Shortly before the 2010 census, a Kentucky census taker named Bill Sparkman was found hanging by his neck in a tree. On his torso was the word “fed.” Sparkman was found three days after he failed to show up for work. His death became national news, mostly owing to the left-wing media. Rachel Maddow breathlessly reported it, insinuating that it was a criminal act. Obama’s FBI descended on Kentucky. A leftist radio bomb-thrower named Mike Malloy suggested that Glenn Beck “blow his brains out” and wanted Bill O’Reilly to “drink a vat of poison,” claiming that Sparkman had been murdered by someone because of their rhetoric. Right-wing “thugs,” he claimed.
But Sparkman wasn’t lynched. All evidence pointed to suicide. He killed himself and set up the scene to make it “look” like he was lynched. Sparkman had taken out $600,000 life insurance policy shortly before he committed suicide. The word "fed" found written on his chest – was written upside down. The Feds went home. The story soon disappeared from the national news cycle.
The only reason Ben Crump hadn’t descended on Kentucky in 2009, chanting "no justice or no peace," and demanding a second autopsy was simple. Sparkman was white.
But it's 2025, and a black man was found hanging from a tree. It's Crump-time.
A man died by hanging in Cleveland, Mississippi, at a small college called Delta State.
Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a 21-year-old student at Delta State University, was found hanging from a tree near the campus pickleball courts around 7 a.m. Monday morning. Police quickly moved to calm fears, saying the campus was safe and that there was no sign of a crime at the scene.
About 100 miles away, another man died by hanging. Only one saw Crump parachute into the investigation and demand justice. The former was black, the latter, white.
We've been retained by the family of Demartravion "Trey" Reed — the 21-year-old Delta State University student whose body was found hanging from a tree.
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) September 16, 2025
Trey was a young man full of promise and warmth, deeply loved and respected by all who knew him. His family and the campus… pic.twitter.com/aaE88MRy0G
Crump is nothing if not predictable. Reed’s death showed no signs of foul play, but that doesn’t matter to Crump. When this story hit the news wires, I looked up the demographics of both Cleveland, Mississippi, and Delta State. Cleveland is a quiet, small town with more blacks than whites. For every five white students at Delta State, there are three black students. And, we do live in 2025, not 1925. Lynchings in 2025, regardless of what Kamala Harris and Ben Crump want the general public to believe, aren’t a thing.
In fact, when I heard the story that Reed’s body was found hanging from a tree in the middle of a campus, suicide, not a lynching, was my first thought. Murdering someone with a rope in the middle of a college campus would be monumentally dumb even for dumb criminals. None of the forensic evidence pointed to murder. Although social media was flooded with claims that Reed’s arms and legs were broken, none of that was true. No defensive injuries. No actual evidence suggests that Reed was “lynched”. Although the family’s attorney (they had an attorney within a day) claimed they were told Reed was found in his dorm room bed, the two officers who informed the family of his death never said that. Both officers are black.
“That was never the words that were said when they were notified of his death. Absolutely not.”
But facts have never stopped Crump from claiming wild things. Now he has another race-grift to back him up. A former backup quarterback and "everything's racist" - extraordinaire named Colin Kaepernick has jumped in.
Crump's self-laudatory press release states:
Nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump today announced that the Colin Kaepernick “Know Your Rights Camp Autopsy Initiative” will cover the cost of a second, independent autopsy for Demartravion “Trey” Reed. Reed’s family will seek the autopsy as soon as Reed’s body is released by the state medical examiner.
Delta State’s administration (apparently) has some video that almost certainly shows Reed, alone on campus, before he was found dead. If the second autopsy is conducted by a media hack like Michael Baden, this story might still have legs in a week, but only if Crump and Kaepernick won’t let go of a phony lynching story die.
Had Reed been white, you never would have heard from “Nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump”. How long will this story last? As long as Crump can drain enough national currency from the story, then he’ll move on to his next microphone.
Well, as long as the “victim” is black.
