Why is Menoken, North Dakota so murdery?

Menoken is the kind of place that exists because a road went through it: about 72 people in Burleigh County, central North Dakota, roughly 20 minutes from Bismarck and just off the old Interstate 94. Close enough to the capital to be a commute, far enough out to be a farm. It has been renamed more times than most towns manage before settling on Menoken in 1883.

For the murder league it ranks 159th overall and second in North Dakota, with eight murders in two episodes within 25 miles. Six of those come from a single episode, 543, which sits right on the town itself: three generations raised on one farm outside the settlement, and a farmer with a large gun collection and a seat on the school board. The other two come from episode 412, 11 miles away in Bismarck, from 1998.

So it is not a town with a murder habit spread across decades: two episodes six years apart, and one does most of the lifting. That counts the show's cases, not the town's crime rate. James and Jimmie pick where to drive, and a small town with one terrible night will outrank a big city every time.