Strange Fruit

Hoskins Cemetery, Clay County, Kentucky

Almost three weeks ago, a U. S. census worker was found dead, hanging in a tree in a heavily-wooded area of Appalachian Kentucky. The word “fed” was written on his chest in red felt-tip marker and he was naked, bound with duct tape near a cemetery.

Stories of moonshiners outsmarting revenuers during prohibition in this region come to mind with images of fiercely independent, anti-government folks and tightly-knit clans.

Another image and melody that comes to mind is Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit.” The plaintive song tells of lynchings in the South that terrorized African-Americans in an effort to maintain segregation.

Clay County Kentucky, the site of Bill Sparkman’s death, is a rural area that now hosts marijuana crops and meth labs. Local journalists and a few law enforcement representatives have speculated that he may have been murdered for stumbling upon these illicit activities.

I used the term murder – but I spoke out of turn. His death is under investigation with no homicide yet determined. The Kentucky State Police are not releasing much information to the public, presumably to protect the investigation of a garish crime scene and death.

Bill Sparkman, subsitute teacher

I am intermittantly haunted by the manner and situation of Bill Sparkman’s death. He was an Eagle Scout, working for the Boy Scouts and also a substitute teacher who got his college degree later in life. The census job was another part-time endeavor for the 51-year-old single father. He was a cancer survivor.

The family who discovered his body don’t doubt he was murdered and anyone willing to speak off the record agrees, but his son and mother will have to wait for official answers.

Investigators just released Sparkman’s body to his son Josh Sparkman. According to a blog set up to raise financial support for Josh, http://www.wikio.com/themes/Bill+Sparkman,  a memorial march was held Sunday, October 11, in London, Kentucky where Bill Sparkman lived.

I didn’t believe census work for our government could be hazzardous duty, it seems an innocent job, inquiring for household factoids to create federal statistics. I know plenty of people don’t believe the government’s work is so innocent, collecting personal information for potentially “Big Brother” activities, but Sparkman and his fellow census workers are not doing espionage, they don’t get paid enough.

Any routine activity can put any of us in harm’s way. But a violent death with a cryptic message is strange fruit to bear.

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