Town file
Sunbury, Pennsylvania
Sunbury, Pennsylvania (Northumberland County, Pennsylvania) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 65, "Maybe A Serial Killer, Maybe A Liar" (12 April 2018). Sunbury, Pennsylvania, sits in Northumberland County in east-central Pennsylvania, about two hours and forty-five minutes from Philadelphia and four hours from Pittsburgh.
- Town
- Sunbury
- County
- Northumberland County
- State
- Pennsylvania
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 65
- Approximate location
- 40.861, -76.787
Episode 65 / 12 April 2018 / 154 min / full
Maybe A Serial Killer, Maybe A Liar
"We are heading all the way to Pennsylvania this time to Sunbury, Pennsylvania; it is in Northumberland county" about 0:05:23
The case: Murder of Troy LaFerrara (November 11, 2013). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- 9,652
- Median age
- 37.5
- Median household income
- $28,530
- Median home value
- $65,800
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $671
- Cost of living
- 78 out of 100
- Religious
- 51%
- Property crime
- exactly average
- Violent crime
- ▲ more than double
History, in brief
- Shawnee migrants were among the first people in the area, and a large population of Delaware Indians was forcibly resettled there in the early 18th century. about 0:11:30
- There were about 300 Indians in the area in the early 1700s. about 0:11:59
- In 1754 the Six Nations gave most of the land to Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress. about 0:12:08
- The area that became Sunbury, called Shimokin, was not sold and was held by the Six Nations for any of their nations who came from the Ohio or elsewhere. about 0:12:26
- The Delaware residents stayed neutral early in the French and Indian War, then joined the war against Pennsylvania and the English. about 0:13:09
- Fort Augusta was built in 1756. about 0:13:33
- Northumberland County was incorporated on March 21st, 1772, and the town was renamed Sunbury from Shimokin. about 0:14:34
- Sunbury was named after Sunbury on Thames, a town in the Surrey borough of Spelthorne in England, just outside Greater London. about 0:15:09
- The City Hotel was built in 1865; Thomas Edison wired it to demonstrate electric light and it became the Edison Hotel. about 0:17:10
- The town built a monument to Edison. about 0:18:10
- Lorenzo Da Ponte, the Italian opera librettist, lived in Sunbury for a while. about 0:18:10
- Sunbury sits at the tip of the rust belt and has been in decline for about fifty years. about 0:19:09
- There are more than 20 churches in the town. about 0:19:38
- The town was named in an episode of Mad Men, when Don Draper's parents meet his casket at Sunbury. about 0:20:45
- Residents are called Sunburians. about 0:21:08
The reviews read out
"Titled 'there's nothing here to offer, run away as fast as you can', the review says the economy is hard, unemployment is high, businesses are closing, there is nothing to do and no future for residents."about 0:21:32
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Centre Hall, Pennsylvania47 miles
- Kingston Township, Pennsylvania55 miles
- Lititz, Pennsylvania55 miles
- Newville, Pennsylvania58 miles
- Weisenberg Township, Pennsylvania59 miles
- Washington Boro, Pennsylvania61 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.