What happened to Sparky?
YES! I remember Sparky! He apparently made the rounds in New England and the Atlantic Coast: I grew up in a suburb of NYC. He came to our school, gave a spoken-word performance once or twice, and was the absolute toast of the school for weeks. (This was maybe 1982.) He was, as I recall, pretty funny. His magnum opus was “The Battle in the Bathtub,” which MeFi user gonadostat, who grew up in the same town as me, has a copy of. Pester him and he’ll copy it for you – tell him I sent you. You are absolutely right about the child molestation thing, too. I remember it was quite the scandal in my elementary school. There were Sparky jokes for years and years after. I believe his name was Richard Sparks. I’m positive about the surname, not about the first name, though. I Googled around a bit and couldn’t find anything, but will contact gonadostat. I bet he’ll know.
I know all about Sparky; my father testified in the case and I found some old video. Sparky pled Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity; he claimed that his other personality, Richard, did things to children that he documented and when Sparky “awoke” and found the photos, he threw them into a dumpster. A passing Maine State Trooper saw him, thought it looked suspicious, and checked the dumpster. In the photos one could clearly see his tattoo. In the trial, “Sybil”s doctor, Cornelia Wilbur, testified that Sparky was unaware of Richard’s actions and was suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder, now known as Dissociative Disorder. My father testified that he was faking mental illness, and in truth was simply in denial of his crimes. He was found guilty, and sentenced to 10 years at Thomaston. He served 6 years and many years of probation which included a lot of therapy. He now accepts his responsibility, and has changed a lot. I think he may have moved out of state, he’s not in the database
