There have been a few diaries today on the tragic and apparent murder of Bill Sparkman. Sparkman was found hung in The Daniel Boone National Forest with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest. Sparkman was a part-time census worker. The investigation is not complete:
AP Story
Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.
"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved — and that's part of the investigation — and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.
Some commenters have speculated a possible link between right-wing hate radio/speech, and that the murder might be the work of a right-wing terrorist. However, a few commenters have mentioned that the Daniel Boone National Forest is a haven for drug production.
I don’t know the area, but I Googled "Daniel Boone National Forest" and "drugs", and there definitely is a possibility that Mr. Sparkman may have been murdered over drugs. According to a 2005 DOJ report, Daniel Boone was #1 among National Forests in marijuana seizures, and #3 in meth lab seizures.
Marijuana and Methamphetamine Trafficking on Federal Lands Threat Assessment
The reason I post is not to speculate that the murder was drug-related (coming upon a marijuana plot or meth lab), but that it is one possibility. We still don’t know officially if Mr. Sparkman’s death was a murder. For those speculating of right-wing terrorism, I just want to pass on an alternate possibility. It is too soon to speculate on this possible murder.
Marijuana:
Kentucky also is a significant domestic marijuana source area, and much of the cannabis cultivation in Kentucky occurs on federal lands, as it does in California. The Daniel Boone National Forest, located in Eastern Kentucky, led all National Forests for cannabis plants eradicated, accounting for 29 percent (213,229 of 729,481) of cannabis plants eradicated on NFS lands nationwide in 2003.
Many marijuana producers in Kentucky are residents of the area, mostly Caucasians, who run family-based, vertical operations (controlling cultivation through distribution) or who deal with a broker as part of a loose confederation of marijuana producers. According to the Forest Service, these groups and individuals typically maintain smaller plots of cannabis than do Mexican DTOs and usually travel long distances from their homes to sites scattered throughout remote areas of federal lands in order to tend their plots.
For meth, Daniel Boone ranked 3rd among National Forests: http://www.usdoj.gov/...