ROGUE SCHOLAR The sinister Life and Celebrated Death of Edward H. Ruloff

Hardback. An account of the insalubrious and utterly failed life of the notorious 19th century thief, murderer, professional imposter, and would-be philologist Edward Rulloff, who was condemned to die and hanged for his crimes. The life of Rulloff is a sordid story of misguided genius and abysmal consequences. Those who loved him courted disaster, and, in every case, the courtship flowered into catastrophe. The author captures the slightly haunted and overwrought air of Victorian rural America, recalling newspaper accounts, interviews, and eyewitness reports of the day. Featuring the evil of one man who lived a life of deception and crime. It is also a portrait of a condemned soul in its final hours, and an examination of the death penalty and a reminder that media sensationalism is nothing new. Rulloff's death was awkward - a new method of hanging proved a bad idea - but he accepted it gracefully, and thus, after death, won sympathy that had eluded him in life. With Frontis., Illus. + pictorial eps, Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 281pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in F. dw.