There is a lot of speculation about Sparkman’s death and at the heart of the speculation is the anti-census rhetoric that has recently come up from Michelle Bachmann and others on the right.   I personally think suicide is unlikely, but whether or not his job as a census taker had anything to do with his death is yet to be seen.  I think too few facts have been revealed to attribute his death to his job as a census taker.  A report today from MSNBC quotes a retired trooper who says he warned Sparkman to be careful in rural Kentucky.  Gilbert Acciardo told MSNBC, “Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as ‘the government.’ I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there,”

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

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word ‘fed” was scrawled on the dead man’s chest.

The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, 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.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment.

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