Jackson, Michigan

Episode 130 / 1 August 2019 / 142 min / full

I Killed The Devil... You're Welcome

"This week all the way to Michigan: Jackson, Michigan. It's in Jackson County, zip code 49201, area code 517, eleven square miles." about 0:06:20

The case: Murder of Patricia 'Patty' Arts (July 1999). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

32,875

Median age

32.1

Median household income

$31,000

Median home value

$116,800

Two-bedroom rent

$840

Cost of living

85

Religious

30.2%

Property crime

▲ almost double

Violent crime

▲ almost triple

History, in brief

• Jackson was founded in 1829 and named after Andrew Jackson. about 0:07:09
• By the end of the 1800s Jackson was a hub of railroads, which brought people and trade. about 0:07:30
• The first state prison in Michigan was built in Jackson, and by 1882 it had the largest walled prison in the world. about 0:07:45
• The first state prison, built in 1838, was a temporary wooden prison enclosed by poles on 60 acres donated for the purpose. about 0:08:16
• The prison took in its first 35 prisoners in 1839, and a permanent prison was built three years later. about 0:09:15
• In the 1850s a warden placed more emphasis on education and rehabilitation than punishment. about 0:09:27
• Cheap inmate labour helped make Jackson one of the leading industrial cities in the nation at the time. about 0:11:18
• The corset industry came to Jackson in the 1860s and the town became a centre of corset manufacturing. about 0:11:27
• The invention of the duplex corset by a company called Bortree made it the top corset manufacturer in the world. about 0:12:29
• Sixteen manufacturers of women's corsets operated in Jackson in the early 1900s, most of them on two streets. about 0:12:40
• Elastics changed corset design and by 1920 most of the manufacturers were gone; only three survived into the 1920s, turning to therapeutic and prosthetic goods. about 0:13:41
• At one point one Jackson company was making 300,000 corsets a year. about 0:14:13
• A woman-owned corset manufacturer in 1860 had the first and only female president, who invented and patented the coronet corset. about 0:14:25
• Before Detroit, Jackson factories were making cars and parts; by 1910 the car industry was the town's main industry and more than 20 brands were made there. about 0:14:59
• The brands included Reeves, Jackson, Carter Car, Orlo, Whiting, Butcher and Gage, Buick, Janny Globe, Steel Swallow, CVI Imperial and Standard Electric; all were defunct after Ford's assembly line. about 0:15:08
• Ye Old Carriage Shop in Spring Arbor has 60 antique cars, including five one-offs and 16 cars made in Jackson. about 0:15:48
• In 1914 George Toradoff founded the first Coney Island restaurant and created the Coney Island hot dog by the railroad station; he sold more than 17 million hot dogs in 31 years. about 0:17:50
• A new prison was completed within the city limits in 1934 and took in all of the state's prisoners; it is now the Armory Arts Village artists' community. about 0:18:35
• Jackson has a museum where visitors can tour a closed cell block on the grounds of an active prison. about 0:20:33
• Tony Dungy, the football coach, is from Jackson. about 0:21:12

The reviews read out

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