Middletown, Connecticut

Episode 185 / 20 August 2020 / 159 min / full

A Double Murder In Stereo Sound

"We're going to Middletown, Connecticut ... This is in Middlesex County, one of the zero zip code, 06457" about 0:05:52

The case: Murders of Patricia Lynn Steller and Ronald King (November 1, 1993). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2020

Population

46,747

Median age

37

Median household income

$63,914

Median home value

$205,100

Two-bedroom rent

$1,220

Cost of living

101.4

Religious

42.3%

Property crime

▼ about 25% under

Violent crime

▼ about half

History, in brief

• General Joseph K. Mansfield, a Union general, was killed in action at Antietam in 1862. about 0:06:34
• Brigadier General George Taylor was educated and lived in Middletown and also died at Antietam. about 0:06:42
• The Civil War song Marching Through Georgia was written by Henry Clay Work, a Middletown resident. about 0:07:00
• The city was active in the abolitionist movement and was a hub of the Underground Railroad. about 0:07:11
• The Middletown Mansfields played in the National Association in 1872, named after Joseph K. Mansfield, organised by Ben Douglas Jr., managed by catcher John Clapp and finished 5-19. about 0:08:32
• Irish and Italian immigrants, many from Sicily, arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s to work in the factories and farms. about 0:09:33
• By 1910 the population was 21,000, of whom 53 were black. about 0:10:05
• Wesleyan University is in the town. about 0:10:27
• Two Wesleyan professors brought Cambodian refugees in the early 1980s, starting a Cambodian community. about 0:10:41
• Tibetan refugees followed and there is a Hindu temple in the town. about 0:10:59
• Floods in 1927 and 1930 and the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 damaged the town, businesses and Main Street. about 0:11:21
• In the 1950s a highway separated the town from the river and demolished historic neighbourhoods, including buildings from the 1700s. about 0:12:07
• The town declined through the 1960s to 1980s and began to come back in the 1990s. about 0:12:32

The reviews read out

Open the episode file