Why is the Austin, Arkansas area so murdery, by murders?

Austin sits about half an hour outside Little Rock, and it is there because of the railroad. In 1872 the tracks went down a mile southeast of the old settlement, and the residents dragged their buildings over to meet them. The new town was Austin Station, later plain Austin, and the original became old Austin. The hosts give the population as 3,486.

The seven murders in the Austin area come from three episodes in three towns, and the area ranks 47th overall. Austin itself has episode 664, two cases from January 1986 and August 1994 with three victims between them. Cabot, 3 miles away, has episode 623 and one victim in September 2014. Kensett, 24 miles out, has episode 30 and three victims in November 1989.

Two of those episodes carry three victims each and the third adds one. The cases run from the mid 1980s to 2014, with a gap of twenty years in the middle. Austin and Kensett both grew up beside the railroad, and all three towns sit within an hour of Little Rock.