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All That Is Wicked
Kate Winkler Dawson tells the story of Edward Rulloff--a serial murderer who was called "too intelligent to be killed"--and the array of 19th century investigators who were convinced his brain held the key to finally understanding the criminal mind.
Edward Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer--some have called him a "Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter"--whose crimes spanned decades and whose victims were chosen out of revenge, out of envy, and sometimes out of necessity. From his humble beginnings in upstate New York to the dazzling salons and social life he established in New York City, at every turn Rulloff used his intelligence and regal bearing to evade detection and avoid punishment. He could talk his way out of any crime...until one day, Rulloff's luck ran out.
By 1871 Rulloff sat chained in his cell--a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century mind hunters tried to understand what made him tick. From alienists (early psychiatrists who tried to analyze the source of his madness) to neurologists (who wanted to dissect his brain) to phrenologists (who analyzed the bumps on his head to determine his character), each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made? Eventually, Rulloff's brain would be placed in a jar at Cornell University as the prize specimen of their anatomy collection...where it still sits today, slowly moldering in a dusty jar. But his story--and its implications for the emerging field of criminal psychology--were just beginning.
Expanded from season one of her podcast on the Exactly Right network, in All That Is Wicked Kate Winkler Dawson draws on hundreds of source materials and never-before-shared historical documents to present one of the first glimpses into the mind of a serial killer--a century before the term was coined--through the scientists whose work would come to influence criminal justice for decades to come.
Edward Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer--some have called him a "Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter"--whose crimes spanned decades and whose victims were chosen out of revenge, out of envy, and sometimes out of necessity. From his humble beginnings in upstate New York to the dazzling salons and social life he established in New York City, at every turn Rulloff used his intelligence and regal bearing to evade detection and avoid punishment. He could talk his way out of any crime...until one day, Rulloff's luck ran out.
By 1871 Rulloff sat chained in his cell--a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century mind hunters tried to understand what made him tick. From alienists (early psychiatrists who tried to analyze the source of his madness) to neurologists (who wanted to dissect his brain) to phrenologists (who analyzed the bumps on his head to determine his character), each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made? Eventually, Rulloff's brain would be placed in a jar at Cornell University as the prize specimen of their anatomy collection...where it still sits today, slowly moldering in a dusty jar. But his story--and its implications for the emerging field of criminal psychology--were just beginning.
Expanded from season one of her podcast on the Exactly Right network, in All That Is Wicked Kate Winkler Dawson draws on hundreds of source materials and never-before-shared historical documents to present one of the first glimpses into the mind of a serial killer--a century before the term was coined--through the scientists whose work would come to influence criminal justice for decades to come.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 4, 2022
331 people are currently reading
8799 people want to read
About the author
Kate Winkler Dawson
5books701followersKate Winkler Dawson joined the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism as a senior lecturer in 2009. Before then, she was on the faculty of Fordham University's Marymount College for two years. A seasoned documentary producer, news writer and TV news producer, her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, United Press International in London, WCBS News, ABC News Radio, Fox News Channel, “PBS NewsHour� and “Nightline.� She's on the board of the Texas Center for Actual Innocence and lives in Austin, Texas with her family. This is her debut book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 405 reviews
September 12, 2022
I'd already listened to Kate's podcast about this case so I figured it would just be outlining the same stuff but it was even more. Well-written and fascinating true crime.
September 30, 2022
I guess I have to admit that I'm somehow obsessed with murder cases. I watch documentaries on true crimes all the time. I read murder mysteries, true crime books, non fiction about investigations. And I listen to about a bazillion podcasts on the topic. Yikes. If I was ever a suspect in a murder, the FBI would have a field day with my search history. Not a killer -- I'm just interested in investigations of solved and unsolved murders/violent crimes.
When I saw this book available for review, I had to read it. Not only had I not heard of this serial killer, but I hadn't heard of Kate Dawson either. Glad I rectified both issues! I have two other books by this author added to my TBR at the local library, and I'm followed two of her podcasts as well!
This book is intense. Edward Rulloff was an evil, violent, disgusting person. He was a genius and a serial killer in the 19th century before the term "serial killer" even existed. His case was one of the first to become a public spectacle and media frenzy. And, doctors and scientists practically lined up to study Rulloff. In fact, a renowned university still has this killer's brain preserved in a jar.
Awesome book! Dawson definitely did huge amounts of research and tells the tale in a factual, yet interesting way. This book kept my attention from start to finish. I was so curious about the doctors and psychiatrists back then who were just trying to learn about the human brain and criminal behavior. So interesting!
I'm definitely going to read more by this author. I enjoyed reading about a case that I really hadn't heard of before.
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Penguin Group. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
When I saw this book available for review, I had to read it. Not only had I not heard of this serial killer, but I hadn't heard of Kate Dawson either. Glad I rectified both issues! I have two other books by this author added to my TBR at the local library, and I'm followed two of her podcasts as well!
This book is intense. Edward Rulloff was an evil, violent, disgusting person. He was a genius and a serial killer in the 19th century before the term "serial killer" even existed. His case was one of the first to become a public spectacle and media frenzy. And, doctors and scientists practically lined up to study Rulloff. In fact, a renowned university still has this killer's brain preserved in a jar.
Awesome book! Dawson definitely did huge amounts of research and tells the tale in a factual, yet interesting way. This book kept my attention from start to finish. I was so curious about the doctors and psychiatrists back then who were just trying to learn about the human brain and criminal behavior. So interesting!
I'm definitely going to read more by this author. I enjoyed reading about a case that I really hadn't heard of before.
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Penguin Group. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
May 11, 2023
All That Is Wicked is a difficult book to recommend. The story it tells of Edward Rulloff is interesting. For true crime hounds like me, this book should be a slam dunk. It has it all: A psychopathic serial killer, who kills not just his wife's family members, but also his own wife and infant daughter. The story is told in chapters relating the interviews of a number of professionals who interviewed Rulloff, while he sat on death row. It's an interesting way to approach the material, especially as the author seems also to want to illustrate the early days of profiling and forensic psychology.
The issue is in the writing itself. The author regularly and often derails the narrative by quoting modern psychologists and criminologists about the action of the story as it takes place. It's like being at the movies with someone who's seen the movie before and can't help talking about it, while you're trying to watch. The movie (i.e. the story of Edward Rulloff) is good; the commentary, not so much.
Also, the author spends WAY too much time repeating the definition of a psychopath. Every time Rulloff is described as engaging in psychopathic behavior, we get yet another defining of what a psychopath is, and how later psychologists and psychiatrists would define the term, which was not available to the professionals of the time. In fact, now that I've written that, you probably don't need to read the book. Unless you want to read what I've just written again and again and again...
Oh, and the author spends a huge amount of space telling us how brilliant Rulloff was, how his linguistic theories were revolutionary (I'm a linguist; they were nuts -- He was to philology what L. Ron Hubbard was to the theory of evolution), and how he had a GIANT BRAIN! And, of course, how all of those things just prove that the guy who killed at least seven people - including his own infant daughter - was a psychopath.
Seriously, the author spends the better part of the book trying to make the case that this looney tune was a psychopath. I mean, seriously, is such a question even necessary?
He was a serial killer with a lot of ridiculous ideas about language that were taken seriously at a time when no better information was available (although, in fact, the American Philological Society rejected his work at their conference). In other words, he was a wildly successful scam artist (which - you guessed it - makes him a psychopath!!!) and a remorseless serial killer. If that's not the definition of a psychopath, I don't know what is.
Come to think of it, now that I've written that, you really don't need to read the book.
Finally, the author spends too much time and space telling us what her opinion of the case is and what she believes. I know she's a podcast host. But, a book is not a podcast. All of the opinionating does nothing to move the story along. It's just the author spouting opinions that are more appropriate to the Internet than to a real-world nonfiction book.
This book fills a weird true crime space; it sits between, for example, factual books about the Yorkshire Ripper and speculative books about Jack the Ripper. It's neither fully factual nor fully speculative. It is both and that makes for a very dissatisfying reading experience.
The issue is in the writing itself. The author regularly and often derails the narrative by quoting modern psychologists and criminologists about the action of the story as it takes place. It's like being at the movies with someone who's seen the movie before and can't help talking about it, while you're trying to watch. The movie (i.e. the story of Edward Rulloff) is good; the commentary, not so much.
Also, the author spends WAY too much time repeating the definition of a psychopath. Every time Rulloff is described as engaging in psychopathic behavior, we get yet another defining of what a psychopath is, and how later psychologists and psychiatrists would define the term, which was not available to the professionals of the time. In fact, now that I've written that, you probably don't need to read the book. Unless you want to read what I've just written again and again and again...
Oh, and the author spends a huge amount of space telling us how brilliant Rulloff was, how his linguistic theories were revolutionary (I'm a linguist; they were nuts -- He was to philology what L. Ron Hubbard was to the theory of evolution), and how he had a GIANT BRAIN! And, of course, how all of those things just prove that the guy who killed at least seven people - including his own infant daughter - was a psychopath.
Seriously, the author spends the better part of the book trying to make the case that this looney tune was a psychopath. I mean, seriously, is such a question even necessary?
He was a serial killer with a lot of ridiculous ideas about language that were taken seriously at a time when no better information was available (although, in fact, the American Philological Society rejected his work at their conference). In other words, he was a wildly successful scam artist (which - you guessed it - makes him a psychopath!!!) and a remorseless serial killer. If that's not the definition of a psychopath, I don't know what is.
Come to think of it, now that I've written that, you really don't need to read the book.
Finally, the author spends too much time and space telling us what her opinion of the case is and what she believes. I know she's a podcast host. But, a book is not a podcast. All of the opinionating does nothing to move the story along. It's just the author spouting opinions that are more appropriate to the Internet than to a real-world nonfiction book.
This book fills a weird true crime space; it sits between, for example, factual books about the Yorkshire Ripper and speculative books about Jack the Ripper. It's neither fully factual nor fully speculative. It is both and that makes for a very dissatisfying reading experience.
October 28, 2022
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
The story of a serial killer in the 19 century. He didn't seem to fit the narrative of what the intelligentsia thought a killer should look or act like. His goal was an academic career. To be honest, outside of the murders, he didn't behave all that different than some college professors I have known.
Well done.
The story of a serial killer in the 19 century. He didn't seem to fit the narrative of what the intelligentsia thought a killer should look or act like. His goal was an academic career. To be honest, outside of the murders, he didn't behave all that different than some college professors I have known.
Well done.
October 20, 2022
A murder from upstate New York that still taints the memories of the families impacted over 170 years by Edward Rulloff's Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. A charming, intelligent exterior hid a serial killer. He married a young woman from a local family, had a child, and attempted to manipulate people and circumstances to his own advantage.
Dawson moves the tale along quite smoothly and quickly revealing her research into Rulloff's early years, education, the years between his marriage and up to his execution for murdering his infant daughter (although neither the bodies of daughter Priscilla, nor her mother, Harriet, were ever found) through the people who were able to visit and/or interview Edward Rulloff in his final months.
The local journalist/author as well as another New York City national reporter. A Greek scholar that evaluated Rulloff's intellect and supposed remarkable manuscript on the possible universal origin of language. An evaluation by an educator with expertise in language. An alienist (what would be called today a forensic psychiatrist) to assess and determine if Rulloff was truly insane - he was not. Modern evaluations place him as a high-level psychopath which is a personality disorder, not a mental illness.
Only days before his execution, two doctors offered to buy his body in order to perform phrenological cranial exams to 'determine' character traits - considered sexist and bigoted today. Neurologically, Rulloff's brain was large and heavy and at the time, criminal brains were searched for physical indications and inconsistencies to support the idea that criminal tendencies were physiological.
Chilling and engrossing. And the only negative or suggestion I can make is that a map of the Dryden/Lansing/Ithaca area would have been a nice addition.
2022-223
Dawson moves the tale along quite smoothly and quickly revealing her research into Rulloff's early years, education, the years between his marriage and up to his execution for murdering his infant daughter (although neither the bodies of daughter Priscilla, nor her mother, Harriet, were ever found) through the people who were able to visit and/or interview Edward Rulloff in his final months.
The local journalist/author as well as another New York City national reporter. A Greek scholar that evaluated Rulloff's intellect and supposed remarkable manuscript on the possible universal origin of language. An evaluation by an educator with expertise in language. An alienist (what would be called today a forensic psychiatrist) to assess and determine if Rulloff was truly insane - he was not. Modern evaluations place him as a high-level psychopath which is a personality disorder, not a mental illness.
Only days before his execution, two doctors offered to buy his body in order to perform phrenological cranial exams to 'determine' character traits - considered sexist and bigoted today. Neurologically, Rulloff's brain was large and heavy and at the time, criminal brains were searched for physical indications and inconsistencies to support the idea that criminal tendencies were physiological.
Chilling and engrossing. And the only negative or suggestion I can make is that a map of the Dryden/Lansing/Ithaca area would have been a nice addition.
2022-223
October 20, 2022
I've been fond of Ms. Dawson's work since having read "Death in the Air" in 2019. A fairly interesting book that is brought down by the author's unnecessary commentary on modern American politics in the penultimate chapter. It had nothing to do with the tale of Edward Rulloff nor with Criminology or Psychology.
Unfortunately, it seems more and more authors (regardless of the subject matter on which they write), find it utterly impossible to not comment on modern politics. There is a weird neurosis they seem to have that everyone who wants to read their work also wants to know their personal opinions on the Executive branch or on the Senate. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Unfortunately, it seems more and more authors (regardless of the subject matter on which they write), find it utterly impossible to not comment on modern politics. There is a weird neurosis they seem to have that everyone who wants to read their work also wants to know their personal opinions on the Executive branch or on the Senate. Nothing could be further from the truth.
June 24, 2023
3.5 Stars!
I always enjoy learning about True Crime cases from a long time ago. I'm currently very interested in The Gilded Age which took place from 1877 - 1896. It's now recognized as a time when a great amount of economic, scientific, political and industrial growth took place. Pretty much working life as we know it now was created during this time. While wages rose for most workers so did the cost of living and a little something called inflation. Immigration both legal and "illegal" rose and the rich got richer than ever before in history. Many people believe we are currently living through a new Gilded Age(it seems likely but it's too early to tell).
All That Is Wicked examines the case of Edward Rulloff who is thought to have killed at least 5 people including his wife and infant daughter. While awaiting execution Rulloff was examined by journalists, alienist and neurologist to determine if possibly he should be saved from hanging on the basis that he was too intelligent to be killed. Rulloff thought of himself as a scholar and many people thought that killing him would do a disservice to society.
While I do personally believe in psychology, I do believe that it's a valuable asset in the understanding of crime. Psychology has and continues to be racist which is why I would never seek that treatment, back in the 1800's it was even more racist. Phrenology which is the study of the shape of the brain and bumps on a person's brain/skull, was considered a valid evaluation of sanity and propensity to commit violence. It will surprise no one to learn that Black people as a race were deemed to have a high probability of violence based a Phrenology.
Rulloff a white man would in death help prove that white brains and Black brains looked the same.
All That Is Wicked was fascinating to me but I must admit that it was overall a dry read. I enjoy dry Historical books but I know that for most people that is a No No. So I can't recommend this book to everyone despite my enjoyment of this text. The author Kate Winkler Dawson has another book called American Sherlock and I've added it to my list. I found this book to be captivating and engrossing. It introduced me to several "new" historial figures and it left me with more questions. This book doesn't give you a nice tidy conclusion, it instead leaves you with much contemplate.
If you enjoy Historical True Crime with a side of Sociology than maybe give All That I'd Wicked a try.
I always enjoy learning about True Crime cases from a long time ago. I'm currently very interested in The Gilded Age which took place from 1877 - 1896. It's now recognized as a time when a great amount of economic, scientific, political and industrial growth took place. Pretty much working life as we know it now was created during this time. While wages rose for most workers so did the cost of living and a little something called inflation. Immigration both legal and "illegal" rose and the rich got richer than ever before in history. Many people believe we are currently living through a new Gilded Age(it seems likely but it's too early to tell).
All That Is Wicked examines the case of Edward Rulloff who is thought to have killed at least 5 people including his wife and infant daughter. While awaiting execution Rulloff was examined by journalists, alienist and neurologist to determine if possibly he should be saved from hanging on the basis that he was too intelligent to be killed. Rulloff thought of himself as a scholar and many people thought that killing him would do a disservice to society.
While I do personally believe in psychology, I do believe that it's a valuable asset in the understanding of crime. Psychology has and continues to be racist which is why I would never seek that treatment, back in the 1800's it was even more racist. Phrenology which is the study of the shape of the brain and bumps on a person's brain/skull, was considered a valid evaluation of sanity and propensity to commit violence. It will surprise no one to learn that Black people as a race were deemed to have a high probability of violence based a Phrenology.
Rulloff a white man would in death help prove that white brains and Black brains looked the same.
All That Is Wicked was fascinating to me but I must admit that it was overall a dry read. I enjoy dry Historical books but I know that for most people that is a No No. So I can't recommend this book to everyone despite my enjoyment of this text. The author Kate Winkler Dawson has another book called American Sherlock and I've added it to my list. I found this book to be captivating and engrossing. It introduced me to several "new" historial figures and it left me with more questions. This book doesn't give you a nice tidy conclusion, it instead leaves you with much contemplate.
If you enjoy Historical True Crime with a side of Sociology than maybe give All That I'd Wicked a try.
April 19, 2022
First off I would like to thank NetGalley and Putnam Books for providing me with this ARC. Thanks to this ARC I became familiar with Kate Winkler Dawson. And let me tell you something, I’m so glad that I did. I’m a fan of true crime, but I had never heard of Edward Rulloff before now. He caused extreme fear and behaved in devious ways. Not only was he a murderer, he was also a robber, a writer and a fake expert in theology. He committed horrible acts like killing several members of his family. But while he thought he would get away with all these horrendous crimes, he was ultimately caught. This story is captivating and I was amazed, not in a good way, how he got away with these crimes for so long. True crime fans will love this book. The author did a great job of doing her research and making you feel like you were a part of this book!
December 14, 2022
2.5 stars
This book was SUPER repetitive, I don't know if it was from the quotes that were read or why exactly. I think the fact that it was based on a podcast might also be part of it.
Also, I think a different narrator from the author would have been better, as she has a super soothing voice that literally put me to sleep!
Overall, just a meh book. And I love the author's pod with Paul Holes.
This book was SUPER repetitive, I don't know if it was from the quotes that were read or why exactly. I think the fact that it was based on a podcast might also be part of it.
Also, I think a different narrator from the author would have been better, as she has a super soothing voice that literally put me to sleep!
Overall, just a meh book. And I love the author's pod with Paul Holes.
October 7, 2022
This is the story of Edward Rulloff; charming, intelligent, erudite, a supreme manipulator, & a killer. Introducing himself to William Schutt as a drifter looking for work, the young Rulloff ingratiated himself into the Schutt family & married one of the daughters, Harriet. Their marriage was reportedly tempestuous & the Schutts had become suspicious of Rulloff's behaviour behind the charming smiles, so when Harriet & their baby, Priscilla, both disappeared never to be heard of or seen again, they suspected foul play.
They were not his only suspected victims but Rulloff's ability to discern what the person in front of him wanted to see & hear, allowed him to talk his way out of most things. When he was finally on trial for murder, he devised his own defence so successfully he was acquitted. He was finally brought down when he accompanied two younger men on a burglary & one of the security clerks was shot dead. The second clerk identified & took the stand against Rulloff & he was faced with execution. Even then, he was not done, granting interviews to journalists & doctors from his jail cell to those that he thought would be helpful in proving his mind was to valuable to kill. It took decades for the Schutt family to finally get any kind of justice.
The information about the nineteenth-century beliefs about criminals is fascinating. Evil was believed to manifest itself physically in a person's looks, just as for someone to be declared insane then, it was believed that they had to 'look insane' - a smartly dressed, well-spoken man was unlikely to be declared insane or evil. The book also looks at the nineteenth-century 'science' of phrenology (reading the shape of the head/brain) & the racist connotations of this, before moving forward into the more recent schools of criminal psychology & neuroscience.
I mostly enjoyed reading this but I didn't get the sense of Rulloff being some criminal mastermind. Whilst he was undoubtedly extremely intelligent, in my view a great deal of Rulloff's 'genius', like Jack the Ripper, was down to the luck of committing his crimes before the advent of forensic science & the widespread use of photography. Furthermore, I know doctors in the nineteenth-century had no concept of the character of psychopaths, but it was maddening to read about person after person falling for his schtick. It also became a little repetitive in places. Overall it was interesting but I was left feeling a little disappointed. 3.5 stars (rounded up).
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Icon Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
They were not his only suspected victims but Rulloff's ability to discern what the person in front of him wanted to see & hear, allowed him to talk his way out of most things. When he was finally on trial for murder, he devised his own defence so successfully he was acquitted. He was finally brought down when he accompanied two younger men on a burglary & one of the security clerks was shot dead. The second clerk identified & took the stand against Rulloff & he was faced with execution. Even then, he was not done, granting interviews to journalists & doctors from his jail cell to those that he thought would be helpful in proving his mind was to valuable to kill. It took decades for the Schutt family to finally get any kind of justice.
The information about the nineteenth-century beliefs about criminals is fascinating. Evil was believed to manifest itself physically in a person's looks, just as for someone to be declared insane then, it was believed that they had to 'look insane' - a smartly dressed, well-spoken man was unlikely to be declared insane or evil. The book also looks at the nineteenth-century 'science' of phrenology (reading the shape of the head/brain) & the racist connotations of this, before moving forward into the more recent schools of criminal psychology & neuroscience.
I mostly enjoyed reading this but I didn't get the sense of Rulloff being some criminal mastermind. Whilst he was undoubtedly extremely intelligent, in my view a great deal of Rulloff's 'genius', like Jack the Ripper, was down to the luck of committing his crimes before the advent of forensic science & the widespread use of photography. Furthermore, I know doctors in the nineteenth-century had no concept of the character of psychopaths, but it was maddening to read about person after person falling for his schtick. It also became a little repetitive in places. Overall it was interesting but I was left feeling a little disappointed. 3.5 stars (rounded up).
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Icon Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
January 4, 2023
My second book by this author and I just don't care for her style of writing. Very thorough research but the book is littered with things like " In this book, we'll find out what they uncovered." Like, yeah? That's kinda what books do. Everything just seems to be over explained to the point that all the author's research winds up being more annoying than informative.
October 8, 2022
Great. Googly. Moogly.
I had never even HEARD of Edward Rulloff, but boy did I know about him [and his sick, twisted ways] now. WOW.
This was an amazing read. Yes, I recognize how weird that sounds when referring to a book about a serial killer, but when stuff like this fascinates a person, a well-written, excellently researched book about a particularly icky person is just what someone like me needs when her last few books have been crap [minus the sweet children's books that often offer a respite as well]. And this was absolutely one of the best. I now have the author's other books to read and I just want to do a deep dive into all of them; in my opinion, that is the BEST review an author can get.
This book was just so fascinating - Edward Rulloff was one creepy, super-smart, killer. He believed he was untouchable and unconvictable [here's a spoiler; he was wrong] and was an accomplished liar and thief. He believed that he could kill when he wanted to and because he was "brilliant" [and because there were, for at least two of the victims, no bodies] he would not be held in judgement [again...he was wrong]. He conned newspaper men, the son and wife of the assistant warden at the first prison he is at [and boy does that end in a crazy way and shows just how much he doesn't care about people unless they are useful to him], and many more people who come into his path [I was shocked to read that he spent time in Meadville PA, which is less than an hour from me and a place I have spent a lot of time in and that he conned the Dean of Allegheny College to be able to teach languages there. SO crazy], all while believing he will both never get caught, and when he does, that nothing will come of it. He will be famous, from his book [that goes nowhere] and people will never forget his name. That didn't really work out that well for him in the end. Until this book, I don't think very many people knew of him and all he did, and now that its been published, the fame he was so desperately seeking will still elude him as people will read this and instead of loving him, will revile him for the monster he was, and that was the way it should be.
If you love true crime and a well-written book, then this one is for you. SO good. I loved every [even the very gross moments] minute of it. Having the author narrate the audiobook is just icing on the cake. I would listen to anything she narrates; she did an excellent job.
Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Winkler Dawson, and PENGUIN GROUP PUTNAM/G. P. Putnam's Sons for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I had never even HEARD of Edward Rulloff, but boy did I know about him [and his sick, twisted ways] now. WOW.
This was an amazing read. Yes, I recognize how weird that sounds when referring to a book about a serial killer, but when stuff like this fascinates a person, a well-written, excellently researched book about a particularly icky person is just what someone like me needs when her last few books have been crap [minus the sweet children's books that often offer a respite as well]. And this was absolutely one of the best. I now have the author's other books to read and I just want to do a deep dive into all of them; in my opinion, that is the BEST review an author can get.
This book was just so fascinating - Edward Rulloff was one creepy, super-smart, killer. He believed he was untouchable and unconvictable [here's a spoiler; he was wrong] and was an accomplished liar and thief. He believed that he could kill when he wanted to and because he was "brilliant" [and because there were, for at least two of the victims, no bodies] he would not be held in judgement [again...he was wrong]. He conned newspaper men, the son and wife of the assistant warden at the first prison he is at [and boy does that end in a crazy way and shows just how much he doesn't care about people unless they are useful to him], and many more people who come into his path [I was shocked to read that he spent time in Meadville PA, which is less than an hour from me and a place I have spent a lot of time in and that he conned the Dean of Allegheny College to be able to teach languages there. SO crazy], all while believing he will both never get caught, and when he does, that nothing will come of it. He will be famous, from his book [that goes nowhere] and people will never forget his name. That didn't really work out that well for him in the end. Until this book, I don't think very many people knew of him and all he did, and now that its been published, the fame he was so desperately seeking will still elude him as people will read this and instead of loving him, will revile him for the monster he was, and that was the way it should be.
If you love true crime and a well-written book, then this one is for you. SO good. I loved every [even the very gross moments] minute of it. Having the author narrate the audiobook is just icing on the cake. I would listen to anything she narrates; she did an excellent job.
Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Winkler Dawson, and PENGUIN GROUP PUTNAM/G. P. Putnam's Sons for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 18, 2022
It would have been better if the author had left 21st Century "Trump era" politics out of this Gilded Age crime drama.
September 27, 2022
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.
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.
August 5, 2023
I truly enjoyed this one.
I started listening to every podcast that Kate Winkler Dawson is involved in, cause I truly like her way of telling us these historical crime stories. The book, especially the audiobook, just felt like a really long podcast episode. I love that she narrated it herself.
The story is super interesting and sparks a lot of questions.
I started listening to every podcast that Kate Winkler Dawson is involved in, cause I truly like her way of telling us these historical crime stories. The book, especially the audiobook, just felt like a really long podcast episode. I love that she narrated it herself.
The story is super interesting and sparks a lot of questions.
January 13, 2025
This book is a deep history of Edward Rulloff, the first scientifically profiled murderous psychopath in history. This is a fascinating account at a time when phrenology was all the rage, forensic psychiatrists were called “alienists� and investigative journalism was in its infancy. I appreciate how the author gave the historical account infused with knowledge from modern science without presenting the story in a way that felt disingenuous with what experts would have known at the time. My one hang up about this otherwise fascination book is the author’s tendency to discuss narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder more or less interchangeably. While there is certainly a Venn diagram when it comes to the Cluster B disorders, they are purposefully distinct. I believe they were discussed in a misleading way in this book. Authors: please, please have a psychologist give it a read if you want to write about psychology. Please? 4 1/2 ⭐️
December 7, 2024
this is so much better when you're actually studying personality disorders and can link the traits to the dsm
November 21, 2022
I noticed this book on the new non-fiction table at my favorite indie bookstore, and thought it looked really interesting. I’m so glad I requested it from the library.
Dawson has definitely done her research on Edward Rulloff, a Canadian-born man who made his way to New York State after serving time in Canada for theft. He liked to consider himself an academic, though he had little formal schooling, and when he arrived in Dryden, NY, he was able to start a small private school where he met his future wife, Harriet Schutt, as a 16-year-old student. Eventually the Schutt family began to question Rulloff more thoroughly, wondering where he came from and who his people were, but Harriet insisted on marrying him, over her family’s objections. The marriage was not happy; Rulloff was prone to anger, and even hit his wife with a heavy pestle in front of her sister. When she and her young baby went missing, the Schutt family demanded Rulloff tell them where they were, but they remained missing. Rulloff had murdered them in anger, though their bodies were never found. It’s also thought that Rulloff murdered his sister-in-law and niece with poison not long before he killed his wife and child. It wasn’t until a bungled robbery thirty years later, resulting in the death of a security guard, that Rulloff was finally found guilty of murder and hanged for his crime.
This is a very engaging book, reading almost like a novel instead of a non-fiction work. Dawson added the writings of Hamilton Freeman, a journalist that extensively interviewed Rulloff while he awaited execution, which allowed the reader to see how a psychopath like Rulloff can charm those around him even though they believe he is guilty of heinous crimes. It’s also interesting to note the similarities in behavior with modern serial killers, like Ted Bundy. However, I would have liked a little more detail in the last chapter about the founding of neuroscience; I am pleased to learn that Rulloff’s large brain contradicted the idea that white men’s brains were morally and psychologically superior to the brains of people of color, and thereby sounded the death knell for scientific racism (though it still affects people of color to this day).
If you’re interested in true crime, and what a psychopath is like, this should be on your to-read list.
Dawson has definitely done her research on Edward Rulloff, a Canadian-born man who made his way to New York State after serving time in Canada for theft. He liked to consider himself an academic, though he had little formal schooling, and when he arrived in Dryden, NY, he was able to start a small private school where he met his future wife, Harriet Schutt, as a 16-year-old student. Eventually the Schutt family began to question Rulloff more thoroughly, wondering where he came from and who his people were, but Harriet insisted on marrying him, over her family’s objections. The marriage was not happy; Rulloff was prone to anger, and even hit his wife with a heavy pestle in front of her sister. When she and her young baby went missing, the Schutt family demanded Rulloff tell them where they were, but they remained missing. Rulloff had murdered them in anger, though their bodies were never found. It’s also thought that Rulloff murdered his sister-in-law and niece with poison not long before he killed his wife and child. It wasn’t until a bungled robbery thirty years later, resulting in the death of a security guard, that Rulloff was finally found guilty of murder and hanged for his crime.
This is a very engaging book, reading almost like a novel instead of a non-fiction work. Dawson added the writings of Hamilton Freeman, a journalist that extensively interviewed Rulloff while he awaited execution, which allowed the reader to see how a psychopath like Rulloff can charm those around him even though they believe he is guilty of heinous crimes. It’s also interesting to note the similarities in behavior with modern serial killers, like Ted Bundy. However, I would have liked a little more detail in the last chapter about the founding of neuroscience; I am pleased to learn that Rulloff’s large brain contradicted the idea that white men’s brains were morally and psychologically superior to the brains of people of color, and thereby sounded the death knell for scientific racism (though it still affects people of color to this day).
If you’re interested in true crime, and what a psychopath is like, this should be on your to-read list.
July 23, 2022
Until I came across this book on NetGalley, I had never heard of Edward Rulloff, but the Hannibal Lecter hook in the blurb caught my attention and so, while true crime is not a genre I usually read a lot in, I decided to give it a try. Overall, it was an interesting read. Rulloff was certainly an intriguing figure, and it was also fascinating to hear about the ways different 'experts' of the time attempted to explain him, as a precursor to modern forensic psychiatry and profiling. The story was told in an entertaining way, mingling Rulloff's history with the background and thoughts of those who met and tried to assess him, and when I finished I felt a desire to know more about criminal psychology, so I might check out a few of the books in the bibliography. It gets a solid 4 stars for me and I recommend it to both fans of true crime and those interested in criminal psychology.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 12, 2022
So I am completely unfamiliar with the author or her podcast. I literally only know what I read in the book summary. But I’ll tell you this � based on what I read here, her podcast must be fascinating and I must be missing out!
While I do like True Crime, I’d never actually heard of Edward Rulloff before � and wow, what terror he wrought!
The writing style is very readable � it manages to be shocking while avoiding descending into tabloid-style scandal � and the research appears to be impeccable.
Very happy I read this and I hope the author brings us more books in the future!
*ARC via Publisher
While I do like True Crime, I’d never actually heard of Edward Rulloff before � and wow, what terror he wrought!
The writing style is very readable � it manages to be shocking while avoiding descending into tabloid-style scandal � and the research appears to be impeccable.
Very happy I read this and I hope the author brings us more books in the future!
*ARC via Publisher
December 20, 2022
Kate Winkler Dawson's voice is perfect for audiobook narration. I listen to some of her podcasts, so I was excited to find that she narrated the book too. The book was an intriguing in-depth look into one killer's crimes and how he impacted criminal justice. A nice blend of science and storytelling kept me invested in the book without feeling inundated with technical language. I definitely recommend this book to fans of true crime, history, and psychology!
January 20, 2023
Meh. Just listen to the podcast.
September 8, 2024
I'm not sure if I would listen to the podcast after reading this book.
The main reason the book got my attention is because I've never heard before of Edward Ruloff and why not give it a try? Somehow the book was interesting, but it got super repetitive almost right from the beginning because talking about Ruloff movements the author kept plugin every now and then input from her interviews to experts in the world of psychology.
Don't get me wrong, the details are good, and she does an amazing job setting the book in how things were during the 1800s. The saga of Ruloff travels and crimes were interesting because we can't deny that he really was a highly intelligent person. Would things had been different if he had the chance to be around intellectuals, maybe... we will never know. There was an interesting take on how people perceive the public executions during those times:
Some families valued witnessing the execution, citing a need for closure, but recent studies show that very few families and friends of murder victims (called co-victims) report achieving closure because of capital punishment—just 2.5 percent of those surveyed in a study by University of Minnesota sociology-anthropology professor Scott Vollum said they achieved “real closure� and expressed feeling empty after the murderer’s death.
Would I suggest reading the book? Probably no, I would say go to the podcast instead. Since the author is the one narrating the audiobook. She did have an interesting take on why woman love True Crime so much:
For generations, women have been the dominant consumers of true crime; in current times, most readers, listeners, or viewers of these crime stories are female. Experts say many women hope to learn from the mistakes of victims, to absorb themselves in a world they hope to never enter. In some cases, they change their behavior based on that knowledge—they’re more skeptical of male suitors and more cautious about venturing out alone. This was certainly the case with the audience of mostly proper ladies in Binghamton in 1871.
These are some of the extra readings that I'm going to consider later from the Bibliography section:
� Rogue Scholar: The Sinister Life and Celebrated Death of Edward H. Rulloff by Richard Bailey
� Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Dawson
� The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter by John Douglas, Mark Olshaker
� Handbook of Psychopathy by Christopher Patrick
� Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool by Ronald Holmes, Stephen Holmes
� The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau: Psychiatry and the Law in the Gilded Age by Charles Rosenberg
The main reason the book got my attention is because I've never heard before of Edward Ruloff and why not give it a try? Somehow the book was interesting, but it got super repetitive almost right from the beginning because talking about Ruloff movements the author kept plugin every now and then input from her interviews to experts in the world of psychology.
Don't get me wrong, the details are good, and she does an amazing job setting the book in how things were during the 1800s. The saga of Ruloff travels and crimes were interesting because we can't deny that he really was a highly intelligent person. Would things had been different if he had the chance to be around intellectuals, maybe... we will never know. There was an interesting take on how people perceive the public executions during those times:
Some families valued witnessing the execution, citing a need for closure, but recent studies show that very few families and friends of murder victims (called co-victims) report achieving closure because of capital punishment—just 2.5 percent of those surveyed in a study by University of Minnesota sociology-anthropology professor Scott Vollum said they achieved “real closure� and expressed feeling empty after the murderer’s death.
Would I suggest reading the book? Probably no, I would say go to the podcast instead. Since the author is the one narrating the audiobook. She did have an interesting take on why woman love True Crime so much:
For generations, women have been the dominant consumers of true crime; in current times, most readers, listeners, or viewers of these crime stories are female. Experts say many women hope to learn from the mistakes of victims, to absorb themselves in a world they hope to never enter. In some cases, they change their behavior based on that knowledge—they’re more skeptical of male suitors and more cautious about venturing out alone. This was certainly the case with the audience of mostly proper ladies in Binghamton in 1871.
These are some of the extra readings that I'm going to consider later from the Bibliography section:
� Rogue Scholar: The Sinister Life and Celebrated Death of Edward H. Rulloff by Richard Bailey
� Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Dawson
� The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter by John Douglas, Mark Olshaker
� Handbook of Psychopathy by Christopher Patrick
� Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool by Ronald Holmes, Stephen Holmes
� The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau: Psychiatry and the Law in the Gilded Age by Charles Rosenberg
January 22, 2025
3.5� I had not heard of Edward Rulloff, it was nice to hear a fresh story. Honestly, I liked the information but I wouldn't think of it as a race to decode the criminal mind. I went in thinking it would touch on a few serial killers but mainly was Ed's life story. And while he was intelligent, an academic similar to the fictionalized Hannibal Lecter, the focus felt entirely more true crime than scientific.
February 12, 2025
2.25-2.5 stars at most. This book had potential and interesting material but I couldn’t get past the mediocre writing and subpar story telling. The author kept harping on his genius while also creating a case that he was a psychopath then proceeded to redefine psychopath every time it came up (which in a book about a psychopath was..A LOT). I could not get past the poor flow, she kept interrupting her own storyline with other anecdotes. She also kept referencing how someone else wrote a book about him but was manipulated by him, which great mention it once and move on…but it was mentioned over and over. Idk it didn’t hit for me at all.
November 30, 2023
Really fascinating to be introduced to the man who forced scientists of multiple fields to rethink their outdated ideas on mental illness and in general the brain, ultimately leading to the development of what we know as the diagnosis of psychopathy.
January 26, 2025
This book was really interesting and Edward Rulloff is a big piss baby shit dick and I hate him lol. How he managed to avoid justice for so long is bonkers.
October 7, 2022
*I was able to read this book via NetGalley thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons!*
True crime is a tricky genre. On the one hand, it's something people - including myself - have always been drawn to, as long as there have been ways to consume it. But on the other, we're in the middle of a sort of reckoning with the less savory aspects of those stories, particularly the ways that we've long centered the killers rather than the victims and practically valorized the "geniuses" behind the crimes. I saw that same split evident in All That Is Wicked.
Having listened to some of Kate Winkler Dawson's podcast work, I had a sense of what I would be in for with this book. She's a great storyteller, and extremely adept at weaving in primary sources to flesh out her scenes. The writing in this book is clean and smooth, and the depth of research is plainly evident. I also appreciated the attempts to tie this story of the past to more modern scientific techniques (neurology, criminal psychology) and killers (Ted Bundy, BTK, and others), although I think this was somewhat less consistently successful and often resulted in choppy jumps between paragraphs. And to be clear, I feel like Winkler Dawson treated all of the "characters" with equal respect; nothing about this book felt lurid or sensationalized.
But despite the fact that All That Is Wicked is framed as a dive into the history of "mindhunting," it's really a book about one man - Edward Rulloff. And no matter how many times Winkler Dawson emphasized that he was a horrible, psychopathic killer, this book felt like an exploration of him as a pillar of that ever-problematic trope, the genius killer. True, this characterization was the reason why he drew so much attention in his own time, but these days, as we've begun to reckon with the fact that these so-called geniuses are actually more results of police incompetence and strategic victim choices, I couldn't help but feel like the choice to center Rulloff's story was woefully outdated, a relic of an earlier time in true crime. The conversation of crime has evolved into something more complex than "some people are just psychopaths," and yet All That Is Wicked really just doubled down on that idea.
TL;DR This book was well-written and well-researched, but ultimately left me with the troubling sense that it was doing the thing that true crime should be - and has been - moving on from: centering the killer and his supposed genius while his victims fall by the wayside.
3.5/5
True crime is a tricky genre. On the one hand, it's something people - including myself - have always been drawn to, as long as there have been ways to consume it. But on the other, we're in the middle of a sort of reckoning with the less savory aspects of those stories, particularly the ways that we've long centered the killers rather than the victims and practically valorized the "geniuses" behind the crimes. I saw that same split evident in All That Is Wicked.
Having listened to some of Kate Winkler Dawson's podcast work, I had a sense of what I would be in for with this book. She's a great storyteller, and extremely adept at weaving in primary sources to flesh out her scenes. The writing in this book is clean and smooth, and the depth of research is plainly evident. I also appreciated the attempts to tie this story of the past to more modern scientific techniques (neurology, criminal psychology) and killers (Ted Bundy, BTK, and others), although I think this was somewhat less consistently successful and often resulted in choppy jumps between paragraphs. And to be clear, I feel like Winkler Dawson treated all of the "characters" with equal respect; nothing about this book felt lurid or sensationalized.
But despite the fact that All That Is Wicked is framed as a dive into the history of "mindhunting," it's really a book about one man - Edward Rulloff. And no matter how many times Winkler Dawson emphasized that he was a horrible, psychopathic killer, this book felt like an exploration of him as a pillar of that ever-problematic trope, the genius killer. True, this characterization was the reason why he drew so much attention in his own time, but these days, as we've begun to reckon with the fact that these so-called geniuses are actually more results of police incompetence and strategic victim choices, I couldn't help but feel like the choice to center Rulloff's story was woefully outdated, a relic of an earlier time in true crime. The conversation of crime has evolved into something more complex than "some people are just psychopaths," and yet All That Is Wicked really just doubled down on that idea.
TL;DR This book was well-written and well-researched, but ultimately left me with the troubling sense that it was doing the thing that true crime should be - and has been - moving on from: centering the killer and his supposed genius while his victims fall by the wayside.
3.5/5
January 15, 2025
3.5 stars
I hate to go with my standard "it was a book" type of review when something was perfectly middle of the road for me, but I fear this has fallen in that stack. I was intrigued by the premise and by some parts of the story, but some parts felt a bit repetitive and I honestly just didn't find much about the person of interest interesting.
I hate to go with my standard "it was a book" type of review when something was perfectly middle of the road for me, but I fear this has fallen in that stack. I was intrigued by the premise and by some parts of the story, but some parts felt a bit repetitive and I honestly just didn't find much about the person of interest interesting.
September 15, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group Putnam for an advanced copy of this book on murder and the fascination and cottage industry that grew up around it at the end of the nineteenth century.
There has always been a sympathy for the devil feeling in people about certain kind of criminals. Especially the smooth talking, good- looking, kind of criminal, the person who seems more likely to be met at a church gathering, not wearing a leather apron waving a chain saw in a dark alley. Familiar not foreign, as most things in America seem to go. Edward Rulloff was one of these. Good looking, with an air about him of both learning and sophistication. A man on the go in this country that loved gumption. Yet would kill people he claimed to love, for a variety of reasons, money, envy, satisfaction. All That Is Wicked: A Gilded-Age Story of Murder and the Race to Decode the Criminal Mind by author and podcaster Kate Winkler Dawson tells of this self- made man, and the journalists and burgeoning criminologists who tried to learn from him, or even more make money from him.
The book begins with a brief summary before setting into the true story. Edward Rulloff was a murder, a liar and a thief, who had the capacity to fake it till he made it. Arriving poor in America after a stint in prison, and with a new name, Rulloff made friends with a man who was impressed by his drive to make something of himself, and his scholarly air. Bringing him home to his small town in New York State, Rulloff ingratiated himself into the family, and began to work as a schoolteacher in a one- room schoolhouse. Soon he married into the family, which was beginning to have doubts about the Rulloff and his lack of past, and which became worse as Rulloff was soon jealous of a wealthy friend of the family, who he thought too liberties with his new bride. Soon members of the family began to die, including Rulloff's wife, and he began a decades long career, rising up in society, and killing those who held him back, or began to question to closely. Until he was captured, and began his second life as a media star, and a new test subject for those who wanted to understand why men, especially such fine upstanding men killed, and how money could be made on it.
A story that I knew very little about, but was fascinated in quite early. Dawson has a very nice writing style, informative, but not dry, and a way of making all the characters, seem as real as the lives they lived, in the smallest. There is no lecturing, just a story that unfolds, sometimes jumping forward and back but making sense and never losing the story. I have read that this is based on a podcast, which I have not listened to, but I wonder if the book reads so well because the writing was done for reading aloud. I found interesting those that gathered around Rulloff, those media types for the stories and revenue they could generate, and the scientists who legitimately thought they could unlock the secrets of evil from him. I think those were my favorites in the book.
For true crime fans without a doubt, and for people who enjoy stories of early detectives and crime this book would also be a treat. Also true crime podcast listeners and creators might get a big thrill out of this. An incredible interesting and very readable history of crime, how society looked at it, and how specialists and experts can be so wrong so many ways.
There has always been a sympathy for the devil feeling in people about certain kind of criminals. Especially the smooth talking, good- looking, kind of criminal, the person who seems more likely to be met at a church gathering, not wearing a leather apron waving a chain saw in a dark alley. Familiar not foreign, as most things in America seem to go. Edward Rulloff was one of these. Good looking, with an air about him of both learning and sophistication. A man on the go in this country that loved gumption. Yet would kill people he claimed to love, for a variety of reasons, money, envy, satisfaction. All That Is Wicked: A Gilded-Age Story of Murder and the Race to Decode the Criminal Mind by author and podcaster Kate Winkler Dawson tells of this self- made man, and the journalists and burgeoning criminologists who tried to learn from him, or even more make money from him.
The book begins with a brief summary before setting into the true story. Edward Rulloff was a murder, a liar and a thief, who had the capacity to fake it till he made it. Arriving poor in America after a stint in prison, and with a new name, Rulloff made friends with a man who was impressed by his drive to make something of himself, and his scholarly air. Bringing him home to his small town in New York State, Rulloff ingratiated himself into the family, and began to work as a schoolteacher in a one- room schoolhouse. Soon he married into the family, which was beginning to have doubts about the Rulloff and his lack of past, and which became worse as Rulloff was soon jealous of a wealthy friend of the family, who he thought too liberties with his new bride. Soon members of the family began to die, including Rulloff's wife, and he began a decades long career, rising up in society, and killing those who held him back, or began to question to closely. Until he was captured, and began his second life as a media star, and a new test subject for those who wanted to understand why men, especially such fine upstanding men killed, and how money could be made on it.
A story that I knew very little about, but was fascinated in quite early. Dawson has a very nice writing style, informative, but not dry, and a way of making all the characters, seem as real as the lives they lived, in the smallest. There is no lecturing, just a story that unfolds, sometimes jumping forward and back but making sense and never losing the story. I have read that this is based on a podcast, which I have not listened to, but I wonder if the book reads so well because the writing was done for reading aloud. I found interesting those that gathered around Rulloff, those media types for the stories and revenue they could generate, and the scientists who legitimately thought they could unlock the secrets of evil from him. I think those were my favorites in the book.
For true crime fans without a doubt, and for people who enjoy stories of early detectives and crime this book would also be a treat. Also true crime podcast listeners and creators might get a big thrill out of this. An incredible interesting and very readable history of crime, how society looked at it, and how specialists and experts can be so wrong so many ways.
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