All That Is Wicked

I liked the way his life was approached - the horrible deeds with the (ultimately useless) linguistics work. Focusing on the linguistics and his supposed genius first, then the murders and robberies, would have seemed ridiculous or biased towards the “oh but he's so smart, he should be free to keep living and working” side. The information on phrenology and how it was discredited, and the start of trying to understand and identify psychopaths, was really interesting. 

A fascinating look at one of America's first popular/well-publicized psychopathic killers. I'd never heard of him before. I enjoyed the comparisons to the more modern era serial killers to put the story in more context. The cultural & historical context was also critical to this story which was explained in an engaging way.

The interesting career of Edward Rulloff was exciting to say the least. In addition to murdering several people, and being accused of murdering two others, he was manically insane. Bent on producing what he considered “his life work” which was the study of language. He felt he could untangle the languages of the world through this work, and was determined to have it finished before his death.

During his lifetime, he was hounded by suspicion, which was rightly given. He was responsible for the murder of his wife, and most likely his baby daughter. He was suspected of killing a sister in law and her son.

Edward Rulloff is one of the more interesting serial killers that I have read about, and the many facets of his mind that were left unlocked due to the scientific methods of the day. While he deserved punishment for his crimes, there are many areas that could have given some interesting insights into the mind of someone who could be considered genius, yet entirely insane.

Fascinating read, and highly enjoyable.

3.5 stars

As much as I love reading (or watching) true crime, I am by no means an expert on the subject. So when I saw that I had never heard of Edward Ruloff, I knew I was going to give this a go. This is the story of a man who was very good at faking it until he made it...and had no issue murdering people for whatever reason he saw fit...and even after he was caught he seemed to be find a sort of rock star status as he was researched to find out how someone so brilliant could commit such heinous acts.
For a book set in a different time, the 1800s, the research and detail is certainly there. The author certainly set the stage and you can tell this was well researched. With that being said I did find some parts a bit dry. I found myself, more than once, kind of having to push past some paragraphs. It's still worth the read and by no means did it stop me from reading the book.