All That Is Wicked

Kate Winkler Dawson narrates the Victorian-era criminal career of Edward Rulloff, an intellectual who mastered multiple languages while committing a series of brutal murders. The narrative focuses on the 1871 trial and the subsequent scientific obsession with Rulloff’s physical brain. It details how early criminologists and phrenologists examined his skull to determine if biological structures dictated his violent behavior. This biographical account chronicles the disappearance of his wife and daughter, his various incarcerations, and the public debate regarding whether his academic genius should spare him from execution.

This book serves readers interested in the historical intersection of forensic science and criminal psychology. It appeals to those who study how society categorized the "moral insane" before modern sociological frameworks existed. The reader gains a specific understanding of the nineteenth-century attempts to map the human mind through anatomy. You finish the text with a clear view of how the legal system and the scientific community first collided over the definition of the sociopathic personality.