Why is the Kings Mountain, North Carolina area so murdery, by episodes?

Kings Mountain is in the hills of North Carolina's western panhandle, about forty minutes from Charlotte and fifteen from Gastonia. It began as White Plains, was incorporated in 1874 and took its name from the site of a nearby 1780 Revolutionary War battle. Its mottos are 'the historical city' and 'the city of progress'. The Kings Mountain area spills over the state line, taking in Gastonia nine miles away, Cherryville at ten and Gaffney at twenty-one. Textile mills and tobacco farms tie three of those four towns together.

Four episodes account for fourteen murders. Episode 494 supplies five, all in Cherryville across three dates in the summer of 1991. Episode 176 adds four from Gaffney in 1967 and 1968, episode 587 three from Gastonia in 1992 and 2009, and episode 626 two from Kings Mountain in 2016. It ranks twenty-second overall and first in North Carolina, and its murders came a few at a time.