Sunday, October 4, 2009

Death in Clay County: The Green Room Goes Gonzo, or Fear and Loathing in Lower Glennbeckistan

When the going gets weird -- and let's face it, things have been getting pretty damned strange lately -- the weird get going to Clay County, Kentucky:
Crossing the stream and reaching the gate down by Arnetts Fork Road, I paused to look around for just a minute. This was the scene of the crime, and having come all this way to see it, I wanted to have a clear image in my mind. I put my camera and notebook back in the car, fired up a Parliament Light and thought about the situation as I stood by the gate and listened to the stream trickling past under the bridge.
If Bill Sparkman hadn’t just driven up here to Hoskins Cemetery to enjoy the scenery, but rather had been lured up here or brought here by his killer, then whoever killed him was almost certainly a local resident, someone familiar with the area. No way somebody from out of town, a stranger to the area, would have driven past many other possible places to dump a body in order to reach this isolated location.
Rodney Miller at the Enterprise had pointed out the significance of the location in our conversation Monday afternoon, just after I arrived in Clay County. This cemetery was far away from town, and even farther from Sparkman’s home in Laurel County. Sparkman’s truck had been parked up here when his body was found. How did the truck get here? Did Sparkman drive up here, or had he been kidnapped by someone? . . .
That's 228 words of a Hot Air Green Room special report that's nearly 4,000 words long.

And that's just Part One. I've got piles of notes, photos, videos and copies of local Kentucky newspapers that don't have Web sites, so I'll be posting Part Two in a couple of days. Plus, I've got all kinds of phone numbers for sources as this story goes forward.

Track-a-Crat recalls that moment a week ago, while en route to the American Spectator Pig Roast, when he received a phone call from a notorious madman "in an attempt to convince [him] to hire a convertible and join him on a trip to Kentucky."

Well, you blew that chance, didn't you, old buddy? We could have been cruising around east Kentucky in a rented Chrysler convertible, but you punked out, you gin-soaked Limey twit.

Never mind all that. I'm reasonably sure I'll be going back to Kentucky soon and Tuesday will be my 50th birthday, so if everybody will hit the tip jar, we'll start planning our next shoe leather trip. We might even take a detour on the way back, but I'll leave that part to your twisted imagination . . .

8 comments:

  1. ...fired up a Parlaiment Light...

    Dear God man, you were in Kentucky. Why didn't you stock up on Berleys?

    ThomasD

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  2. Egad, I love your writing skill, Stacy. The American Spectator article reads like a novel. Your word pictures and descriptive details really put the reader in the scene.

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  3. I'm with Thomas D. Great story, but...Parliament Light? This kind of thing calls for, at least, an unfiltered Camel.

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  4. "Revenuers" ,as TFMo said earlier to me....are not particularily liked in many areas. Kentucky and Humboldt county,Ca. are two I can think of off hand...
    And since the MSM are so incredibly stupid... always wanting to find facts that 'fit' THEIR narrative, what better way to throw everyone off on this case than to scrawl "FED" across the dead guy?
    Then it looks like a vast right wing conspiracy instead of the guy stepped in someone else's 'garden'.....

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  5. Great start. It's nice reading the work of a real writer.

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  6. You just don't see writing like that anymore [too much time spent in both private and public schools teaching kids to bad mouth their country, as R. Lee would not doubt phrase it (he'd probably add some about them being twinkle-toes c***s*****s too)]. Loved it; can't wait for the rest.

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  7. Hi Stacey: Great work on your part. One theory I have not seen mentioned is that rather than resemble the Carradine situation this strikes me more as the college student that was beaten half to death and left to die tied to a fence rail out west because of his sexual orientation.Otherwise there would be no logical reason to display and humiliate the body.Criminals protecting an illegal enterprise are not going to advertise with a corpse. Josh knows his father better than anyone and I would agree and rule out suicide and accident.We would then be left with a local murderer with a hatred for gays.This is speculation on my part with no evidence of course, based solely on what I have read on blogs,news accounts,etc.If it sounds good to you,run with it. If it is the answer to the killing,please take all credit. I'm sitting...You are running. Good Luck.
    Chesapeake Ed

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