The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-18

more startling history has probably never
been worked out in mortal mans life than that
connected with murderer now under sentence
of death in New York State, and to be executed
to-day, May 1S, by name Edward H. Rulloff,
alias Leurio, Howard, Dalton, etc. etc.
The story of his career awakens the most
lively interest, not so much from the fact of its
final act being a murder-for more bloody,
more deliberate murders, and murders with more
malice aforethought than this one have proba-
bly been commtted-but from the fact that the
murderer was himself man of the greatest
intellect and the most thorough education, who
could had he been so minded, have pursued
far different course in life.
His final crime was murder while in the act
of committing robbery, which, in our present
social condition, is only too common. Not
wthstanding his great learning and intelligence
he had so closed his mind to perceptions of
moral right, that he was capable of far greater
crimes even than this. Though he is not guilty
in the eye of the law of greater offense COM
mitted on a former occasion, yet the moral GER
tainty is that he deserves to rank with the most
beastlike, heartless, and cold-blooded of muir
derers he being undoubtedly the direct means,
under most unprovoking circumstances, of the
murder of his own devoted wife and child
the deed being done in the most methodical
and workmanlike manner. But the traces
of this deed he, by his great cunning, was
so able to cover as to render legal proof
impossible. This crime was committed twenty
years ago, since which time the man has been
living for much of the time in intercourse with
his fellow-men. But neither through himself or
otherwise has the slightest legal proof been
given of his guilt, nor will such probably ever
be found, though the man is undoubtedly guilty.
He was however, tried, found guilty, and
served sentence on another minor charge; but
he would be to day free from the clutches of the
law were it not that the course of his choice led
him to the commission of the later and, If such a
term can be used, less revolving murder for
which he has been found guilty, though with
the greatest difficulty, and sentenced to die.
The man was certainly able to have filed
position of trust and honor, and to have ac-
ouired wealth in a legitimate way. But his
great learning was not united with any question
or influences of moral right and wrong, and
consequently, after looking about the world,
and perceiving that the greatest scamps were
the most successful to all appearances, while
the most deserving were generally the least in
the worlds esteem the question of success in
life, unimpeded by notions of right and wrong
resolved itself into mere mathematical prob
lem, to be solved according to fixed laws. OF
course to such mind there would be but one an
swer. He deliberately abandons a more
honorable life, and one which is the
most in accordance with his owu
peculiar tastes, and substitutes for it o
life of crime as the shortest road to what ii
most desired in life, happiness. The example
shows conclusiyely the great necessity of edu
eating not only the mind but also the con.
science, for without the latter the results of ed
cation may be a curse instead of blessing
The mind that by superior education is endowed
with great intelligence and is able to master any
problem which may be presented to it, If 1t b(
governed by man who is villain and whC
cares not how the mind works, is made the mor'
dangerous in proportion as it is the more edu
Gated. Its education only makes it the maste
of all the means of wickedness and its manGu
vres are the more to be feared, as ii is more abl
by numerous methods unthought of by others t.
cover up the deeds of wickedness and so escape
punishment at the hands of men.
That this life was not altogether to his likin.
is shown by the fact that never in all his crmi
nal life did Rulloff desert his first choice,
study. The particular bent of his inclination
was the study of languages, mainly for its owl
sake, and his researches in this department ar
deep thorough, and learned. The most com
prehensiVe title that can possibly describe hi
character is this:-Rulloff, philologlst and muI
derer.
HIS FIRST APPEARANCE.
Tie scene OF his principal adventures was i
the interior of New York State. The plac
where the last murder was committed was tn
little city of Binghamton, in Broome county
New York, but he had been only too we
known in the neighborhood of the towns &
Dryden and Ithaca, in Tompkins county of tn
same State.
His first appearance was nineteen years age
when he arrived ia Dryden, aud said that h
was native of st. john n. B.; that there b
had been clerk in a hardware store and ha
come TO New York for the purpose OF gettiu
into more remuneratiye or larger business. |
that city he met, according to his story. a Nj
Gouraud, a teacher of a commercial school gh
promised that after giving him course of ir
struction in bookkeeping, penmanship, etc. h
would guarantee him situation; but Rnllnf
in his phrase, found Gouraud 'humbug." VIII
took his money long as he had any, aud the
failed to comply with his agreement.
1t was afterwards found-thIt IL, since n
late trial for murder-that Rulloff was punishe
e In St. John by two years Imprisonment f.
stealing from his employer, before coming
New York. This was ascertained by a cerg
man who went to ST. John. Hence Rullof e
tered upon his career of crime so far as is no
= known, probably before he was twenty years