Town file
Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts (Hampshire County, Massachusetts) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 58, ""Serial Killer" Doesn't Even Describe It" (21 February 2018). Northampton, Massachusetts, lies in Hampshire County, about forty-five minutes from Boston and three hours from New York City.
- Town
- Northampton
- County
- Hampshire County
- State
- Massachusetts
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 58
- Approximate location
- 42.327, -72.675
Episode 58 / 21 February 2018 / 117 min / full
"Serial Killer" Doesn't Even Describe It
"This week, we look at the revitalized town of Northampton, Massachusetts; it's in Hampshire county." about 0:01:05
The case: Murders of patients at the Leeds VA Medical Center (1995 to 1996). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- 28,540
- Median age
- 38.9
- Median household income
- $58,000
- Median home value
- $260,000
- Two-bedroom rent
- $1,095
- Cost of living
- 125 out of 100
- Religious
- about 42%
- Property crime
- about average
- Violent crime
- ▲ slightly above average
History, in brief
- Originally known as Norwottuck, meaning in the midst of the river, a name given by the Native Americans there. about 0:09:00
- Named by John A. King, born in 1629, one of the original English settlers, after Northampton in England, his birthplace. about 0:09:11
- The Great Awakening, a Christian revival led by Jonathan Edwards, ran through the winter of 1734 and the spring of 1735 and threatened local businesses. about 0:10:15
- Northampton held its own witch trials in the 1700s, though no witches were executed there. about 0:11:38
- Shays' Rebellion, led by Daniel Shays and his revolutionary war veterans, attacked an armory in Springfield and drew George Washington out of retirement. about 0:12:13
- In 1805 a crowd of 15,000 gathered to watch the executions of two Irishmen, Dominic Daley and James Hallagan, convicted of murder; they were pardoned in 1984. about 0:14:28
- Smith College, one of the seven sisters colleges, counts Sylvia Plath, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Gloria Steinem and Julia Child among its alumni; the first women's basketball game was played there in 1892. about 0:16:18
- Calvin Coolidge worked as a lawyer in Northampton and was the city's mayor in 1910 and 1911; he moved back after his presidency and died four years later. about 0:16:43
- The population peaked at about 30,000 in 1960, before factory work left and the town declined in the 1970s. about 0:18:33
- The town seal carries silk moths representing the silk industry and a short-lived utopian community in the Florence section in the 1800s. about 0:19:33
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Chicopee, Massachusetts12 miles
- Agawam, Massachusetts18 miles
- Greenfield, Massachusetts20 miles
- Stafford, Connecticut30 miles
- Ellington, Connecticut31 miles
- Barkhamsted, Connecticut31 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.