Town file
Atchison, Kansas
Atchison, Kansas (Atchison County, Kansas) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 346, "The Bondage That Ties" (17 December 2022).
- Town
- Atchison
- County
- Atchison County
- State
- Kansas
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 346
- Approximate location
- 39.563, -95.137
Episode 346 / 17 December 2022 / 68 min / express
The Bondage That Ties
""we're going to atchison kansas atchison atchison uh population 10,427"" about 0:03:15
The case: Murder of Trina Smith (February 1992). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2022
- Population
- 10,427
- Median household income
- $41,283
- Median home value
- $92,900
- Homicides in one week
- three
- Calls from residents reporting a fourth body
- 25
History, in brief
- In 1854 men from Platte City, Missouri crossed the Missouri River and staked out a town, naming it for David Atchison, a Missouri senator. about 0:04:05
- David Atchison was president of the United States for one day, 4 March 1849, when Zachary Taylor refused to take the oath of office on a Sunday. about 0:04:40
- During the great Mormon migration westward the city leaders persuaded the Mormons to stop there to resupply, which made business boom while other towns around it withered. about 0:05:15
- In 1958 two flash floods destroyed the downtown area in the same year; the town rebuilt and became known as 'the city that refused to die'. about 0:05:59
The reviews read out
5 stars
"Charming historic town with incredible homes built in the late 1800s, more millionaires per capita than anywhere else, brick-lined streets, the most haunted town in Kansas with haunted history trolley tours, Lewis and Clark history, Amelia Earhart's grandparents' home, rolling hills along the Missouri River, the riverfront park and the bridge to Missouri lit up at night; a transplant calls it the smaller San Francisco of the midwest."about 0:06:21
3 stars
"People can find jobs but they aren't good ones."about 0:07:47
2 stars
"The homes are old and most are unclean."about 0:07:56
1 star
"The air is gross from the factories in town and the weather is always muggy from the humidity, so it is not an outdoorsy atmosphere."about 0:08:13
1 star
"Not much happens there; lots of crime and people not caring about the community, not many pleasant people, no entertainment other than the local movie theatre, and the reviewer does not recommend it at all."about 0:08:59
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Oskaloosa, Kansas26 miles
- Rulo, Nebraska37 miles
- Lenexa, Kansas45 miles
- Prairie Village, Kansas48 miles
- Cameron, Missouri50 miles
- Skidmore, Missouri50 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.