Good O' Boy Roundup Report - March, 1996


b) OIG findings regarding racist misconduct
at the 1985 Roundup

As discussed earlier, we believe the incident with the statue is the same one reported by another Treasury employee. The other individual, however, claimed that some Canadians were responsible, not a deputy sheriff. For several reasons, it is more likely that the deputy sheriff was responsible. [/ The witness did not identify the deputy sheriff or sheriff's office he worked for. ] First, the Canadians flew to Tennessee and rented motor homes after they arrived. They likely would neither have brought such a statue on a plane nor purchased one in Tennessee to take back with them. Second, the reason why the Canadians would have had such a statue is unclear, whereas the deputy sheriff wanted to tie his dog to it instead of to the camper. He thus probably kept such an object in his own camper. As only two of the eighty attendees interviewed regarding the 1985 Roundup reported this incident, the statue was likely only out for a short time.

As for the racist comment on stage, we do not know what was actually said, who said it, or who heard it. This was the only report we received of this incident, and the individual could not recall any details about it. Where individuals premised entire skits on racial content we received many reports of them and the witnesses who saw one of these skits could relate some details. We have no such information in this case, but it may have been a racial slur as part of a joke that failed to make an impression on very many people.