Why is the Canton, Missouri area so murdery, by episodes?

Canton sits in the far north-east corner of Missouri, on the Mississippi, in Lewis County: a river town of 2,388 people that got rich on river trade and the railway, and got wet often enough to build a levee in the 1960s. The 1851 flood destroyed the town of Tully a mile north and sent its people into Canton, which is one way to grow a population. Canton was founded in 1830, named after Canton, Ohio, and its first house went straight into service as a tavern, which tells you something about priorities.

The Canton area spills across state lines: Quincy, Illinois, 16 miles off, and Keokuk, Iowa, 20 miles off, all of them strung along the same river. Three episodes and five murders, with no single one carrying the count. Episode 49 has two victims in Canton in 1997, episode 559 two in Keokuk in 1996, and episode 595 one in Quincy in 2023. Two cases in the 1990s, then a long gap before the third.

Second in Missouri and 44th overall is a lot of business for one levee to protect.