's a dense report...

To elaborate and explain, I wouldn't say the ATF and FBI intentionally set out to masscare the Davidian group and David Koresh was cut from the same cloth as other disturbed, charismatic conmen such as James Warren "Jim" Jones and Marshall Applewhite (also from Texas). The Davidian cult staged a mass suicide/killing yet it was during an awkward pitch battle against gung-ho Federal agents who dropped the ball and lost control of the situation when the ATF team botched the first raid on the compound.

Sure... we talk properly, THEY talk funny. Really, I don't appreciate the dig at their dialect. It's no more degraded or "lazy" than any other dialect.

While I acknowledge the faults of those people, I am part of the family by marriage and do also appreciate the good things about them, so no, I don't want to turn this into "beat up the hillbillies".

I wouldn't feel too affronted, since inner city gangbangers don't get off easy either. But bricks thrown from glass houses and all that, since I hail from Bristol, a place with a dense and rather stupid accent best represented by Vicky Pollard.

I dunno, I don't mind most accents within reason, but dense dialects that are part of a sub-culture usually doesn't bode well to me.

[Questor]

I realize that this has drifted, and this is bringing it back, but would this be a Federal offense under 18 USC 1114, or a state offense? Where does the dual sovereignty fall on census workers?

[Broomstick]

Federal. Definitely Federal.

[Questor]

Federal. Definitely Federal.

So that should reduce the chances of some county sheriff sweeping it under the carpet.

If rural Kentucky is anything like rural Texas, a bunch of FBI agents showing up should kick over a lot of interesting anthills. It'll be interesting to see what resources are assigned to this.

[Broomstick]

The FBI is already investigating the matter, it's entirely out of local hands already.

[Big Orange]

The news reports about the incident have gone quiet, here is the most recent article on the lynching:

Why police are keeping quiet on Census worker Sparkman death

Just because Census worker Bill Sparkman was found hanging from a tree with the word 'fed' written on his chest doesn't mean he was murdered in an antigovernment act. Sparkman died in an insular county of moonshiners and pot-growers, and police are wary of taking a wrong step.
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer
from the October 1, 2009 edition

Atlanta - Three weeks after part-time Census worker Bill Sparkman's body was found hung from a Kentucky tree, the word "fed" scrawled across his chest with a red felt-tip pen, law-enforcement authorities have yet to announce any leads, suspects, or potential motives.

For a public already inundated with broken-up terror plots, antigovernment sentiment, and partisan pundits ready to use the case for their own ideological ends, the lack of any word from police has led to rampant speculation about why he died.

Mr. Sparkman's son, Josh, can't understand why police are reluctant to call it a homicide.

But the peculiarities of the case appear to be making it difficult for police to find a quick answer to the riddle of Sparkman's death.

Most obviously, Kentucky police may still be unearthing clues. But it is also possible that they are taking a page straight out of a Henning Mankell police procedural: letting the mystery loosen lips in tight-knit and secretive Clay County, an old moonshiner's haunt and a prime pot-growing area currently in the midst of harvest season.

The stakes are high, especially since FBI special agent David Beyer says cases of Census workers being killed in the line of duty are "very, very infrequent." Office of Personnel Management director John Berry says, "We will come down on these perpetrators as hell hath no fury."

Despite the "fed" clue, many who study Kentucky's rural backroads are loath to make a direct connection between the death and current anti-government – and even anti-Obama – sentiments.

"There's a combination of possible factors: marijuana, moonshine, meth, public corruption investigations, plus all the heated rhetoric about big government," says Al Cross, a former reporter who now directs the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in Lexington, Ky.

"Obama could have been a contributing factor or a tipping point, but I would be surprised," he adds. "There are just too many other elements in local history that indicate otherwise. For one, this would be the first killing of an outsider in Clay County."

Investigators seem to think that something at the crime scene doesn't seem quite right.

For example: Though Mr. Sparkman was hung from the neck and asphyxiation was the official cause of death, his feet were touching the ground when he was found.

"We're not responding to any of the speculation, the innuendo, or the rumors that are floating around," says Don Trosper, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police, reflecting the views of Det. Donald Wilson, the lead investigator in the case. "The Kentucky State Police concerns itself with facts."

Yet Mr. Trosper agrees that the case is "perplexing" in that police haven't been able to rule out any of the three possibilities: suicide, accidental death or homicide.

For some observers, the lynching image, combined with a summer of Tea Parties founded on a state's rights tradition deeply rooted in the South makes it hard to rule out an antigovernment motive. With US officials reporting an uptick in homegrown radical activity, some of it violent, they say the link appears even more likely.

"This was such a symbolic and personal anger that I'm led to lean towards someone who has severe antigovernment feelings, perhaps someone seeking revenge," domestic terrorism expert Brian Levin told CNN's "AC360."

But it's clear that law enforcement hasn't yet endorsed the notion of Appalachian bogeymen threatening government workers. In fact, the appearance of antigovernment bias in the death could be a smokescreen to cover up what really happened, says Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox.

Moreover, the Times-Tribune in Corbin, Ky., quoted a local law-enforcement source who urged reporters to look into the circumstances of the death of actor David Carradine, who died of apparent auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Coworkers and a retired State Police officer who knew Sparkman say they find it difficult to believe that the mild-mannered Eagle Scout could have committed suicide or been involved in something that led to an accidental death.

Sparkman, a 50-something substitute teacher, moved to southeast Kentucky to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. He recently served as a substitute teacher in Laurel County and earned extra money as a Census field worker, according to the Associated Press

He had been a part-time Census worker since 2003 and had been working in the area on routine surveys the Census bureau conducts for various government agencies, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

One concern is that the official silence could mean that the trail has grown cold. Secrets can be well-kept among the the close-knit clans in rural parts of Appalachia, where even an outwardly harmless man like Sparkman could have been perceived as a threat, or even a Drug Enforcement Admininstration informant.

But the silence could also be a strategy to control the investigation, says Mr. Cross of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

"I almost always sympathize with investigators in these circumstances," he says. "I'll go back to the [former Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld quote: 'There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns,' and any sort of information [given out] that points in one direction or another might compromise the investigation."

The Christian Science Monitor (don't ask)

[Themightytom]

How'd you find that on the Christian science monitor, are you an avid subscriber??

Why would they bring David Carrodine's death into this? is anyone taking this case seriously?

[Big Orange]

I think some of the local cops are insinuating that the murder was perhaps instead the result of a sex game gone bad, to make the innocent victim seem like a pervert and not the victim of local nutters.

[Yona]

I think some of the local cops are insinuating that the murder was perhaps instead the result of a sex game gone bad, to make the innocent victim seem like a pervert and not the victim of local nutters.

Which means his wife's cousins third brother, twice removed, who is also his sister's brother and his mothers cousin probably did the deed.

F B I, which equals, Family , Brothers, and Inlaws !

[Simon_Jester]

Here's a summary of the plot.

In my entirely unexpert opinion, the mystery writer is either David Weber or John Ringo.

John Ringo wouldn't surprise me. I picked up a Bolo book he wrote called The Road to Damascus, which is basically about a bunch of "left-wing" strawmen (with rather nebulous motives) whose ultra-PC policies basically ruin a colony world and basically has a jerk-off session about the 2nd Amendment, or at least the future-space equivalent thereof. It was pretty embarrassing to read at times and I rather wish I hadn't read it.

I haven't read much of Weber's work so I don't know how bad he can get.[/quote]Weber at his worst is slightly worse than Ringo at his best, I'd say. Of course, it helps a lot that he tends to set most of his stuff in science fiction settings remote enough from today's experience that it might as well be "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away;" that tends to soften his political commentary.

So I don't think Weber is a plausible author for a book that amounts to wall-to-wall right-wing conspiracy theories. He leans libertarian, strongly so, but he's too far from outright nuttery. He's also got a fairly distinctive writing style, so if he had written it, it would probably show.

Ringo... maybe. Kratman... definitely wouldn't rule it out.