Town file
Alturas, Florida
Alturas, Florida (Polk County, Florida) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 148, "A Deadly Recipe" (5 December 2019). In 1988 Perlin 'Pie' Carr lived on a small orange-grove property in Alturas, an unincorporated community in Polk County, central Florida.
- Town
- Alturas
- County
- Polk County
- State
- Florida
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 148
- Approximate location
- 27.842, -81.682
Episode 148 / 5 December 2019 / 159 min / full
A Deadly Recipe
"We're going to Alturas, Florida... It's in Polk County down there." about 0:05:46
The case: Murder of Peggy Carr (October 1988 to March 1989). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2019
- Population
- 4,090
- Median age
- about 42 and a half
- Median household income
- about $43,000
- Median home value
- $122,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $952
- Cost of living
- 85
- Religious
- 41%
- Property crime
- right around normal, maybe a touch high
- Violent crime
- just about normal
History, in brief
- Alturas is an unincorporated community and census designated place with a post office and little else. about 0:05:56
- The zip code is 33820, the area code 863, and the area covers 60 square miles. about 0:07:32
- Bartow, the nearby town, became the county seat and hub of the largest phosphate industry in the United States. about 0:08:57
- In the early 1900s the phosphate industry drew Italian, Jewish and Polish immigrants, people from Eastern Europe, and black workers from rural areas. about 0:09:46
- On May 20th, 1920, Henry Scott, a black train porter, was arrested after a wealthy white woman complained that he made her wait; the sheriff turned him over to a mob who shot him 40 to 50 times. about 0:11:22
- Polk County was the leading citrus county in the United States for much of the 1900s. about 0:13:41
- An airport built in 1941 in the north-east of the county was taken over by the federal government during the Second World War and used to train Army Air Corps pilots; it was renamed Bartow Municipal Airport in 1967. about 0:14:14
- The Ku Klux Klan was revived and very active in Polk County in the 1900s; Klansmen were photographed in hoods and robes at a church in 1958. about 0:14:48
- In 1967 a white man shot and wounded a popular black high school football player who attended an integrated school. about 0:15:55
- Between Reconstruction and the end of the Second World War more than 20 black men were hanged, burned or shot in the area, usually after being accused of a crime and without a trial. about 0:16:47
- The Klan marched in full rigs in Lakeland, Florida. about 0:17:10
- From 1990 to 2000 the unincorporated areas around Alturas grew by 25% while the towns grew less. about 0:19:14
The reviews read out
1 star
"We have no restaurants where I live. I live in a small town, Alturas, but there is not Alturas mailing addresses, so I have a Bartow address."about 0:22:45
1 star
"Only way to have transportation is if you have a car."about 0:23:44
1 star
"None, but you can drive 15 minutes to town and get a job."about 0:23:48
1 star
"No gym or anything to exercise with, you just have to be motivated and do it yourself."about 0:24:07
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Plant City, Florida29 miles
- Fruitville, Florida59 miles
- Sarasota, Florida63 miles
- Chuluota, Florida65 miles
- New Port Richey, Florida69 miles
- Indialantic, Florida70 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.