Why is the Calera, Alabama area so murdery, by episodes?

Calera is limestone country, and says so. The name comes from the Spanish word for the stuff, the place was Lime Kiln Station before it incorporated in 1893, and it sat at the heart of one of the largest chemical lime producing areas in the United States. Central Alabama, Shelby County, 16,126 people as of 2024.

The Calera area takes in two towns twenty miles apart: episode 541 from Calera itself, episode 586 from Clanton, down in Chilton County, forty minutes from Montgomery, where peaches are the number one industry and a peach-shaped water tower has been the landmark since 1993. Lime at one end of the run, peaches at the other; both towns built on what the ground handed them.

The count is thin and evenly spread. One victim per episode, one case in October 2010 and one in January 2018, eight years apart, so nothing here hangs on a single terrible day. Rank 113 overall, third in Alabama.