Yup - they're your typical "chairman rakes all the money in over the years and takes a successful club out of business" story
If you look at statistics a few years ago, they were actually still ranked as the overall most successful Alliance Premier/Conference/Blue Square Premier, club of all time.
They've had some excellent players over the years. The most notable being Ian Woan, who was one of Brian Clough's last ever signings.
The club had a 30% sell on clause in the deal with Forest and I think the chairman always banked on him moving clubs. Never happened though and Ian Woan left Forest eventually on a free transfer. Runcorn got 30% on nothing.
They had their share of misfortune such as a wall collapsing when they played Hull City in the cup, plus later their main stand burnt down. I still maintain this was an insurance job by the former chairman though...
After a disastrous move to Widnes, changing their name to Runcorn FC Halton, sharing the rugby league ground haemhorraged money further. Eventually they went pop.
Fortunately though, the fans started the club afresh and things are looking up. Not perhaps to the scale of AFC Wimbledon or AFC Telford, but they never had the fan base.