Town file
Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut (Fairfield County, Connecticut) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 570, "Twelve Scary Hours" (8 February 2025). In November 1962 Westport, Connecticut, was a wealthy, leafy suburb on Long Island Sound.
- Town
- Westport
- County
- Fairfield County
- State
- Connecticut
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 570
- Approximate location
- 41.121, -73.343
Episode 570 / 8 February 2025 / 71 min / express
Twelve Scary Hours
"We are going to Connecticut this week here, Westport, Connecticut ... Westport is in southwestern Connecticut ... This is in Fairfield County" about 0:02:42
The case: Murder of Isabel Sillan (November 1962). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2025
- Population
- 27,168
- Median household income
- $236,892
- Median home value
- $1,473,500
History, in brief
- Officially incorporated in 1835, taking land from Fairfield, Weston and Norwalk. about 0:04:39
- Daniel Nash led 130 people to petition the town of Fairfield for Westport's incorporation, to protect its seaport's economic viability against neighbouring town seaports. about 0:04:48
- For several decades it was a big agricultural community and the leading onion growing centre in the United States. about 0:05:11
- It became a shipping centre in part to transport the onions. about 0:05:26
- After the collapse of the onion industry, mills and factories replaced farming. about 0:05:32
- Starting about 1910, New Yorkers discovered the town and artists and musicians began moving here. about 0:05:41
- F. Scott Fitzgerald moved here. about 0:05:54
- It gained a reputation as an art centre and was called a creative heaven. about 0:06:29
- Twentieth-century industrialisation brought fashionable people; farmers sold land for housing developments and it changed from farms to suburbs. about 0:06:37
- Paul Newman moved here in 1960 and lived there until he died; his wife Joanne Woodward stayed after his death. about 0:07:01
The reviews read out
5 stars
"Appreciates the location, an hour from New York City, with a beach, a nice downtown, a public pool, sports courts and fields, and a high school with amazing sports, theatre and music facilities."about 0:07:22
3 stars
"Beautiful town and relatively nice people, but people can be spoiled, arrogant and extremely out of touch."about 0:08:03
1 star
"A very nasty town run by an insiders' clique of real estate people, hedge fund people and showbiz types, where anyone not an insider is a sub-citizen; the police are thugs for the real estate people and the realtors engage in serious blacklisting."about 0:08:18
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Redding, Connecticut13 miles
- Northport, New York15 miles
- Belle Terre, New York18 miles
- Newtown, Connecticut20 miles
- Chappaqua, New York22 miles
- Amityville, New York31 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.