Why is Lebanon, Maine so murdery?

Lebanon is the westernmost town in Maine, tucked into York County in the far west of the state, and it took its time getting started: granted in 1733, chartered to about 60 families who mostly did not turn up for a decade, first meeting house in 1753, incorporated in 1767 as Maine's 23rd town. Today it holds 6,437 people. James and Jimmie introduce it with the obvious joke about the other Lebanon, then get on with it.

The show's eight cases here spread across four decades, from 1984 to 2012, and across four towns. Only three of the eight happened inside Lebanon itself, in episode 567, a 1999 case with three victims. Sanford, eight miles off, supplies one in episode 319; Dover, fifteen miles, one in episode 550; Kittery, twenty-three miles, three in episode 71, a case that only passes through.

So it is not a town with a habit. Two three-victim episodes do most of the lifting. And this is a count of the show's cases, not the town's crime: the show picks where to look.