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Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 2: The wind blew against.

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Speaker 1: The doors of Auburn State Prison on January twenty fifth,

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six. Sheets of ice covered the ground outside.

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Speaker 2: Edward Ruloff was.

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Speaker 1: Now thirty seven, and the academic had spent a decade

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Speaker 1: behind bars for kidnapping his wife. For ten years, he

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Speaker 1: remained silent about Harriet and their daughter, Priscilla. He never

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Speaker 1: revealed a clue to anyone except journalist Hamilton Freeman. Ham

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Speaker 1: would listen to Edward's story and scribble on his notepad.

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Speaker 1: He would note how the killer's eyes brightened when he

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Speaker 1: talked about languages, and how they darkened when Edward described

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Speaker 1: how the Scuts mistreated him. But now he was set

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Speaker 1: to walk free from prison and start over yet again.

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Speaker 1: He had spent ten years immersed in research and writing.

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Speaker 3: He did some of his own law work. Well, he

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Speaker 3: was in two I mean, he played lawyer some of

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Speaker 3: the time.

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Speaker 2: He was a horrible person, but he was very.

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Speaker 4: Smart, extremely smart, and he believed that he had made

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Speaker 4: a remarkable discovery in linguistics, though he was still years

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Speaker 4: away from being ready to share his idea with the world.

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Speaker 2: He just needed more time.

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Speaker 1: Edward knew exactly where he wanted to be, a city

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Speaker 1: full of incredible libraries, Manhattan. He planned to leave Auburn

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Speaker 1: State Prison in pristine physical health, and he vowed never

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Speaker 1: to return to upstate New York again. That cold Saturday morning,

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Speaker 1: Edward was elated when he was called into the warden's office.

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Speaker 1: But the Scuts had other plans.

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Speaker 3: They were always thinking, if he gets out again, you'd

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Speaker 3: come back after more us maybe, you know.

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Speaker 1: Instead of release papers, the sheriff of Tompkins County held

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Speaker 1: up another arrest warrant. Harriet's family had spent years pressuring

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Speaker 1: the sheriff to stop Edward from going free. During his

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Speaker 1: trial ten years earlier, Edward had some supporters, a few

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Speaker 1: well respected residents in Ithaca. In private, they agreed that

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Speaker 1: perhaps Priscilla and Harriet weren't actually dead, and so without bodies,

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Speaker 1: should the prosecutor really ruin a man's life. To them,

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Speaker 1: the trial seemed like a sham. A decade later, Harriet

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Speaker 1: and Priscilla were still missing. His supporters were quiet. Now

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Speaker 1: all of Tompkins County stood behind the Scuts, and so

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Speaker 1: the family suggested a new charge to the district attorney.

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Speaker 1: Edward glared at the sheriff and held out his arms

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Speaker 1: to accept the handcuffs for his journey back to Ithaca.

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Speaker 1: He didn't seem surprised that the Scuts were behind it all.

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Speaker 1: When he arrived in Ithaca for his first appearance before

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Speaker 1: the judge, Edward learned that he was being indicted for

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Speaker 1: the murder of his wife.

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Speaker 2: He smiled.

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Speaker 1: He was a good enough attorney to know that he

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Speaker 1: would never face trial for that charge. He composed his

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Speaker 1: own writ of habeas corpus. He argued that there should

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Speaker 1: be no double jeopardy. Did he kidnap his wife or did.

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Speaker 2: He kill her? He asked. He said pick one, because

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Speaker 2: it couldn't be both.

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Speaker 1: If there had been enough evidence to convict him of

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Speaker 1: murdering Harriet, then the jury would have done it.

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Speaker 2: Ten years ago.

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Speaker 1: The jurors had even admitted that they wanted to convict

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Speaker 1: him of murder, but couldn't, so they settled for kidnapping

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Speaker 1: and Edward had done his time. Nonetheless, he was sent

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Speaker 1: back to the jail in Ithaca to await more news.

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Speaker 1: In April, the Court of Appeals assigned Judge Ransom Balcolm

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Speaker 1: to the case. Edward had no money to hire an attorney,

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Speaker 1: but it's unlikely.

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Speaker 2: He would have actually used one anyway.

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Speaker 1: Remember, he was an arrogant man and supremely confident of

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Speaker 1: his own abilities. In court, he represented himself, and just

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Speaker 1: as before, he was convincing. In fact, he was so

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Speaker 1: convincing that the district attorney dropped the murder charges it

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Speaker 1: would be a waste of money to try him again.

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Speaker 1: Edward gloated his wife's family had failed once again. Of course,

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Speaker 1: this sent the people in Tompkins County into fits. They

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Speaker 1: wanted revenge and they demanded his life one way or

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Speaker 1: the other. So they stalked the jail where Edward was

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Speaker 1: held for the second time.

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Speaker 2: They organized a lynch mob.

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Speaker 1: History in HW Brands says that vigilante justice was very

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Speaker 1: common in the eighteen hundreds, particularly in rural areas.

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Speaker 5: Mob justice has been a response by people who feel

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Speaker 5: that the legal system does not actually align with justice,

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Speaker 5: that what the law will punish doesn't match what justice

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Speaker 5: and morals ought to punish. It's not simply a matter

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Speaker 5: of small town stuff.

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Speaker 1: Vigilanti justice was used in the West as a way

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Speaker 1: to maintain a measure of law before a sheriff's department

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Speaker 1: and a court system could be set up. Lynching was

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Speaker 1: also used to terrorize black.

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Speaker 2: People, especially in the south. New York City.

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Speaker 1: Newspapers were disgusted by the reaction of people in the countryside.

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Speaker 1: The New York Tribune wrote, the citizens of Tomkins County

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Speaker 1: are threatening to take the law into their own hands.

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Speaker 1: We trust that the scenes which have disgraced some of

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Speaker 1: the western states within the past few months will not

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Speaker 1: be repeated in New York. The prosecutor felt immense public pressure.

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Speaker 1: He was desperate to keep Edward in jail, so he

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Speaker 1: quickly drew up another indictment. This one accused Edward of

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Speaker 1: killing his two month old daughter, Priscilla. There was no

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Speaker 1: mention of Harriet in this case, to avoid Edward's argument

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Speaker 1: of double jeopardy. Craig Scutt says that his family refused

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Speaker 1: to allow the prosecutor to walk away from the case.

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Speaker 3: I thought it was pretty amazing that they got that indictment,

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Speaker 3: and in reading the trial transcript, they go through all

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Speaker 3: scenarios of how he might have killed her.

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Speaker 1: But the district attorney had to offer the judge a narrative,

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Speaker 1: so the indictment simply described the various methods Edward might

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Speaker 1: have used to murder.

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Speaker 2: Her, the list was horrible.

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Speaker 1: Police suspected that her father might have kicked her to death,

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Speaker 1: strangled her with a silk handkerchief, or bludgeoned her with

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Speaker 1: a weapon. He also might have poisoned her with arsenic

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Speaker 1: dissolved in milk. Remember he was a botanical doctor. After all,

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Speaker 1: he had admitted to sedating her so she would stopped crying.

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Speaker 1: And then the DA offered a motive, one indicative of

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Speaker 1: the fear generated by Edward Ruloff. The indictment claimed that

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Speaker 1: Edward did not have the fear of God before his eyes.

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Speaker 1: It said he was moved and seduced by the institution

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Speaker 1: of the devil, and that was enough to make just

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Speaker 1: about everyone in Tompkins County eager to send him to

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Speaker 1: the gallows. Historian Esther Crane says they believed that only

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Speaker 1: the news could save them from evil.

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Speaker 3: Was there a.

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Speaker 2: Strong opinion on death penalty during this conferiod? People were

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Speaker 2: for it.

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Speaker 6: Don't forget you know, I mean, we're still this is

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Speaker 6: still an age where people get most of their ideas

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Speaker 6: of the world from the Bible.

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Speaker 1: Newspapers across the country declared that he was a beast

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Speaker 1: and unholy fiend. The Troy Daily Times called him a vampire,

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Speaker 1: and even big city papers agreed. Manhattan's New York Tribune

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Speaker 1: might have been one of the most progressive papers in America,

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Speaker 1: but editors there still subscribe to the belief that a

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Speaker 1: man's looks would always reveal his morals. The paper said,

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Speaker 1: he has by no means a murderer's look about him,

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Speaker 1: yet his development indicates strong animal passions. Edward was a heathen,

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Speaker 1: a soulless monster who disavowed God. Historian Gerald Smith explains

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Speaker 1: why people in upstate New York were petrified of him

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Speaker 1: even as he sat in jail.

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Speaker 7: He broke their innocence. He brought evil. This is the

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Speaker 7: devil incarnate, you know. It's almost a lynch mob mentality.

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Speaker 1: The case was so sensational that it had to be

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Speaker 1: moved so Edward could receive a fair trial, and finally,

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Speaker 1: in October of eighteen fifty six, he stood up and

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Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty in a courtroom in Tioga County. Edward

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Speaker 1: seemed cold and unconcerned as neighbors and friends walked past

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Speaker 1: one by one to offer evidence against him. A friend

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Speaker 1: testified that he was concerned when Edward reacted irrationally about

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Speaker 1: Harriet's cousin, doctor Henry Bull. Jurors listened to the landlady

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Speaker 1: describe how he tried to poison Harriet in her boarding house,

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Speaker 1: and there was the farmer who helped load the trunk

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Speaker 1: onto the horse and cart. Edward glared at the Scutt

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Speaker 1: family as they sat in the courtroom. Ephraim Scutt described

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Speaker 1: how he found Harriet crying after Edward had hit her.

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Speaker 1: William recounted his brother in law's complaints about doctor Bull.

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Speaker 1: His sister in law, Jane Scutt, testified about the time

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Speaker 1: that Edward hit Harriet in the forehead with a pestle,

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Speaker 1: almost killing her, and then Edward's mother in law, Hannah,

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Speaker 1: walked past him. He stared straight ahead as the sixty

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Speaker 1: year old sat down in the witness chair. She described

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Speaker 1: her daughter's relationship with Edward. I saw that she was

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Speaker 1: an happy Hannah said on the stand. Then she described

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Speaker 1: the knight William's infant daughter died. As Edward was packing

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Speaker 1: up his medicine bag. She said, he turned to her.

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Speaker 1: He said that if William's wife died, he might thank

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Speaker 1: himself for it. And we were little aware of the

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Speaker 1: judgments that were coming on to our family. Each of

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Speaker 1: the scuts was convincing and unwavering.

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Speaker 3: I think a family kind of pulls inward on something

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Speaker 3: like that. It's protective of the ones that are there.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, the memory is still, Yeah, a memory's still Therefore.

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Speaker 1: Edward Ruloff sat quietly and listened. Once again, he represented himself,

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Speaker 1: and he refused to offer a defense. He insisted that

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Speaker 1: without a body, there was simply no crime according to

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Speaker 1: the law.

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Speaker 2: And he might have been right.

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Speaker 1: Even now, it's pretty hard to convict someone of murder

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Speaker 1: with no body. There might not be many forensic clues,

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Speaker 1: and most of the time circumstantial evidence just isn't enough

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Speaker 1: for jurors to convict. Savvy defense attorneys can argue that

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Speaker 1: a missing wife might not be dead. She may have

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Speaker 1: just simply walked away. And that's what Edward argued to

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Speaker 1: his jurors. The people of upstate New York once trusted

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Speaker 1: Edward Ruloff just based on his looks, in his charm,

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Speaker 1: but now those same people had an entirely different feeling

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Speaker 1: about him. They could just sense that he was a killer,

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Speaker 1: even though there was little evidence and so the jury

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Speaker 1: quickly convicted him of murdering his daughter, and he was

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Speaker 1: finally sentenced to death. The scuts were elated, and it

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Speaker 1: seemed like all of rural New York celebrated they would

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Speaker 1: finally see him hanged. Edward Ruloff was furious, of course.

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Speaker 1: He immediately appealed to conviction, and he was transferred back

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Speaker 1: to Ithaco. The New York Court of Appeals delayed its

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Speaker 1: decision for months. The convicted killer sat chained to the

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Speaker 1: floor of the jail. Seven locks were fastened to his door.

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Speaker 1: He'll soon be dead, yelled the villagers. They were thrilled

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Speaker 1: to finally see justice served. But of course Edward Ruloff

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Speaker 1: had yet another devious plan. He might have been handcuffed

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Speaker 1: inside that Ithaca jail in eighteen fifty six, but he

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Speaker 1: certainly was an idol. He charmed the jailers and they

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Speaker 1: offered him quite a few privileges. They furnished him with

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Speaker 1: a writing desk, books, paper, and pens, all the things

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Speaker 1: he needed to continue writing his manuscript. And then he

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Speaker 1: was given a unique opportunity, the chance to teach again.

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Speaker 1: Ham Freeman later would be shocked and then kind of

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Speaker 1: puzzled that Edward warmly remembered his time in the Ithaca jail.

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Speaker 1: Before this, only languages seemed to make him cheery, but

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Speaker 1: now Edward beamed as he talked about a young man

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Speaker 1: named al Jarvis.

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Speaker 2: He told the journalist how he met.

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Speaker 1: The sixteen year old student, and they were unusual circumstances.

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Speaker 1: Edward was a killer, the devil to most people in

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Speaker 1: the county, but he was also a brilliant academic who

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Speaker 1: was now available for private tutoring. Strangely, he soon welcomed

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Speaker 1: a string of young students at his cell door, all

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Speaker 1: sent there by their parents. These were the same villagers

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Speaker 1: who had raised a lynch mob earlier in the year,

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Speaker 1: and yet they didn't want to miss an opportunity to

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Speaker 1: have their children instructed by a gifted teacher. H. W.

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Speaker 1: Brands says that absurd decision shows just how important education

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Speaker 1: was becoming in America.

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Speaker 5: By the eighteen forties, universal public elementary education was fairly

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Speaker 5: well embraced. In this always included boys, sometimes it included girls.

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Speaker 5: Girls needed to learn to read.

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Speaker 1: To Even the deputy sheriff, Jacob Jarvis, encouraged his son

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Speaker 1: to learn from Edward. He was a bright teenager named Al.

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Speaker 1: Edward charmed the sixteen year old by giving him the

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Speaker 1: attention he wasn't receiving from his father. For more than

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Speaker 1: six months, he worked with Al from his cell. He

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Speaker 1: taught him to speak German, Latin, and French. The boy

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Speaker 1: began to run errands for him in town, like gathering paper, pens, books, candles.

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Speaker 1: Edward would later tell Ham that the boy had so

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Speaker 1: much potential. Edward said, he was then a bright, active boy.

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Speaker 1: The attachment which he began to have for me attracted

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Speaker 1: the attention of his parents, who did not object to

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Speaker 1: our intimacy. Just to clarify, the word intimacy in the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century, much of the time meant emotional intimacy, not sexual.

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Speaker 1: Jacob Jarvis was also the jailer. His family actually lived

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Speaker 1: in the same building as the jail, so while Edward

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Speaker 1: worked with Al, his mother Jane would stroll around occasionally

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Speaker 1: smiling sweetly, and Edward flirted back. Now their attraction was sexual.

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Speaker 1: This of course angered her husband. Edward later told Ham

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Speaker 1: that while her husband was a brute, he was kind.

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Speaker 2: To Jane and loving.

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Speaker 1: He drew both Al and Jane closer to him. He

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Speaker 1: sometimes beat her and threatened her life. Edward told ham

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Speaker 1: she had no love for him, how could she have.

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Speaker 1: Hamilton admired Edward for giving Jane solace, though he realized

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Speaker 1: that the abuse of marriage claim might have been false. Regardless,

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Speaker 1: al Jarvis seemed to appreciate Edward's guidance, but Ephraim Scutt

250
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Speaker 1: was aghast when he heard that the deputy sheriff's son

251
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Speaker 1: was spending so much time with the killer, so he

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Speaker 1: warned Jacob Jarvis to keep the boy away from Edward.

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Speaker 1: Craig Scutt hadn't heard that story, and he was pretty

254
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Speaker 1: surprised when I told him, really.

255
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Speaker 3: Because he knew he'd probably try to manipulate him, which

256
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Speaker 3: he did.

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Speaker 1: What I think is so interesting about the family is

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Speaker 1: that they kept up with him so well that they

259
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Speaker 1: were tried, like they always seemed to know where he was.

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Speaker 3: Well. Part of it was, certainly was fear, fear for

261
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Speaker 3: you know, they wanted to know what happened to Harriet,

262
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Speaker 3: but it was also fear for the rest of them

263
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Speaker 3: that what he might do to them. I'm sure, and

264
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Speaker 3: they're loved ones.

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Speaker 1: In the late spring of eighteen fifty seven, the Court

266
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Speaker 1: of Appeals still had no decision about Edward's murder conviction.

267
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Speaker 1: He had spent more than seven months in the Ithaca jail,

268
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Speaker 1: working on his manuscript and designing a plan. On May fifth,

269
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Speaker 1: he listened to the rattle of metal and watched Al

270
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Speaker 1: remove the bolts from the jail's door. Al leaned over

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Speaker 1: and cut off his shackles. Edward was free once again.

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Speaker 1: Edward told Ham he had some gold and silver pieces

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Speaker 1: which he had collected. Edward shook Al's hand and walked

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Speaker 1: through the cell door, and then he was gone. All

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Speaker 1: of Ithaca knew. By the next morning, Jacob Jarvis, the

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Speaker 1: deputy sheriff, was horrified and then humiliated. He knew exactly

277
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Speaker 1: who had cut those shackles. Gerald Smith says that his

278
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Speaker 1: escape showed just how skilled Edward was at manipulation.

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Speaker 7: I mean the fact that was he the son and

280
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Speaker 7: the sheriff's wife who sets through law free and helps

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Speaker 7: him escape. And I'm going to see obviously he charmed me.

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Speaker 7: You know, you know this is all mistake. I really

283
00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:57,240
Speaker 7: shouldn't be here type of thing, and they're going, you know,

284
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Speaker 7: he's right.

285
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Speaker 1: The sheriff interview of people who might have helped him escape.

286
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:06,119
Speaker 1: He offered a two hundred and fifty dollars reward. They

287
00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 1: added more locks to the jail, clearly a little bit

288
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:13,720
Speaker 1: too late. Reporters criticized the deputy sheriff for sloppy security.

289
00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,760
Speaker 1: His officers reported that his wife and son spent far

290
00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,320
Speaker 1: too much time with Edward. Jacob Jarvis ordered.

291
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Speaker 2: Them to leave the home. They were ruined.

292
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Speaker 1: Al Jarvis was fated to become a violent criminal, just

293
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,680
Speaker 1: like his mentor. No one was safe from Edward Ruloff.

294
00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:48,359
Speaker 1: Edward was now an escaped killer, but one with a

295
00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,680
Speaker 1: lot of resources. He rambled around the countryside until the

296
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:54,919
Speaker 1: end of the year, when his youngest brother, Rulof, offered

297
00:18:54,960 --> 00:19:02,399
Speaker 1: to hide him in his large farm in Pennsylvania. The

298
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:07,680
Speaker 1: winter was hard. Edward lost two frostbitten toes during his travels.

299
00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:10,880
Speaker 1: That might seem like an odd detail, but it would

300
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:15,960
Speaker 1: become crucial later on. After spending a few tranquil months

301
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:20,200
Speaker 1: with his brother, Edward grew restless and a bit irrational.

302
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:23,119
Speaker 1: He was a fugitive, a killer with a bounty on

303
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Speaker 1: his head, and most of the people in Tompkins.

304
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Speaker 2: County were searching for him.

305
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:32,000
Speaker 1: His drawing was printed in newspapers across the country, but

306
00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:35,520
Speaker 1: he still had dreams. He was convinced that he was

307
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,640
Speaker 1: meant for a life in academia, so he crafted yet

308
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:45,400
Speaker 1: another new identity. Convict Edward Ruloff became Professor James Neilson.

309
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Speaker 1: In early eighteen fifty eight, after nine months on the run,

310
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Speaker 1: Edward introduced himself to faculty members of Allegheny College. It

311
00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:59,639
Speaker 1: was a private liberal arts school in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Edward

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00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:03,600
Speaker 1: claimed he went to Oxford University in England. He impressed

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00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:09,560
Speaker 1: them with his knowledge of classical and modern languages. As

314
00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:15,119
Speaker 1: Professor Nelson, he began teaching language classes, but Edward needed stability,

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00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,439
Speaker 1: so he asked for a full time position. Alleghany College

316
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,920
Speaker 1: had no permanent openings, but the president was quite impressed

317
00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 1: by his new hire. He rummaged through his desk for

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00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:28,560
Speaker 1: a note. It was a request from the president of

319
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,560
Speaker 1: another university who was searching for a professor of Greek language.

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00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,959
Speaker 1: After a short exchange of letters, Edward was offered a

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00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,960
Speaker 1: faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Speaker 1: It was an incredible opportunity. Edward would finally be surrounded

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Speaker 1: by his intellectual peers.

324
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Speaker 2: He could teach it a prestigious.

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Speaker 1: School and finish his manuscript, and amongst some of the

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00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,439
Speaker 1: brightest minds in the world, no one would suspect his

327
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,840
Speaker 1: true identity. He lamented to therofessors that he was penniless.

328
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Speaker 1: Remember that academics were poorly paid, so no one seemed surprised.

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Speaker 1: One of the professors even loaned Edward twenty dollars for

330
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:13,320
Speaker 1: a railway ticket and food. They were sure he would

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00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:17,919
Speaker 1: be well received in North Carolina. Professors were revered by

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Speaker 1: most Americans, even if they didn't teach their students particularly

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00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: useful skills.

334
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Speaker 5: In the eighteen hundreds, they wouldn't know exactly what you did.

335
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 5: If you went to Harvard Yale, you studied Latin, Greek

336
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,639
Speaker 5: and the classics and things like that, and maybe you

337
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:33,879
Speaker 5: learned a few modern languages, but you didn't learn anything

338
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:35,120
Speaker 5: of practical value.

339
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 1: But the study of languages was an emerging, exciting field

340
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:43,119
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds. Cornell University linguistics professor Michael Weiss

341
00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: says that an academic like Edward Bruloff would have been

342
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 1: seen as an asset by American universities.

343
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Speaker 9: This is the early early days of the American university system,

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00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:55,600
Speaker 9: so he does seem to have had some real knowledge

345
00:21:55,640 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 9: and expertise. I think as a no they were of Greek.

346
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 9: He really seems to have been pretty remarkable.

347
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 1: Linguistics was important in the nineteenth century, and it still

348
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 1: is well.

349
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Speaker 9: There are many many different aspects of linguistics, and some

350
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:16,920
Speaker 9: of them are very practical. So your sory depends upon

351
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:23,080
Speaker 9: linguistic knowledge and speech recognition, human computer interactions. These are

352
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 9: all very practical aspects of linguistics. In addition to that, right,

353
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:30,720
Speaker 9: linguistics is just an important part of understanding human beings.

354
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Speaker 1: Edward planned to ride the train to North Carolina that day,

355
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,679
Speaker 1: so he thanked the faculty members and returned to his

356
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:41,840
Speaker 1: room to pack. He retrieved his letters, and he glanced

357
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:45,919
Speaker 1: over one that had just arrived from Ithaca. It was

358
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:50,160
Speaker 1: from Albert Jarvis, the deputy share of Sun. He read

359
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 1: Al's letter carefully, thanks to Edward. It said Alan and

360
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 1: his mother were now destitute. They had nowhere to go.

361
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,919
Speaker 1: The sweet teenager who had idolized him in jail was

362
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:06,680
Speaker 1: now threatening his life. Edward later told Hamilton about the letter,

363
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,159
Speaker 1: I must send him money or he would cut my throat.

364
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,280
Speaker 1: Hamilton was shocked. It seemed so out of character. For

365
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,960
Speaker 1: a country boy, but Albert was desperate.

366
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:23,359
Speaker 2: What did you do? Asked Hamilton. Edward had a choice.

367
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,000
Speaker 1: He could disappear to North Carolina and continue being Professor

368
00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:30,840
Speaker 1: James Nelson, or he could honor his friendship with Albert

369
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: and help out the mother and son. That night, a

370
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: burglar broke into a jewelry store near Meadville and stole

371
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 1: dozens of watches, gold pins, rings, and breastpins. He was

372
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:49,920
Speaker 1: quickly caught with the merchandise, arrested and identified as Edward Ruloff.

373
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Speaker 1: Professor James Nelson would never arrive in North Carolina for

374
00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: the fall semester. Edward was back to Ithaca in mid March,

375
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:05,159
Speaker 1: to the jubilation of the country people in Tompkins County

376
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 1: and especially the Scuts. The robbery charges were dropped because

377
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 1: his murder charge was pending, but Edward's keen mind would

378
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,640
Speaker 1: save him once again. The Court of Appeals carefully read

379
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 1: the appeal that Edward had written himself, no body meant

380
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:21,359
Speaker 1: no crime.

381
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:23,159
Speaker 2: It seemed like a simple.

382
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 1: Decision, but it was unprecedented in the United States, and

383
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:31,399
Speaker 1: his argument worked. His conviction for killing his daughter was

384
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:40,360
Speaker 1: thrown out. The court ordered a third trial Ithakens were

385
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 1: enraged over the four murders, the prison escape, and Edward's

386
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,640
Speaker 1: flirtation with the deputy sheriff's wife. They had worked themselves

387
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 1: into a mob frenzy. Once again, violence was inevitable. This

388
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: was the largest lynch mob by far.

389
00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 2: In eighteen fifty nine, town.

390
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: Leaders distributed a handbill entitled shall the Murderer go Unpunished?

391
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 1: It ordered Ethicans to meet in the town center at noon.

392
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: The notice read, it will depend on the action you

393
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,880
Speaker 1: take that day, whether Edward h Rulolf walks Forth a freeman,

394
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:16,399
Speaker 1: or whether.

395
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 2: He dies the death he so richly deserves.

396
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:25,440
Speaker 1: Psychoanalyst William Winslade says their reaction was understandable considering everything

397
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: that Edward had done.

398
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 7: People that have no self restraint are dangerous. He was

399
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,479
Speaker 7: pretty crazy. There's some people that are so dangerous at

400
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 7: that we should never let them out of prison.

401
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,120
Speaker 6: I have fixed feelings about the death penalty.

402
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 7: I think that there are times when the death penalty

403
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 7: seems to be the only realistic solution.

404
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: Harriet's father, John Scott, gave an impassioned speech and prayed

405
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: that Edward would die at the hands of the mob.

406
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:58,920
Speaker 1: Another gallows was constructed and another rope was tied. They

407
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: still had the bad ram from the last mob. Two

408
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: thousand people crammed into the center of town waiting for

409
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: an execution. The Scut family was desperate, so they exhumed

410
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 1: the body of William's wife, Amelia. They believed there was

411
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: evidence of poisoning. Even though it happened so long ago

412
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds, it was still possible to conduct

413
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 1: some type of toxicology test. The one done on Amelia

414
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: Scutt was inconclusive. Ephraim Scutt realized that Edward might return

415
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 1: to kill more family members. Now vigilante justice seemed warranted,

416
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: even necessary.

417
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 3: No empathy, No, he would do anything.

418
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 2: He wanted to destroy that family. Yeah, But the sheriff intervened.

419
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 1: He wouldn't allow the mob to kill Edward. He rushed

420
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: him onto a steamer bound for Auburn State Prison for

421
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 1: protection while he waited for a new trial. Soon, the

422
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 1: prosecutors would read over the Court of Appeal's decision. It

423
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 1: read corpus delecte had not been found. That meant that

424
00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 1: the DA had to prove there had been a crime

425
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:23,639
Speaker 1: to begin with. No body, no crime, just like Edward

426
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: said prosecutors were forced to throw out the indictment.

427
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 2: He was free.

428
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: Edward walked out of Auburn State Prison for the last time,

429
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 1: and he was clutching his precious manuscript. He didn't even

430
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: serve time for the jail escape, but his legacy, such

431
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: as it was at the time, was now tainted. Gone

432
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,400
Speaker 1: were his ambitions of being a respected doctor, or lawyer

433
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:57,200
Speaker 1: or teacher. Edward could only see a downward spiral into hell.

434
00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:02,320
Speaker 1: He whispered to Hamilton Freeman, every man is the architect

435
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:06,400
Speaker 1: of his own future or ruin. But then his face brightened,

436
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,679
Speaker 1: and ham saw the flash of optimism in the killer's eyes.

437
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 1: The manuscript just might be his salvation. In January of

438
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:23,719
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, Edward Ruloff vanished from Tompkins County and he

439
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 1: reappeared in New York City. In eighteen sixties New York

440
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 1: there was social upheaval as Old World criminal societies rapidly

441
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 1: exploited the corrupt politics.

442
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 2: Of the city.

443
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 1: Manhattan was enormously crowded with new arrivals ready to find work.

444
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 1: Immigrants from around the world packed into tenements, a melting

445
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: pot of cultures that frequently clashed. Historian Esther Crane says

446
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: that most of the city was a slum.

447
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 6: The streets were an absolute nightmare of carriages. There were

448
00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 6: no street lights like red, green, yellow as we see today.

449
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 6: It was terrible flies everywhere, animal carcasses, rats, cats, dogs,

450
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 6: and horses too that would just drop.

451
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,720
Speaker 2: It in the street. And this is a wealthy area,

452
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 2: this is everywhere.

453
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 1: Outsiders described Manhattan as a hellhole.

454
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 7: You know, it's the Gangs of New York type attitude

455
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 7: is it's all these rebel rousing immigrants coming in, violence, crime,

456
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 7: They walked too fast, they talked too fast, they talked

457
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 7: too loud. There's still a lot of local residents that

458
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 7: think that New York City should be cut off and

459
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 7: floated out to sea, because it's not really part of

460
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 7: New York State.

461
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: But as horrible as Manhattan seemed to be, the city

462
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: offered incredible opportunities.

463
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 6: It's the place to be. Everything's happening in New York.

464
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 6: There's opportunity.

465
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 2: You could be poor, but.

466
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 6: If you had a little bit of luck, you could

467
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 6: get a job starting shining shoes or selling newspapers.

468
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: Edward wasn't concerned about the dirty streets, or the gangs,

469
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: or even the scuts he felt like he was right

470
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: where he belonged, surrounded by libraries and big thinkers.

471
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 6: Finally, New York City had probably the country's best libraries.

472
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 6: They were private at the time. They were collections sponsored

473
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 6: by very wealthy men who may have bequeathed it to

474
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:18,959
Speaker 6: the public, but there was no New York Public Library

475
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 6: at the time.

476
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: After Edward was released in eighteen sixty, the Scuts did

477
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: the only thing they could do.

478
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 2: They searched for Harriet's body.

479
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 1: Using nets, workers dragged the southern end of Cayuga Lake,

480
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: hoping to snare her skeleton and perhaps Priscilla's too.

481
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 2: The enterprise had cost more.

482
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: Than ten thousand dollars about three hundred thousand dollars in

483
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 1: today's money. It seemed like an impossible sum, but they

484
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: felt hopeless.

485
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 3: They tried to recover it. They tried redgend the lake

486
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 3: for some time. They never found anything. Her family were

487
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 3: the ones paying for it, trying to recover her so

488
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 3: they could give her a decent burial.

489
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: This all happened more than one hundred and fifty years ago,

490
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 1: but it's still not easy for the Scuts. Four of

491
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: their family members had been murdered by one man and

492
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 1: part of the discomfort is that it was a family

493
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: secret for quite a while, a horror that their relatives

494
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: kept hidden just growing up.

495
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 3: What did you hear?

496
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 2: What did you know about?

497
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 8: Oh? It was you weren't supposed to talk about it.

498
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 8: The children weren't supposed to know about it. But they

499
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 8: didn't know about it because there was written material that

500
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 8: they would sneak up to the cupolo in the house

501
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 8: where they were living at the time, and they would

502
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 8: read it.

503
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: It might have just been a morbid fascination for children

504
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: whispering in an attic, but it was a dreadful bit

505
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: of family history that most of the Scuts wanted to forget.

506
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 1: What's the taboo thing about that story in your family?

507
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 8: Do you think to save and protect them.

508
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 3: From the horrors of the tragedy? I think any tragedy

509
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 3: that happens in somebody's lifetime, it does become something they

510
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 3: don't like to talk about.

511
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 1: Without the bodies of Harriet and Priscilla, Edward Ruloff remained

512
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 1: a mystery, a creepy enigma in the archives of Tompkins County,

513
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: and he was a real threat, ready to return there

514
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 1: to exact revenge on the townspeople who tried to doom him.

515
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: If ever the countryside in New York had a boogeyman, it.

516
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 2: Was Edward Ruloff.

517
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: Newspapers in London called him a remarkable killer, and they

518
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 1: wrote with a hint of admiration. The Times of London

519
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: said the action of the people didn't frighten him away,

520
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 1: for he has indomitable courage and never knew fear. Once again,

521
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 1: New York City newspapers scolded the people in the countryside

522
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: who demanded a lynching, and the papers agreed with Edward

523
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: Ruloff that a man should not be convicted of murder

524
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: without proof of a victim.

525
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 2: The New York.

526
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,959
Speaker 1: Times declared better ten Ruloffs who have made away with

527
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 1: their wives by violence should escape than that one smith

528
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: should suffer, even if his wife should disappear. Back in

529
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,200
Speaker 1: New York City, Edward pursued his new life with vigor,

530
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: and the next eight years proved to be incredibly productive.

531
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: He worked diligently on his manuscript on the origin of

532
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 1: the human language. He was convinced it would make him

533
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: wealthy and earn him the reputation of a respected academic

534
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 1: and gentleman. His work now had an official title, The

535
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: Method Information of Human Language, and it was becoming robust

536
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: as he spent virtually every waking moment on it. But

537
00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: he needed financing, a way to earn a living, and

538
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: so he found partners. First he recruited Al Jarvis, the

539
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 1: son of the deputy sheriff from Ithaca, and then in

540
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, he met William Dexter in sing Sing prison.

541
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: Edward was serving time for burglary, and of course he

542
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 1: was using an alias. Dexter was an illiterate burglar with

543
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: the desire for higher learning. So when they were both released,

544
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:14,880
Speaker 1: Dexter and Edward joined Al Jarvis in New York City.

545
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,400
Speaker 1: By day, Edward would tutor the young men in modern

546
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 1: and ancient languages, in classic poetry and writing. By night,

547
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:27,799
Speaker 1: they would rob silk merchants in Tompkins County and then

548
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: later sell their wares. They would specialize in sewing silk,

549
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 1: an expensive item that was pretty easy to conceal and

550
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:40,280
Speaker 1: difficult to identify. Very few people knew their real names,

551
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:44,240
Speaker 1: and each of them landed in jail sporadically, but Edward's

552
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 1: focus never wavered from his manuscript, which was nearing completion. Finally,

553
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: life settled into a strange routine as Edward Ruloff wandered

554
00:34:53,080 --> 00:35:00,399
Speaker 1: through the great libraries of New York City. By July

555
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,240
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty nine, he and Al Jarvis had rented

556
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: a small two room place above a dry goods store.

557
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 1: It was on Third Avenue in Irving Plaza, actually just

558
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:11,799
Speaker 1: a few blocks from where I used to live. They

559
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:14,839
Speaker 1: picked up more members of the criminal ring, an irishwoman

560
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: who sometimes cooked for them and would sell their stolen silks.

561
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: Her boyfriend, who was a boxer and a thief, would

562
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,319
Speaker 1: join Dexter and Jarvis on some of their robberies, and

563
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,280
Speaker 1: Jane Jarvis, the wife of the Deputy sheriff, would sometimes

564
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:31,640
Speaker 1: join them. Edward was approaching fifty years old and he

565
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:34,720
Speaker 1: just couldn't keep up, so he no longer joined Jarvis

566
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,839
Speaker 1: and Dexter as they crisscrossed the New York State countryside

567
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 1: raising funds through robbery. It was easier to stay behind

568
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,880
Speaker 1: in the apartment, surrounded by more than four hundred books.

569
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 2: He continued to.

570
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 1: Write obsessively by gas lamp, but there wasn't much time left.

571
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 1: The American Philological Association's annual conference was coming soon. It

572
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 1: was a huge event for professional lingguigeists, and Edward wanted

573
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:04,919
Speaker 1: to present his manuscript there. He dreamed that he would

574
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 1: dazzle the professors and sell his groundbreaking theory to an

575
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:12,319
Speaker 1: esteemed university for a small fortune. Of course, if he

576
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 1: could just finish his work in time, he would finally

577
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: make his mark on the academic world.

578
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 2: But fate would have.

579
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:23,600
Speaker 1: Different plans for all three of these criminals. Al Jarvis

580
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 1: and Billy Dexter were counting on that money, and Edward

581
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 1: Ruloff would go on to make his mark on the

582
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:36,320
Speaker 1: academic world, but definitely not the one he expected. That year,

583
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: Edward paid for advertising in New York City newspapers. The

584
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: moment had arrived. He published a circular that made startling

585
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:48,520
Speaker 1: claims about the method in the formation of language. It

586
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: promised a manuscript of peculiar interest disclosing a beautiful and

587
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 1: unsuspected method in language spoken and read by millions. He

588
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 1: deserved to be paid for his work, he believed, so

589
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 1: he offered it at the obscene price of five hundred

590
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. At the linguistics conference in Poughkeepsie, Edward dressed

591
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 1: in a silly black frock coat and introduced himself as

592
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 1: Professor E. Lurio, a pleasant academic. The other linguistics experts

593
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,280
Speaker 1: eyed him with suspicion. They had all read the Circular,

594
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:28,839
Speaker 1: but it didn't matter if his theory was groundbreaking, its

595
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:33,799
Speaker 1: half a million dollar price was absolutely laughable. Experts from

596
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 1: Vassar College and Brown University gave Edward a courteous and

597
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 1: serious hearing, but ultimately the panel was unimpressed with his

598
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:48,239
Speaker 1: haughty attitude. Edward listened to their unflattering critiques. The facade

599
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:54,640
Speaker 1: of country gentlemen abruptly ended. The committee chairman later said

600
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: the mild and gentle mister Lurio disappeared in his place

601
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 1: a hear the violent, abusive, and profane mister l Orio.

602
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 1: Linguistics professor Michael Weiss says the committee had little choice.

603
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:12,239
Speaker 9: I think they were trying to avoid any kind of,

604
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:16,640
Speaker 9: you know, direct confrontation with him. So, I mean, there

605
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 9: were certainly people at the American Philological Association who would

606
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:21,799
Speaker 9: have been very well qualified.

607
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 1: Edward later told ham the convention was a sort of

608
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 1: heterogeneous lot of literary men, the most pedantic and self assuming.

609
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:38,880
Speaker 1: Hamilton watched the killer's face contort into disgust and bitterness,

610
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 1: but I was not discouraged. Edward told Ham, I was

611
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: resolved to make the learned men of the world appreciate

612
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: and acknowledge the merit of my method, and with that

613
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:52,120
Speaker 1: end in view, I returned.

614
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:52,319
Speaker 2: To New York.

615
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,719
Speaker 1: He refused to abandon his theory. It was crucial to

616
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:02,839
Speaker 1: finish his manuscript now more than ever, and soon three

617
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: more people would die because of it. On the next

618
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 1: episode of Tenfold More Wicked.

619
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 7: He's ruthless enough to know, don't leave any witnesses, and.

620
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 2: Look what happened.

621
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 1: They didn't hang him, and he went on to kill

622
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 1: someone else.

623
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,880
Speaker 7: Yes, the prison system is flawed because there are people

624
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 7: that shouldn't be there that are, and people that shouldn't

625
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 7: get out that do. They would tell each other he's trouble.

626
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 7: Watch him, he's not well. It's almost like PTSD for

627
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:36,520
Speaker 7: the entire community.

628
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,359
Speaker 1: If you love historical true crime, be sure to order

629
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,760
Speaker 1: my book, American Sherlock. It's about a real life Sherlock

630
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: Holmes who solved some of the most gruesome murders in.

631
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 2: The nineteen twenties.

632
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: This has been an exactly right and tenfold More media

633
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:54,880
Speaker 1: production producers Jason Whaling and Laura Sobole, sound designer Eric Friend,

634
00:39:55,239 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: composer Curtis Heath, artwork Nick Toga, Executive producers Jorge to

635
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Speaker 1: hard Stark, Karen Kilgariff and Danielle Kramer. Follow us on

636
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Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook at tenfold more Wicked, and on Twitter

637
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638
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Speaker 1: on our show, go to midroll dot com slash ads,

639
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640
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Speaker 1: use some attention, email us at info at tenfoldmorewicked dot com.

641
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642
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