1829
Jackson was founded in 1829 and named after Andrew Jackson.
about 0:07:09Spoilers are covered until your reading preferences load.
FILE 130 / 1 August 2019 / 142 MIN / full
This week all the way to Michigan: Jackson, Michigan. It's in Jackson County, zip code 49201, area code 517, eleven square miles. about 0:06:20
Jackson was founded in 1829 and named after Andrew Jackson.
about 0:07:09By the end of the 1800s Jackson was a hub of railroads, which brought people and trade.
about 0:07:30The first state prison in Michigan was built in Jackson, and by 1882 it had the largest walled prison in the world.
about 0:07:45The first state prison, built in 1838, was a temporary wooden prison enclosed by poles on 60 acres donated for the purpose.
about 0:08:16Jackson was founded in 1829 and named after Andrew Jackson.
about 0:07:09By the end of the 1800s Jackson was a hub of railroads, which brought people and trade.
about 0:07:30The first state prison in Michigan was built in Jackson, and by 1882 it had the largest walled prison in the world.
about 0:07:45The first state prison, built in 1838, was a temporary wooden prison enclosed by poles on 60 acres donated for the purpose.
about 0:08:16The prison took in its first 35 prisoners in 1839, and a permanent prison was built three years later.
about 0:09:15In the 1850s a warden placed more emphasis on education and rehabilitation than punishment.
about 0:09:27Cheap inmate labour helped make Jackson one of the leading industrial cities in the nation at the time.
about 0:11:18The corset industry came to Jackson in the 1860s and the town became a centre of corset manufacturing.
about 0:11:27The invention of the duplex corset by a company called Bortree made it the top corset manufacturer in the world.
about 0:12:29Sixteen manufacturers of women's corsets operated in Jackson in the early 1900s, most of them on two streets.
about 0:12:40Elastics changed corset design and by 1920 most of the manufacturers were gone; only three survived into the 1920s, turning to therapeutic and prosthetic goods.
about 0:13:41At one point one Jackson company was making 300,000 corsets a year.
about 0:14:13A woman-owned corset manufacturer in 1860 had the first and only female president, who invented and patented the coronet corset.
about 0:14:25Before Detroit, Jackson factories were making cars and parts; by 1910 the car industry was the town's main industry and more than 20 brands were made there.
about 0:14:59The brands included Reeves, Jackson, Carter Car, Orlo, Whiting, Butcher and Gage, Buick, Janny Globe, Steel Swallow, CVI Imperial and Standard Electric; all were defunct after Ford's assembly line.
about 0:15:08Ye Old Carriage Shop in Spring Arbor has 60 antique cars, including five one-offs and 16 cars made in Jackson.
about 0:15:48In 1914 George Toradoff founded the first Coney Island restaurant and created the Coney Island hot dog by the railroad station; he sold more than 17 million hot dogs in 31 years.
about 0:17:50A new prison was completed within the city limits in 1934 and took in all of the state's prisoners; it is now the Armory Arts Village artists' community.
about 0:18:35Jackson has a museum where visitors can tour a closed cell block on the grounds of an active prison.
about 0:20:33Tony Dungy, the football coach, is from Jackson.
about 0:21:1230.2%
Biggest faith: Catholic, 12.2%
about 0:26:28White 67% · Black 21.8% · Asian 0.5% · Hispanic 6.4%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▲ almost double
Violent crime
▲ almost triple
Four-bedroom house
about 0:29:36Three-bedroom house
about 0:29:48Five-bedroom brick house
about 0:30:05"almost double"
Comparison: "national rate". Direction: above.
As told in 2019 about 0:32:25
"almost triple"
Comparison: "national rate". Direction: above.
As told in 2019 about 0:32:25
"32,875"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:23:28
"down 12.2%"
Comparison: "since 1990". Direction: below.
As told in 2019 about 0:23:50
"25,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:23:08
"55,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:23:18
"50,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:23:24
"32.1"
Comparison: "five and a half years under the average". Direction: below.
As told in 2019 about 0:24:08
"34%"
Comparison: "usually 50-50". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:25:08
"37%"
Comparison: "normally 16%". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:25:22
"15%"
Comparison: "usually 10%". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:25:28
"67%"
Comparison: "about 62% in the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:25:41
"21.8%"
Comparison: "average 12.3%". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:25:47
"0.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:26:00
"6.4%"
Comparison: "about a third of the average". Direction: below.
As told in 2019 about 0:26:12
"about 37%"
Comparison: "last election". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:27:09
"about 57%"
Comparison: "last election". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:27:09
"about 6.5%"
Comparison: "last election". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:27:09
"about 7%"
Comparison: "about 4% in the rest of the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:27:24
"$31,000"
Comparison: "almost $58,000 in the rest of the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:28:26
"30.2%"
Comparison: "usually 50%". Direction: below.
As told in 2019 about 0:26:28
"12.2%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:26:48
"0.1%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:26:54
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:27:07
"85"
Comparison: "100 is the average". Direction: below.
As told in 2019 about 0:28:42
"$116,800"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:28:42
"about 70%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:28:42
"$840"
No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:29:22
"$29,900"
Comparison: "1,500 square feet, rough condition". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:29:36
"$135,000"
Comparison: "1,224 square feet on two acres". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:29:48
"$200,000"
Comparison: "5,000 square feet". No direction stated.
As told in 2019 about 0:30:05
1.0 / 5 · average of 1
“Titled 'a nightmare town you need to avoid' and posted in September 2018: the writer was born and grew up around Jackson, moved back once and says he will never set foot there again. He calls it a town with a black cloud hanging over it, says there are no jobs, and lists its principal products as bad backs, alcoholism, drug addiction and divorce. Young people leave as soon as they can, and everyone says 'I'll be out of here soon'.”about 0:21:32
Jackson, Michigan, lies in the south-central part of the state, about an hour and a quarter from Detroit and three hours and twenty minutes from Chicago. At one point 16 corset manufacturers operated on two streets, and by 1910 more than 20 car brands were being made there before Detroit took the industry. By 2019 the population had fallen to 32,875, down 12.2 per cent since 1990, with a median age of 32.1, an unemployment rate of about 7 per cent against 4 per cent nationally, and a median household income of $31,000 against almost $58,000 nationally. Property crime was almost double and violent crime almost triple the national rate.
He was about 31 and she about 34, and both had been married before. For a dozen years they seemed to get along, taking holidays together and running the business. In 1992, however, Patty consulted a divorce lawyer and said there was physical and emotional abuse in the marriage; nothing more about it surfaced for seven years.
Nine days before he went into hospital he held a pig roast. Patty was angry about the cost and about the people in the restaurant, and the corn he bought brought bugs into the kitchen. The couple fumigated the place themselves. He was admitted to Foote Hospital on 29 June 1999 and had the clot removed. On 6 July he was sent home. He had also been on Prozac for years and had to stop it abruptly before surgery. Friends and relatives noticed that he was not himself.
Patty's sisters and father spoke to her every day, and around 15 July 1999 they could not reach her. The family knew the car had been sold a few days earlier because the restaurant was closed and money was short, so they called the police. Bissard looked around and felt something was wrong, so he returned with Detective Thomas Fiero. They found the box on the front porch of a neighbouring house. Inside were charred pieces of a skull.
A twelve-hour search of the property produced body parts, a sleeping bag and a bag holding about 40 pounds of bones. He had cleaned the living room, washed the carpets and cushions and moved furniture to hide stains.
To a psychologist he later described a demon sitting on his couch and threatening his wife. The defence was insanity, based on the brain surgery, the sudden withdrawal from Prozac and the haemorrhage. Asked whether he had anything to say, he maintained that he had killed the devil and that everyone should be grateful.
He also claimed his lawyer, Joseph Phillip, was ineffective for not calling Father Shaver; that failed too. Further attempts in 2016 went nowhere.
July 1999 / the apartment attached to Pizza and Tacos, Jackson, Michigan
As told in the episode, on 1 August 2019.
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
home
about 0:39:37body found
about 1:03:10hospital
about 0:47:35landmark
about 0:18:44school
about 2:03:22landmark
about 0:15:48