Why is Baileyton, Tennessee so murdery, by episodes?

Baileyton sits in the north-eastern panhandle of Tennessee, about an hour from Knoxville, and holds roughly 430 people. It began as Laurel Gap in 1776, was Bailey Town as two words, lost the w in 1915, and took its name from two brothers who lived there. Small, old and easy to pass through, which is exactly what it was.

This hotspot is one episode, one town, four murders, all from April 1997. No decades of cases adding up, no drift across a county line, no second town quietly chipping in. Episode 478 carries the whole count by itself. Six young people from eastern Kentucky had stopped there on the way to New Orleans.

One of the six had her parents' divorce at nine and abuse from five to ten behind her, and was drinking and taking drugs by fifteen. Rank 160 overall and third in Tennessee is what one bad night in a town of 430 looks like.