Passing by Winfield’s Memorial Park, it’s difficult not to notice the wheel-chair-bound man with the eye patch and a puzzling sign with big, black, block letters that reads "Lies. Dead. Read."
"It’s a mind puzzle," Fred Bursack, the local man who has spent the last few days displaying the sign near the northeast corner of the public park on Ninth Ave., said Wednesday.
Bursack wouldn’t say exactly what the words mean but said he is not protesting anything or picketing anyone. He acknowledges spending several hours over several days in the hot sun but wouldn’t say much about what he expected to accomplish.
Since he’s had run-ins with the law, some county officials have wondered if Bursack was in the park ? which is just across the street from the courthouse ? to protest the sheriff’s department. Officers with the department aided in Bursack’s arrest three years ago.
But Bursack said there is no protest and the word "Read" in the sign is no reference to Cowley County Undersheriff Don Read.
You might remember Fred Bursack.
In 2005, he was arrested after an investigation into his behavior during what was reportedly a dispute over oil rights. Bursack was accused of spreading nails along Cowley 3 to flatten the tires of those driving by and he is said to have fired in the general direction of oil well trucks.
He was arrested after being found hiding in an attic following a police raid in April 2005. A year later, he was found guilty of one count each of criminal threat, criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle, criminal damage to property, aggravated assault and obstruction of official duty.
Bursack spent some time in jail but was mostly in the custody of community corrections ? a type of intensely supervised probation ? as a result of his conviction, Undersheriff Read said Wednesday.
When asked whether he had any animosity toward the sheriff’s department, Bursack said he had no more comment to make.
"I really don’t want to talk to you anymore," he said. "Go ahead, split. Get lost. Get out of here."
Read said that local representatives of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services spoke with Bursack after getting reports he was spending so much time in the park.
"He appears to be fine," Read said. "He has water and an umbrella and something to read."
Those who spoke with Bursack told county officials that his sign may have something to do with a book he has reportedly written.
"It has nothing do with me," Read said. "And I haven’t given it a second thought"
