Town file
Silver City, New Mexico
Silver City, New Mexico (Grant County, New Mexico) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 403, "Three Suspects & A Moron" (6 July 2023). Cassie Marie Brooks was born on December 22nd, 1990 in Safford, Arizona, the second of four children of Chuck and Darlene Brooks.
- Town
- Silver City
- County
- Grant County
- State
- New Mexico
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 403
- Approximate location
- 32.779, -108.269
Episode 403 / 6 July 2023 / 174 min / full
Three Suspects & A Moron
"We're going to New Mexico ... Silver City, New Mexico ... this is in Grant County." about 0:05:51
The case: Murder of Cassie Brooks (March 24, 2014). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2023
- Population
- 9,694
- Median household income
- $38,258 a year
- Median home value
- $217,000
- Two-bedroom rent
- $810 a month
- Cost of living
- 77
- Religious
- about 50%
- Property crime
- ▲ more than twice
- Violent crime
- ▲ twice
- Violent crime
- ▲ higher than New York City's
History, in brief
- After the American Civil War the settlement was known as La Cienega de Vicente, which James says means the oasis of Saint Vincent. about 0:06:29
- Prospectors came, and Silver City was founded in 1870 after the discovery of silver ore deposits at Chloride Flat on the hill just west of John Bullard's farm. about 0:06:53
- Captain John Bullard laid out the streets of Silver City and did not think it would ever become a permanent town. about 0:06:53
- Bullard was killed in a confrontation with the Apache less than a year after the town was laid out. about 0:07:37
- The town's violent crime rate during the 1870s was off the charts. about 0:07:45
- Harvey Whitehill was elected Grant County sheriff in 1874 on a promise to clean the place up. about 0:08:02
- In 1875 Whitehill became the first lawman to arrest Billy the Kid, then using the alias Henry Antrim, and arrested him twice, both times for theft in Silver City. about 0:08:16
- Billy the Kid's mother is buried in the cemetery in Silver City. about 0:09:03
- In 1878 the town hired its first town marshal, Dangerous Dan Tucker. about 0:09:16
- Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch were reported to frequent the Silver City saloons in the 1800s. about 0:09:32
- The downtown was built with high sidewalks to accommodate constant flooding. about 0:09:38
- By 1895 a heavy wall of water rushed through the downtown business district and destroyed it, creating a ditch 55 feet lower than the original street; Main Street businesses began using their back doors as entrances. about 0:10:07
- The ditch is now called Big Ditch Park. about 0:10:54
- Silver City was the finish line in the 2001 movie Rat Race. about 0:11:03
The reviews read out
5 stars
"It is not a bad place to live if you want to get away from large, overcrowded cities full of violence and crime."about 0:11:39
4 stars
"A quiet little place with nice people, great scenery and hiking and camping, though there is not much shopping and the largest store is Walmart; the downtown cinema has one screen and 156 seats."about 0:11:50
3 stars
"Hometown pride is required, with a good mix of down-to-earth people, but it is not fancy."about 0:13:05
3 stars
"The reviewer visited six times with plans to move but found it lovely to visit and also lonely, friendly but standoffish, with an underlying melancholy."about 0:13:51
2 stars
"Beautiful countryside, but a much higher number of cranky, humourless people; after planning a move for five years the reviewer knew within a week it was a huge mistake."about 0:14:55
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Clifton, Arizona61 miles
- St. Johns, Arizona135 miles
- Bernardo, New Mexico140 miles
- Catalina Foothills, Arizona156 miles
- Oro Valley, Arizona160 miles
- Hondo, New Mexico179 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.