Why is the East Lyme, Connecticut area so murdery, by episodes?

East Lyme sits on Connecticut's southern shore in New London County. It was a town of taverns in the late 1700s and of beaches from the 1800s, and it has the state's oldest house, a 1660 survivor. The East Lyme area runs along Long Island Sound: Niantic three miles off, Waterford at five, Guilford out at the twenty five mile edge.

The cases come in a run. 1985 in Niantic, 1994 in East Lyme itself, 1997 and 1998 in Waterford, 2000 in Guilford. Four episodes and nine murders, which would be a steady spread. Then episode 129 turns up with four victims in a single story and takes almost half the count on its own.

The rest is two here, two there, one in the centre. Third in Connecticut and twenty fifth overall, all of it arithmetic.