Why is the Chicago, Illinois area so murdery, by murders?

Chicago is the big city at the centre of this hotspot, with Palos Park 14 miles out and Hammond 18 miles away in north-west Indiana, close enough that the show calls it a Chicago suburb. Call it the Chicago area: a city and its suburban ring, with one case on the Illinois side and one across the state line.

The count is small and oddly shaped. Two murders, one in each of two episodes, from March 1982 and March 1983, a single victim apiece. No single sprawling case carries this hotspot; two separate years supply one killing each. A 2019 bonus episode set in Chicago, listed at zero miles and zero victims, adds nothing but a shrug. It ranks 218th overall and third in Illinois, a modest placing all the same.

The hosts never introduce Chicago as a town. One guest simply says his life began there, which may be the most Chicago fact of all.