Edward C. Rulloff — Last Public Hanging in New York State · Original Murder Mask Artifacts · Archival-Grounded True Crime Tour · Tompkins County Historical Society Collections
The History Center in Tompkins County serves as the repository for Ithaca and Tompkins County's historical records, with collections spanning local newspapers, court documents, photographs, and physical artifacts from the county's nineteenth and twentieth century history.
Edward C. Rulloff is the most prominent figure in the center's dark-history collections. Rulloff came to Ithaca in the 1840s and was suspected of murdering his wife Harriet and their infant daughter — both of whom disappeared in 1845. He was convicted of abduction of his daughter, later served time for the murder, and escaped conviction on multiple occasions through legal maneuvering before being captured for the fatal shooting of a Binghamton store clerk in 1870. He was hanged publicly in Binghamton on May 18, 1871, in what is generally cited as the last public execution in New York State. His brain, noted by contemporary observers as exceptionally large, was removed after execution and sent to Cornell University, where it remains in the collection.
The History Center's collection also includes original death masks — plaster casts made of faces after death, common in nineteenth-century practice — and archival materials from 1920s unsolved Ithaca crimes that have not been publicly attributed to any perpetrator. These artifacts form the physical centerpiece of the haunted history tour, making it unusual among ghost tours in grounding its content in objects visitors can actually see.
The tour operates seasonally, primarily in fall, with Thursday through Saturday departures. At $20 per person it is priced as a standard historical program.
Sources
- https://www.thehistorycenter.net/tours/haunted-history-in-downtown-ithaca-na72w-azwat
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_H._Rulloff
- https://ithacavoice.org/2014/09/strange-case-edward-rulloff-1800s-ithaca-murderer-bar-namesake/
The History Center positions its haunted history tour explicitly as an archival program rather than a paranormal entertainment product. The tour uses materials from the center's collections — including death masks, court records, and newspaper accounts — as the primary evidence for the 'hauntings' it describes, which are the documented record of violent events rather than reported ghost phenomena.
Edward C. Rulloff is the tour's most-developed case. Rulloff arrived in Tompkins County in the 1840s and was a person of interest in the disappearances of his wife and infant daughter in 1845. He was convicted of kidnapping, suspected of additional murders across several decades, and eventually caught for the fatal shooting of a Binghamton store clerk. His 1871 public hanging in Binghamton is generally identified as the last such execution in New York State. After his death, his brain — noted at autopsy as the largest on record at the time — was transferred to Cornell University, where it is still held.
The murder masks are plaster face casts from the 1920s, made in connection with unsolved crimes in the Ithaca area. They are physical objects from the archive, displayed to tour participants, representing individuals whose violent deaths remain officially unresolved. The combination of artifacts, documented cases, and an academically grounded presentation distinguishes this tour from most ghost walk operations.
Notable Entities
Edward C. Rulloff (convicted murderer, hanged 1871)