Why is Houston, Delaware so murdery?

Houston is a small town of about 424 people in Kent County, central Delaware, and on the show's map it sits in a crowded neighbourhood: 14 murders in 8 episodes within 25 miles, ranked 52nd overall and third in Delaware. Only three of those happened in Houston itself. The other eleven are scattered across seven nearby towns, from Harrington four miles away out to Laurel at twenty-four.

The cases run from the mid-1970s to 2001, and the 1980s do most of the work: a retired couple in Harrington in February 1979, two victims in Cheswold that May, one in Dover in 1984, one in Kenton in 1986, then three in Houston just before Christmas 1987. No single episode carries the count. Houston's own is the biggest, with three members of one family; the rest arrive one or two at a time.

The honest caveat: this counts the show's cases, not Delaware's crime rate. James and Jimmie pick the towns, and a quiet place with one terrible night earns a full episode.