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•P 11 h™r K t™t l he kTeenTn slr'iwVn "7 Sch ” idt = the Wh ° “ nOW belieVed * be T ° f histOry ’* On the left he is seen in the cleric garb he wore before he was unmasked as the murderer of Anna Aumuller, his sweet-
he assumed. In the right hand picture he i 2”»T'l Ja’ k t V'T™ W ° re J he “ he cha “ ged „ COStUmeS % thC ° ffice ° f hIS alle " ed conspirator. Dr. Muret He is next seen wearing a false beard, one of the many disguises the detectives say
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SCHMIDT.GIBL'SSUYEII,
DEFIES STATE TO PROVE
IDENTITY OF HIS VICTIM
Priest Declares District Attorney Can
Not Send Him to Electric Chair Until
Head of Anna Aumuller Is Found
and Corpus Delicti Is . Established.
NEW YORK, Sept. 20. —Although
he had expressed a desire to be placed
on trial immediately, Hans Schmidt,
confessed murderer of Anna Aumuller,
to-day made a slight change of front.
In a conference with his counsel.
Alphone Koelble, Schmidt exclaimed:
"The District Attorney will never
be able to put me in the electric chair.
He’s up against it. and he knows it."
“What makes you say that?” asked
the lawyer.
“Why, he hasn’t found the head of
that body, has he, and he can not
prove its Anna Aumuller unless he
can show the head, can he? Sun
pose I did admit the killing? What
of that? He’s got to show in court
that I did it, and without the body be
ing positively identified, he Is going
to fail.
“I won’t try to stop him from con
victing, however. I have nothing to
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ear . from the electric chair. I am
willing to have it all ended right
now.”
Rely on Insanity Plea.
Despite Schmidt’s belief that the
District Attorney will not be able to
prove the corpus delicti, Assistant
District Attorney Delehanty to-night
pointed out that there is sufficient
evidence now in hand to prove the
murder of Anna Aumuller, aside from
Schmidt’s confession.
Attorney Koelble, on the other
hand, is confident that the reading of
the confession in court will prove to
any jury that Schmidt Is insane. He
will confer with Mr. Delehanty Mon
day on the appointment of an alienist
to < xamine Schmidt.
“Whatever the alienist says. I’ll
stand by,” said Mr. Koelble to-night.
Schmidt refused to-day to answer
any questions regarding the stolen
death certificate blanks which were
found in his possession. He admitted
that he had marked certain members
of the congregation of St. Joseph’s for
slaying because he believed they
would be better off dead.
"I intended to help them to a bet
ter world,” he said. “Many of them
1 know would be better off in the next
world than in this.
Willing to Kill Sufferers.
“T believe in euthanasia. I know
many pedons wish to die. but can not.
This is one of the great social prob
lems.
“To help into a better world the
incurables and those who wished to
die but could not was a part of my
general plan to benefit the world.
“For a long time I have thought
there were too many children in the
world and too little money, so I sold
rjjedicine under the name of Dr. Mol
liere to reduce the birth rate and
planned to manufacture money to re
lieve those already overburdened with
children."
Schmidt denied having made any
list of those whom he had selected
as victims, but said that he had in
his mind several men, women and
children, and that he soon would have
I begun his work of extermination if h<
! had not tteen arrested fur the murder
of Anna Aumuller.
Witnesses were found to-day by th*
police who are believed to have seen
Schmidt tarrying away the torso of
the murdered girl on the evening of
| September 3, about 24 hours after he
I had killed her and dismembered the
1 body. These witnesses will be con
; fronted with S hmidt»in the* Tombs
I to-morrow or Monday.
Muret Tells of His Life.
“Dr.” Muret, alleged confederate of
Schmidt in his counterfeiting scheme,
stated to-day that he was born in
Chicago and left there for Germany
with his parents when he was about
three years old.
He denied many of the police
charges concerning his record in Lon
j don and elsewhere, but declined to
I volunteer any facts concerning him
i self. The police, he said, wanted, this
l information and should be compelled
ito "dig it up” themselves. Re de-
I nied that he had ever used an alias.
’ and said he had never been in trou
ble with the police before now.
Uln*S SH r NT\AY a MTkfIJCAn, a i lapu a, ua., ouinuai, i fjai zi. imijj.
Worlds Arch Criminal Revealed
In Life Story of Hans Schmidt
NEW YORK, Sept. 20. —Since the
apprehension of Schmidt as the mur
derer of Miss Aumuller and his con
fession, not a day has failed to add
| some details of the man’s strange life
| story. It seems to the police that the
, whole world is interested. A thread
I has been picked up here and there,
this tangle has been unravelled, and
from the warp and woof the narra
tives of his career has been woven.
The police and the court authorities
| now realize that they have to deal
i with one of the arch criminals of the
' age.
Inspector Faurot is not alone in be
lieving that time will rank this as the
.world’s most celebrated murderer. As
the inspector says, the Rev. Hans
Schmidt has been shown to be one
of the brainiest criminals in an>
land.
; If this man had not made one little
mistake and bought a pillow different
from any other pillow sold, Faurot de
clares that Schmidt would have de
veloped into a master plotter for a
band of smaller criminals around him,
launching out and abandoning half
way criminality to make himself a
factor In the big crimes of the world.
Here is his story so far as it is
known:
CHAPTER I.
An old gray-haired woman.’ sitting
by the fire in her little home in
Aschaffenburg. Germany, two weeks
ago was handed a photograph by the
mail man and the picture proved to
be that of her long-absent Johannes
Schmidt in America. On the back of
the card was the sentence in Ger
man “Auf ein frohes wiedersehen”(To
our next happy meeting.) In a post
card that came two days later waz
the encouraging promise. ‘T rejoice
that I soon may be with you.”
Yet the Rev. Hans Schmidt when
he sent the likeness and the message
was undoubtedly already plotting the
cruel murder of Anna Aumuller, the
comely young girl he said he loved.
He had looked at flats and stolen a
death certificate, had a copy made of
it by photography and bad obtained in
some way blank deatfl certificates.
CHAPTER n.
Frau Sdhmidt sat gazing into the
flames in the grate and thought of
the youth of her boy, Johannes. Time
and again in those days he had
brought tears to her eyes. At Mainz
Seminary his pranks had scandalized
her. He had even on one occasion sat
in a bathtub stark naked' playing a
guitar, while other students and the
learned teachers looked aghast
through the open door.
At Munich again, where he was sent
for further schooling, his love affairs
with women of questionable character
became a public scandal and led to
his disgrace. Nevertheless, he was
ordained and sent to officiate at St.
Elizabeth’s Church. He abandoned
the altar in a solemn part of the
services at Gonzenheim and ran cry
ing through the aisles and later dis
appeared from the town after an af
fair. Then h»- was involved in forgery
and dismissed.
A close companion of Johannes
Schmidt in these youthful days of
revelry and affairs with women was
a cousin, Adolph Mueller, none other
than the dentist and associate of
Schmidt in New York under arrest
and booked by the police as Dr. Er
nest Muret.
Mueller fled to England and
Schmidt fled to America. Constantly
they kept in touch, but secretly of
necessity.
Mueller became first Doctor Esteln,
and in that guise was employed to
teach languages in the Hugo Lan
guage Institute in London. He pad
ded his accounts and was discharged,
immediately afterwards launching out
in another and poorer quarter of th/
city as “Dr. Ernst, teaching a tongue
In one month.”
Next he became a surgeon, Dr. Mu
ret, and was an organizer of a medi
cal aid society that provided families
with medical attendance and medi
cine for three pence weekly. The
Medical Defense Union caused the ar
rest of the bogus doctor, and Muret
dropped out of eight, while Scotland
Yard held warrants for white slavery',
illegal operations, attacking a young
giH and fraudulently posing as a phy
sician.
CHAPTER 111.
In Louisville, Ky., In 1909 a young
man appeared in clerical garb and
introduced himself as the Rev. Hans
Schmidt to the priests of St. John's
Church. He was not appointed to any
place himself, but to his new friends,
the young priests, he showed what
purported to be dismissorial letters
from Munich proving him a priest.
Also at that time the Rev. Hans
Schmidt left Louisville and present
ing letters believed tn be forged, in
Trehton, was received as a visiting
priest and allowed to assist at a
church.
While the Rev. Hans Schmidt was
in Louisville Dr. Arnold Held appear
ed in Chicago and registered ata col
lege of mechano-therapy. He was an
especially brilliant student and talked
of having been educated at the Gym
nasium at Koenigsberg, in Germany.
So brilliant was he that In May, 1909,
he was given a certificate or diploma.
lie lived on the North Side in a
family where there was a pretty
young girl. The family disappeared
and Dr. Held left Chicago about the
same time and no trace of either
could afterward be obtained.
CHAPTER IV.
It was at St. Boniface's Church,
New York, established as assistant
as assistant pastor on letters from
Trenton that Hans Schmidt first met
the young girl, Anna Aumuller, then
a maid in the church house. The
young man was s<» brilliant, and when
he talked of St. Elizabeth and of his
right to officiate at their own mar
riage. this in the name of the saint,
every word seemed true.
Trusting, believing, the girl soon
found herself in deep despair. She
talked to her family and friends of
the charity of the Rev. Schmidt and
of his gifts to the poor. She said
nothing mure. But finally the day
came that the housekeeper suspected,
and Anna had to leave the rectory.
But at that time the Rev. Schmidt
had already gone to another church,
and at St. Joseph’s, in 125th street,
preached at the services for night
workers.
Then came the strange disappear
ance of Anna Aumuller, the finding
on August 31 of the torso and limbs
In the river, the tracing of the odd
pillow slip—wonderful detective work
—and finally the visit of the detec
tives to the church house soon after
midnight last Sunday.
Father Schmidt was in bed. He was
awakened. In his black cassock of
confessional he str Hie slowly down
the stairs—a man of middle? age and
middle height, of high forehead, low
ering eyes, firm jaw and weak mouth.
He saw the sFx strangers at the foot
of the stairs. He saw Father Hunt
mann’s wondering, shocked face. But
he came on, slowly, steadily.
All were silent until he reached the
foot of the stairs.
Like a flash, Faurot sprang for
ward. He held a picture of Anna
Aumuller before the eyes of Schmidt.
“Did you kill that girl?” snapped
the inspector.
The priest held up his hands, shift-
ing his eyes from the face of the
woman he had slain.
”YES, YES. I KILLED HER,” he
said in a choking whisper.
His arms fell. He reached them
pleadingly toward the good gray
priest, his master in the church. Fa
ther Huntmann shrank from the prof
fered embrace as from a thing stain
ed. With a swing of his arm he swept
him aside. Schmidt staggered back.
“ Because I loved her,” he said,
as if he were finishing his first words.
CHAPTER V.
While the detectives and newspa
per men sat listening the Re;.
Schmidt told the story of his crime,
a talc never equaled in the annals of
crime. He told of his relations with
Anna Aumuller and went on: “B it
Anna talked to me about our child
soon to be bom. The full realization
of our sin became apparent to me.
The fact began to worry me.
“At first I could not think out’mv
course. Anna pleaded. Then I de
cided that we should be married Sev
eral days before I killed h r w? w<-re
married at the City Hall. We gave
our true names. You will find the
records.
“We decided then that wo should
have a home. I sqj about finding a
location. We knew that for a time,
until we decided how to declare our
selves before the world, it must be a
secluded one.
“I engaged the apartment at No. 6S
Rradhurst avenue. 1 fixed it up with
a little furniture. I bought the fur
niture wo thought we required.
“Anna went there and we began our
married life. But I was worried, if
our relation became known, how
could I explain?
“I thought it all out alone and de
cided to kill my wife.
“My decision made,tit was time. I
thought, to act. I went out and hunt
ed for tools. I came downtown. I ;
thought I could best do it with a
butcher knife.
“I went to a little shop In Center
street, just south of Worth street, or
near that street, and bought the
butcher knife and the saw.
“I took the tools with me to ojy
apartment on the night of Septem
ber 1. Anna was lying in her bed I
do not know whether she was asleep.
“Stepping over to the bed with th.-
butcher knife.* I seized her and tol l
her quickly that 1 had come to carry
out my threat.
“I cut her throat with the butcher
knife while I held her. While the bo ly
was still warm I rushed into the bath
room with it. I threw her into th?
bathtub. And then I cut her up.
“I cut the body into five or six
pieces.
“Then I went out and bought tar
moth paper in which to wrap the
pieces.
“1 used the first things that came to
my mind to use as first coverings for
the parts. I Jammed one section into
the pillow slip. I used. I think, part
of the bedspread to wrap about the
legs or arms. 1 may have used some
of Anna’s lingerie.
“My w< rk was rapid. T warted to
get rid of the head. It was the first
thing I took away. I wrapped it n
paper and tied it up like a package.
“With the head under my arm, I !
made my way to the river. I bought
a ferry ticket and got aboard the fer
ry to Fort Lee. I laid the package
down on the seat beside me In the
waiting room and again on the ferry
boat. No one noticed. There were
many passengers.
"As the boat neared midstream I
picked up my package and sauntered
to the stern of the boat. As no one
paid attention to mo, and I felt s ire
that I was not observed. I dropped the
head into the river. It disappeared.
T hurried back to the flat as soon
as the boat brought me back to Man
hattan. I did up each part of the bodv
In a package small enough to carry
conveniently without attracting too
much attention. I made sure that no
blood showed Then I went to the
river with each piece. .
“My course was the same with each l|
package. 1 laid them on the seats |
where other passengers sat on the
ferry boat when I sat down. I tossed
them into the water whenever the
first opportunity presented. It was
done.”
CHAPTER VI.
Following the confession, rapidly
came the police discovery that the
cousins, who In youth connived to
gether at Mainz, were together still.
•In St. Nicholas, not far from the
■ hurch of the Rev. Schmidt, was the
dentist office of Dr. Ernest Arthur
Muret. It was there that the two
men had plotted crime.
One of the plans of the Rev.
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Schmidt was to make counterfeit
money, and to "relieve the poor of
this country and Germany," as he
says. The minister engraved the
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plates, crudely enough at first, but
better as he practiced. The place of
safe-keeping for the counterfeiting
outfit was in the laboratory of Dr.
Muret, the dentist.
9A