New-York tribune., 1918-06-27
Helen Schmitzer, Twelve,
Found Dead by Gas in
Home in Bronx
Police Learn of
Weird Happenings
Victims Hair Cut in Sleep,
Clothes Ripped; First
Called Suicide

yet not so old that he has forgotten
how, in his boyhood in Germany, the
witches rode off on their broomsticls
to dance with the devil on the heights
Of Horselberg. He is man past sew
enty-but not past protesting, in the
face OF mystery by which the police
were frankly bewildered, his belief that
evil spirits make themselves as free
of The Bronx as of the Black Forest.
The mystery lay in the death of old
franzs twelve-year- granddaugh
ter, Helen Schmitzer-perhaps not so
much in her death alone as in the rela-
ton to her death of the weird things
that had recently been happening to
her.
First, about three weeks ago, she
had gone to bed with her hair in braids
that reached almost to her waist, and
when she awoke had found the braids
shipped off and laid out neatly on her
pillow. Again, between night and
morning, her clothing had been ripped
and slashcd. Sometimes it was one
article, sometimes another, for this
went on night after night. Then the
attack had diverted to her shoes. The
shoes had been cut and mended, cut
ana nlenucU.
Girl Dead, Her Shoes Slashed
Some time Tuesday night the shoes,
newly repaired, had gone under the
knife again, but Helen did not wake to
see them. Early yesterday morning an
odor of gas was traced to the room
behind Franz Schmtzers cigar shop, at
80S Forest Avenue, The Bronx, in
which the child slept. The window was
closed and gas was rushing from an
open jet when Helen's grandfather and
Frank SchmitzeE,. her father, entered
the room. Helen was dead on her bed,
with the slashed shoes beside her.
Policemen from the Morrisania sta
tion made a perfunctory investigation.
They didn't see the shoes and were not
told the full story;so Helen's case went
onto the station house blotter as one of
suicide. r 9,.
This was about 3 o'clock, about an
hour after the finding of the body.
Fifteen minutes later Detectives Bon
nano and Btuckman, OF the Fifth
Branch Bureau, begaflaass~inMestigat alton
Of their own. To them Helen's father
talked more Freely than to the uni
formed men. He told them in detail of
the development of the household d~mys--
terry;
delen, ne'@SRld. used 10 sleep IN
the room with her grandfather and
grandmother. The night after her hair
had been cut off / changed beds with
off the kitchen. 1t wasn't because I
feared anything else would happen that
| made the change, but because the
back room was drafty and 1 catch cold
easily.
"But things did keep happening.
Morning after morning we would find
her clothes or her shoes cut up.
Locked Herself In
"Helen locked herself in every night
before she went to bed I don't know
that there was any particular reason
for it--just her habit. still kept some
of my clothes in the room, such as the
aprons 1 wear in the butcher shop |
woIk in. My mother would 60 in after
clean aprons in the morning, and used
to have to wake Helen up to open the
door. A few days ago l put on new
lock, so that Helen wouldn't have to
two keys. Helen kept one, which she
took out of the keyhole after locking
herself in, and my mother kept the
other.
Last night Helen and I went to bed
about 10 o'clock. I had been outdoors,
watching her as she played, and my
father and mother were already asleep
when We came in.
81 woke up about 2 o'clock. My
father was up and stirring and fol-
lowed him into the kitchen. He said
traced the odor to Helen's room.
was going to break in the door when
my mother came with the second key"
DR.. Riegelman, Bronx medical ex
aminer, arrived with Peter Hating, of
the Homicide Bureau, as the younger
Schmtzer was concluding his story,
which was repeated for the benefit Of
the late comers.
The medical examiner said Helen
had been dead since midnight. He
found no marks on the body and de-
cided that death was due to asphyXia-
tion.
Mr.. Hating questioned Hclen's
father at length and then had the
grandfather brought into the room
where the body lay.
Blames 1t on Witches
"Somc one turned this gas cock late
last night or early this morning." he
said, addressing the old man in Ger
man. "Who do you think did it ?"
"Hexen," was the prompt answer
"Witches."
From bag in which it had been pre-
served Hating produced the hair that
had been shipped from Helen's head.
"And who do you think did this 2"
"Hexen." said the old man.
AS one after another the mysterious
occurrences which had centred around
Helen were mentioned, the grandfather
made the same reply-"Hexen." At
last he said he could talk no more.
"1'm getting dizzy" he pleaded, and
Hating permitted him to return to
bed.
Once Threatened Suicide
Many hours of investigation by Mr..
Hating, Captain Andrew J. Wines, of
the fifth branch detective bureau, and
all the captains available men served
only to enhance the mystery. Several
days ago, it was learned, Helen had
told girl chum that if she were not
to be promoted with the rest Of her
class she would commit suicide. But
detectives who visited the public
school which Helen attended found out
she had subsequently assured herself
she was not to be left back.
Beyond that there developed possi
bility that Helen herself might have
been the agent of the "hexen"-that
she might have cut off her own hair be-
cause other girls in the neighbborhood
wore theirs "bobbed" and might have
cut up her own clothes and shoes in
the hope they would be replaced with
q new outfit.
III haven't decided to make anv ar
rests and haven't decided not to.H said