New Britain herald., 1916-02-18
DEATH PENALTY PAID
 BY HANS SCHMIDT
Electrocuted at Sing Sing for
 Murder Of Anna AuInuller
WENT QUIETLY TO CHAIR

Current Applied Three Times and
 Within Minute Girls Slayer Was
 ed His Life Has Few Parallels. Ossining, N. Y., Feb. 1S.-Hans
 Schmidt was electrocuted at Sing Sing
 prison today for the murder of Anna Aumuller, Sept 2, 1913,
 l Schmidt went quietly to the death chamber accompanied by the principal l keeper and the Rev. Father Cashin, 1 the prison chaplain. Leaving the death house, he said goodbye to those l who remained.
 1 Addresses Seventeen Witnesses ] When he entered the chamber, the l guards attempted to direct him toward 1 the chair, but Schmidt gently shook | them off and insisted upon addressing 1 the seventeen witnesses. The guards l desisted from their efforts and, with Father Cashin standing at one side
 and the keeper at the other, Schmidt said: "Gentlemen, I ask forgiveness of all those I have injured or scandal 1 oQ. l 1 me- My last wish is to say gOod- bye to my dear old mother Schmidt then seated himself in the 1 electric chair and the current was ap- l piled three times. Within minute he was dead
 He had spent the night up to mid
 night in praying and talking with l Father Cashin, and slept from mid
 night to o'clock when he was awak- l ened for breakfast. He would take
 only a cup of coffee.
 Statement Made Yesterday.
 ''I will be put to death for lying
 and not for murder Had the police 1 not shown such wonderful facility for 1 believing everything I told them, and
 had they made any independent 3n-
 vestigation they would speedily have
 shown that a criminal operation
 caused the girls death.'' The fore
 going is a, part of the final statemen
 made yesterday by Hans Schmidt II I the death house at Sing Sing, Wher'
 he was awaiting death this morning
 for the murder of Anna Aumuller
 The statement came through hls at-
 torney, Alphonse C.. Koelble.
 .T consider my death a miscarrlage ! of justice" Schmidts statement con-
 tinues 'The machinery of the dis l trict attorneys office and the police is 1 overwhelming even against the most i innocent The justice told the jury that
 even if I believed I was inspired by | God to kill Anna Aumuller, I would be guilty of murder if I knew that I
 was violating the law so the jury had
 to convict me.
 The court of appeals admitted the
 court below had made a grievous er- TOT, but it said I had admitted that I l had lied and therefore I should not get
 a new trial
 1 "I charge bad faith on the part Of
 nobody. It is only weakness of the ju- | dicial system I hope time will prove
 my contentious, and that my judicial murder will help to abolish executions.
 Not one-third of the men who have
 been in the death house with me, in
 cluding Becker, were guilty of mur-
 der'
 1 One Faint Clue. New York, Feb 1S-When the torso
 of Anna Aumullers body was washed 1 LID on the New Jersey shore of the 1 Hudson river there started a search 1 which has had but few parallels in i the annals of New York crime. There l was but one faint clue, a pillow slip
 on which was embroidered the let | ter "A,'' but it was just such a pillow i slip as might be found in hundreds of ! homes or stores There was not even laundry mark to aid the police.
 With this slender clew Inspector ! Faurot took personal charge of the case, and on September IA, 1913, 1 twelve days after the murder, Hans | Schmidt, an assistant priest at an up 1 town church, was arrested, charged 1 with the crime. An hour before the l arrest the inspector had broken into l flat and found a long-bladed butchers i l1ife and other evidence that the mur- l der had been committed there. 1 Schmidt confessed and his sole de- fense was that it was a "blood sacrifice murder"
 Head Never Found The body had been disme embered and presumably all of it was thrown into the river, although the head was never found. Schmidt was twice 1 placed on trial the first jury in De- cember, 1913, failing to reach a yer dict. In February, 1914, he was found guilty.
 Besides the sOrdid story of Anna Aumuller's infatuation for Schmidt the trials revealed that his was a ca reer of crime. He was engaged in a cOunterfeiting scheme at the time the l murder was committed, it developed and "Dr." A. Muret, who posed as dentist, was sent to prison for seven years as Schmidt's accomplice in the latter's scheme. It was found that Schmidt also had posed as a 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