Bonne Terre, Missouri

Episode 109 / 7 March 2019 / 141 min / full

A Grim & Deadly Plot

"Bonne Terre, Missouri, in southeastern Missouri, and this place is in Saint Francis County" about 0:08:46

The case: Murders of Charles and Grace Lewis (September 1993). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

7,138

Median age

32.9

Median household income

$50,654

Median home value

$97,400

Two-bedroom rent

$810

Cost of living

81

Religious

44.7%, about 45%

Property crime

▼ about 25% under the average

Violent crime

▲ about 20% higher

History, in brief

• Mining has been the town's single focus since the French arrived. about 0:09:41
• Settled in 1720 by the French after lead ore was discovered there. about 0:09:51
• Called La Bonne Terre, French for the good soil, which became Bonne Terre. about 0:10:11
• The mines were inherited by a man named Anthony Legrave. about 0:10:23
• For years the miners lived in a shanty camp of huts and tents with no permanent houses. about 0:10:43
• That arrangement lasted until after the Civil War, when people began to settle and build houses. about 0:11:17
• Bonne Terre was finally platted as a town in 1880. about 0:12:05
• Saint Francis County sits in the Lead Belt region. about 0:12:22
• The Lead Belt takes in St. Francis, Crawford, Dent, Iron, Madison, Reynolds and Washington counties. about 0:13:26
• A big exploratory mission in 1719 found lead and the miners came back. about 0:13:43
• Ste. Genevieve was founded as a river port to transport lead out of the area. about 0:13:51
• The lead was originally used as roofing material. about 0:14:00
• St. Joe Lead and the Desloge Lead Company worked the mines, and a new kind of drill let them go deeper underground. about 0:14:39
• They followed the lead ore 20 to 40 miles north and south and to depths of 500 to 1,200 feet. about 0:15:13
• It was a company town: miners were paid in company script and could only buy at the company store. about 0:16:39
• The companies leased lots and let the miners build whatever kind of home they wanted, so there was no uniformity. about 0:17:54
• An owner's fondness for English architecture left a square of Tudor-style buildings that still stands. about 0:18:21
• The Bonne Terre Mine operated from the 1900s until it was abandoned in 1960. about 0:18:33
• When the pumps were switched off in 1960 the mine flooded with an estimated billion gallons of water. about 0:18:56
• The flooded mine has 26 miles of navigable coastline underground. about 0:19:06
• Since 2005 Missouri has carried out all of its executions at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. about 0:19:40
• The Bonne Terre Depot, the Bonne Terre Mine and the St. Joe Lead Company administration building are on the National Register of Historic Places. about 0:20:01
• There were 3,700 people there in 1890 and there are 7,138 today. about 0:20:11
• The population is up 77% since 1990. about 0:20:22

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