Why is Agawam, Massachusetts so murdery?

Agawam sits in Hampden County in western Massachusetts, close enough to the Connecticut border that the show's 25-mile circle does not so much stop at a state line as ignore it. Of the eight episodes in range, only one happened in Agawam itself. The rest are spread down the Connecticut River valley and over into Connecticut, from a city nine miles away to a wooded small town 24 miles out. Springfield is about ten minutes down the road, which goes some way to explaining the company.

The cases run from 1965 to 2020, unevenly spread: one in the 1960s, two in the 1990s, then a steady trickle through 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2020. Two episodes carry most of the weight. Episode 433 accounts for five victims and episode 58 for four, so nine of the 15 arrive in two sittings, while the other six come one at a time.

It is worth saying plainly that this counts the show's cases, not the town's crime rate. The show chooses where it goes, and a rank of 43 says more about a busy corner of New England than about Agawam.