Town file
Peru, Indiana
Peru, Indiana (Miami County, Indiana) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 98, "Cold Blooded, Not Blue Blooded" (19 December 2018). Peru, Indiana, sits in Miami County in the north central part of the state, a small town of about 11,000 people that once called itself the Circus Capital of the World.
- Town
- Peru
- County
- Miami County
- State
- Indiana
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 98
- Approximate location
- 40.759, -86.071
Episode 98 / 19 December 2018 / 150 min / full
Cold Blooded, Not Blue Blooded
"We're going to Peru, Indiana ... this is in Miami County; this Peru is in north central Indiana." about 0:06:52
The case: Murder of James 'Jimmy' Grund Jr. (August 3, 1992). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- 11,060
- Median age
- about normal
- Median home value
- $72,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $630
- Cost of living
- 78
- Religious
- 36.8%
- Property crime
- ▼ about 20% under the average
- Violent crime
- ▼ about half the average
History, in brief
- In 1827 Joseph Holman bought land from the Miami Indians, specifically from their chief, Jean Baptiste de Richardville. about 0:13:15
- Richardville handled the Miami treaties and land sales, acquired more than 20 square miles along the rivers for himself, and by his death was the wealthiest man in Indiana. about 0:13:36
- Peru was founded in 1834 by William N. Hood, who bought 200 acres from Joseph Holman. about 0:14:40
- Hood named the town Peru because a surveying party asked what he would call it and he said he did not care so long as it was a short name. about 0:14:57
- Francis Slocum was born in Peru on March 4, 1773, captured by three Delaware warriors at the age of five in 1778 and returned at sixty-five. about 0:15:34
- The Model Automobile Company made cars in Peru around the turn of the twentieth century. about 0:17:28
- Ben Wallace brought the circus to Peru in the late 1800s, and other circuses made their winter headquarters there, among them Ringling Brothers, Hagenbeck-Wallace and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. about 0:17:49
- By the 1920s state-issued maps listed the town as Circus City rather than Peru, and did so until the 1940s. about 0:18:20
- By the 1940s the circuses had moved to Florida for the warmer winters, ending the circus era in Peru. about 0:18:56
- Maria Rasputin, daughter of Gregory Rasputin, was mauled by a bear in Peru while working for the Ringling Brothers Circus and survived. about 0:20:24
- In 1913 six inches of rain fell in three days and flooded the town; before the flood Peru had 15,000 people, 100 factories, a trolley service, railroads, a new hospital, a circus employing a thousand people on the road and a concrete bridge said to be the largest of its kind in the world, and many people and circus animals died. about 0:22:46
- In 1933 John Dillinger's gang robbed the Peru police department armory, taking a Thompson submachine gun, two Winchester rifles, two shotguns, four .38 caliber revolvers and half a dozen bulletproof vests. about 0:24:06
- In 1959 the town trained high school students to perform circus acts, and the next year rented a tent and began the annual Peru Amateur Circus. about 0:25:02
- Peru has the world's only remaining manufacturer of steam calliopes. about 0:25:57
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Marion, Indiana26 miles
- Lafayette, Indiana48 miles
- Carmel, Indiana55 miles
- La Porte, Indiana67 miles
- Auburn, Indiana68 miles
- Winchester, Indiana70 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.