Why is Hudson, Ohio so murdery?

Hudson sits in Summit County in north-east Ohio, about twenty minutes outside Akron: a village incorporated in 1837 that grew into a town of roughly 23,000. The map around it is a ring of small Summit County places. Hudson itself, then Cuyahoga Falls seven miles off, Coventry Township at seventeen, and Montville Township out at twenty-three in neighbouring Medina County. Four episodes, four towns, six murders.

The cases run from 1988 to 2017, roughly a decade apart, so this is not one bad year but a slow accumulation. Three episodes carry a single victim each. Episode 273, set in Montville Township, carries three, across dates in 2002, 2004 and 2013, and does much of the heavy lifting for the count.

Worth saying plainly: this measures the show's cases, not crime statistics. Hudson ranks 199th overall and third in Ohio because James and Jimmie chose these towns, not because north-east Ohio is unusually dangerous.