Why is Lawrenceburg, Tennessee so murdery?

Lawrenceburg sits in southwestern Tennessee, the seat of Lawrence County, with about 11,460 people and a surprising amount of history for its size: a Spanish expedition wintered nearby in 1540 and 1541, the Chickasaw Nation sold the land in 1816, and a frontier politician later ran a powder mill on Shoal Creek. It ranks first in Tennessee and 158th overall, and it manages that on eight murders spread across just two episodes.

The cases land in 1974 and 1982, less a sweep through the decades than a pair of bookends. Episode 427 is the home fixture: three victims in Lawrenceburg itself, and a local boy who sang in a high school band, went to Nashville to make it as a musician, then drifted between the two places on counterfeit goods, stolen property and an invented mob connection. Episode 310, 17 miles away in Pulaski, supplies the other five victims, drawn to a run-down farmhouse by two brothers with drugs and drink.

None of this is a crime statistic. It counts the cases James and Jimmie have chosen to tell, and the show goes where the stories are. Lawrenceburg simply sits close enough to two of them.