Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-18
Asks Forgiveness Before Seat
ing Himself in Chair;
Dead in Minute
KILLED ANNA AUMULLER
Ends Career of Crime of (which
Sordid Infatuation For Girl
Was Climax

Ossining, y. Y, Feb. is. - Hans
Schmidt was electrocuted at Sing Sing
Prison to-day for the murder of Anna
Aumuller, September ,, 1913.
Schmidt went quietly to the death
chamber, accompanied by the princi-
pal keeper and the Rev. Father Cashin,
the prison chaplain. Leaving the
death house he said good-by to those
who remained.
When he entered the chamber the
guards attempted TO direct him toward
the chair. but Schmidt gently shook
them off and insisted upon addressing
the seventeen witnesses. The guards
desisted from their efforts and with
Father Cashin standing at one side and
the keeper at the other Schmidt said:
Seats Himself in Chair
Gentlemen: | ask forgiveness of all
those ! have injured or scandalized. |
forgive all who have injured me. My
last wish is to say good-by to my dear
old mother"
Schmidt then seated himself in the
electric chair and the current was
applied three times Within minute
he was dead. lie had spent the night
up to midnight in praying and talking
with Father Cashin and slept from
midnight to o'clock, when he was
awakened for breakfast. He would
take only cup of coffee.
When the torso of Anna Aumuller's
body was washed up on the New
Jersey shore OF the Hudson river there
started a search which has had few
parallels in the annals of New York
crime. There was but one faint clue,
pillow slip. on which was embroid-
cred the letter ~" but II was Just
such a pillow slip as might be found in
hundreds Of homes or stores. There
was not even a laundry mark 10 aid
the police.
Arrests Priest
With this slender Clew Inspector
Faurot took personal charge of the
case and on September IA, 1913, twelve
days after the murder. Hans Schmidt,
an assistant priest at an uptoWh
church, was arrested, charged with the
crime. An hour before the arrest the
inspector had broken into fiat and
found a long -bladed butchers knife
and other evidence that the murder
had been committed there. Schmidt
confessed and his sole defense was
that il was blood sacrifice murder
The body had been dismembered and
presumably all of il was thrown into
the river. although the head was never
found. Schmidt was twice placed on
trial. the first jury. i'm December, 1913,
failing to reach q verdict. In Feb
ruary, 1914, ne was found guilty.
SOFdid Story
Besides the sordid story or Anna
Aumuller's infatuation for Schmidt,
the trials revealed that his was a ca
reer of crime. He was engaged in Il
Counterfeiting scheme at the time the
murder was committed, it developed,
and Or" A. Muret. who posed s a
dentist, was sent TO prison for seven
wears as Schmidt's accomplice in the
Iatter's scheme. II was found that
Schmidt also had posed as physician,
that he had committed forgery on nu-
merous occasions. and that he had
been guilty OF various other acts OF
fraud. His attorneys pleaded their
client was insane. The slayer, how
ever. always contended that he was
sane. He took no active part i'm his
own defense. When he was sentenced
he thanked the court and expressed a
desire to he executed at once. He main
tanned the same stolid composure
through all the various stages of his
case.