The Catholic Church is no stranger to scandal and controversy. Long before the pattern of abuse in the church was exposed, many priests carried out the most monstrous of acts behind the scenes. One priest, in particular, Hans Schmidt, was the worst of them all.
In the early 1900s, Hans Schmidt became the first and only Catholic priest to be executed in the United States. He committed crimes that were so cruel and horrific that there was no suitable punishment for him other than death.
Hans Schmidt was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, in 1881. During his childhood, he spent a lot of time watching pigs and cows die in the slaughterhouse. He was also fascinated by Roman Catholic rituals and would pretend to be a priest.
In 1904, Hans was 25 years old, and he was ordained in Germany. He ended up having disagreements with his superiors, so he was relocated to St. John’s Parish in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908. After more disputes with Catholic leaders there, he moved to St. Boniface Church in Midtown Manhattan.
At the same time, Anna Aumuller, a young Austrian housekeeper, had been hired to keep the church clean. Hans and Anna began having an affair.
He was transferred yet again, this time to St. Joseph’s Church in West Harlem. However, they could not be separated by distance.
Hans and Anna married on February 26, 1913, in a secret ceremony he performed himself. Catholic priests are prohibited from getting married and engaging in physical affairs.
In 1913, Anna got pregnant. She was 21, and Hans was 31. He knew that if anyone found out about the pregnancy and their relationship, he would no longer be able to continue being a priest. So, on September 2, he used a 12-inch butcher’s knife to slash Anna’s throat in her apartment while she slept.
After that, he used a hacksaw to cut off her head and slice her body in half. He wrapped each section of her body in newspaper and put her lower body in one of her monogrammed pillowcases embroidered with her initial.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Finally, he attached a large rock called schist to each of the body parts and dumped them in the Hudson River.
Three days later, a couple of kids in New Jersey found Anna’s upper torso. The lower section of her body surfaced three miles downriver. The case went to the New York Police Department because schist was rare in New Jersey.
An autopsy confirmed that the woman had been murdered. She was under the age of 30, was around 5’4″, and between 120 and 130 pounds. She had also given birth prematurely shortly before her death.
The police traced the monogrammed pillowcase to the company that created it. That led them to Anna’s apartment. The landlord informed them that Hans Schmidt had rented the apartment for a female relative.
The apartment was still covered in blood. The police also found the murder weapons, monogrammed handkerchiefs, and letters to Anna from Hans in some trunks. Then, they went to St. Joseph’s to question Hans about the murder.
He confessed to the murder within minutes, claiming that he had loved her and “sacrifices should be consummated in blood.” His trial began on December 7, 1913.
His lawyers argued that he was overcome by bloodlust and was too insane to know what he was doing. Evidence showed that he came from a family with a long history of mental illness. His plea of insanity worked.
The second time around, the jury didn’t let him off the hook. A witness came forward to say that Hans had asked her to pose as his wife, Anna, to get a $5,000 life insurance policy taken out on her.
Ultimately, the jury convicted Hans of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death by electric chair. On February 18, 1916, he was electrocuted to death.
It is believed that Anna was not his only victim. Investigators found a second apartment of his with a printing press that made $10 bills.
He is also connected to the death of a nine-year-old girl. Her body was discovered in the basement of St. John’s Parish, the first church he worked at in the U.S.
The girl had gone missing while he was in Louisville, and a local janitor had been charged with the crime based on circumstantial evidence. Her body was dismembered in a way that was similar to Anna’s.
German police even traced the murder of a girl in his hometown back to him, but they never had the chance to question him before he was executed.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
