Town file
Needham, Massachusetts
Needham, Massachusetts (Norfolk County, Massachusetts) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 198, "A Ted Bundy On The Rise" (19 November 2020). Needham, Massachusetts is a wealthy town in Norfolk County, about 30 minutes from downtown Boston and 45 minutes from Providence, Rhode Island.
- Town
- Needham
- County
- Norfolk County
- State
- Massachusetts
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 198
- Approximate location
- 42.282, -71.242
Episode 198 / 19 November 2020 / 158 min / full
A Ted Bundy On The Rise
"We're going to Massachusetts, need a mess, which is spelled Needham; this is in Norfolk County" about 0:04:44
The case: Murder of Eugenia 'Gina' Conti Haratsis (August 2, 1988); child pornography smuggling case (1987-1988). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2020
- Population
- 30,429
- Median age
- close to 44
- Median household income
- $141,600
- Median home value
- $933,100
- Two-bedroom rent
- $2,245
- Cost of living
- 202
- Religious
- 65%
- Property crime
- ▼ less than half
- Violent crime
- ▼ about one third
History, in brief
- In 1865 William Carter established a knitting mill in Needham Heights that became a huge manufacturer and leading brand of children's apparel. about 0:07:22
- The mill site later housed an assisted living centre, and the company moved its headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1960s. about 0:07:47
- In the late 1860s William Emerson Baker, a wealthy man who had improved the mechanical sewing machine, moved to Needham. about 0:08:07
- Baker assembled about 800 acres and named it Ridge Hill Farm, and built two man-made lakes that are still there. about 0:08:57
- Baker turned the property into an amusement park with exotic animals, tunnels, trick floors and mirrors. about 0:09:12
- In 1888 he built the Hotel Wellesley, which held 300 guests and burned to the ground in 1891. about 0:10:07
- In 1891 George Walker, a Boston lithograph company owner, and the scientist Gustavus Gordon formed the Walker Gordon laboratories to develop processes preventing contamination of milk and better babies' milk formulas. about 0:10:19
- The Walker Gordon plant was in the Charles River Village section of Needham, with another large facility in New Jersey. about 0:11:31
- During the Depression of the 1930s the town's population grew by over 50% because there were factory jobs there. about 0:12:36
The reviews read out
2 stars
"Needham is beautiful but most of the people are not so great; very privileged, stereotypical and ignorant, and the reviewer would not raise children around them."about 0:13:14
1 star
"Once a quiet bedroom community, now overrun with snobby, overprivileged, arrogant and entitled people with highly competitive parents who push children to breaking point; the school district sweeps problems under the rug and the town is not welcoming to minorities."about 0:13:49
4 stars
"A very safe town with a great public school system, expensive but a great place to raise a family, where children grow up in a bubble sheltered from hardship."about 0:16:34
4 stars
"Keeps a small town feel while connected to the greater Boston area; not much fun nearby but safe and welcoming, with wealthy residents, few affordable houses to rent or buy and outgoing people."about 0:16:34
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Framingham, Massachusetts10 miles
- Sharon, Massachusetts12 miles
- Wakefield, Massachusetts18 miles
- Salem, Massachusetts23 miles
- Woonsocket, Rhode Island23 miles
- North Smithfield, Rhode Island26 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.