It was a crime that directly impacted the residents of the Southcoast, and its subsequent trial was sensationalized nationwide:

On a cold morning in December 1885, egg buyer Richard Nelson Lawton, of Westport, was ambushed and violently murdered by Samuel F. Besse in a remote section of South Wareham.

But it was event was largely forgotten until local historian Lynda Ames ran across an article about the trial years ago. Her curiosity was piqued, and she set the article aside in a box of things to investigate once she retired from her job at the Wareham Free Library.

Now, she is ready to tell the story. "When I retired it was the first thing in the Rubbermaid bin," Ames said.

But she quickly realized that she was on to a much bigger story than she had anticipated.

The murder trial was the "trial of the year," according to the District Attorney of Massachusetts. Yet, in her conversations with fellow historians and longtime town residents, only one person, Ames' friend Ernie Precourt, recalled hearing about the event...and he had a few details wrong.

"There was only one person who had a clue," Ames said, yet the trial had captivated national audiences. "I thought about it for a lecture, then realized that I'd have to serve lunch...it was too good for a lecture."

So Ames decided to write her first book, entitled "In the Dark Woods of Wareham: Murder of the Egg Man," which will be released by Rock Village Publishing on August 1.

The book is also a showcase for Ames' new business, Family Routes. With business partner, and another Wareham native and Wareham Free Library worker, Patty Neal, Family Routes offers geneaological and other researching services for clients.

Ames said she never intended to start a business that offered these services. She was a licensed practical nurse for 20 years, and started doing geneaological research as a hobby to help her mother.

"My mother was a late-in-life baby and knew nothing about her family," Ames explained. "I wanted to give her a feeling of belonging."

Now she and Neal consider genealogical research as "a hobby gone amuck."

Even while genealogical research has become one of the top hobbies in the United States, she still feels that important events, like the Lawton murder, are being forgotten.

"I have a compulsion to save history so it isn't lost," she said. "There's so much out there and every day it's being lost. There's more technology, but if it doesn't have a button and doesn't plugin and recharge the next generation isn't interested in it...but they will be eventually."

As for her next project, Ames is keeping quiet - although she hints that she is afraid she might be considered a crime novelist if she picks a similar project for her third book. But she said that one of the things that she found most interesting about researching her current book was the way that the crime and its trial were reported in the media.

"There was nothing they didn't mention, things we would consider gruesome and tasteless today," Ames said. "The autopsy report was reprinted word-for-word in the New Bedford paper!"

But she said that she, eventually, got past the macabre and considered the lurid details a blessing.

"It's fabulous," she said. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have as much as much as I have."

For more information on the book or to preorder a copy, visit www.myfamilyroutes.com. Also look for Ames and Neal at the Swan Festival.  A book-release celebration is being planned at Piper Beau's, as the trial attracted so many spectators that they were unable to fit in the Town Offices and had to move to Webster Hall.  Check back with WarehamVillageSoup for more information once the date is set.