Town file
Houston, Delaware
Houston, Delaware (Kent County, Delaware) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 208, "Two Dead, One Missing" (28 January 2021). Just before Christmas in 1987, Houston, a town of about 424 people in Kent County in central Delaware, became the centre of a case that investigators called almost impossible to explain.
- Town
- Houston
- County
- Kent County
- State
- Delaware
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 208
- Approximate location
- 38.917, -75.504
Episode 208 / 28 January 2021 / 154 min / full
Two Dead, One Missing
"We are going to Houston, Delaware ... this is central Delaware ... this is in Kent County" about 0:05:30
The case: Murder of Joseph and Beverly Gibson and abduction of Matthew Gibson (December 1987). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2021
- Population
- 424
- Median household income
- $51,250
- Median home value
- $178,000
- Two-bedroom rent
- $840
- Cost of living
- 95
- Religious
- 33%
- Property crime
- ▲ about a third above
- Violent crime
- about average
History, in brief
- Houston is named after John Wallace Houston, who lived from 1814 to 1896 and was a lawyer, a Whig, a US representative from Delaware and a justice of the Delaware Superior Court. about 0:08:00
- In the 1960s Dover was a centre for manufacturing the space suits worn by NASA astronauts on the Apollo flights. about 0:09:10
- The A7L suit was first flown on the Apollo 7 mission in 1967 and was worn by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11. about 0:09:27
- The company still manufactures arms and legs for space shuttle soft suits; someone else makes the chest. about 0:09:41
- Houston is the home of the Futuro houses, fibreglass flying-saucer-shaped dwellings conceived by Matti Suuronen in 1968. about 0:11:41
The reviews read out
5 stars
"A woman born and raised in Houston says that in fifty-four years she has seen segregation, the building of a freeway, Watergate and the assassination of several prominent public figures, and that growing up in Houston has its perks."about 0:12:45
" Garrett of Chicago called it a great find and the price right, like an RV vacation, though rain on the plastic sounds like Tupperware in a dishwasher."about 0:12:17
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Harrington, Delaware3.7 miles
- Bridgeville, Delaware14 miles
- Dover, Delaware17 miles
- Marydel, Maryland19 miles
- Cheswold, Delaware21 miles
- Kenton, Delaware23 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.