Hans Schmidt (priest)
Hans Schmidt | |
---|---|
First degree murder | |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Ecclesiastical career | |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Church | Roman Catholic Church |
Ordained | December 23, 1904 (priest) |
Congregations served | St. John's Roman Catholic Church, Louisville St. Boniface's Church, New York City |
Hans B. Schmidt (1881
Early life
Hans Schmidt was born in the
Ordination
Although many who knew him had serious doubts about his moral and mental fitness to serve as a Catholic priest, Schmidt claimed that he was ordained by
During parish assignments in the villages of Bürgel and Seelingstädt, Schmidt molested
Anna Aumüller
In New York City in 1912, Schmidt met Anna Aumüller, the housekeeper at the
Beginning in December 1912, Schmidt was also having a secret homosexual relationship with a New York City dentist named Ernest Muret, with whom he operated a counterfeiting ring. Schmidt later claimed to have enjoyed Muret more than Anna.[10]
Despite his subsequent transfer to St. Joseph's Church in Harlem, Schmidt and Anna continued a secret sexual relationship. It was later revealed that they were "married" in a secret ceremony, which Schmidt performed himself. Schmidt also wrote their names on a marriage certificate and told Anna that he was about to leave the priesthood for her.
During a sexual encounter with Anna on the
On the night of September 2, 1913, Schmidt went to the apartment they had rented while posing as a married couple. He slashed Anna's throat while she slept, drank her blood, raped her as she bled to death, dismembered her body, and threw the pieces from a ferry into the Hudson River.
Police investigation
After pieces of Anna's torso washed ashore at Cliffside Park and Weehawken, New Jersey,[15] Hudson County police detectives found a price tag still attached to the pillowcase used to wrap part of the body. Using the tag, the pillowcase was traced to a factory in Newark, New Jersey, which sold exclusively to Manhattan furniture dealer George Sachs. The investigation was then taken over by the New York City Police Department and assigned to Manhattan Chief of Detectives Joseph Faurot.[16]
After arriving at George Sachs' furniture store at 2782 Eighth Avenue, Inspector Faurot found the dealer unable to recall how many of the pillowcases he had sold. A check through his receipts revealed that a bedspring, a mattress, pillows, and pillowcases had been sold on August 26, 1913. The buyer had given his name as A. Van Dyke and had arranged for his purchases to be delivered to a third story apartment at 68 Bradhurst Avenue.[17]
Questions to the building superintendent revealed that apartment was occupied by a married couple. The husband was described as a man with a heavy German accent who had given his name as H. Schmidt. When a three-day stake out revealed no one arriving, Inspector Faurot ordered detective Frank Cassassa to break into the apartment. A cursory search found that the floor had been recently scrubbed, but large amounts of dried blood were found on the walls. A large bloodstained knife was also found on the kitchen shelf. Men's clothing with the name A. Van Dyke sewn into the lining was found, as were letters in both German and English addressed to a Hans Schmidt.[18]
Many of the letters were from women in Germany. The largest number, however, were from an Anna Aumüller whose most recent address was listed as 428 East Seventieth Street. Inspector Faurot and detectives Cassassa and O'Connell visited the address and learned that Anna had moved out after receiving a job as housekeeper at St. Boniface's Church. Faurot and the detectives then visited St. Boniface's Church and were told by the senior pastor, Fr. John Braun, that Anna had been his housekeeper, but had transferred to St. Joseph's Church. Upon being asked if he knew the name Hans Schmidt, Fr. Braun described him as a priest who had formerly been assigned to St. Boniface's Church but had also moved to St. Joseph's.[19]
Inspector Faurot and detectives Cassassa and O'Connell arrived at St. Joseph's Rectory at 1:30. After Faurot pounded on the door, the senior pastor, Fr. Daniel Quinn, opened the door, led them into the parlor, and woke Schmidt. Upon being confronted by the inspector and the detectives, Schmidt admitted "I killed her! I killed her because I loved her!" Schmidt then described the murder and dismemberment in detail. As his fellow priests watched in horror, Schmidt was taken into police custody.[20]
Trials, appeals, and execution
A media spectacle ensued as the New York papers competed against each other with an ever greater degree of sensationalism regarding the case.
Following his arrest, the archdiocese of New York announced that Fr. Schmidt's priestly faculties had been indefinitely suspended.[3]
During Schmidt's first trial, he pled
The second trial occurred approximately two weeks later. This time, however, the prosecution introduced new testimony. In April 1913, well before the defendant received his alleged command from God to "sacrifice" Anna, Fr. Schmidt had convinced a fellow German immigrant, a woman named Bertha Zech, to pose as Anna Aumüller and to purchase a $5000 life insurance policy in her name. The policy listed Fr. Schmidt as the sole beneficiary.[24]
On February 5, 1914, after only three hours of deliberation, the jury found Fr. Schmidt guilty of
Schmidt's defense team filed an appeal shortly after his sentence, which postponed his execution for at least a year while it worked its way through the courts.[27] In December 1914, Schmidt admitted that he feigned insanity during his trials. In admitting so, however, he accused the dentist with whom he had a homosexual affair, Ernest Muret, of having accidentally killed Anna during a botched abortion. Fr. Schmidt further claimed that he allowed authorities to pursue him for the murder rather than Dr. Muret because he wanted to cover for his male lover.[28]
Due in large part to both Muret and Bertha Zech's instance to the contrary, Schmidt's new allegations were unsuccessful in gaining him a new trial. On February 18, 1916, Schmidt entered the Sing Sing death chamber at 5:50 AM. Moments before being seated in the electric chair, Schmidt said "I want to say one word before I go. I beg forgiveness of all I have offended or scandalized and I forgive all who have offended against me!"[29]
Moments before the switch was thrown, Schmidt said in a muffled voice "My last word is to say goodbye to my dear old mother!"[30]
The first jolt of electricity was initiated at 5:52 AM. After two additional jolts were administered, the prison physician pronounced Hans Schmidt dead at 5:58 AM.[30]
A reporter for the Albany Times later wrote "His last night on earth he spent proclaiming his innocence and declaring that he had made peace with God. The guards had expected a scene when the slayer was to be executed. But his actions surprised them. He was the coolest man in the death chamber. He almost domineered those who assisted in putting him to death."[31]
The Schmidt family originally intended to ship Schmidt's body home to Germany. However, due to the ongoing nature of World War I, this idea proved impossible. As a result, Fr. William Cashin, the Sing Sing Roman Catholic
Other possible crimes
Apart from killing his young, pregnant "wife", further investigation revealed that Schmidt had a second apartment where he had set up a
Authorities suspected Schmidt of as many as four other murders. He had been seen with a woman named Helen Green. Green left for Chicago the month before Anna's murder, but had then disappeared. Police couldn't find any traces of Green. When he moved to America, Schmidt was seen with another woman whom he claimed was his wife. She also had disappeared.[33]
Schmidt was suspected in the deaths of two children. The owner of the apartment complex where Schmidt was living said she sometimes saw him bringing a 5-year-old boy to his living room. Schmidt claimed the boy was his son. That boy had since disappeared. When the woman asked the boy for his name, he said it was August Van Dyke.[33]
Schmidt became an alternate suspect in the murder of Alma Kellner (age 9) whose body was found buried in the basement of St. John's Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where he had worked. The body had been burned, but authorities suspected the killer had tried to dismember her. The janitor, Joseph Wendling, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder based on circumstantial evidence and bloody clothing found at his house.[34] Upon the request of Alma's uncle, Wendling was pardoned and deported to his home country of France in 1935.[35]
References
- ^ Gado, Mark. 2006. Killer Priest: The Crimes, Trials, and Execution of Father Hans Schmidt. Westport, CT: Greenwood, p. 5.
- ^ Gado (2006), pages 4–11.
- ^ New York Times. September 23, 1913. p. 5. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
Hans Schmidt, the suspended Catholic priest who murdered Anna Aumuller and attempted to make counterfeit money, intended to commit a series of murders for the purpose of defrauding life insurance companies, according to Inspector Faurot.
- ^ Mark Gado (2006), pages 13–15.
- ^ "River Murder Traced to Priest Who Confesses – Is Rev. Hans Schmidt, Assistant at St. Joseph's, Harlem, Victim a Servant Girl – He Lived a Double Life – Went Through Marriage Form With Anna Aumueller, Killed and Dismembered Her – Traced by Pillow Case – To Apartment They Shared, Where He Slew Her in Her Sleep in the Night – Full Proof of the Crime – Confronted in His Parish House Slayer Breaks Down and Tells All – Suicide Plan Frustrated" (PDF). New York Times. September 15, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
- ^ Gado (2006), p. 15.
- ^ Gado (2006), pp. 15–17.
- ^ a b Polenberg, Richard. The World of Benjamin Cardozo: Personal Values and the Judicial Process, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- ^ Gado (2006), pages 144–146.
- ^ Gado (2006), pages 143–144.
- ^ Gado (2006), pp. 144–145.
- ISBN 978-1-63388-532-5.
- ^ Gado (2006), pp. 131–149, 161–168.
- ^ "The Pittsburgh Press – Google News Archive Search". google.com.
- ^ Gado (2006), pp. 49–60.
- ^ Gado (2006), page 61-63.
- ^ Gado (2006), p. 63.
- ^ Gado (2006), pages 63–67.
- ^ Gado (2006), pages 67–69.
- ^ Gado (2006), pages 71–78.
- ^ "The Hans Schmidt Case". Chicago, Illinois. The Day Book. December 24, 1913. p. 31.
- ^ "Calls Hans Schmidt Sane". Chicago, Illinois. The Day Book. December 26, 1913. p. 3.
- ^ "Hans Schmidt Dies in Electric Chair". The Prescott Daily News. February 19, 1916.
- ^ Mark Gado (2006), pages 152-156.
- ^ "Hans Schmidt, Slayer of Anna Aumueller, Faces Death Chair". New York, New York. The Evening World. February 5, 1914. p. 1.
- ^ Mark Gado (2006), page 159.
- ^ "Everywhere's News in Tabloid Form". Chicago, Illinois. The Day Book. March 18, 1914. p. 31.
- ^ "Schmidt Tells Tale of Shielding Muret; Confessed Murder of Anna Aumuller, He Says, to Save Dentist". New York, New York. The Sun. December 13, 1914. p. 16.
- ^ Mark Gado (2006), pages 202-203.
- ^ a b Mark Gado (2006), page 203.
- ^ a b Mark Gado (2006), page 204.
- New York Times. September 16, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
Dr. Ernest Arthur Muret, a dentist of 301 St. Nicholas Avenue, was arrested at midnight last night by Inspector Faurot and several detectives on the charge of running a counterfeiting plant with Hans Schmidt, the curate of St. Joseph's Church on West 125th Street, who was arrested early Sunday morning for murdering Anna Aumuller, parts of whose dismembered body were found in the Hudson River.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4766-3013-7.
- ^ "Kellner Slayer Guilty – Joseph Wendling, Charged with the Girl's Murder, Gets Life Sentence". The New York Times. December 4, 1910. p. 14. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
- ^ Bovsun, Mara (April 11, 2021). "Justice Story: The cross country search for the felonious Frenchman". nydailynews.com. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
External links
- Hans B. Schmidt from the Library of Congress at Flickr