Friday, February 22, 2013

The Hanging


[ed. Quite the page-turner. Great writing.]

The body of William Sparkman Jr., a 51-year-old census worker, was found in 2009 in an isolated cemetery in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. He hung naked from a tree, hands bound, the word FED scrawled in black marker across his chest. Sparkman's death briefly made headlines: to some, it seemed to implicate our polarized politics; to others, a region long known for its insularity. And then the case disappeared from the national view. Here is the story of what really happened to Bill Sparkman, a complex man whom few people truly knew.

by Rich Shapiro, The Atlantic |  Read more:
Illustration: Danny Wilcox-Frazier