Hans Schmidt

Hans B. Schmidt (3 January 1881 – 18 February 1916) was a German Catholic priest, rapist, convicted murderer, and suspected serial killer. He was executed by way of the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York State for murdering and dismembering a woman in the United States. He was also suspected in the disappearance of another woman and child. Schmidt was the first and remains the only Roman Catholic priest to be executed in the United States.

Early life

Hans Schmidt was born on January 3, 1881, in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. Both sides of his family had a long history of mental illness. From his early childhood, Hans was regularly beaten by his father and watched his father beating his mother. Even in childhood, Schmidt combined a fascination with blood with bisexual promiscuity.

Only 3 pieces of Aumüller's body were ever located; her upper torso, her lower torso, and her right thigh. The pieces of her torso contained all of her internal organs aside from her pancreas. In rebuttal, the prosecution called in other witnesses, including multiple psychiatrists, who had questioned Schmidt before the trial. The testimony concluded that Schmidt was sane, in spite of his claims of hearing voices telling him to "sacrifice" Anna Aumüller. However, the prosecution's efforts were in vain; at the conclusion of the trial in December 1913, a hung jury was declared.

The second trial began approximately two weeks later. This time, the prosecution introduced new testimony. In April 1913, well before the defendant received his alleged command from God to "sacrifice" Aumüller, 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. After being sentenced to the death penalty, he said, "I'm satisfied with the verdict. I would rather die today than tomorrow." He was sent to Sing Sing Prison to await execution.

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. In December 1914, Schmidt admitted that he feigned insanity during his trials. In admitting so, however, he accused Ernest Muret, the dentist with whom he'd had a homosexual affair, of having accidentally killed Aumüller during a botched abortion. Schmidt further claimed that he allowed authorities to pursue him and not Dr. Muret for the murder because he wanted to cover for his male lover. Muret adamantly denied anything to do with Aumüller's death and police never found any evidence to the contrary.

Due in large part to both Muret and Bertha Zech's insistence 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, "Pardon me. I beg the forgiveness of all whom I have offended and of all whom I have scandalized. I forgive all who have offended against me."

Moments before the switch was thrown, Schmidt said in a muffled voice, "My last thought is for my mother. Please give my mother my last good bye."

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 Aumüller'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.

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. Upon the request of Alma's uncle, Wendling was pardoned and deported to his home country of France in 1935. No evidence has been found linking Schmidt to the area around the time that Alma Kellner went missing and any reports that Schmidt was assigned to the St. John's Church are false.