John Edward Howard Rulloff was born in 1819 or 1820 near Saint John, New Brunswick, to Danish immigrant parents. Gifted with an extraordinary intellect, he lived an unusual double life as a respected scholar and career criminal. Known later as “The Genius Killer,” Rulloff displayed remarkable aptitude in a wide range of disciplines, including medicine, law, linguistics, photography, and botany. His brother, William Rulofson, would become a prominent photographer in San Francisco. Despite his high intelligence, Rulloff's early adult life was marked by instability and fraud. He served two years in prison for embezzlement by age 20 and worked intermittently as a law clerk and schoolmaster.

In 1842, Rulloff moved to Dryden, New York, where he became a teacher and began studying botanical medicine. The following year, he married Harriet Schutt, the 17-year-old cousin of his mentor Dr. Henry Bull. The marriage was hasty and against her family’s wishes. They moved to Lansing, New York, where Harriet gave birth to their daughter, Priscilla. Increasingly erratic and controlling, Rulloff wanted to move to Ohio to pursue a legal or academic career, but Harriet resisted. This tension would end in tragedy. Despite his scholarly ambitions, Rulloff’s life was increasingly defined by deception, manipulation, and an obsessive need to assert control—traits that would culminate in a series of calculated murders and criminal acts spanning nearly three decades.

While imprisoned for kidnapping, he taught himself philology and developed a personal theory on the evolution of language, which he believed would revolutionize the field. Even in jail, he earned a reputation as a brilliant teacher, instructing fellow inmates in Latin and Greek. Though later released, Rulloff's criminal behavior continued. He adopted aliases, fled multiple times, and formed partnerships with like-minded criminals, notably Albert Jarvis and William Dexter. Despite frequent arrests, convictions, and one confirmed escape, he repeatedly manipulated the justice system to avoid long-term imprisonment. Throughout his life, Rulloff sought academic acclaim as obsessively as he pursued criminal enterprise—culminating in his doomed attempt to sell his linguistic manuscript for $500,000 to the American Philological Association under the alias “Professor Euri Lorio.”

On June 22, 1844, what seemed to business as usual turned fatal: in Lansing, Rulloff, accusing his wife of an affair with Dr. Bull, struck Harriet in the head with a pestle, killing her. He then poisoned their infant daughter, Priscilla. In a panic, he tried—and failed—to kill himself.

That same day, he borrowed a horse and wagon under the pretext of returning a chest to his uncle and loaded it—plus a pillowcase or sack—driving toward Cayuga Lake. He eventually returned, feigning calm, claiming he and Harriet would be away for weeks, all while leaving his home in disarray.

Rumors swirled. Harriet’s clothes were still in the house, undermining Rulloff’s story. Confronted, he shifted stories—from abandonment to relocation—then fled. He was tracked by his brother‑in‑law, Ephraim Schutt, captured, and brought to Ithaca to face justice. But without bodies, the grand jury couldn’t indict for murder. Instead, he was charged with kidnapping in 1846.

Though he conducted his own defense, insisting no crime had been committed, Rulloff was convicted and sentenced to ten years with hard labor in Auburn Prison. But the cerebral criminal wasn't broken. In prison, he taught himself philology, planned a linguistic treatise, and even tutored fellow inmates. When authorities warned of pending murder charges upon release, he invoked double jeopardy. The prosecutor dropped the charge for the wife—but pressed charges for his daughter.

In a dramatic twist, Rulloff was again convicted—this time for Priscilla’s murder in 1858—but escaped custody before the verdict arrived, apparently with help from one of his students, Albert Jarvis, son of the jail’s undersheriff. Rumors swirled of inside assistance.

On the run, Rulloff drifted west on foot, surviving off stolen food and wild edibles, losing two toes to frostbite. He reemerged in Meadville, Pennsylvania, posing as “James Nelson,” impressing locals with his wide-ranging knowledge—from conchology to entomology—and even flirting with academic appointments at Jefferson College. Yet the pull of Jarvis persisted: when Jarvis and his mother pleaded for help, Rulloff reshot into crime, robbing a jewelry store to send money their way. Caught, extradited, he fought again—and won his appeal, walking free again.

He moved to New York City, and from there descended into burglary. In 1861, he landed in Sing Sing Prison for two and a half years. Yet even behind bars, his scholarly aspirations persisted—he drafted theories on language, submitted a manuscript under the alias “Professor Euri Lorio,” hoping to auction it for $500,000 to fund his intellectual pursuits. 

In 1870, Rulloff, Jarvis, and new accomplice William T. Dexter staged a burglary at a dry goods store in Binghamton, NY. They used chloroform to incapacitate two clerks, Frederick Merrick and Gilbert Burrows, but things went sideways. Merrick tried to shoot Rulloff (the gun misfired), and chaos erupted—stools thrown, fights breaking out. Rulloff fired warning shots, but when Merrick lunged at Jarvis, Rulloff fatally shot him in the head.

During their escape, the trio attempted to cross the Chenango River. Jarvis and Dexter drowned under murky circumstances—some believed Rulloff killed them deliberately to silence them. Rulloff made it across, but lost a pair of boots.

Rulloff was quickly captured after Nova‑York police, alerted by Burrows, noticed suspicious behavior. At the railroad station, he ran; at a farm outhouse, he was caught. He identified himself with aliases but was recognized by Judge Ransom Balcom, who warned: “This man understands his rights better than you do, and will defend them to the last.”

His trial began January 4, 1871, drawing 2,000 spectators per day. He defended himself again, refused an insanity plea, and even appealed to the governor: delay the execution until his linguistic theories could be published. Editor Horace Greeley urged clemency, while Mark Twain mocked it, offering to produce another man to hang in Rulloff’s place. On March 3, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to hang.

While awaiting his fate, Rulloff confessed to murdering his wife—but not his daughter, sparking speculation that the child was alive, hidden under another name. His execution occurred on May 18, 1871, as New York’s last public hanging. Sources differ on his final words: some say he quipped, “Hurry it up! I want to be in hell in time for dinner.” Others claim he simply hissed, “I can’t stand still.”

After his death, Professor George Burr removed Rulloff’s brain—claimed to weigh 59 ounces, possibly the largest known at the time—and it eventually made its way into Cornell’s Wilder Brain Collection.