Otisco, New York

Episode 8 / 8 March 2017 / 60 min / full

A Trail Of Ashes & Bodies

"Otisco, New York ... it's in Onundaga county, zip code 13159, area code 315" about 0:03:06

The case: name withheld here arson and murder case (1979 to 2008). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2017

Population

2,557

Median age

45.4

Median home value

$145,000

Two-bedroom rent

$660 a month

Cost of living

94

Religious

56%

Property crime

▼ almost 10% lower

Violent crime

▲ about five percent higher

History, in brief

• The area was originally part of the central New York military tract, two million acres set aside to pay Revolutionary War soldiers. about 0:03:59
• Congress promised each soldier about 100 acres of land, then raised it to 500 acres per soldier. about 0:04:47
• Non-soldiers began settling in the area about 1798. about 0:04:57
• The town of Otisco was officially formed in 1806, combining parts of three other towns. about 0:05:01
• The settlers were religious, said to have come 'with the Bible in one hand and the spelling book in the other'. about 0:05:17
• Town legend held that an Indian family at the foot of Otisco Lake, the father and all the children, were thickly covered with hair like bears. about 0:05:33
• The population was about 2,000 as of 1830 and declined to less than 900 by 1950. about 0:06:28
• People came back in the 1980s and 1990s, and the population has been about the same since 2000. about 0:06:40

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