New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-03-02
A CURIOUS CASE.

| A man named Ruletf, well connected
and very intelligent, is under sentence Of
death in Binghamton. New York. His
case will be ranked with other celebrated
criminal trials, not only on account oftlie
law points involved, but because of the
peculiarities of the man. Ruletf and two
other men entered il store in Dinghamton
and were discovered by the clerk, who at
once seized pistol and fired one shot at
| the burglars. Two of the men fed pre-
cipitately, followed by Rulett. The lat
ter apprehending arrest by the clerk
| turned to make fight, and struck twice Mt
| the clerk with jimmy, which he held in
| his hand. The blows of the jimmy being
warded off the clerk was enabled to Crap
pie Ruletf and being the stronger, soon
threw him on the floor and then called for
meantime, had drawn Il pistol, and with
this he shot the clerk through the head.
killing him almost instantly, which en-
abled him to escape. Being pursued and
caught. lie was tried, convicted and con-
demned to death His attorneys made an
Intellectual attempt to have the Judgment
set aside on the ground that public opin-
ion had been so excited against him dur
ing his trial that his witnesses were afraid
to testify. and also because the judge had
given direct charge against him Oh the
n '
attempt failed and Rulef is now without
hope, unless the Governor can be induced
to pardon him or commute his sentence.
The curious feature about the case. or
rather about the criminal, is that his mind
seems now to be entirely absorbed in
pathological studies. A large number of
people have visited him in his impri,on-
ment. ard with but few exceptions, his
visitors all came away anxious to obtain
some sort of change in his sentence. The,
man conver,eS nationally on general sub
iects, but his central idea is that there i,
key to the human tongue which vii.
enable ali people. if it can lie discovered.
~ -Cttt4- " liz Hi'tiNNii A''A@'''s0'
which was confused at Babel His cell is
filled with manuscripts upon this subject,
and his mind is entirely wrapped W in
their study To one correspondent he
explained tina. the discovery was almost
made, and that if he was only allowed
sufficient time the entire mystery would
y, H., ,l,,r I,,f bnfcr,a Lie .tt
to commit the burglary which ended by
his murder Of the clerk. he had perfected
system which he offered to the Philo-
logical Society OF Poushkecp>ie, demand
ing as a price therefor the sum of five
hundred thousand dollars. But this he now
explains q, an attempt to obtain assistance
by inducing investigation into his re-
searches.
Ruletf is admitted by all who saw him
at his trial, and by those who have seen
him since, to BE a monomaniac upon the
subject of language. and while be does
not deny that he has been engaged in
criminal affairs. he asserts that he never
driven to do so in order to obtain means
to follow his studies And parties who
have known him for years bear witness
that while he ha, always borne bad rep
utation, he has always been a student,
frequently employing days and nights in
his studies He does not ask pardon
now, but only solicits a communication in
order to follow up his researches in the
matter of teaching all mankind to speak
one language. And i'll this lie is seconded
by portion of the New York press. and
by many very respectable people who say
that hanging is very bad thing at best.
and that to hang a man who may be of
service to the world even in teaching the
already voluhle races Of mankind a new
language, is to put bad theory to a very
bad use.