Pikeville, Kentucky (Hell)

I know where Regina is!!!!!!!!!!!

Until the Saturday night episode of City Confidential I too was an avid viewer of most A&E broadcasts, but I will no longer watch a station that would allow a show to deplict an area and try to make others that are watching believe that we here in Pikeville are some type of back woods uneducated Satan worshiping crazy people that want to leave because this is the beginning of the "Highway to Hell". For anyone that has ever been here, Pikeville KY is one of the most beautiful place on earth. If you visit in the spring you can enjoy watching the mountains come to life. Summers are great too, there are lakes (fishing, watersports, and family picnic are great), hiking & horse back riding, great places to ride atvs, we have a small airport, places to shop, YMCA, a city pool, I am always seeing signs posted that different area churches are hosting events (maybe if these people had gone to a few of these this terrible tradgey would not have happened). The fall is a wonderful time of year with all the bright colors, also white water rafting in the Breaks. I nor anyone that I know supported the type of horrible actions that those 6 people from this area took on an innocent family and as far as I was concerned they should have not been able to cut any type of deal and should have gotten the death penalty for the crimes that they committed, that young family didn't get to cut a deal with anyone. But your show incinuated that all children from this area are like those 6...most children from this area (even the ones that come from broken homes)are not like those. You also touched on Hillbilly Days, if you had taken the time to find out about and to let all the viewers know the real reason behind the annual festival. Hillbilly Days is in it's 29th year, this is a town celebration where Shriners, our community and friends from all over the United States get together and raise money that helps to support the Shriners Crippled Childrens Hospital. This is a hospital that treats burned and crippled children at no charge, most of these children would otherwise not get treatment. This doesn't sound like a bunch of Satan worshiping heartless people to me. Our annual celebration is next month, so why don't you send a crew back to cover that and the real reason behind it, instead of acting like the people here are just ignorant. Yes, there are mines that have shut down and the people here would like better paying jobs, but who doesn't want better pay? I heard last week there are over 200 mining jobs available now and a new company just opened and are in the process of hiring 400+ people. I don't feel that all children here are wanting to get out and never come back. I think that a few may think that they want to leave and spread their wings and see the world, but when the majority of them follow their dreams they return back home to the people and community that they know and love.

I agree with all the comments, Pikeville is not hell, you don't see gangs, or kids killing anymore...yeah there are some crazy people here but the bad part is you show this before hillibilly days and now everyone from a different state will think Pikeville is hell and we are satans, and not come..The only thing in Pikeville any more is car clubs, yeah some drugs..But that is mostly it..I moved from Va to live here in Pikeville Kentucky and I love every minute of it I wouldn't live in any other place...The schools are great and the other places...If you agree then please write back...

~*BJ*~

I must say that I strongly agree with daisy_gal83. I am from Pikeville, KY and very proud of it! We are not the backwoods hillbillies that shows such as City Confidential, 48 Hours, and An American Hollow. If this town is so poor, why then do we have the most multi-millionaires in the state living within the city limits? There are opportunities for our young people if they would just do something about it instead of moaning in self-pity. Get and education and do something about your life instead of blaming others for what you don't have. As a highly educated person, I was appalled at the show on March 26th. I used to enjoy A&E programming but from this day forward I vow to never watch another show affiliated with this network.

As an avid A&E viewer, I have come to enjoy shows like Cold Case Files and City Confidential, but that quickly changed after March 26, 2005. Being a young citizen of Pikeville, KY I was infuriated by the backwoods, uncivilized, hillbilly picture of our town painted by City Confidential. The death of the Tennessee family was devastating and unfortunate, but was not the direct result of living here. Pikeville, or ?Hell,? as A&E prefers, is no more responsible for these murders as Burlington, VT is for Ted Bundy, LaCrosse, WI is for Ed Gein, or Red Lake, MN is for Jeff Weise, the latest school shooter. In a small town where murder isn?t a daily occurrence, this homicidal event was just as unexpected by the people of this region as the rest of the country. Contrary to popular belief, the image of the beaten and battered wife shooting her husband?s arm off is a rare event, probably even more so here than in other larger cities such as New York or Los Angeles. Yes, there is poverty in this area, a proven cause of increased crime rates such as abuse, robbery, and drug use, however, the rate of crime in this region is decreasing, unfortunately, the fictitious stereotype of the ignorant hillbilly is not, as demonstrated by City Confidential. The majority of our population is well-educated with at least a college degree and although there is not a plethora of opportunities in this area, most of the youth will not ?do anything to escape.? In fact, most continue to live in close proximity to their hometown near family and friends, and, if they have decided to broaden their horizons and relocate to another state or country, tend to return after a few short years. This is not because Pikeville is Heaven, but it is most definitely not HELL. Most long for the quiet, uneventful life that is offered by a small town. The ignorance that exists will not be found in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but in the minds of people who continue to believe that the people of the Appalachian Mountains are abusive, drunken, and poor hillbillies depicted in so much of our literature, film, and media. Kentucky Gothic will forever, in my mind, be placed on the shelf with Rory Kennedy?s An American Hollow, and Deliverance, where it belongs, in the fiction section. A&E has lost credibility, respect, and a viewer.