This image is the cover for the book Wicked Akron, Wicked

Wicked Akron, Wicked

Wicked Akron, Ohio takes the reader on a journey through the seedy underbelly of the city's history.


Akron is known as "the rubber capital of the world" and home to Goodyear. But look beneath those tires and you will find dirt…a lot of dirt! Explore Akron's darkest days, when citizens burned city hall to the ground and members of the Ku Klux Klan called the shots from the schoolhouse to the courthouse. Meet a grave robber who became a political leader, a mobster who ordered police murders and a beloved bootlegger turned bail bondsman. Say hello to Frank Hurn, a flashy, frenetic, fast-talking con man who was looking for suckers to invest in the Vulcans, an NFL team he promised to bring to Akron. From city saloon to suburban hideout, this is an alternative history lesson of the sometimes dicey coexistence of the well-heeled and the workers, men and women who lived big lives during Akron's fledgling days as a canal port, its pre-Depression heyday and zenith as a Midwestern industrial success story.

Author Kymberli Hagelberg, an award-winning journalist and native Northeast Ohioan, takes the reader on a morbidly-entertaining tour of the shadowy corners of Akron's history. With stories including mobsters and body snatchers, con men and Klansmen, plagues and fires, there is truly something for fans of local history and true crime stories.

Kymberli Hagelberg

Kymberli Hagelberg is a writer, award-winning journalist and native northeast Ohioan. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, including the Akron Beacon Journal, the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the (Biloxi) Sun Herald and Billboard, and on National Public Radio. Hagelberg began her writing career as a music critic and entertainment editor. Most of her reporting has focused on politics, business and crime. She holds a bachelor's degree in communication and creative writing from Hiram College. Hagelberg lives outside Akron, Ohio, with her fiance, three cats and a dog in a happy house with an untidy garden. Wicked Akron is her first book.

The History Press