Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-20
SLAYER ADMITS
HE PLANNED TO
MURDER SCORES
Discredited Priest COnfesses
Wholesale Death Plot to
Benefit the Victims.
POLICE BELIEVE HE MAY
HAVE OPERATED HIS PLAN
To Determine il He Did, Health
Department Searches Death
Certificates.

NEW YORK. Sept. 20-The admis-
sion of Hans Schmidt that he eontem-
plated unlimited murder to help un-
fortunates into a better world"
started an investigation today at the
department of health to ascertain II
Anna Aumuller was the priests only
victim. DR.. Shirley ". Wynne. act
ing register. put d clerk TO going over
the 1900 death certificates filed since
the firsr of the year to search for for
geries.
Schmidt's explanation of why he
had blank death certificates came late
yesterday in a talk with his lawyer
and Detectives McKenna and Cas-
sassa. OF Inspector Faurot's staff He
denied that he had killed any one ex-
cept Anna, his sweetheart, but said
he had a number of other victims in
mind when he bought the knife and
saw with which her body was dis
membered.
For flemish ingenuity his scheme
has few parallels. according to In
spector Faurot. The police are not
willing, in view of Schmidt's latest
admission, to accept his statement
that Anna Aumueller was his only
victim. and the health department in
vestigation is at the instance of the
inspector
In the book of certificates found
among Schmidt's effects is a stub that
the detectives have been unable to ac-
count for. The health department
records may throw some light on It.
The discredited priest, slayer of his
girl dupe and counterfeiter. protested
that in taking the lives of his fellow
being he intended only TO benefit
them. Most of his chosen victims, he
said. are parishioners of ST. Joseph's
Church, but refused to give the
names of any of them.
Would .Beneft" Victims.
Il meant to benefit those l killed, y
he declared II intended TO end their
lives painlessly. Those | intended to
kill would be better off in the other
world"
When asked how he intended to
kill them he said:
"Oh. any way. so long as it was an
easy death. Probably with a knife.
might have used a poison that acted
quickly"
He admitted he first intended to
conceal the Aumueller murder by the
use of a bogus death certificate. The
girl had Just been dismissed from the
rectory where she had been employed
and none of her acquaintances, who
were few, knew where she had gone.
1t was probably as good a time as
Schmidt could have desired for max
ing away with her. After he had east
the dismenlbered body into the river
he intended to file forged papers that
would have officially recorded her as
dead
But when parts of her body were
found and he read in the newspapers
that the pillow ticking clue was be-
ing followed. he became afraid to
carry out his plan, just as be was
frightened into abandoning the two
fats with their murder evidence.
The murderer calmly made the ad-
mission of his wholesale murder plan
when asked in regard to the uses he
expected to put the book of Health
Department death certificates found
in his effects.
There were twenty certificates in
the book, which the priest stole from
a Harlem physician whose acquaint-
ance he cultivated assiduously. Two
we're torn out On one of the stubs
was the name of a person. The other
stub was blank.
Inspector Faurot refuses to reveal
the name written on the stub, but
says he believed it was purely fam
ciful and that the certificate was not
used for a dead person. Detectives
McKenna and Thompson went to the
Tombs and asked the priest about
the death certificates. He told them
Continued on Page 2. Column -