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He was a Catholic
priest and a killer. Hans Schmidt, ordained in Germany in 1904,
arrived in the United States in 1908 and was assigned to St.
John's Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.
Arguments with
the minister resulted in Schmidt's transfer to St. Boniface Church
in New York City. There he met beautiful Anna Aumuller, a
housekeeper for the rectory who had recently emigrated from
Austria. Despite his transfer to a church far uptown, Father
Schmidt and Anna continued a romantic affair and, in a secret
ceremony he performed himself, they were married.
When he
discovered she was pregnant, Father Schmidt knew his secret life
would soon be exposed. On the night of September 2, 1913, he cut
Anna's throat, dismembered her body, and threw the parts into the
Hudson River. When the body was discovered, he was arrested and
charged with the murder.
A media circus
ensued, as the New York papers became fascinated by the priest and
his double life. After feigning insanity during his first trial,
which ended with a hung jury, Father Schmidt was eventually
convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. He
remains the only priest ever executed for murder in the United
States.
Background
Born in Germany and ordained there in 1904,
Schmidt was sent to the United States in 1908 where he was
assigned to St. John's Parish in Louisville, Kentucky. There, a
rift with another priest resulted in Schmidt's transfer to St.
Boniface Church in New York City.
The Murder
While serving in New York Schmidt met Anna
Aumüller, the attractive housekeeper for the rectory who had
recently emigrated from Austria. Despite his subsequent transfer
to a church in a distant area of the city, Father Schmidt and Anna
continued a secret sexual relationship. It was later revealed that
they were married in a secret ceremony of dubious legality (which
Father Schmidt performed himself). However, after discovering that
Anna was pregnant, Father Schmidt slashed her throat on the night
of September 2,
1913, dismembered the body, and threw the pieces into the
Hudson River.
Trial and
execution
Once the body was discovered, a police
investigation led to Father Schmidt and he was arrested and
charged with the murder. A media circus spectacle ensued,
comparable to those caused by the Scott Peterson and Mark Hacking
cases of a later era, as the New York papers competed against each
other with an ever greater degree of sensationalism regarding the
case.
After feigning insanity during his first trial,
which ended with a hung jury, Father Schmidt was eventually
convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death in the
electric chair. On
February 18,
1916, Father Schmidt was executed at Sing Sing Prison; he
remains the only priest ever executed for murder in the United
States.
Other crimes
Apart from killing his young, pregnant "wife,"
further investigation revealed that Father Schmidt had a second
apartment where he had set up a counterfeiting workshop, and
uncovered the suspicion that Schmidt had killed and dismembered a
nine-year-old girl whose body was found buried in the basement of
St. John's church in Louisville, Kentucky, where he had previously
worked.
Additionally, German police wished to
interrogate Schmidt in the murder of a girl in his hometown.
Despite never being charged with these other offenses, it was
strongly suspected that Father Schmidt was responsible for them as
well.
Wikipedia.org
Hans Schmidt Trials: 1913 & 1914
Law.jrank.org
Defendant: Hans Schmidt Crime Charged: Murder Chief Defense Lawyers: W. M. K. Olcott, Alphonse G. Koelble,
Terence J. McManus Chief Prosecutors: James A. Delehanty, Deacon Murphy Judge: First trial: Warren W. Foster; Second trial: Vernon
M. Davis Place: New York, New York Dates of Trials: First trial: December 7-30, 1913; Second
trial: January 19-February 5, 1914 Verdict: First trial: jury deadlocked; Second trial: guilty Sentence: Death
SIGNIFICANCE: The question of sanity has
always been a vexatious issue in the American courtroom. Here it
would decide whether the defendant—a priest—would live or die.
On September 5, 1913, two youths walking along
the New Jersey shoreline of the Hudson River stumbled across a
package containing the headless trunk of a woman, severed at the
waist. The next day, some three miles downriver at Weehawken, a
second package was found, a pillowcase monogrammed with the letter
"A", and containing the lower torso of the same woman, wrapped in
a newspaper dated August 31. Despite the fact that both packages
had washed ashore in New Jersey, jurisdiction passed to the New
York Police Department. This decision was made because both
parcels had been weighted down with a large chunk of schist, a
grayish-green rock rarely found in New Jersey but very common in
Manhattan, leading to the strong presumption that the crime had
taken place in New York.
A preliminary examination of the body suggested
a woman aged under 30, approximately 5 feet 4 inches in height and
weighing between 120 and 130 pounds, and that she had been in the
water a few days at most. An autopsy later revealed that the woman
had given birth prematurely not long before she died
Skilled detective work, tracing the
manufacturer of the highly distinctive pillowcase, then studying
that company's order books, led officers to a Manhattan apartment.
The landlord said that the apartment had been rented two weeks
earlier by someone called Hans Schmidt, ostensibly for a young
female relative.
When officers let themselves into the apartment,
they spotted bloodstains on the wallpaper and floor; stains that
someone had struggled hard to remove, judging from the new
scrubbing brush and six cakes of soap that lay by the sink. Inside
a trunk they found a foot-long butcher's knife and a large handsaw,
both recently cleaned. Another trunk held several small
handkerchiefs, all amateurishly embroidered with the same letter
"A" as on the pillowcase. A bundle of letters addressed to one
Anna Aumuller led to St. Boniface's Church, on 42nd Street, where
the 21-year-old German immigrant had worked as a servant in the
rectory, until being discharged for misconduct. Mention of
Schmidt's name brought another lead—St. Joseph's Church, 405 West
105th Street.
Father Hans Schmidt, aged 32 and German-born,
almost fainted when police officers came to interview him. Just
minutes later, racked by remorse, he unburdened his soul with a
bizarre tale of having gone through a form of marriage with
Aumuller—a ceremony conducted by himself for obvious reasons—only
to then kill her, excusing himself on the grounds that "I loved
her. Sacrifices should be consummated in blood."
Insanity Plea
That Schmidt killed Anna Aumuller was not in
doubt when his trial began on December 7, 1913, but his defense
team, lead by W. M. K. Olcott, was emphatic that their client had
been consumed by a "blood lust" and, therefore, was not
responsible for his actions. As support for this view they
produced Dr. Arnold Leo, who had treated Schmidt and Aumuller some
months before the tragedy.
Leo told the court that at their first meeting
Schmidt had initially claimed to be a music teacher, but later
admitted that he was a priest. "Schmidt told me that he was very
much in love with the girl, and that he intended to give up the
priesthood and marry her." Leo described how during one of his
professional visits to see Schmidt at the rectory, the priest
unaccountably became "wildly excited," then sprang across the room
and grabbed a zither. After playing the instrument for a few
minutes he stopped, sat down and began to talk calmly.
So far as the prosecution, which knew a great
deal about the defendant's shady background, was concerned,
Schmidt was a scheming con man, entirely responsible for his
actions. The arresting officer, Inspector Joseph A. Faurot,
testified that at first Schmidt had denied knowing Anna Aumuller,
but had yielded when Faurot said, "Come now, tell us the whole
truth about this thing."
According to Faurot, Schmidt admitted
purchasing the knife and handsaw on August 31, then creeping into
Aumuller's bedroom on night of September 2, while she lay
sleeping, and slashing her throat. Quizzed about the obvious signs
of experience in the dissection, Schmidt admitted that he had been
a medical student before being ordained.
Assistant District Attorney James A. Delehanty
wanted the jury to know more about what Faurot had discovered
about Schmidt's background. Faurot detailed the extraordinary
career of a priest who often posed as a doctor, in which capacity
he had performed illegal abortions, a man who turned his hand to
counterfeiting, someone who had aroused concern at several
churches across America, and yet who had miraculously avoided
censure.
Clearly Schmidt was peculiar, but was he mad?
It would be up to the jury to decide.
Deadlocked
After 34 hours of often acrimonious
deliberation the jury came back on December 30, and announced
themselves hopelessly deadlocked at 10-2 for conviction. Jury
foreman William Ottinger, visibly exhausted, told Judge Foster, "Your
Honor, we have voted many times, and we stood the same on the
first ballot as the last," leaving the judge no option but to
declare a mistrial.
One of the holdout jurors, William McAuliffe,
afterwards claimed, "The other ten were willing to acquit the
defendant on the grounds of insanity, except that they were afraid
that he would go to Matteawan and get out like Thaw. So they
thought the only thing to do was send him to the electric chair."
When defense lawyer Alphonse Koelble suggested
that the jury be allowed to bring in a verdict of guilty to second-degree
murder, Delehanty bitterly rejected the idea and declared that the
state would try Schmidt again.
This trial began on January 19, 1914, and was
essentially a carbon copy of the first, except that in his charge
to the jury Justice Davis made a plea for some cold, hard logic:
If you are satisfied that the defendant
purchased the knife and saw with which he cut up the body,
thinking of using them as he did, and if you are satisfied that
in the middle of the night he went to the flat, took off his
coat and cut her throat, and then cut up her body, what
conclusion do you come to? Use your common sense … your
experience with men. Bear in mind, it isn't every form of mental
unsoundness that excuses a crime. [See Harry Thaw Trials]
The jury took this admonition to heart and, on
February 5, 1914, after just two hours' deliberation, they
convicted Schmidt of first-degree murder.
One week later the disgraced priest was
sentenced to death, and after a lengthy appeal process he was
executed on February 18, 1916.
The issues of mental competence raised in these
trials resonate to the present day, as juries continue to wrestle
with the conundrum of deciding whether someone is mad or bad.