Update On Bill Sparkman

For all those who insisted that Bill Sparkman couldn't possibly have committed suicide, here's the result of the investigation into his death:

Census worker Bill Sparkman committed suicide and deliberately made it look like murder as part of an insurance scam, Kentucky state police have concluded.

State police, working with the FBI, said at a press conference moments ago that Sparkman had recently taken out two life insurance policies that would not pay out for suicide. It appears Sparkman hoped that the scheme would benefit his son, Josh Sparkman.

Police: Sparkman Committed Suicide, Made It Look Like Murder For Insurance Scam

Two things to take away from this are:

First, initial reports from a sensational story like this cannot always be trusted. The Ft. Hood murders should have taught us that, too.

Second, what appears likely, or even probable, isn't the only possible explanation. Anyone with good geometric reasoning skills can print backwards, as Sparkman apparently did with a magic marker to write "Fed" on his chest. I was just doing something like that yesterday, with a paint pencil no less (not on my chest, on some tools).

The important point before deciding that something is impossible is to make sure that it actually is.