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Bill Sparkman: Census Worker Hanged in Daniel Boone Forest

September 24th, 2009 No comments »

There’s dirty work afoot in Kentucky. In what sounds like a scene from some gruesome horror story, substitute teacher and part-time Census Bureau worker Bill Sparkman was found hanged in Daniel Boone National Forest. The word “fed” had been written across Sparkman’s chest. Is this a case of anti-government violence, or is Sparkman’s killer trying to throw the cops off the scent with clever misdirection?

Sparkman was a single parent who had become interested in teaching while working as an instructional assistant with children who have learning disabilities. Lacking a the necessary degree to become a teacher, he enrolled in an online university in order to gain his teaching credential. To help finance his education, Sparkman took a job as a permanent part-time worker with the U.S. Census Bureau, working for them about 35 hours a month.

While pursuing a degree in mathematical education, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He underwent successful treatment for the disease and began working as a substitute teacher in the southern Kentucky area.

Bill Sparkman began his working life as a one man sports department of the Mulberry Press in his hometown of Mulberry, Florida. He served as sports editor, reporter, and photographer for the small paper.

After his newspaper work, he worked for 12 years with the Eagle Scouts organization, including a three-year stint as associate national director of the Order of the Arrow.

Few details have been released by authorities about the Bill Sparkman hanging. The FBI has been called in on the case because it’s a federal crime to attack a federal worker in the course of his duties.

Sparkman’s mother Henrie Sparkman, a former high school principal, professed to be mystified by her son’s untimely death. ”I have my own ideas, but I can’t say them out loud. Not at this point. Right now, what I’m doing, I’m just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion.”

Bill Sparkman’s life was an inspiring story of perseverance in the face of adversity. Raising a son, Josh, as a single parent while working two jobs and going back to school in his 50’s, only to be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It seems tragically unfair that such a man should meet with a violent and grizzly death.

Upon graduating from online college Western Governors University, Sparkman spoke movingly of his life’s struggles in an address to fellow graduates. The speech is now on Youtube, and you can watch it in full below. Bill Sparkman seems like a very nice man. I can only hope that the authorities bring his killer to justice as swiftly as possible.

keywords: bill sparkman, census worker hanged, william sparkman

Recent True Crime Articles

September 24th, 2009 No comments »

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Bill Sparkman: Census Worker Hanged in Daniel Boone Forest

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Jessica Del Rocco: Raymond Clark’s High School Girlfriend Speaks Out

September 23rd, 2009 No comments »

Raymond Clark's high school girlfriend Jessica Del Rocco

Jessica Del Rocco, accused Annie Le killer Raymond Clark’s high school girlfriend, has finally come forward to tell her story. Although constrained by police requests that she not speak about the alleged sexual abuse she may have experienced at Clark’s hands, Del Rocco spoke with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America (the full GMA interview can be seen here) about her relationship with the man under arrest for the murder of Yale student Annie Le.

Other high school friends of Raymond Clark have spoken of him as a normal decent guy whom they consider the unlikeliest of killers. Jessica Del Rocco saw that side of him, too.

“He was very popular. He was a very nice guy. Everybody loved him. He was a good student. He was a great baseball player. At first, he was perfect – he was charming, he was sweet, took me out.”

As their relationship proceeded, however, Del Rocco began to see another side to Raymond Clark. ”About three months into everything, he started to get a little controlling,” she said in the GMA interview.

Clark began dictating what she could wear and where she could go. She would be upbraided for speaking to the wrong person or even using the wrong voice in conversation. If she got out of line, Clark’s dark side began to show through. ”He would get very angry. He would frighten me. He did get physical,” said Del Rocco.

Del Rocco was not the only one to see the controlling side of Raymond Clark. Neighbor Anna Marie Goodwin saw similar displays of controlling behavior toward his current girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, as well. “He would never let her talk to anyone. I would hear a lot of yelling upstairs,” says Goodwin.

Clark began to display the sort of rage towards Jessica Del Rocco that Annie Clark may have seen on the fateful day of her murder. ”He’d get this little look in his eye. Sometimes it would be best just to do what he said, just to avoid the fight.” Perhaps Annie Le made the mistake of standing up to the controlling lab technician.

Says Jessica Del Rocco, “If things didn’t go his way, then he’d make them go his way.”

When Del Rocco tried to end the relationship, Clark became violent. ”He didn’t want it to be over, and an incident occurred.” That incident has been reported by media sources to be a forced sexual encounter, but Del Rocco has been asked by police not to speak of the incident.

Unable to free herself from the man who would be tried as Annie Le’s killer, Del Rocco contacted the school and ultimately the police. For about two weeks, she had to be escorted from school to her car until she and Clark both began to date other people and his rage finally cooled off.

Jessica Del Rocco offers advice to anyone who finds herself in a similar predicament. ”If any girl feels uncomfortable in a relationship. Take a stand and realize you don’t deserve to be treated like that. You deserve better.”

keywords: jessica del rocco, raymond clark, annie le, annie le murder, raymond clark girlfriend

How the Hell Do You Spell Muammar Gaddafi? Khadafy? Qadhafi? Gadhafi?

September 23rd, 2009 No comments »

Most people agree that Muammar Gaddafi is a rotten dictator who has sponsored terrorist attacks that have killed civilians. Now if we can only agree on how to spell the man’s name. Depending on who’s counting, there are either 12 or 37 different ways in which reputable news organizations have spelled the Libyan dictator’s last name. Add in the hapless attempts of spelling-challenged amateurs (amatures?) like me, and there could be thousands of variations floating around.

The official spelling of the name, or at least how his minions spell it for the non-Arabic world, is Al Gathafi. That should be the end of the matter, but no one seems to care how the Libyans spell the Anglicized version of their dictator’s name. The issue is so confused, Wikipedia’s al-Gaddafi page has a whole section devoted to the spelling of his name.

Most, but not all, seem to agree that his first name is spelled Muammar. However others have been known to spell it Moammar or Moamar or Muamar. A few even seem to like Mu’ammar or even Mummer. But deciding on a spelling for the dictator’s first name is a piece of cake compared to his last name.

The English, who perhaps should know, having released one of the Lockerbie bombers into his loving arms, seem to have settled on Gaddafi as the standard spelling of the Colonel’s name. But that is by no means the last word on the subject. A 1986 article by whomever was writing the Straight Dope at the time lists the following variations:

Qaddhafi, Qaddafi, Gaddafi, Gadhafi, Gadafi, Gathafi, Gheddafi, Al-Kaddafi, Kaddafi, Khadafy , Qadhafi , Qadaffi , Qadhdhafi, Gadaffi, Al-Kaddafi, Khadafi, Khadafy, Kazzafi, al-Gaddafi, Qathafi, el-Gadhafi .

If newspapers and magazines with (poorly) paid fact-checkers can’t decide on a spelling, what are the rest of us supposed to do? The problem seems to be that there is no universally accepted was to translate Arabic characters into standard English pronunciations. How can we solve this riddle? By resorting to Google, of course. Check the number of results for different spellings and the one with the most becomes the unofficial ”official” winner. Majority rules, right?

Gaddafi: 1,890,000 results.

Gadhafi: 479,000 results.

Gadafi: 443,000 results.

Qaddafi: 410,000 results.

Khadafi: 376,000 results.

Qadaffi: 81,800 results.

Khadafy: 73,400 results.

Gathafi: 50,900 results.

All right then, Gaddafi is the winner. I hereby declare the official spelling of the Libyan dictator’s name to be Muammar Gaddafi. Interestingly, the dictator’s own preferred spelling, Gathafi, was among the least popular variations. Sic Semper Tyrannis!

Gaddafi to Pitch Tent on Donald Trump’s Lawn

September 22nd, 2009 No comments »

Is this tent the future home of M. Gadaffi?

From the department of You Can’t Make This Stuff Up comes news that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi plans to (literally) pitch his tent on the front lawn of kind-of-rich guy Donald Trump. Trump owns the Seven Springs estate in Bedford, NY, on the lawn of which a large tent has been erected which reportedly will be the local headquarters of Muammar Gaddafi while he is in town visiting the United Nations.

Local residents are up in arms over the idea of the man behind the Lockerbie bombing camping out in their township. Local town attorney Joel Sachs has served workers with a stop work order on the pretext that the tent violates town ordinances, but claimed to be unable to communicate with workers because they didn’t speak English.

Families of those killed in the bombing were already upset that Gaddafi had been granted a visa in the first place. Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing all 240 passengers and 16 crew members aboard. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, who was convicted in the bombing plot, was recently given compassionate leave by a Scottish court after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. He received a hero’s welcome on his arrival in Libya.

Libya has mostly refrained from further involvement in terrorism since the Lockerbie bombing, and U.S. and British authorities are eager to both reward him and gain access to Libya’s underdeveloped oil assets.

For the first time since the Lockerbie terrorism incident, Gadaffi has been granted a visa to address the United Nations at its headquarters in New York. He had been expected to stay at Donald Trump’s extravagant Seven Springs property, and a lavish tent was being erected in the front yard to house him.

Trump claims that the tent is not for Gadaffi at all. A spokesman said the property “was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Gadhafi. We are looking into the matter.”

The Trump Seven Springs property can be seen on Google Earth at coordinates 41.16568800, -73.69551300.

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