Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-06-01
The Last of RulloG.

y The last of Rullof was his exec,
) ton yesterday, at Binghamton, Ne
a a York. He met his fate "withol
i whining AS be had said he woul(
. he faced his death with the stoicisl
Of an Indian, but without the Indian
faith in future existence. He ha
| nothing to say on the scafold; b
: had no delay to ask with the rop
2 around his neck; he had decline,
any assistance in the preparation 0
his toilet for the hangman; he had re
fused any religious advice or consola
tion on the brink of the dark valley
he had lived the life of an outlaw
and he "died as the fool dieth." Yet
this man wanted to live, if only a few
weeks longer, professedly to finish
his great work on the origin Of Ian
guages, but really because even to
him the life Of an outlaw, under the
sentence of the gallows, had its at
fractions, and death had its terrors.
| When informed that his lasthope was
gone, and that his last day in this life
had come, he was excited into vio-
lent rage, and devoted the day main
ly to cursing and swearing against
his counsel and the Governor and all
concerned in his case, not forgetting
his victim and his cenfederates in the
crime which had caught him and
brought him at last to his just de-
serts.
This Rullof was a strange charac-
ter. He was scholar and ambitious
of distinction, yet by nature he was
villain and devoted to crime. He
wanted to flourish as a. gentleman
and a savan, while pursuing the ca
reer of the burglar and the murderer.
By day, he cultivated the arts and
graces' of. polite society; while by
night he professionally consorted with
thieves and felons, whose only .educa-
tion was that of the State Prison.
His vicious nature drew him into
crimes apparently without an object
beyond the excitement Of the dangers
they involved and the pleasure which
it gave him to murder. 1t is seldom
that we meet with such a diabolical
villain outside the Paris Commune,
and yet he was wholly destitute of
the political excuses of the Jacobin
fanatic. We can imagine no incen-
tive to the mysterious murder of his
wife and child in the outset of his
guilty career, in lS46, except that of
a monomania for human blood. The |
story is that in the night he murder
ed the mother and her babe, and,
putting them in a chest, with their
bodies bound round with iron wire to
prevent their rising, sunk them.in the
deep water of Cayuga Lake, where
their remains lie to-day. As their
bodies could not be found, the crime
Of murder could not be fixed. upon
Rulloff in this case but he was tried
and convicted, and suffered ten years
at hard labor in the State Prison for
the abduction of his wife, the circum-
evidence of the emurder being
regarded as morally, if not legally,
conclusive. He was tried for the
murder on the expiration of his State
Prison term, but there was still lack
ing the evidence to convict him.
With frequent narrow escapes for
ourglaries and other crimes, he is at
asst by some remarkably keen detec-
ives, captured as one. of the gang Of
burglars concerned, last August, in
he murder. of young .Mirrick, in a
store in Binghamton. The bodies of
;wo of the burglars had been found
n the river, drowned in their efforts
% escape after the murder. They
lad been severely wounded in their !
light in the store with Mirrick and
us fellow clerk, or by the third and
;hief burglar, Rullof, in the river,
% get them out of the way, and some '
# the articles found upon them fur J
lished the clue to Rulloff's detection, !
.rrest, trial and conviction of the
murder of Mirrick. /
Now, for these and other crimes :
# Rullof, with his qualifications, ad /
7antages and opportunities for COM c
ortably supporting himself and fam a
ly in honest pursuits, we can supply i
10 motives except those resulting j
rom a naturally vicious nature and c
Iisordered mind improperly trained r
nd delighting in the dangers and 6
xcitements Of murders and burgla- e
les, and believing that the life of i
man is like that of a dog in this
world, and that there is no future ex- T
stence or responsibility for either
here was no escape for sAoh a vii
ain from the hangman, considering v
he method which controlled his mad Il
ess; but still there is something of n
alue to society furnished from his v
hooking career and his miserable v
nding, in the moral that. the ruffian u
y nature needs something more than j!
lreek and Latin to save him from d
be State Prison and the executioner d
New York Eoral, Goth. h