Amherst, Virginia

Episode 57 / 14 February 2018 / 138 min / full

Four Murders & A Getaway

"Amherst, Virginia, it's in the dead center of the state, twenty five miles southeast of Lexington and forty four miles from Charlottesville" about 0:08:24

The case: Murders of the Buchanan family (September 1987). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2018

Population

2,210

Median age

about ten years older than the average

Median household income

about $43,000

Median home value

$118,058

Two-bedroom rent

about $660 a month

Cost of living

84

Religious

41%

Property crime

▼ about 20% lower than the average

Violent crime

▲ 10% higher than the national average

History, in brief

• Native Americans were the first people there, hunting and fishing. about 0:14:01
• The Virginia colony was established in 1607. about 0:14:07
• Trading posts operated between 1710 and 1730, and people began moving into the Amherst County area to grow tobacco. about 0:14:38
• Amherst was founded in 1807. about 0:14:53
• It was first called the Oaks, and also Seven Oaks, before the name Amherst was settled on. about 0:14:56
• It began as a stage coach station on the Charlottesville Lynchburg Road. about 0:15:33
• Around the turn of the nineteenth century it was renamed in honour of French and Indian War hero Jeffrey Amherst, first baron of Amherst. about 0:15:51
• Jeffrey Amherst was a hero of the battle of Ticonderoga. about 0:16:08
• A general charter from the assembly was granted to the town in 1950. about 0:16:18
• The town has zip code 24521, area code 434 and covers five square miles in total. about 0:11:32
• The town motto is Dieu et mon droit, French for God and my right, which is also the motto of the British monarch. about 0:12:44
• The official town seal was created by Ward Cruya, a commercial artist from Ohio; his proposal featuring a sleeping giant from the Blue Ridge was rejected as outside the town limits, and the design was taken from the Amherst courthouse seen along East Court Street, with a large A from a radio antenna beside the tower. about 0:16:32
• The original courthouse was built in 1809 and torn down in 1872, and the replacement built then still stands. about 0:18:38
• All of the court records have been stored in the courthouse since 1761. about 0:18:46
• Amherst has no emergency room; the nearest is Centra's Lynchburg General Hospital. about 0:19:36
• Black Herman, an African American stage magician of the Jim Crow era, came from Amherst. about 0:20:17
• Jimmy Walker, an NBA basketball player for the Pistons and Rockets who also played in the ABA in the 1970s, came from Amherst. about 0:20:47

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