Why is Gadsden, Alabama so murdery, by murders?

Gadsden has been on the Coosa River in Etowah County since 1825, when it was founded as Double Springs. It was incorporated in 1871, and by 2026 the population was 34,317. That puts it third in Alabama and 89th overall in the league.

All five murders arrive in episode 680, and all of them sit inside ten months, from November 1985 to September 1986. Three cases. One started when a woman and her 12-year-old son moved into a mobile home and she began seeing a Navy man from Georgia, who later broke into the trailer and beat her. Five victims across three cases is a heavy episode, and it is the whole of the town's count.

There is no long spread of cases across the decades here, and the hotspot is Gadsden on its own. It holds all five by itself.