Career
Born in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg and ordained in Mainz in 1906, Schmidt immigrated to the United States in 1909, where he was assigned to Saint John"s Parish in Louisville, Kentucky. There, a rift with another priest resulted in Schmidt"s transfer to Saint Boniface Church in New York City. While serving in New York, Schmidt met Anna Aumüller, the attractive housekeeper for the rectory who had recently emigrated from Austria.
Despite his subsequent transfer to a church in a distant area of the city, Schmidt and Anna continued a secret sexual relationship.
After discovering that Anna was pregnant, Schmidt slashed her throat on the night of September 2, 1913, dismembered the body, and threw the pieces into the East River. Once the body was discovered, a police investigation led to Schmidt and he was arrested and charged with the murder.
A media spectacle ensued, comparable to those caused by the Scott Peterson and Mark Hacking cases of a later era, as the New York papers competed against each other with an ever greater degree of sensationalism regarding the case. After feigning insanity during his first trial, which ended with a hung jury, Schmidt was eventually convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the electric chairman
On February 18, 1916, Schmidt was executed at Sing Sing Prison.
He remains the only priest executed for murder in the United States. Apart from killing his young, pregnant "wife," further investigation revealed that Schmidt had a second apartment where he had set up a counterfeiting workshop. Authorities also suspected Schmidt of the murder of Alma Kellner, 9, whose body was found buried in the basement of Saint John"s church in Louisville, Kentucky, where Schmidt had previously worked.
The body had been burned, but authorities suspected the killer had initially tried to dismember her.
The janitor, Joseph Wendling, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder based on circumstantial evidence and bloody clothing found at his house.
