Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-01-26
From the Utica Heral5.l
RulOff.

Ruloff.
HIS CONFESSION OF THE MURDER OF HIS
WIFE AND CHILD "A FEARFUL CAREER
AND IT'S RESULTS,
Now that the third jury has pronounced
Edward III. Ruloff guilty, and for the
second time guilty of murder in the first
degree, and he has been sentenced to
be hanged by the neck till he is dead, it
seems proper enough to record the gist of
the confession to which we alluded the
other day At bis trial in Ithaca twenty
five years ago, for the abduction of his
wife, he gave the full PARTICULARS of his
crime to his conns9l, Mr. Gushing. Mr..
Cushing dying left it with legal bro.
Their of Ithaca 1t was TO this fleet
Mira. RulOff aud their child We're at the
bottom of Cayuga Lake. Ruloff first rem
dered his wife insensibs by chloroform.
He then took up pl.nk in the floor, and
opening vein bled her to death, the
blood flowing through the opening. The
child he disposed OF in d similar man
ner. He then put the dead bodies in
box prepared for the purpose. He got
neighbor to help him load the box
upon wagon, alleging it was filled
with books. He drove to the lake, put
the box in skiff, then filled it with
stones, and rowed out to the middle of the
lake, where he pushed the box with the
corpses of his wife and child overheard.
No one saw the dreadful deed, and until
very recently none but the confdant of
his early counsel knew the facts. We
have the name of him to whom Mr.. Cush-
ing told the above, but refrain from Civ
ing it. The facts as we have stated them
we have reason to believe are correct, and
as such are here first made public.
1t will be seen by reference to our tele-
graphic columns that Judge HOgeboom
has denied arrest of judgement, and sent
enced Rulof to be hanged on Friday, the
Sd of March next. We can well believe
that be heard his sentence in "sullen
silence" He has listened to a like sent
ence once before. Three times he has
heard the word guilty" fall from the lips
of the jury foreman, He has seemed pos
sessed Of charmed life. For quarter
of century he had carried with him the
knowledge of revolving crime. He has
gone on in crime. Merrick was bis third
known victim. Jarvis and Dexter, edu.
Gated in crime by him, lay their deaths
and disgrace at his door. His mother-in-
law was his sixth victim. She, bowed
down with grief over the loss of her
daughter, had dragged along in life till
confronted at Bing hamton in August last
with the man whom she believed, but did
not know, to be guilty of that daughters
death. The shock was too great, she died
in less than three days. And we say
hot H. Ho SaI oY,f
on the Sd Of Marcb, Rul0ff's death will be
the seventh death known to be chargea-
ble.t TO Ruluf's agency. Through all ths
windings of bis tortuous life the tolls of
detection have been gathing around him.
The little incident of freezing the toes of
one foot while hiding from the conse-
quences Of crimes committed, left the
mark by which bis last crime was fasten-
Cd upon bum. By this has justice found
him cut, and claims at last it's due. The
victim is man richly endowed with the
quaIilir- which 20 far toward making
men great and useful. But his truly
great talents and varied attainmonts have
been pro,tituted to the following of crime
and the attuinmeuts of infamy, and few
will regret to see the grave close over him.
He has t.rried too long from his final
rest.
In this connection it is proper to add q
fact in Ruloff' history that has evidently
been overlooked. Soon after hi9 marriage
nj while he was living with the family
of his father in law, Me-. Schutt, in Dry
den, he was employed NJ physician to at
tend his wife's brother and that brothers
child in sickness. These both died sud
denly. while under his care Nothing
was thought of it, however, until after
the disappe2rauce of his wife when it was
RENT inferred That ne mad shown much III |
feeling TO thus brother-in law because the
latter had opposed his marriage. And
though there was no means of proving
this first double crime, which was soon
succeeded by another of more fendish |
atrocity, yet there is scarcely citizen of
Dryden who does not believe to this day
that young Schutt and his little child |
died from poison at the hands OF Ruloff |
Hsw III my OtAerS have fallen by his MUIR
derous baud will probably never be |
known, for he is not man to whom |
the gal'ows can present sufficient terrors
to force him to confession. The man who |
innocently helped Ruloff lift the box con-
tanning the dead bodies of bis wife and |
child into the wagon after the murder, |
was Thoma4 Ro 3ertson a Sheriff of Tomp- |
kins county, over forty years ago, and
brother of Smith Robertson, the Sheriff
who protected Ruloff from the mob that
sought his life by smuggling him off to
Auburn in the spring of 1859. The wag-
on used by Ruloff to convey the bodies to
Cayuga lake belonged to the first named
Mr.. Robertson, and had been borrowed |
for the occasion. Mr.. Robertson still lives
on his farm in TOmDkins countv and the |
house in which Rulof murdered his wife
and child stands directly across the street
from his residence. 1t is in one of the
most picturesque localities in Tompkins
county, looking directly down upon Cayu-
ga lake, and is a wealthy and fertile farm
ing region.