The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-05-24
.aThef Last Of R;a,lor,'

...-.-
The last Of RulIoff was his hiiT, execution
fate. ..Wsit6ont whioing." As he had said
he would, he faced his death with the
stoioism Of an Indian, bit without the
Indian's faith in future existence. He
had 80 dslaysso ssi Nth M tSe'foSS ss;, SSaund ns
his neck; he had declined any assistance
in the preparation of his toilet for the
hapgman; he had refused any religious
advice or consolation on the brink of the
dark valley; be had lived the life of an
outlaw, and hb"died As the fool dieth..'
Yet this man wanted to live, if only a
few weeks longer, professedly to finish
his CREST work on the origin oe Ian
gdages; but really because even to him
the life'Of al, ontlaw, under the sentence
OF the gallows. had its attractions, and
death had Its terrors. When informed
chat bis lest hope wasjgone. and that his
last day iD this life had dome, he was
excited into violent rage, and devoted
the day mainly to cursing and swearing
against his counsel and the Governor
and all ,oDndefnea,in hio' case, not forget
ting his victim and his confederates in
the crime: which bad caught him and
brought him ut last to his just deserts.
This Rullof was q strapge character.
He was scholar and ambitious Of dis
finution, yet by nature he was villain
and devoted TO- crime. He wanted to
flourish .as a gentleman and aayant,
while pursuing the career-ef the burglar
and the murderer. By day, he Guilt
vAted the arts and graces of polite
society; while by night he professionally
consorted with thieves and felons, whose
only education was that of the State
Prison. His vicious nature drew. him
into. Grimes apparently without an object
beyond the excitement of the dangers
they involved and the pleasure which it
gave him to murder. It is seldom that
We meet with such q diabolical villain
outside the Paris Commune, and vet he
was wholly destitute OF the political cx-
cuses Of the Jacobin fanatic. we can
imagine mo incentive to the mysterious
murder Of. his wife and child in the out
set of his guilty career, in 1846, except
that Of mopomania for human blood.
The, story ia that in the night he mur-
dered tho mother and her babe, and.
putting them in chest, with their bodies
bound round with iron wire to prevent
their rising. sunk them in the deep water
Of Cuyuga Lake, where their remains lie
to-day: AS their bodies could not be
found, the crime of murder could not be
fixed upon Rulioff In this case; but he
was tried and convicted, md suffered ten
years at hard labor in the State Prison
for the abduction of his wife, the oircum-
stantiai evidence of tho murder being
regarded as morally, if not legally, con.
elusive. He was tried for the murder
on the expiration Of .his State Prison
tarmi but there was still lacking the evi-
dence to convict him. With frequent
marrow escapes for burglaries md other
cimes, he is at last, by some remarkably
keep detectives, captured as one OF the
gang OF bnrglors concerned, last August
IN the murder of young Mirrick, in a
store IN Binghamton. The bodies of
!: two OF the burglars had been found in
the river, drowned in their efforts to
escape after the murder. They had
been severely wounded in their fipht in
the store with Mirrick and his follow.
clerk, or by the third and chief burglar
Rnlloff, In the river, to get them out Of
the way, and some of the articles found
upon them furnished the clue to Rulloff,s
detection, arrest. trial and conviction Of
the murder Of Mirriok.
Now, for these. and other crimes Of
RnlloG, with his qualifications, advan-
fages and opportunities for comfortably
supporting himself and family in honest
pursuits. We can supply no motives ex-
cept those resulting from o naturally