Town file
Anniston, Alabama
Anniston, Alabama (Calhoun County, Alabama) is the town in 2 episodes of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 21, "A Sinister & Murderous Plot" (7 June 2017), and episode 199, "Hello, I'm My Sister..." (26 November 2020). Anniston, in Calhoun County in north-east Alabama, was the setting for a 1986 case that began with a bungled blackmail plot.
- Town
- Anniston
- County
- Calhoun County
- State
- Alabama
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 21, 199
- Approximate location
- 33.673, -85.811
Episode 21 / 7 June 2017 / 59 min / full
A Sinister & Murderous Plot
"We're in Alabama guys. It's in the northeast part of the state over by Georgia... it is in Calhoun County." about 0:04:30
The case: Murder of Fred and Evelyn Blackman (March 1986). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2017
- Population
- 22,347
- Median age
- 40.6
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $643
- Cost of living
- 82
- Religious
- 72.2%
- Property crime
- ▲ more than double the average
- Violent crime
- ▲ twice the national average
History, in brief
- Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County and its city website calls it 'the model city'. about 0:06:16
- The town was incorporated in 1883; before that the area was largely unpopulated. about 0:06:38
- Iron was found in the area and the Confederacy operated a big iron furnace where downtown Anniston now stands. about 0:07:09
- Union cavalry destroyed the furnace in 1865 and hanged a local farmer they wrongly blamed for attacking them. about 0:07:44
- In 1872 the Woodstock Iron Company arrived, rebuilt the furnace on a larger scale and began planning a community. about 0:09:08
- The community was first called Woodstock, then Annie's town after Annie Scott Taylor, the wife of the railroad president; it was chartered as Anniston in 1873. about 0:09:24
- In 1961 Freedom Riders came to Anniston; on Mother's Day, Sunday May 14, 1961, a mob firebombed one of their buses outside the town. about 0:11:41
- A 2002 60 Minutes investigation named Anniston among the most toxic cities in the country; PCBs were produced there from 1929 to 1971 and Monsanto dumped waste into Snow Creek. about 0:13:19
- The PCB plant closed in 1971 but the town remained one of the most toxic places in the country. about 0:14:10
Episode 199 / 26 November 2020 / 152 min / full
Hello, I'm My Sister...
"This week, in Anniston, Alabama; it's in northeastern Alabama, the nickname of the town is the Model City" about 0:00:00
The case: Murder of Frank Hilly (1975, with the poisoning of Carol Hilly in 1979). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2020
- Population
- 22,097
- Median household income
- $30,000 to $32,000
- Median home value
- $94,900
- Cost of living
- 77
- Property crime
- ▲ over three times
- Violent crime
- ▲ over four times
History, in brief
- Anniston is in north-eastern Alabama and its nickname is the Model City. about 0:05:53
- The town has a racist history and bad events in the early 1960s. about 0:06:40
- Monsanto dumped PCBs for about 45 years before stopping, and 60 Minutes did a piece on the contamination, which cannot be removed. about 0:06:58
The reviews read out
2 stars
"It has a lot of bad and not enough good, no sparkle, and the only reason for staying was that the reviewer loved the people there."about 0:07:41
2 stars
"Very poor: full of thrift stores, rehabilitation centres, high crime and unemployment, corruption in the judicial system, and the city should be investigated by state and federal officials."about 0:09:31
2 stars
"Anniston has a high rate of crime, needs more honest police officers and its schools need to be fixed."about 0:10:38
2 stars
"After ten years there it is hard to find an affordable, decent place to live."about 0:11:12
2 stars
"After eight years: only church and college football, zero nightlife, everything closes early, the food is horrendous and the barbecue is greasy and undercooked, and people do not understand sarcasm."about 0:11:35
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Jacksonville, Alabama10.0 miles
- Talladega, Alabama24 miles
- Gadsden, Alabama26 miles
- Rome, Georgia54 miles
- Morris, Alabama57 miles
- Arab, Alabama60 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.