The Prescott daily news., 1916-02-19
HANS SCHMIDT DIES
 IN ELECTRIC CHAIR
Former Priest, Convicted of Murdering Anna Aumuller, Meets Fate Calmly Yesterday at Sing Sing Prison.

Ossining, N. r., Feb. 18.- Hans Schmidt was electrocuted at Sing Sing prison today 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 Ca shin, the prison chaplain. Leacing the death cell, he said goodbye 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 ad- dressing the IT witnesses. The guards desisted from their efforts, and with Father Cashin standing at one side and the keeper at the other, Schmidt said:
 "Gentlemen, 1 ask forgiveness of all those l have injured or scandal ized. I forgive all who have injured me. My last wish is to say goodbye to my dear old mother"
 Schmidt then seated himself in the electric chair, and the current was ap- piled three times. Within a minute he was dead. He had spent the night up to midnight n praying and talking with Father Cashin and slept from midnight to . o'clock, when he was awakened for breakfast. He would take only a cup of coffee.
 Story Of the Crime. When the torso of Anna Aumuller's body was washed up on the New Jer- sey shore of the Hudson river, there started a search which has had but few parallels in the annals of New York crime. There was but one faint clue, a pillow slip on which was em- brodered the letter "A," but it was just such a pillow slip as might be found in hundreds of homes or stores. There was not even a laundry mark to aid the police.
 With this slender clue, Inspector Faurot took personal charge of the case, and on September IA, 1913-12 days after the murder-Hans Schmidt an assistant priest at an uptown church. was arrested and charged with the crime. An hour before the arrest, the inspector had broken into fiat and found a long -bladed but cher's knife and other evidence that the murder had been committed there. Schmidt confessed, and his sole de- fense was that it was 'blood sacri- l flee" murder. The body had been dismembered and presumably after ward it was thrown into the river, all though the head was never found.
 Schmidt was twice placed on trial, the first jury in December, 1913, fail ing to reach verdict. In February 1915, he was found guilty.
 Besides the sordid story of Anna IAumuller's infatuation for Schmidt the trials revealed that his was a career of crime. He was engaged in counterfeiting scheme at the time the murder was committed, it devel- oped. and Or" A. Muret, who posed as dentist, was sent to prison for seven years as Schmidt's accomplice 1 in the latter's scheme. It was found that Schmidt also had posed as a physician, that he had committed for gery on numerous occasions and that he had been guilty of various other acts of fraud.
 His attorneys pleaded their client was insane. The slayer, however, al- ways contended that he was sane. He took no active part in his own de fense. When he was sentenced he thanked the court and expressed a desire to be executed at once. He maintained the same stolid composure through all the various stages of his case.