"Ezra F. Merrill, the wealthy owner of toboggan slides at Coney Island and roller coaster devices." (Image by Buchhändler.)

Ezra F. Merrill was one of the key forces behind the introduction of the toboggan slide to Coney Island, and he also built some popular roller coasters. But his rides weren’t always fun and safe and resulted in numerous injuries and deaths, with scalps lost and skulls crushed. As reported in the May 10, 1899 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the scream machines even eventually claimed the aged proprietor himself, who was something of an eccentric figure. An excerpt:

“The death of Ezra F. Merrill, the wealthy owner of toboggan slides at Coney Island and roller coaster devices, will be the subject of an investigation by Coroner Burger. Dr. Byrne, the Register of Vital Statistics of the local Health Office, declined to accept the death certificate of the attending physician on the ground that death was due to traumatic or violent origin.

Merrill, who was a character, attended to all his business interests personally. It is said that he was a millionaire, but he dressed like a laborer and ate at the cheapest restaurants on the island. He was trying a new roller coaster car one day last week when it slipped from its moorings and struck him in the stomach. The result was that peritonitis developed and that was given as the cause of death.”