Small towns are weird…

You never know what’s just below the surface.

Deep, dark secrets that some people will do anything to protect.

And when something major happens, everyone knows about it almost immediately.

It’s how small towns work.

AskReddit users shared the scandals that rocked their small towns.

Take a look…

1. Tragic.

“College professor was found tied to a tree and burned months after he disappeared.

Police ruled it a s**cide.”

2. Something in the water…

“The mayor went to meet what he thought was an underage girl but was really the cops.

Around the same time, the son of the bazillionaire owner of the biggest company in town also got caught with an underage girl. Somehow right before trial she recanted and declined to prosecute.

Something in the water down there.”

3. Terrible.

“Sheriff’s son a**aulted and beat his girlfriend to d**th before setting their house on fire.

Abandoned their two year old daughter (who had no doubt witnessed the whole horrible thing) in her aunt’s driveway without making contact, but her Ring Camera went off at 3 am. They caught him next state over two months later on a different violation.

There was no active manhunt from anyone. They knew who do it, and they just … didn’t care. It wasn’t an active cover up so much as a whole bunch of inactive lack of care. He was transferred back home and got off on a ridiculously low bail. They’ve pushed his case back to 2022.

He’s in protective custody somewhere, because people have been posting all over local Facebook’s about how they’d do the cop’s job for them if they found him.”

4. The body.

“In 2000, a girl’s body was found on the steps of the local middle school. She had been beaten, r**ed, strangled, and burned.

The officer that arrived at the scene was a rookie officer. Since he was the first in the scene the police department made him in charge of the case. The case was massively botched. The murder had shocked the community and a lot of people were talking. Several years later, the police marked it as a cold case. A local woman was doing her own detective work.

She reached out to a journalist from the UK. The journalist flew to meet the woman and investigate the murder and missteps by the police. They uncovered a massive cover-up. The local police department was hostile towards the journalist and local. To the point that the state FBI branch had to get involved to protect the investigation.

Due to the police departments terrorizing behavior, they ended up getting investigated by the FBI. Apparently they knew who had committed the crime. A local drug dealer, who was cozy with the police. He eventually was arrested and sent to prison for life. The police department got a slap on the wrist. The journalist went back to the UK and the local woman moved to a nearby city.”

5. Double jeopardy.

“A cop m**dered his wife and got away with it.

Shockingly he did it again to the next wife and now he gets to d** in jail for it.”

6. A town called Hyde.

“I’m originally from a town called Hyde, a few miles outside Manchester.

Unfortunately, Hyde is famous for Harold Shipman, the once trusted GP who ki**ed elderly patients by overdosing them with diamorphine.

My grandma’s neighbour (Jack) was one of his many victims.”

7. Wild.

“I’m from a very small town in Canada.

Very quiet, nothing big ever came up and it was a fairly tight-knit community. One day, and explosion went off in an apartment building. A 23 yr old, single mother (who also happens to be a quadriplegic) was k**led instantly.

The case was eventually solved, the explosion was a gift-wrapped piped bomb left by her former financial adviser. He squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars from her and was convicted for it, he was then released on bail and then left the bomb.

Wild s**t.”

8. Corruption.

“The mayor and several city councillors were taking kickbacks and bribes from demolition, construction, and cleaning companies for clean-up contracts after a hurricane, funded by FEMA.

The companies would give the mayor and city councillors like a couple grand, then the company would get FEMA funds in the tens of thousands to clean up/destroy a hurricane damaged property, only the address given to FEMA and listed on the contract were fake, or already cleared, so the companies got paid to do nothing.”

9. What is wrong with people?

“A few members of a scummy local family broke into a bar, stole money, beer and peanuts. When they went to leave, realized there was a d**nk patron sleeping out back on a picnic table.

They, thinking he was a potential witness, bashed his head in with a hammer, threw his body into the back of their truck, drove the truck through the old railroad trail and dump the body in a swamp. They were caught almost immediately because there was a trail of blood and their truck was covered in DNA.

All over some cash and beer.”

10. Wow.

“The local d**nk got into an argument with another regular at a popular bar, pulled out a gun, and shot the other guy to d**th.

But that’s not the scandal. The guy who d**d was apparently really nice and well liked in the community. The others in the bar were able to disarm and restrain the assailant until the police arrived. When the sheriff got there, he just said “looks like you all need a few more minutes with him. I’ll come back later.”

So everyone in the bar grabbed what they could find and ended up beating the shooter to d**th. The sheriff reported it as self defense and the security tapes disappeared.

But the bar was crowded, so the real story got out. There were a few attempts to reopen the case or charge the sheriff and some of the bar patrons, but they were all squashed pretty quickly.

The really interesting detail, in my opinion is that there were some pretty strong rumors that the d**nk had been sleeping with the wife of the man he k**led and that he’d been attacked first.

So the original shooting may have been in self-defense. But because there was no camera footage and all the witnesses were involved in ki**ing the d**nk, there’s no way of knowing the truth.”

11. Dr. Feelgood.

“There was an anesthetist, who worked at our local hospital and another hospital in a different town.

He was rather well known among other doctors and known to be good at what he was doing. He only had a small problem with being addicted to pain k**lers and anaesthetics.

So to feed his addiction without getting caught he shot up part of his patients’ drugs before injecting the same needle into his patient.

Thus went unnoticed until it was discovered that over 60 of his patients got infected with hepatitis. And that he was the source for it.

He was fired and his license revoked as far as I know. But the hospital’s image still suffered quite a bit.”

12. Bad idea.

“I’m from a small Oxfordshire village and one of the kids I went to school with was the son of a pilot for Virgin Atlantic.

He got caught trying to fly a plane d**nk.”

13. What?!?!

“My favorite Chinese restaurant burned down when I was in high school.

Told the fire department nobody was left in the building. Turns out they had multiple people chained up in the basement as part of a fairly large human trafficking operation.

Suburb of Detroit. F**kin’ crazy.”

14. The wealthy side of town.

“We don’t live in a super small town, but small enough at 50k. There was a m**der that happened about 20 years ago that has left everyone scandalized.

It was a woman who lived on the wealthy side of town. Her husband was an engineer who worked in a neighboring town about 45 minutes away. He came home to find his wife had been brutally slaughtered. He called the cops, etc.

The man who gets arrested is this no name drug addict idiot whose only connection to this family is that he installed the security system. No one could ever figure out a motive, however. He had 3 trials, all hung juries. So he got off eventually, but the elapsed time was several years. Poor guy.

Meanwhile the husband moves several states away and says that he is terrified of this dumb punk kid, which is really dumb. No one around town believes that the punk did it. So here’s the juicy back story that never made it in the official story.

First, they found gay porn on the husband’s computer, which is odd to begin with since he claimed that the m**derer put it there. Apparently, there was a group of super wealthy (and I mean 1% of the 1%. Not sure why they want to live here, but whatever) locals who were engaging in swinging.

The m**der victim and her husband were members of this group. One of the other members of this group is a high powered attorney around here. He is an absolute snake. He ensured that the punk kid trapped himself into a made up confession that never had any merit.

The reason the attorney did that was to hide the fact that it was actually his wife who most likely committed the m**der. The m**der victim and the attorney were apparently having a private affair separate from the swinging. The attorney’s wife found out and lost it and k**led the woman.”

15. Whoa.

“Goth kid in high school k**led his neighbor with a piece of crown molding because she was going to discover marijuana growing supplies he was mailing to her house.

He then carved a demonic symbol in her back and had a glass of water and shower in her house.

He’s been living in a beautiful waterfront property since then called San Quentin.”

16. That’s not good.

“Our library has been shut down because one of the librarians was filming library themed p**n there and using the computers there to upload it.

She was caught because she was also emailing to people and accidentally emailed to someone else that worked there.”

17. The biology teacher.

“Small town, less than 1,500 residents.

High school biology teacher was sleeping with students for years. Wasn’t that attractive, but was charming, was the varsity football coach, and conveniently lived in town very near the school.

His wife was also a teacher at the middle school. She was easily a 12/10 on an attractive scale and was known for her sense of humor and super model looks. Apparently knew all about it but turned the other cheek.

Made it all the way to assistant principal before he was caught, sent to prison for a very long time, she was sentenced to some form of intentional juvenile endangerment, no idea what ever happened to her.”

18. Good old boys.

“One of the real aggressive dude bros m**dered a kid at a party in front of people and got away with it.

The victim was a kid from a neighboring town and I think the initial conflict may have been over the victim being too friendly with a girl. Anyway dude bro savagely beat him, beginning at the top of a stairway.

Kid fell down the stairs and was already out of commission. But dude bro followed him down and repeatedly kicked him in the head until he bled from his eye sockets.

Well anyway this is a small town and dude bro m**derer came from one of the few “big name” families in the area. Well connected with local authorities. He sat in county a bit but pled no contest and got such a sweetheart deal he did little to no prison time. Good old boy politics is some real s**t.”

19. AIDS in the 1980s.

“My grandpa got AIDS from a blood transfusion in 1985. This was in the rural Midwest.

Since AIDS at that time was a gay man’s disease that he must have been gay.

He was a county commissioner and held positions of leadership in the church. So it was a pretty big deal.”

20. The talk of the town.

“A Wyoming DCI undercover officer was placed in the high school to bust what they considered a drug ring.

He was like 23 or 24 years old but looked really young. He told an elaborate story about how he was from San Diego and his parents are ok with him living there by himself. He had a studio apartment that was completely wired with video and audio. The kids he made friends with and were supposedly a part of this drug ring would come over and drink, smoke pot, and occasionally drop acid.

The kids would talk s**t about how they were going to get sheets of acid from a dealer in Denver and distribute it across town. Well, that was enough to have the agents bust down the door of the apartment one night and arrest everyone there. All minors. Everyone got charged with possession with intent to distribute even though the only drug there was pot.

Fast forward a couple of months later and it comes out that the undercover agent was having s** with a 14 year old girl that was one of the kids that got busted. This resulted in the whole case being dropped and all the kids were exonerated. The agent was convicted of statutory r**e and spent some time in prison.

The whole case was the definition of entrapment anyway, and I believe even without the statutory r**e that no one would have been convicted. The town had a population of 1k at the time so obviously it was the talk of the town.”

21. A small village.

“Not even a town, just a small village.

Middle of the day and a bloke turns up to a house that is on the edge of the village park, shoots the occupier through the bedroom window. Had mates who were in the park at the time. Turns out it was drug related.

Also the local barmaid stabbed her husband during an argument, turned round with a knife in her hand as he approached, he then fell backwards through the glass patio doors, was accidental and she was found not guilty. She was a lovely lady in her 60s.”

22. Where’s the body?

“Their is a rumor our local millionaire m**dered a truck driving business owners and buried her in the cement of one of his mansions.

They never found her body but three months later for some reason he k**led himself. Police didn’t investigate but the news said they received a letter to check into his connection.”

23. Creeps.

“Remember that “ALS Ice bucket challenge” thing?

There was a bit of an incident in my small town where 2 high school seniors “pranked” a mentally disabled student by asking him to participate in the ice bucket challenge, but instead dumped a bucket full of tobacco spit / human waste / etc onto him.

Needless to say there was some outrage and the two seniors were eventually arrested.”

24. A sleepy town.

“Grew up in N. Attleboro Massachusetts and grew up Catholic.

At my church, St Mary’s the was a priest named Father James Porter. He ends up going to jail for a very long time, admitted to abusing over a hundred kids, and was convicted of molesting 28. It was national news and a very big story broken by the Boston Globe in the 1990s.

I was fortunate as he was an old man when I was an altar boy and never was touched. If I remember correctly this was one of the first cases where the Vatican paid out a hefty sum to the victims. Pretty big news for small sleepy town!”

25. Time to come clean.

“I come from a sleepy little village in England, and someone once broke into the local pub and stole cartons of cigarettes, but otherwise left the place undamaged, no money taken or anything.

Culprit was never caught.

Culprit was me.

No, I’m not proud of it.”

Now we want to hear from you.

Tell us about the scandals that rocked your small town.

Do it in the comments!