1790
Kingston Township was one of the original townships formed by the Susquehanna Land Company of Connecticut in 1790.
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FILE 585 / 3 April 2025 / 179 MIN / full
We're going to Kingston Township, Pennsylvania, about a half hour outside of Scranton, in Luzerne County. about 0:04:32
Kingston Township was one of the original townships formed by the Susquehanna Land Company of Connecticut in 1790.
about 0:06:25It was named after Kingston, Rhode Island, and was originally called King's Town.
about 0:06:34The township was later downsized when whole regions were stripped away to form new municipalities.
about 0:06:42Its motto is the gateway to the Back Mountain.
about 0:06:09Kingston Township was one of the original townships formed by the Susquehanna Land Company of Connecticut in 1790.
about 0:06:25It was named after Kingston, Rhode Island, and was originally called King's Town.
about 0:06:34The township was later downsized when whole regions were stripped away to form new municipalities.
about 0:06:42Its motto is the gateway to the Back Mountain.
about 0:06:09White 96.8% · Black 1.1% · Asian 1.3% · Hispanic 0.5%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▼ less than half the national average
Violent crime
▼ about one-third under
"less than half the national average"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2025 about 0:17:36
"about one-third under"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2025 about 0:17:43
"7,076"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:08:27
"52.7%"
Comparison: "usually about 50.1%". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:08:34
"about 48"
Comparison: "10 years higher than the rest of the country". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:08:44
"about 56%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:08:48
"96.8%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:05
"1.1%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:05
"1.3%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:05
"0.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:05
"9.6%"
Comparison: "compared to the rest of the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:19
"$75,285 a year"
Comparison: "slightly above the national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:33
"$80.6"
Comparison: "$100 being regular average". Direction: below.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:46
"$181,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:09:58
"$1,030 a month"
Comparison: "a couple hundred under the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2025 about 0:10:24
3.7 / 5 · average of 3
“In the largest part a great place to grow up and settle down, though those in between may find it too slow-paced and quiet.”about 0:06:50
“Right down the road, just rebuilt and up to date, visited almost every day because it carries every essential needed.”about 0:07:19
“Not many opportunities; the people who live here are all very wealthy but there are few options for the up-and-coming generations.”about 0:08:03
Michael Jason Kerkowski Jr. grew up in the Back Mountain area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in a middle-class family. He graduated from Lake Lehman High School in 1983 and from Temple University in 1988, and he became a licensed pharmacist in Pennsylvania on 16 August 1988. He worked at the Trucksville Pharmacy and then at the CVS in Dallas, Pennsylvania, where in 1989 Kim came in to have a prescription filled and the two recognised one another from the pharmacy where they had both worked as teenagers. They became engaged in 1992, signed a contract in November 1992 to build a $150,000 house at Pritchard Road in Hunlock Creek, and married on 9 April 1994. Their sons Tyler and Connor were born on 25 September 1996 and 6 May 1999. In March 1999 Michael and Kim signed a franchise agreement with the Medicine Shop on State Route 29 in Eaton Township, Wyoming County, and Michael ran the pharmacy.
From November 1999 Kerkowski sold Lortab and OxyContin on false prescriptions, using refills of old legitimate prescriptions as cover, and people drove for hours to buy from him. The episode says he cleared more than $3 million, after the cost of the pills, from drug sales and insurance fraud. He kept Kim out of the shop and chased her out when she came, and he was having an affair with her first cousin, who was godmother to their son. Kim filed for divorce on 30 April, was granted custody, and the divorce ran through 2001 and 2002. He was on bail until then.
They closed on 30 April 2002 without enough money for the closing costs of about $10,000.
Kerkowski said there were two bags holding about $60,000 in the house and that his father had another $60,000. Days later he asked the seller of the house to leave the property for a day.
His parents, Geraldine and Michael Kerkowski Sr., paid $40,000 of his cash to the bail bondsman. Everyone assumed Kerkowski had fled with his drug money.
He began to cooperate and said there were bodies buried at the house on Mount Olivet Road. They found Kerkowski and Fassett buried in a mixture of natural earth, bought topsoil and coal remnants, and a burn pit containing the remains of at least three more people. Bone fragments suggested as many as twelve people in all. Two of the burn-pit victims were identified as Frank James, 29, known as Rudy, and Adaya Keillor, 22, known as Redman.
No one has ever identified the fifth body, and the bone fragments of up to seven more people remain unidentified.
The episode ends with a linked story. ine Thomas, Felicia's mother, and her friend Judy Fisher still keep case books of tips.
May 2002 / Kerkowski's home at Pritchard Road, Hunlock Creek, Pennsylvania
As told in the episode, on 3 April 2025.
Accused
Accused
May 2003 / home on Mount Olivet Road, Kingston Township, Pennsylvania
As told in the episode, on 3 April 2025.
Accused
Accused
June 2004 / Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
As told in the episode, on 3 April 2025.
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
about 0:21:53business
about 0:23:32body found
about 0:51:25business
about 0:20:56business
about 0:21:04school
about 0:20:21school
about 0:20:21business
about 0:40:48hospital
about 1:08:55business
about 1:09:50home
about 1:09:56landmark
about 1:39:57business
about 0:07:21business
about 1:30:48business
about 2:10:35home
about 2:23:13home
about 0:54:16home
about 1:48:39other
about 2:44:14business
about 2:42:13other
about 1:48:44