Why is Selmer, Tennessee so murdery?

Selmer is a small town of about 4,400 people in McNairy County, south-west Tennessee, an hour and three-quarters from Memphis and two and a half hours from Nashville. Not a suburb of either: it sits out in the countryside, with the nearest other case in the show's four across the state line in Mississippi. James and Jimmie open on the town's name, its 1901 incorporation and a 2007 charity car show where a drag racing car lost control during a burnout on Mulberry Avenue, left the road and struck the crowd, killing six children.

The ranking rests on two episodes rather than that day. Episode 651, from March 2006, is the town's own case and carries one victim. Episode 138, dated 1993 and 1991, is set in Walnut, Mississippi, 24 miles away, and carries three. Three of the four come from one episode and one from another, spread across the 1990s and 2000s rather than clustered in a single year.

It counts the show's cases, not crime statistics: the show picks the towns. Selmer ranks 327 overall and third in Tennessee.