The grandson of a murder victim has written a book about the landmark criminal case the occurred in Adams County.
Robert Hawkins, who now lives in Tennessee, has written "Book of Matches."
He says this case went to the Ohio Supreme Court on two different appeals, and shocked the small southern Ohio community in 1949.
Instead of a jury trial, the lawyer for the accused murderer got a triumvirate, or three judges, to make a ruling.
The second time the case was returned to the state supreme court was because the convicted killer was the first Ohioan to challenge the law of death penalty in the electric chair.
The book is available on line and locally at Bailey Pharmacy in West Union and at Wheatberry Books in Chillicothe.