A FOUL CRIME EXPIATED

Evening Star, Issue 16092, 18 April 1916, Page 9

A FOUL CRIME EXPIATED

"JEKYLL AND HYDE" IX EEAL LIFE PAYS THE PENALTY. According to -cablegrams received from Xew York, one of the most tragic horrors of the city has, after a delay extending over years, had its sequel—a priest, who ought never to have been in that position, has pone to the electric chair to pay the penalty of his double life and atrocious crime. The man electrocuted was Hans Schmidt, who, in September, 1913, was arrested for the murder of Anna, Aumuller, a pretty 20-year-old servant. At the time of the crime he was an .assistant priest, officiating at a Roman Catholic church in New York. Born in Achessenberg, Germany, he was really the embodiment of the vices and virtues possessed by the- "Jekyll and Hyde" cf Stevenson's famous novel. Ordained in 1907, he went to America some six years ago. Two years later, according to his own confession, he met his victim. At that time she was a servant in the rectory of St. Boniface Church, New York, and he was a curate there. He apparently fell in love with her, and after she had visited her people in Hungary, and had returned to the States, they met in secret. This was imperative, because of his position as an assistant priest. Subsequently he procured a marriage license, and, acting the dual part of oiticiatiug priest and bridegroom, made the girl his wife. Tlie couple lived in a neatly-furnished'flat, the priest going '%. out his duties as usual and the girl returning to her domestic work. Several months afterwards the young woman's condition made a scandal imminent, and Schmidt determined to get rid of his unfortunate victim in the most coldblooded way. Buying a butcher's knife ' and a saw, he noiselessly entered the flat about midnight. The girl lay asleep, and with one clean stroke he slashed her throat so deeply that death was instantaneous. He then dragged her body into the bathroom and dismembered it. During these diabolical proceedings he tasted his victim's still warm blood, after which he went back to church in time to say' Mass. On the following day, having provided himse'f with some brown paper and wire rope, he half dragged, half carried the blood-stained mattress to a piece of waste ground close by. Here, amid the jeers of some small boys, he burnt it, poking it with a stick to ensure combustion. Having removed a convicting clue to his terrible crime, he was faced with the most serious of the problems confronting him in the wiping out of the past. What could he do with the dismembered body? Without a trace of emotion he described how he cut it into nine pieces, how each piece was washed clean of blood and made up into neat bundles. The first day ho tied the girl's head up and carried it under his arm on tramcars to the ferry, throwing it overboard as th& boat reached mid-stream. Talcing three trips o day, it took him three days to dispose of the body in this way, and "all the time he was officiating as a- priest, hearing confessions, saying Mass, instructing school children, comforting the sick, marrying and burying, and "reading every edition of the newspapers." But in throwing his parcels ol human flesh into the water he made a fatal mistake. They did not sink to the bottom, as he imagined, but came to the surface to teU of the horror he had committed. Only the head remained unfound, bub a tag o'n a pillow-slip provided the police with the all-important clue. From this the case was carefully buiit up, and Schmidt found himself under arrest in church. "I killed Anna because! 1 loved her," he said. "But I love my Church better than 'any earthly love." The dead man was a curious psychological study. One side of his face was described as spiritual, "almost beatific"; on the Gther "there were marks of the Devil." "I've tried to subdue my lower self," he said. ."I've lost the light, and 1 must pay the penalty. But I loved her." Another statement of his was: "I killed her becauso the Lord commanded me to do so. I have no remorse." His assump tiou of insanity was said to have been like his piety in church—adopted for his owi, nefarious and sinful purposes. Ho was, in fact, certified as perfectly sane. His electrocution had been delayed through appeals to ' the Higher Courts. Schmidt was stoical to the end, and declared that | he was prepared to meet his fate.

■Representations were recently made to the Minister of Education and r.hti North Canterbury Education Board for ■% new schooj <at Ashburton on the grounds of the insanitary condition of tho present, buildins;- The school has been elos-ed during tlie past three weeks owing to an epidemic of diphtheria, aa many pa-ranis jefu&ed to send ' their children. Tho Education Board's reply was considered un?atufae- ! lory, and V representative meeting of i householders last evening refund to elect , a school committee. It was decided to re- ' quest the Mayor to call a public meeting \ to sprees indignation at the board's ai> ; tion in shelving the question of the erec- ; tion of a. new school, and urge the department to ereet one at the earliest j.os- . Bible moment.