Town file
Woodstock, Illinois
Woodstock, Illinois (McHenry County, Illinois) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 257, "Bloody Jealousy" (6 January 2022). Woodstock, Illinois, is a north-west suburb of Chicago in McHenry County, about an hour and ten minutes from downtown and roughly 26,000 people.
- Town
- Woodstock
- County
- McHenry County
- State
- Illinois
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 257
- Approximate location
- 42.310, -88.435
Episode 257 / 6 January 2022 / 176 min / full
Bloody Jealousy
"Woodstock, Illinois ... a northwest suburb of Chicago ... about an hour and ten minutes to downtown Chicago from here." about 0:05:39
The case: Murder of Ray and Ruth Ann Ritter (August 21, 1988). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2022
- Population
- 25,997
- Median age
- 36.1
- Median household income
- $600 below
- Median home value
- $237,200
- Two-bedroom rent
- $1,225
- Cost of living
- 96.3
- Religious
- 54%
- Property crime
- ▼ about 25% below
- Violent crime
- ▼ less than half
History, in brief
- Woodstock was named an All-America City in 1964. about 0:07:13
- It was originally named Centerville and was renamed Woodstock because Centerville sounded too boring. about 0:07:24
- It became a certified city in 1987. about 0:07:44
- It was named a National Trust Distinctive Destination in 2007. about 0:07:50
- In recent years it became a Preserve America community. about 0:07:59
- It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with the historic Woodstock Square at its centre. about 0:08:08
- In the 1900s Woodstock became known as Typewriter City because it was home to the Emerson Typewriter Company and the Oliver Typewriter Company. about 0:08:39
- In 1922 Woodstock typewriters accounted for more than half the typewriters in the world. about 0:09:01
- The typewriter factories had all closed by 1970. about 0:09:58
- Orson Welles enrolled at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock in 1926, aged ten, and stayed five years; in a 1960 interview he called Woodstock his home town, if it was anywhere. about 0:10:48
- Scenes from Planes, Trains and Automobiles were filmed in Woodstock, and the town square is the location used for Groundhog Day. about 0:11:23
The reviews read out
5 stars
"The reviewer LOVES the town and says there are so many things to do in the historic Woodstock Square, with many local shops, cafes and restaurants, and notes that Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray was filmed there."about 0:12:44
3 stars
"Woodstock is not the kind of town you move to for fun; there are occasional things to do but you see the same people, there is not enough to do, it is far from major cities, the people are usually farmer families or Hispanics, and it is an old town stuck in old ways that reminds the reviewer of a loaf of mouldy bread."about 0:13:46
1 star
"Moved there a few years ago and found it unwelcoming and discriminatory towards newcomers, with nowhere to shop for a family, an understocked Walmart and Jewel Osco, poor schools, corrupt local government and bad drivers; the fourth state the reviewer has lived in and by far the worst, with the train station to Chicago the only upside."about 0:14:38
1 star
"Agrees with the review calling the town unwelcoming and discriminatory, low class and less educated, and says that if exclusion and small-town gossip are your thing you will fit right in."about 0:16:07
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- McHenry, Illinois7.6 miles
- Spring Grove, Illinois14 miles
- Streamwood, Illinois24 miles
- Libertyville, Illinois24 miles
- Arlington Heights, Illinois27 miles
- Bloomingdale, Illinois30 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.