Town file
Whitley City, Kentucky
Whitley City, Kentucky (McCreary County, Kentucky) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 119, "It's About The Opportunities" (16 May 2019). Whitley City, Kentucky, sits in McCreary County in the far south of the state, close to the Tennessee line.
- Town
- Whitley City
- County
- McCreary County
- State
- Kentucky
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 119
- Approximate location
- 36.723, -84.475
Episode 119 / 16 May 2019 / 152 min / full
It's About The Opportunities
"This is in McCreary County, Kentucky, zip code 42653, area code 606; the town is Whitley City, at the very bottom of the state near the Tennessee border." about 0:07:12
The case: Murder of Jean Farrier, Crystal Conister and Chris Boswell (March 1997). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2019
- Population
- 1,231
- Median age
- 41.5
- Median household income
- $17,683
- Median home value
- $49,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $618
- Cost of living
- 85
- Religious
- 21.9%
- Property crime
- ▼ about 25% below the national average
- Violent crime
- ▼ about half the national average
History, in brief
- People started coming to the area in about 1772, when it was part of Fincastle County, Virginia. about 0:11:49
- In 1776 the land was divided up and named Kentucky County, Virginia. about 0:12:01
- In 1780 the Virginia legislature set aside the land in Kentucky County for soldiers who had served in the Revolutionary War. about 0:12:01
- In 1818 Whitley County was created from a portion of Knox County, although Whitley City is in McCreary County, not Whitley County. about 0:12:46
- The Tellico Trail, an Indian route used for thousands of years, ran through the area. about 0:13:39
- The Cincinnati Southern Railroad came through in 1880, giving access to markets for timber and coal. about 0:15:14
- Justice S. Stearns ran Stearns Enterprises and, during the Great Depression, sold quantities of land to the US government that became the Cumberland National Forest. about 0:16:27
- Industrial development started in the 1970s, including a sewing industry that later moved overseas. about 0:18:58
- The county built three industrial parks to attract business and none of them filled. about 0:19:23
The reviews read out
3 stars
"The great thing about Whitley City is that it is small and has a great hometown feel, but there is very little to attract people or investment; it saw its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s with coal and declined when coal did."about 0:20:41
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Stab, Kentucky30 miles
- Maynardville, Tennessee50 miles
- Monterey, Tennessee59 miles
- Gainesboro, Tennessee70 miles
- Pigeon Forge, Tennessee82 miles
- Cosby, Tennessee94 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.