The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-09-15
ACCUSED
CLERIC WAS
SUSPECTED
BY BISHOP
Arrested In Munich and Ac-
quilted Because Weak
Minded
Church Authorities Believe
He Forged Papers =
Claims He Killed Girl
Because Saint Told Him
to Do So.
By the Associated Press.)

10y Lie ASSOC1dIoO 9T6SSD
Mainz,. Ger, Sept. 15-The Journal.
today. says that Johannes Schmidt, be-
longing to the Mainz Bishopric, has
been long under suspicion by the
Bishop. He disappeared from Mainz
and later arrived in Munich, where
he was arrested on a charge of COM
ra'tting frauds. He was acquitted
by the court on the ground of weak
mindedness and then en4igrated to
New York. The Mainz officials were
not aware that he was performing the
functioT1 of q. priest in New York
New YorH, Sept. 15-In the hope of
branding, as an imposter and pseudo
priest, Hans Schmidt, assistant rector
of st. Joseph's Roman Catholic church,
the alleged self-confessed slayer of
Anna AumuI1er, victim of New York. 8
river mystery. church authorities be-
gan, today, sweeping investigat ton
of Schmidt's' record.
I'VE hope, of course, to be able to
prove that this unspeakable monster
was an imposter and that he had been
using forged papers, declared Mon
s1gnor Lavelle, tvicar-general of the
archdiocese of New York. HE came
to thls diocese with credentials which
were apparently authentic but we
know practically nothing Of him"
In his cell in the Tombs, with his
coat as a pillow, Schmidt slept sound
ly through the night and arose, this
morning, to partake of a hearty break
fast He had little to add to his al
legged confession, last night in which
he killed his victim as she lay In bed,
cut her body up in the bathtub of the
apartment where he had established
her, wrapped it in five bundles and
dropped the bundles in the Hudson
river. To Father Evers the Tombs
chaplain, Schmidt was said to have
made the following declaration:
81 was directed to kill her by St
Elizabeth, who is my patron, as a, sac
rthce, to be consummated as was the
sacrifice of Abraham, in bloc -
To the Police Schmidt is a eyed to
have said:
81 killed her because loved her.
The police believe, however, that he
killed her because she was soon to
be mother. They believe that the
ceremony through which she went with
her alleged slayer, last February, and
in which he was both priest and BRIDE
groom.
OF Schmidtis antecedents, little is
known here save his own claim that
he was born in Germany in 1881, was
educated there, ordained by Bishop
Keelein in st. Augustine's Seminary in
Mainz and came to New York in 1905.
In 1909, he went to Trenton, N J.,
and in December, 1915 was appointed
assistant rector of st. Bontface's
church in this city. There he met the
Aumu1ler girl who, he said, he had
come to this country from Germany a
few months before.
ST was attracted by her beauty"
reads Schmidt's alleged confession "T
became infatuated with her I loved
her. killed her. She was so beauti-
full, so good, I could not let her live
without me. had made up my mind
that she I should not live together. I
was a priest and must remain with the
church. 1 could not let her go away
from me. So opened the door of the
flat. I awakened her. L told her I
had come to fulfill my threat. Then T.
drew the knife across her throat
The skill with which the young wom-
ans body had been dismembered led
the police to believe that the work
had been done by a surgeon In the
occupied for five days by Schmidt and
the girl detectives found 500 printed
cards which indicated that Schmidt
had masqueraded as a surgeon These
cards read as follows.
-'Dr. Emil Mo1iere, formerly assistant
surgeon of the Municipal Womens
Hospital, Paris, France. Representa-
tive of the Chemical Hygiene Manu-
featuring company