New-York tribune., 1871-01-13

| THE RULOTF CASE md IT'S SUGGES1iONS.
The career of the miserable old man who
has just been convicted of murder at Bing-
hamton has hardly a parallel in the whole
range of criminal literature. Three times at
least he has deserved the extreme penalty OF
The law, and during quarter OF a century he
has puIsued felony and literature as twin pro-
fessions The full record Of his Oiianses We
suppose will never be known; but enough of
III, ,,,;edoads bou., 49, -. - EoLt 90
furnish incidents for Il score Of the most SEN
satonal of Nowgate novels. We first hear Of
him robbing his employer, thirty years ago, at
a town IN the interior of New-YGrk State !;
then becoming teacher at Dryden, ii Tomp-
kins County, and afterward drug clerk at
Ithaca. In 1915 he murdered his wife and
child but as the bodies were never found, he
escaped the eallOws, to which he was sen
fenced for the crime. He passed ten years in
the State Prison, however, on a sentence for
abduction, and narrowly escaped hanging at
the hands Of q mob, which was fully satisfied
that he was guilty Of the graver oifense. In
the Ithaca Jail ard in the Auburn prison he
passed his time in study Languages and
criminal law were his favorite pursuits. He
was philologist by instinct and fancy, law
yer by calculation and natural aptitude.
When he came out into tho world again
he was qualified TO act as the leader of band
of criminals i'll whose exploits he took as
much pride as ever bandit of the Apennines
felt in the prowess and cunning of his swarthy
followers. For ten years he seems to have
escaped the meshes of the law. He made
New-York City tho seat Of his government
and thence, while he lsbored in his modest
I.I, n ha rif,in md
connection Of languages, he sent forth his men
TO rob. When they were caught he appeared
"a their counsel, and defended them in court
with the skill he had acquired in prison. How
often he joined personally in their expeditions
we cannot tell ; but the history Of these ten
years, if he should confess it, as he is said to
have confessed tho murder of his wife and
child, viii show dark and singular record.
His last predatory excursion, made with the
son Of his Ithaca jailOr and ono other fol-
lower, resulted in the murder of which ho has
Just been convicted, and the death of his two
companions in attempting to escape. The
story Of the successive steps by which the
crime was brought home to him Is one of
thrilling interest, but we have already told il
fully in our daily reports of the trial. Cir
cumstantial evidence has seldom been more
carefully collected and more thoroughly
sifted. Slight clues have been followed with
remarkable acutenoss and patience, and the
result is "a case of mcst damning completeness
1t is fortunate for the cause of justice that
Binghamton possessed a competent District
Attorney, and that this gentleman was able to
secure the lid of experienced detectives in the
city which Rulof made the center Of his busi-
ness. We cannot help rejecting, however,
! that justice is not often 80 favored 5y fof-
tune, and if The crime had been committed II
rural town no better provided for such
emergencies than cur rural towns generally
are, the murderer would have probably es
capped. A detective force Is unknown except
in the large cities. The pursuit Of criminal
ia commonly left to the village constable, and
the preparation of evidence to a country lawyer
who has no familiarity with the ways oil
.murderers and burglars, whatever he may
know about the petty thieves who rob hen
roosts. An Albany paper, instigated by an
attempted murder at the capital, proposes the
establishment of State Bureau for the De-
lection Of Crime, with an extensive personnel
and special criminal court We are not sst-