Why is the La Porte, Indiana area so murdery, by episodes?

The La Porte area sits in the top corner of Indiana, an hour and twenty minutes from Chicago and a little closer to Gary. La Porte was settled in 1832, a saw mill went up in the first year, a cabin stood where the courthouse square is now, and a federal land office and a newspaper followed in 1833 and 1836. The town calls itself the hub of awesome, a claim the county has never challenged. Trail Creek lies ten miles away.

Seven murders across two episodes and two towns, a modest haul for a town of about twenty two thousand. Episode 35 does most of the work, carrying five victims over two cases, one from June 1971 and one running through the first half of 1983. Episode 384, out of Trail Creek, adds two more, from September 1981 and January 1984.

So the count is one heavy episode plus a lighter companion, every case inside a thirteen year stretch from 1971 to 1984. The two towns share the same northern county and ten miles of road, and whatever else La Porte is the hub of, it is the hub of a tight little cluster of cases.