For such a small city, Norton's past is rife with bloody deeds, tragic accidents and destructive disasters. This community on the edge of Akron had its share of train wrecks, plane crashes and devastating fires, but other events were decidedly more sinister in nature. In 1931, a young robber allowed his twelve-year-old brother to ride along on a bank heist--to little brother's great delight. A labor dispute in 1950 resulted in two bombings of a local residence in a single year. In the 1970s and '80s, serial killers Robert Buell and Edward Wayne Edwards left their evil marks on the city. Digging through two centuries of news coverage, local author Lisa Merrick uncovers Norton's most loathsome crimes and heartbreaking calamities.

Lisa Ann Merrick has previously published a book on the history of Norton, Ohio, through Arcadia Publishing. She grew up in the Norton community and still resides there today. She enjoys sleuthing for stories for her local paper, with an emphasis on history, current events and interesting individuals. She currently has three children's books that she is working on and hopes to see them published and enjoyed by children and adults alike. Ms. Merrick has always had a fascination with the odd and interesting, crime stories, prisons, forensic and mortuary science. For this reason, she was led to research and write about murder and mayhem in her own community.