Town file
Horn Lake, Mississippi
Horn Lake, Mississippi (DeSoto County, Mississippi) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 493, "Burning Your BFF" (16 May 2024). Lula Welch Young was born in 1947 and grew up moving between Arkansas and Mississippi with her parents, Oscar and Flora Welch, her brothers Randy and Bobby and her sisters Nettie and Margaret.
- Town
- Horn Lake
- County
- DeSoto County
- State
- Mississippi
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 493
- Approximate location
- 34.952, -90.049
Episode 493 / 16 May 2024 / 162 min / full
Burning Your BFF
"We are going to Horn Lake, Mississippi... in the severe northwestern part of Mississippi... it's a suburb of Memphis... this is in DeSoto County." about 0:05:11
The case: Murder of Lula Welch Young (December 19, 1994). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2024
- Population
- 26,623
- Median age
- about 33
- Median household income
- $54,783
- Median home value
- $171,000
- Two-bedroom rent
- $1,070
- Cost of living
- 92
- Religious
- 55%
- Property crime
- right at average
- Violent crime
- ▼ about one third
History, in brief
- Horn Lake was named after an oxbow lake three miles west, a former riverbed of the Mississippi River left behind when the river changed course. about 0:06:56
- The stranded water looked like a cow horn and became known as Horn Lake. about 0:07:42
- The river is thought to have changed course sometime between 1765 and 1795. about 0:07:51
- Settlers cleared the wilderness for subsistence farming, then cotton became the major cash crop and the railroad arrived. about 0:08:46
- Freight marked Horn Lake was dropped off in a pile on Goodman Road before there was a post office. about 0:09:06
- The first post office opened in 1853. about 0:09:42
- Elvis Presley bought the Circle G Ranch, formerly Twinkle Town Farm, in 1967 for $437,000 and sold it in 1969. about 0:09:51
- Elvis and Priscilla spent a few days at the ranch after their wedding in May 1967, and it became known as Elvis's Honeymoon Cottage. about 0:11:16
- The octagonal house was built in 1844 as a gift for a doctor's bride, a three-level, eight-sided house on Horn Lake Road just south of Nale Road. about 0:12:53
- The area code is 662 and the town motto is Doorway to Mississippi. about 0:06:41
The reviews read out
5 stars
"A nice place to live, but it needs a Whole Foods and too many warehouses are going up."about 0:13:17
4 stars
"Moved there in ninth grade, now 24, has had no problems, small town with a great commute, a fairly new Walmart, Kroger, a hospital and shopping malls, and likes the cove."about 0:13:56
4 stars
"Memphis is forever my first love, full of love and pride, unlike anywhere else."about 0:15:37
3 stars
"Not a lot of sense of community."about 0:16:13
2 stars
"Rambling about crime and violence in Memphis, race wars across America and the crime rate dropping."about 0:16:24
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas15 miles
- Sarah, Mississippi28 miles
- Falkner, Mississippi63 miles
- Walnut, Mississippi64 miles
- Jonesboro, Arkansas70 miles
- Selmer, Tennessee84 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.