Why is Lucedale, Mississippi so murdery?

Lucedale sits in George County in south-eastern Mississippi, close enough to the Alabama line that two of the three episodes within twenty-five miles are credited to towns across it. The hosts describe a county seat of 3,007 people, about forty-five minutes from Mobile, where public administration is the largest employer. It is less a city fringe than a rural corner the show passes through on its way somewhere else.

Three episodes carry all nineteen murders, and one does most of the lifting: episode 447, credited to Chunchula twenty-three miles away, accounts for thirteen victims and dates that run from 1992 to 2004. Episode 500, at Citronelle, adds five from 2016. Episode 215, the only one set in Lucedale itself, adds a single case from August 2004. So this is not a town the show keeps returning to; it is a town that happens to sit inside the radius.

Worth saying plainly: these are the show's cases, not the county's crime figures. The show chooses where to stop.