Town note
Iron and steel production attracted the Potts family, who were iron masters.
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FILE 637 / 9 October 2025 / 180 MIN / full
Pottstown, Pennsylvania is in eastern Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia about an hour outside, and this is in Montgomery County. about 0:05:45
Iron and steel production attracted the Potts family, who were iron masters.
about 0:06:17The Potts family established a forge and built a large house just west of the creek.
about 0:06:25John Potts founded the town in 1761 on part of the 995 acres he owned.
about 0:06:34It is home to the nation's oldest mill, the Pottstown Roller Mill.
about 0:06:45Iron and steel production attracted the Potts family, who were iron masters.
about 0:06:17The Potts family established a forge and built a large house just west of the creek.
about 0:06:25John Potts founded the town in 1761 on part of the 995 acres he owned.
about 0:06:34It is home to the nation's oldest mill, the Pottstown Roller Mill.
about 0:06:45It incorporated under the name Pottstown in 1815, becoming the second borough in Pennsylvania after Norristown.
about 0:06:56The railroad came in 1838, allowing finished goods to leave by rail.
about 0:07:12Steel from the borough was used in the Panama Canal and the Golden Gate Bridge.
about 0:07:21The American steel industry fell apart and the town's jobs went away.
about 0:07:33Darrell of and Oates is from Pottstown.
about 0:07:59The and Oates album Abandoned Luncheonette from 1973 features a photo of the Rosedale Diner in Pottstown, where his parents took him as a child.
about 0:08:0564%
Biggest faith: Catholic, 38.5%
about 0:12:07White 65.6% · Black 20.3% · Asian 0.6% · Hispanic 6.5%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▲ almost double
Violent crime
▲ about one third above
Two-bedroom, one-bath house, 1,127 square feet, built 1938
about 0:15:03Three-bedroom, six-bathroom house, 3,344 square feet on two acres, built 1997
about 0:16:06"23,282"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:14
"52.4%"
Comparison: "more women than men". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:30
"47.6%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:30
"35.4"
Comparison: "below the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:35
"40%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:48
"almost 25%"
Comparison: "above the national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:48
"65.6%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:57
"20.3%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:57
"0.6%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:57
"6.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:11:57
"64%"
Comparison: "usually 50-50 is the normal". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:12:07
"38.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:12:12
"$52,722 a year"
Comparison: "$69,000 national average". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:12:28
"$114"
Comparison: "$100 is regular and normal". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:12:52
"$297,800"
Comparison: "less than the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2025 about 0:12:58
"$1,240"
Comparison: "around the national average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2025 about 0:13:36
"$9,000"
Comparison: "reduced by $1,000 from $10,000". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:14:25
"$259,900"
Comparison: "just had a $5,000 reduction". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:15:03
"$999,000"
Comparison: "just had a $51,000 price cut, was over a million". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:16:06
"almost double"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:19:05
"about one third above"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:19:16
2.0 / 5 · average of 4
“Pottstown is a very decent area to live in, though some areas are not as safe as others, the school district is not too good and housing is cheap.”about 0:08:31
“The town is horrible, New Jersey is much better, Brad is from here, and everything about the town is bad and sucks.”about 0:09:11
“Pottstown is an area about an hour outside Philadelphia that the reviewer wants to get out of, with broken-down houses and people on the streets without work.”about 0:09:26
“A disgusting, filthy, hoarder-ridden town dotted with drug addicts and religious extremists, where the reviewer got out a decade ago and will never go back.”about 0:10:26
David Anthony Sweinhart was born in 1938, the son of Harvey, a blue-collar worker, and Alice, a homemaker, and grew up with a brother, Robert, and several sisters. By 1973 he was a real estate developer worth about $20 million, working eighteen-hour days, building apartment complexes and strip malls, and eventually owning 235 properties in Montgomery County, including St Peter's Village, a 350-acre resort near French Creek State Park in Chester County, a weekly newspaper, travel agencies and whole blocks of houses. He drove a red and white Cadillac with oversized headlights and a Rolls-Royce grille, known around town as the pimp mobile. The couple had four children: Kerry, David junior, Christy and Michael.
By early 1981 the marriage was failing. He still came to the family house at Maugers Mill Road every evening for dinner with the children.
He left at about eight o'clock, saying he was meeting friends. He never arrived. His car was not at the house, at Sarah's or at his office. Later that day a beat officer, Timothy Morrison, found the red Cadillac behind the Maple Street apartment complex. Inside, on the floor of the back seat, was David's body, frozen solid, wearing a white ski sweater and brown trousers pulled down. An autopsy found at least six blunt-force injuries to the head, probably from a baseball bat, and at least fourteen stab wounds to the back and buttocks. He had probably been alive when he was put in the car. There were several blood types in the vehicle, fibres that did not match his clothes, and snow and dirt inconsistent with the alley, suggesting that he had been killed elsewhere and driven there. His wallet, some money and an expensive watch were still on him, so robbery looked unlikely.
Hundreds of people attended the funeral at St James United Church of Christ.
David's younger brother Robert, a big-game hunter who idolised him, had been admitted to the Philadelphia Veterans Hospital after the killing; home on his first furlough in April 1982, he went to the Swinehart Building to collect belongings and shot himself in a storage closet, leaving a note saying 'can't live with the guilt'. By the summer the case was cold.
The wiretap evidence then began a decade of litigation.
The prosecutor, Bruce Caster, had asked for death, calling the killing torture.
The case, Commonwealth v.
January 15, 1982 / the driveway of the family home at Maugers Mill Road, Pottstown, Pennsylvania
As told in the episode, on 9 October 2025.
Accused
Accused
Accused
Accused
Accused
1996 / the State Correctional Institute at Pittsburgh, also known as the Western Penitentiary
As told in the episode, on 9 October 2025.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
about 0:44:14body found
about 0:48:42business
about 0:38:06school
about 0:37:06landmark
about 0:06:45business
about 0:08:10business
about 0:18:48landmark
about 0:25:35business
about 0:31:20business
about 1:08:07church
about 0:58:47hospital
about 1:08:17business
about 1:30:02business
about 1:42:10home
about 1:56:29home
about 1:30:41business
about 0:33:53other
about 2:45:42