Cabot Cove

Cabot Cove, Maine, is the small, fictional village in which Jessica Fletcher lives, in the popular television series Murder, She Wrote.

In "The Szechuan Dragon" (season 6, episode #131) a transport truck is seen stopping at the righthand turnoff to Cabot Cove to let out a hitchhiking an old sailing captain. The sign indicates that Cabot Cove is 2 miles from this point. The other destinations on the sign are as follows: Portland, 20 mi; Biddeford, 37 mi; Kennebunkport, 48 mi; Kennebunk, 46 mi; Ogunquit, 56 (or 50) mi.

This would place Cabot Cove 18 to 22 miles Northeast of Portland, Maine, somewhere between Freeport and Brunswick, and off of US Route 1. The primary difficulty with this location for Cabot Cove is that a person travelling south or southwest, towards Portland, along Route 1 and making a righthand turn off the highway would be turning west or northwest , away from the Atlantic Ocean, not east towards the ocean where one would expect to find a place called Cabot Cove.

It has a good architectural heritage in the form of Victorian houses.

That rich tradition, being next to the coast and neighbor to the great Eastern cities, transformed Cabot Cove from being a small economy based in fishing, to a tourist destination for the people coming from New York. Throughout the 1990s, the construction has grown, and so has the population. Immigration comprises people coming from the industrial cities of the Eastern coast.

Despite important economic changes, politically there have not been many changes. The mayor has been Sam Booth for many years. The town's sheriff was for a long time was Amos Tupper (played by Tom Bosley). He was later replaced by Mort Metzger (played by Ron Masak).

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Jessica in the Murder, She Wrote episode 'The Cemetery Vote'

Culturally, the most relevant figure is Jessica Beatrice Fletcher, J.B.Fletcher, the famous writer. Once a teacher, she became one of the main figures in the American Literature. Sometimes compared to Poe or Hammett, her style has become popular all around the planet and a model in mystery narrative. Her first and main successful novel was "The Corpse Danced at Midnight", which had a film adaptation.

Cabot

It was revealed in the Murder, She Wrote novel Trick or Treachery that Cabot Cove is named after the town's founder, Winfred Cabot. After committing adultery, his wife Hepzibah killed him, before taking her own life.

There was actually a town by the name of Cabot Cove in Northern California, near where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds. The television show, however, was filmed at a hotel in the oceanside hamlet of Mendocino, California.

Further reading

Tropiano, Stephen (2000). TV Towns. New York, NY: TV Books L.L.C. ISBN 1-57500-127-6.