Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-05-25
THE MURDERER RULOFF.

The criminal who was hanged on the
18th inst, at Binghampton. n. \. for muir
der, was a remarkable character. With
an acute and cultivated intellect he appear
ed to have had no moral sensibility what
ever. Able to grapple strongly with ques-
tons requiring purely mental exercise,
and delighting in them, he yet was desti-
tute of any moral principle, committing
robbery or murder without a twinge of
conscience, and no after feelings of re-
morse. Ruloff was born in New Bruins
wick in 1919. His parents were German.
With no advantages for obtaining an ed
ucation, he managed by his intense love
of reading and study to obtain celebrity
for his learning and accomplishments, .be-
came teacher, studied pharmacy and law,
and when he committed his last crime,
and during his imprisonment, was en-
gagged in work upon the theory of Ian
guages, which evinced wonderful capaci-
ty in philology. Yet with these great gifts
df mind, this man was a monster. While
engaged in teaching school in Tompkins
county, N. Y, he married one Of his schol-
airs, lovely girl, whom he abused al
most from the day of his marriage. His
first great crime was the poisoning and kill
ing of the wife and child of a knsman of
his wife. His next was to poison his own
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their remains he borrowed horse and
wagon from neighbor, who unsuspect-
ingly helped him to lift the box containing
their bodies into the vehicle. He drove
off through the village mounted upon the
box whistling, to the shore of Cayuga
lake. where in the night he transferred his
victims to boat and castthem into the deep
waters of the lake. He afterwards boosted
that their bodies were securely wrapped
in wire covering and safely anchored so
that they should not rise. The details of
his career after this are generally known.
He escaped the penalty of murder, but
served ten years in the State Prison for
the abduction of his wife and child. He
was afterwards tried for the murder of
his child, convicted and sentenced to be
hanged, but escaped by the aid of the jail
err, whom his arts had wrought upon, and
whose son fed with him. In about a
year. feeling convinced that he could not
be hung for the crime with which he was
charged, he gave himself up for trial, and
was released. Last August a store was
broken into in Binghampton and guam
tity of silks stolen. The clerks who slept
in the store were awakened by the noise of
the burglars, three men III masks, and at
tackled them. In the struggle which en-
sued, one OF the clerks was killed by a
pistol shot. Ruloff was ARRESTED as the
murderer, and by singular chain of cir
cumstance proved to have done the deed
and for this he was hanged.
From what is known of the life of Ru.
loft il appears that he associated with vii
lains and desperadoes, while at the SAME
time engaged as teacher or professor OF
in the study of the languages. His men
tai faculties drew him actively in one
direction and his vicious propensities lee
him in another. This man who was cele
brated wherever he went for his mental
powers and accomplishments, could con
sort with burglars and murders. share with
them in their deeds of wickedness. and FREE
quent with them the lowest haunts of in
fanny. With less affection than the brute.
he could take the lives of wife and child
put their remains out of sight in the most
audaclous manner, and never appear to
be troubled with a thought that he had
done anything wrong. During his impris-
onment he discovered no sign of any con.
seriousness of guilt or feeling of remorse
His victims did not visit his dreams OF
cast cloud over his waking hours. He
had no idea of an existence after the
mortal dissolution of the body, or OF
God. and only studied the Scriptures tc
admire the beauty of their language .and
criticise its construction. He died as he
had lived, without fear, without any con.
ception of his crimes, and with no uttered
regret, except that he could not have been
spared to finish the pathological work with
which he occupied himself to the day OF
his death. He will be remembered as one
of he most striking instances Known,
where gifted mind was utterly without
moral principle, and where talents fit for
q king were given to an infamous life and