Marshfield, Massachusetts

Episode 116 / 25 April 2019 / 154 min / full

A Vampire Pyramid Scheme

"We're gonna go to Marshfield Massachusetts, southeastern Massachusetts, in Plymouth County." about 0:06:51

The case: Murder of Carmen Lopez (April 10, 1980). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

25,648

Median age

44.6

Median household income

$94,000

Median home value

$462,500

Two-bedroom rent

$1,810

Cost of living

153

Religious

43%

Property crime

▼ about a third lower

Violent crime

▼ about half

History, in brief

• Daniel Webster was born in 1782. about 0:11:25
• He represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress. about 0:11:27
• He served as U.S. Secretary of State under William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore. about 0:11:32
• He was an attorney and a member of the Republican Party, having belonged to the Whig Party before that. about 0:11:41
• He opposed Andrew Jackson's domestic policies, particularly the removal of Native Americans from their land. about 0:12:18
• He strongly objected to the theory of nullification. about 0:12:36
• He joined other opponents of Jackson to form the Whig Party, which unsuccessfully tried to unseat Jackson in 1836. about 0:13:56
• During the Revolutionary War the town was full of British loyalists, which caused fighting among residents. about 0:14:11
• After the British evacuated Boston in 1776, a number of Marshfield residents were banished from the state under the Tory Banishment Act. about 0:14:41
• Loyalists were assaulted and jailed, their land was confiscated and they were driven out. about 0:15:24
• Some loyalists went to Nova Scotia; the town of Milton refused them before Nova Scotia gave them permission to land. about 0:16:28
• Their ship carried 17 firearms, five bayonets, swords and powder horns. about 0:16:54
• Sarah Winslow of Plymouth wrote a letter to her cousin on April 10th, 1783 describing the loyalists' dilemma. about 0:17:53
• Early industries were farming, cattle, fishing and salt marsh haying. about 0:19:43
• The Winslow and Kent families, among the early townspeople, had slaves. about 0:20:03
• Jesse Reed founded an early nail factory and was one of the first to manufacture nails by machine. about 0:20:18
• Over a thousand ships were built in the town during the 1800s. about 0:20:46
• An antenna built in the town sent the first transatlantic voice broadcast in 1907. about 0:20:53
• A fire in 1941 burned 400 buildings in three hours, one of the largest fires by structures destroyed in United States history. about 0:21:08
• The 1941 fire was covered nationally, including a spread in Life magazine. about 0:21:34
• The town has the oldest agricultural fair in the United States. about 0:22:33

Open the episode file