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Great articles, every Saturday.

Tags

Small Town

Crime

The Pretender

People in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, thought Lois Reiss was a nice wife and grandmother. If she had a vice, it was playing the slots. Then she committed murder.

John Rosengren The Atavist Magazine Sep 2020 40min Permalink

Our Little Town of Bethel

A Black Lives Matter confrontation pitted neighbor against neighbor—and displayed the raw power of a social media flash mob.

Aaron Gell Gen Jul 2020 15min Permalink

Travel

Journey to the Geographical Center of North America

Since 1932, the tiny town of Rugby, North Dakota, has claimed to be the geographical center of North America. But as with most things, the truth depends on who’s telling it.

Katherine LaGrave Afar Jun 2020 15min Permalink

Business

The Everything Town in the Middle of Nowhere

How the tiny town of Roundup, Montana became a hub in Amazon’s supply chain.

Josh Dzieza The Verge Nov 2019 15min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Midnight in the Garden of East Texas

A charming assistant funeral home director named Bernie Tiede murders a wealthy widow, keeps her in a freezer for months, finally gets caught, and still has the town's sympathy as his case goes to trial. The story that became Richard Linklater's Bernie.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Jan 1998 20min Permalink

Crime

The Village Where Every Cop Has Been Convicted of Domestic Violence

Dozens of convicted criminals have been hired as cops in Alaska communities. Often, they are the only applicants. In Stebbins, every cop has a criminal record, including the chief.

Kyle Hopkins Anchorage Daily News Jul 2019 20min Permalink

Crime Movies & TV

The Case of the Stolen Ruby Slippers

How a big crime in a small town produced a whodunit as gripping and colorful as “The Wizard of Oz” itself.

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson The Washington Post Magazine Apr 2019 55min Permalink

Health

Why Are So Many People Getting Rare Cancers in This Small Georgia Town?

There’s a tale about a boy in Waycross. Near a canal, he struck a match, lit a piece of newspaper, and tossed it into the water. But when the burning paper touched the surface, it didn’t go out. The water burst into flames.

Joshua Sharpe Atlanta Magazine Apr 2019 30min Permalink

Crime

How Cities Make Money by Fining the Poor

In many parts of America, like Corinth, Miss., judges are locking up defendants who can’t pay—sometimes for months at a time.

Matthew Shaer The New York Times Magazine Jan 2019 25min Permalink

Music

Something Like Springtime

On Jonathan Richman and his roots in small-town Maine.

Josh Roiland Popula Nov 2018 25min Permalink

Politics

Kris Kobach’s Lucrative Trail of Courtroom Defeats

For years, the candidate for Kansas governor has defended towns that passed anti-immigration ordinances. The towns have lost big — but Kobach has fared considerably better.

Jessica Huseman, Blake Paterson, Brian Lowry, Hunter Woodall ProPublica, Kansas City Star Aug 2018 15min Permalink

Crime World

How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town India

A reporter on her way out of India probes a case of a woman beaten to death by her husband in public.

Ellen Barry New York Times Aug 2017 Permalink

World

The Useful Village

In the fall of 2015, Germany designated Sumte, population 102, as a sanctuary for nearly 800 refugees. What followed was a living experiment in the country’s principles.

Ben Mauk Virginia Quarterly Review Apr 2017 45min Permalink

Tech

The Internet Really Has Changed Everything. Here’s the Proof.

The writer returns to his remote North Dakota hometown’s high school, then isolated with a graduating class of only 28, now even smaller but connected by the internet.

Rex Sorgatz Backchannel Apr 2016 20min Permalink

Sex

From Pickup Artist to Pariah

A small-town coffeeshop owner led a double life as a blogger and podcaster on the topic of “pickup artistry.” Then his identity, and his intimate writings about his experiences with 46 local women, was made public.

Rachel Monroe New York Jan 2016 20min Permalink

Fiction

Fiction Pick of the Week: "Fire Was Coming"

Religion, high school football, and racial problems in small town America.

Jared Yates Sexton New Mexico Review Dec 2015 10min Permalink

Crime

Potsdam’s Nightmare: What Happened to Garrett Phillips?

Nearly 4 years ago, a 12-year-old boy was murdered in a small town in upstate New York. The suspects are well known, but nobody has been convicted of the crime.

Jordan Ritter Conn Grantland Jul 2015 25min Permalink

Religion

Sinners in the Hands

A small Texas town suddenly finds it’s the home of a possible cult.

Sonia Smith Texas Monthly Jan 2014 35min Permalink

Rita Crundwell and the Dixon Embezzlement

How a small-town comptroller became the biggest municipal embezzler in U.S. history.

Bryan Smith Chicago Magazine Oct 2012 Permalink