Litchfield enquirer., 1871-01-26
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A STRANGE CRIMINAL.

The case of Edward Rulloff, who was on Wednesday convicted of murder in the first degree, at Binghampton, New York, is one of the most remarkable in the annals of crime, not only for the murder CTS extraordinary character and history, as revealed at the trial, but also for the curious net work of circumstances which 2 entangled him and, in the absence of die rect evidence secured his conviction. Rul- loff is about fifty years old. He has been 8 druggist. teacher and lawyer, and maintained certain appearance of respect ability in each occupation. In the inter- ,vals of these employments he has several times been charged with crimes, and once, in 1843, was committed to the State Prison. After every exposure of his villany, he would adopt new alias and @ new occupa- tion, and, so great were his adroitness and versatility, that he succeeded, though fre- quently engaged in crime, in avoiding the notice Of the police, and was never included in any of their lists of professional crim- inals. Crime of any sort that promised to be profitable seemed to be his business, and the study of philology his recreation. The extent of his attainments in this di- rection is not known, but it is known that the preparation of a work on language was the favorite amusement of his leisure, and the manuscript was one of the proofs that established his identity, 'S' '~ '-
 Generally Rullof laid the plans for the gang of robbers with whom She was in league, and was their legal adviser if any were detected; j; but on the morning of the 17th of last August he went in person with two associates to plumber store in Bing- hampton. Two clerks sleeping in the store were alarmed by the noise, and attacked the two burglars whom they discovered. One of the williams was knocked down, and the clerks seemed likely to get the better of them, when a third burglar came sud- denly from his hiding place, shot one of the young men who were struggling with his confederates, and the three made their escape. The next day two bodies, bearing marks of violent conflict, were found in the Chenango river near the town, and were identified by the surviving clerk as the two robbers with whom he and his con- panion had the struggle. In the course of the next night Rullof was found secreted in an onthouse not far away. There was at first no evidence to duplicate him, and he was detained only as a suspicious char acter, against whom something might turn up. It was not long before something did turn up, and from day to day new circum- stances appeared to fix the crime more sure ly upon him. First, peculiar deformity of one of his feet was observed to resemble closely a misshapen shoe left behind by the robbers. This was tried and fitted his foot exactly. '.'tli <- ''A il
 At the trial, among other evidence tend ing to prove his guilt, was the production of copy of the New York Times, found in a carpet bag, which the robbers had left in the store. From this paper an article had been cut In Rulloff's desk, which was searched, slip was found, evidently cut from the Tunes, which, when applied, prov ed to fit the vacant place in the paper, the nnevenly cut edges matching exactly. The article was translation from the H French, on Prussian policy. Another link in the fatal chain was the Identification of one of the dead robbers as the son of the jailor ill whose charge Rulloff was during his imprisonment twenty-seven years ago. The prisoner had seemed to take fancy to the boy and had given him lessons with his fathers permission. The lessons were not all useful or innocent, as it proved; the boy was corrupted and lead into all kinds of villainy, and, after Rulloff's release from that imprisonment, became his associate in crime. The recognition of his body as that of one of the robbers, tended strongly to implicate Rulloff, who was proved to have been on intimate and confidential terms with him. The widest sensational TO- nance has hardly so many clements of strange and terrible interest as this actual case. ~a- e +'t .#3 '+' 3