Edinburg, Virginia

Episode 135 / 5 September 2019 / 145 min / full

A Sun Powered Killer

"We're going to Virginia. Edinburgh, Virginia... It's in north central Virginia... This is in Shenandoah County" about 0:05:45

The case: Murder of Tercy Elizabeth Cooley (September 20-21, 1998). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

1,289

Median age

32

Median household income

$43,500

Median home value

$181,800

Two-bedroom rent

about $824 a month

Cost of living

95

Religious

about 50%

Property crime

▼ about 40% under the national average

Violent crime

▼ about one third under the national average

History, in brief

• Native Americans were there first, thought to be a group of Iroquois, said to have been slaughtered by another group in the later 17th century. about 0:08:49
• The name Shenandoah is attributed to George Washington naming it in honour of Chief Skenandoa of Oneida, New York, who helped broker peace and secure help for the revolutionary forces. about 0:09:22
• The colonial governor formally purchased the whole valley from the Six Nations of the Iroquois by treaty in 1744. about 0:09:47
• The county was established in 1772 as Dunmore County, for Virginia Governor John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore. about 0:11:05
• Dunmore was the last royal governor and was forced from office by the American Revolution. about 0:11:42
• It was renamed Shenandoah County in 1778 and settled in the late 1700s, largely by Germans and Swiss. about 0:12:01
• A gun factory there made guns for the War of 1812. about 0:12:30
• After the Civil War, in the 1870s, the place picked up, and many Victorian and historic homes remain. about 0:12:36
• The town was originally named Shryock by Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and the residents renamed it themselves. about 0:13:20

Open the episode file