Hans Schmidt

Hans B. Schmidt (1881-1916) was a Catholic priest, child molester and murderer.

Life
Schmidt was born in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria at some point in 1881. From an early age, Schmidt was aware of his bisexual tendencies and fascination with blood, once beheading two geese and keeping their heads as mementos. He also enjoyed going to the slaughterhouse and watching animals being killed. He began to make a living by forging diplomas for failing students at his local academy. In 1905, he was arrested for forgery, however his father managed to get a lawyer who successfully appealed for the charges to be dropped.

Schmidt was allegedly ordained as a priest in the Catholic church by bishop Georg Heinrich Maria Kirstein, despite serious doubts about his moral and mental fitness to serve as a priest. During his position, Schmidt molested altar boys and had sex with prostitutes, as well as not conducting mass correctly. Worse, a woman Schmidt had an affair with was murdered in Aschaffenburg, and although the case is officially cold, it's likely that Schmidt killed her. The various accusations against Schmidt prompted him to immigrate to the USA before anything could happen to him. There, he was assigned to St John's church.

While Schmidt was at St John's, local girl Alma Kellner was found brutally murdered in the church, her body partially dismembered. Although cleaner Joseph Wendling was convicted of the murder, most crime historians who looked into the case have decided that Schmidt was responsible, as the killing was similar to his later murder and it occurred while Schmidt was working at St John's.

Soon after the murder, Schmidt had an argument with the senior pastor and was transferred to St Boniface's church in New York. While working at St Boniface's, Schmidt met Anna Aumüller and entered into a sexual relationship with her. Schmidt would later claim he heard a voice from the heavens ordering him to do so, possibly to justify having an affair to the Catholic church. Schmidt also began a counterfeiting ring from his apartment, entering into a homosexual relationship with his accomplice Ernest Muret.

On the 2nd of September 1913, Schmidt entered Aumüller' s apartment, having discovered she was pregnant. Because this would jeopardise his position, and because he claimed to have been commanded to sacrifice Aumüller by God, Schmidt slashed her throat, drank her blood, had sex with her corpse and dismembered her, killing the baby. After a police investigation discovered scraps of fabric on Aumüller' s remains were discovered to have come from Hans Schmidt's apartment, Schmidt feigned insanity, making his claims about the voice from the heavens. Despite this, he was found guilty and executed by electric chair on the 18th of February 1916.