Town file

Hill City, South Dakota

Hill City, South Dakota is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 274, "The Perfect Crime" (16 April 2022). Hill City, South Dakota, lies in the southwestern corner of the state in the Black Hills.

Town: Hill City
State: South Dakota
Country: USA
Episodes: 274
Approximate location: 43.932, -103.569

Static locations; no street basemap. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Episode 274 / 16 April 2022 / 60 min / express

The Perfect Crime

"This is in southwestern South Dakota down there, in the corner." about 0:02:25

The case: Murder of Randy Dixon (November 14, 1993). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2022

Population: 1,074
Cost of living: about average

History, in brief

Hill City started as a mining town, like Deadwood, except that tin mining was what they were into. about 0:03:21
Mount Rushmore in the 1940s, Custer State Park and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally help the area's tourism a lot. about 0:03:58
A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was found and named Sue after Sue Hendrickson, the paleontologist who found it. about 0:04:44
A controversy followed over who owned the fossils, with the landowner, the tribe who originally owned the land, the federal government and the Black Hills Institute all involved. about 0:05:03
On May 12th, 1992, FBI agents seized the dinosaur from the institute over the course of three days and shipped it to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. about 0:05:25
It was auctioned off by Sotheby's Auction House and sold to the Field Museum in Chicago for $8.36 million, after Maurice s was found to be the rightful owner as the landowner. about 0:05:35

Open the episode file

Nearest Small Town Murder towns

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.