Edward H Rulloff

The tragic saga of a nineteenth-century fugitive, ne'er-do-well, and would-be savant that touches on themes as compelling today as they were in Victorian times

" '... you cannot kill a unquiet spirit, and I know that my impending death will not mean the end of Rulloff. In the dead of the night, walking along Cayuga Street, you will sense my presence. When you wake to a sudden chill, I will be in the room. And when you find yourself alone at the lake shore, gazing away at gray Cayuga, know that I was cut short and your ancestors killed me.' These were the words of Edward H. Rulloff as he faced the gallows in May of 1871, following some twenty-five years at war with society. He was unrepentant murderer, thief and bona fide evil genius who committed robberies to fund his grandiose research into the lost origin of all languages. His trial created a sensation in post-Civil War America, inspriring a wry editorial by no less a personage than Mark Twain." - back cover