Town file
Guilford, Connecticut
Guilford, Connecticut (New Haven County, Connecticut) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 129, "A Bloody Surprise" (25 July 2019). Guilford sits in south central Connecticut on Long Island Sound, about fifty-five minutes from Hartford and forty-five from New York City: 22,377 people in 2019, ninety-one and a half per cent white and wealthier than the national average.
- Town
- Guilford
- County
- New Haven County
- State
- Connecticut
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 129
- Approximate location
- 41.339, -72.706
Episode 129 / 25 July 2019 / 155 min / full
A Bloody Surprise
"We're going to Gulliford, Connecticut. It's in south central Connecticut... this is in Newhaven county, zip code 06437." about 0:06:21
The case: Kleinkoff family murders (December 27, 2000); Murder of Mindy Lee (October 10, 2000). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2019
- Population
- 22,377
- Median age
- 48.3
- Median household income
- $107,587
- Median home value
- $374,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $1,660
- Cost of living
- 140
- Religious
- about 50%
- Property crime
- about two-thirds
- Violent crime
- ▼ one-third, a little lower
History, in brief
- Originally called Menunkatucket. about 0:08:20
- Sold along with other land to the Puritans, this group led by Henry Whitfield and seeking religious freedom from England. about 0:08:37
- Renamed Guilford in 1639. about 0:11:37
- Admitted to the New Haven colony before Connecticut existed. about 0:11:54
- Named after Guildford in England. about 0:12:00
- Appears on several old maps as Gilford, without the u. about 0:12:37
- Considered by some to have the third largest collection of historic homes in New England. about 0:12:51
- Has five historic house museums. about 0:13:31
- One of the oldest wooden framed private dwellings in Connecticut, one of the original settlers' houses, built in 1645. about 0:14:41
- A skirmish was fought in 1781 between a British raiding party and locals during the Revolutionary War. about 0:14:43
- The area was largely kept out of the Revolutionary War, with no battles there. about 0:15:01
- The railroad came in 1848, from New Haven to New London, bought with stock purchased by Guilford residents; one of them was the first passenger. about 0:15:03
- Shoreline industries included salt hay harvesting, cattle, fishing, granite quarrying and a fish oil factory. about 0:15:52
- Granite quarrying began in 1837 and was a huge industry until around the Depression, before the Second World War. about 0:16:00
- The Beattie quarry got the contract in 1884 to supply the granite blocks for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. about 0:16:41
- The town made ivory buttons, later wagon hubs and wheels, employed about 50 people in the First World War, made ball bearings for aircraft and vehicles under a General Motors division in the Second World War, and afterwards made lollipops. about 0:19:22
- The Guilford Fair is the second oldest agricultural fair in Connecticut and has been held since 1859, on the third weekend in September at the Fairgrounds. about 0:28:40
The reviews read out
3 stars
"Great with a few exceptions: commuting is a nightmare, the green and town square are full of bad kids, there are mean kids at the elementary school, winters are hard and poorly insulated old homes cost a fortune to heat, and homes are overpriced; otherwise nice, quiet country living with good people."about 0:20:05
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Middletown, Connecticut15 miles
- New Britain, Connecticut24 miles
- East Lyme, Connecticut25 miles
- Niantic, Connecticut26 miles
- Waterford, Connecticut30 miles
- Newtown, Connecticut32 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.