Why is Pembroke, Kentucky so murdery, by murders?

Pembroke is a town of 791 people in Christian County, western Kentucky, settled in 1836 and named by a local store owner after a fictional nobleman in an 1803 novel. A real place carrying a made up name is a decent joke for a small town, and it is about the only light touch in this hotspot.

All five of its murders arrive in a single episode, episode 563, and all of them fall in 2015. Two dates carry the count. The November killings happened on one street and took three lives: a married couple and their neighbour. The other two belong to June, so nothing here accumulated over decades or across a county. One episode with many victims does the whole job.

That is why a town this size ranks 99 overall and third in Kentucky. Pembroke sits alone in its radius, with no neighbouring town close enough to share the load, and no second episode to add to it. Five deaths, one street, one year.