Town file
Chicopee, Massachusetts
Chicopee, Massachusetts (Hampden County, Massachusetts) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 560, "Solving A Murder Puzzle" (4 January 2025). At the end of August 2011 Amanda Lynn Plass was twenty years old and living in a third-floor apartment at School Street in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
- Town
- Chicopee
- County
- Hampden County
- State
- Massachusetts
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 560
- Approximate location
- 42.178, -72.570
Episode 560 / 4 January 2025 / 73 min / express
Solving A Murder Puzzle
"This is Chicope, Massachusetts ... Chicopee Mass is in south-central Massachusetts" about 0:03:17
The case: Murder of Amanda Lynn Plass (August 2011). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2025
- Population
- 55,636
- Median household income
- $56,509
- Median home value
- $272,100
History, in brief
- There were cotton mills, wool mills, textiles, brass and iron foundries, paper making, footwear factories for leather boots and shoes and shipbuilding; the first friction matches were made here. about 0:06:09
- The firearms company Crescent Davis specialised in producing double-barrel shotguns. about 0:06:23
- The Ames Manufacturing Company made machines, bronze cannons and more swords than any other American manufacturer at the time. about 0:06:36
- Ames cast a number of bronze statues, including Thomas Ball's monumental equestrian statue of President George Washington installed in Boston's Public Garden. about 0:06:53
- During the 1800s the town became a major manufacturing centre for bicycles, with the Overman Wheel Company from 1882 to 1899 and the Spalding Sporting Goods Company. about 0:07:20
- The Overman bicycle works moved to Hartford, the bicycle boom of the 1890s died with cars, and by 1901 Overman was out of business. about 0:07:40
The reviews read out
5 stars
"Everyone in the neighbourhood is nice and kind; there is an elementary school up the street, neighbours' children walk there, and people play outside in the summer."about 0:08:00
3 stars
"It is okay but could use more things to do; school is 'me', drugs are a problem, the cops are 'dot dot dot', kids are jerks after the third grade, crack is exchanged at gas stations at night, yet it is still a nice suburb."about 0:08:56
1 star
"A few really good neighbours, but it can be dangerous depending on where you are; there are issues with collusion between the schools and elected officials, and Memorial Drive is a headache."about 0:10:42
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Agawam, Massachusetts8.9 miles
- Northampton, Massachusetts12 miles
- Stafford, Connecticut19 miles
- Ellington, Connecticut19 miles
- Simsbury, Connecticut25 miles
- Willington, Connecticut25 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.