Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1913-09-19
MYSTERY SOLVED
OF GIRLS DEATH
Catholic Priest Confesses to One Of
Worst Crimes in History of New
York City.

One of the most horrible crimes
in the history of the country
was pefpetrated in New York
City few weeks ago, the facts
of which have just come to light.
Rev. Hans Schmidt, curate of
st. Joseph's Roman Catholic
Church in west One Hundred
and Twenty-ffth Street, con-
fessed to the murder Of Anna
Aumuller, parts of whose dis
membered body were found in
the Hudson River and are now
in the Hoboken morgue.
81 killed her because | loved
her so much. She was so beauti
full, so good | could not let her
live without me. | had made up
my mind that she and could
not live together. | was priest
and must remain with my
church. could not let her 20
away from me-"
Sobbing out this confession of
his crime, the priest was locked
in a cell in the tombs prison.
where, instead of collapsing, as
might have been expected, he
calmly went to sleep.
The victim of the most grim
and mysterious tragedy of two
decades was a beautiful young
German girl of twenty-five years.
UP to two weeks ago she had
been employed as servant in
the parish house of st. Boni-
faces Roman Catholic church.
1t was there that she met the
man who now faces the electric
chair as the penalty for her
brutal murder. Two weeks ago
the girl had been discharged
from the parish house because
of her physical condition, the re-
suit of her relations with the
young German curate, who at
that time had been transferred
to another parish, but had con-
tinued to meet the girl clandes-
timely at various places.
The murder was committed
on the night of September 2 in
a flat which the priest had rent
ed at 68 Bradhurst avenue under
the name of "a. Vandyke," and
to which he had brought the
girl, introducing her az his wife.
According to his own confess
sion. one of the most amazing
documents in police annals in
this city, the young clergyman
killed the girl while she lay
asleep by drawing q knife across
her throat with such swift force
and unerring skill that her eyes
never opened. Carrying his un-
conscious, but still breathing
victim into the bathroom of the
flat, he proceeded to dismember
the living body, first slashing
through the neck muscles and
vertebrae until the head had
been removed, and then, with
the aid of a butchers knife and
carpenters saw, cutting through
the middle of the body. Next he
removed the legs and arms, and
finally severed the feet.
All of these gruesome details
were narrated by the priest
murderer as he stood in custody
of two detectives in the flat in
which he had planned and ex-
ecuted the ghastly crime. After
the first furry of excitement,
when the man attempted to
commit suicide by cutting his
throat with razor after he had
been arrested in the rectory of
st. Joseph's, he was the calmest
and most composed member of
the party.
Without a tremor of voice or
quiver of lip or eye, he told of
wrapping up the dismembered
remains in nine separate pack
ages covered with wrapping
paper purchased in nearby
store, and how her then, only a
| few hours after cutting the sleep
ing victims throat, made five
trips back and forth across the
Hudson on the Fort Lee ferry,
dropping one or two of the
bundles into the river on each
trip until he had disposed of all.
He described his return to the
flat and his efforts to remove
evidences of the butchery, and
finally pointed out the vacant
lot, where he had tried to burn
the blood stained mattresses,
fragments of which were still
lying on the ground.