view + comment on Flickr

Hans B. Schmidt (TOC)

Hans B. Schmidt was born in Germany in 1881, and trained at a seminary in Mainz, where he was ordained as a priest in 1904. Perhaps in response to the growing demand for Catholic priests in the US, or perhaps because he had been charged with forgery in 1905 and showed other signs of instability, Schmidt was assigned to a parish in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908. Soon he was transferred again, and finally landed in New York City, where he served at St. Boniface Church. The housekeeper at the rectory there was Anna Aumüller, an Austrian immigrant. Here’s Anna:

Anna Aumueller (LOC)

Schmidt and Aumüller struck up a romantic relationship; it continued even after Schmidt was transferred again, to a parish uptown. Apparently Schmidt even performed a secret marriage ceremony to assure Aumüller that their activities were acceptable. But when 21-year-old Anna became pregnant in 1913, Schmidt killed her in her sleep, and disposed of her body in pieces, in a pillowcase tossed in the Hudson River. It didn’t take long for the evidence to come to light, and for Schmidt to confess to the murder of Anna Aumüller (turns out the priest was a talker, so there are pages and pages of his own ruminations about the crime). The trial was, unsurprisingly, a media event.

Bertha Zech (LOC), a servant, one of the witnesses at Schmidt's trial

Schmidt claimed insanity at his first trial; that resulted in a hung jury. In a second trial, Schmidt was convicted of first degree murder, and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1916, at Sing Sing Prison. But wait, there was even more to the tale: Schmidt was also involved in a counterfeiting scheme, operating out of an apartment he rented. And, in retrospect, he was suspected of at least one other murder (the body of a child was found buried in the basement of his Louisville church).  He also impersonated a physician throughout his life, and collected medical equipment.
Want to dig further into this true crime story? Check out Mark Gado’s Killer Priest: The Crimes, Trial, and Execution of Father Hans Schmidt (Praeger 2006), which is based on the trial transcripts and press coverage of the story.

Donald Cameron Watt, c1980

Oregon State University rushes into spring with rushing waters and steadfast stones.

Waterfall at Hug Point

The Galt Museum & Archives have released a set from Lethbridge photographer William Fruet, “the school photographer,” most of whose photographs turn out to be not what he was known for.

A discussion at the Ladies and Escorts entrance of the York Hotel

Do you remember that Science Fair, and Science Talent Search? The Smithsonian does! And don’t miss what’s new in the Women in Science set.

Taimi Toffer Anderson (1937- ), 1956

Our tour of Lisbon continues, as the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian takes us to the Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira. And how will we get there? By train!

Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira, Lisboa, Portugal

The Powerhouse Museum introduces the Bob Lucas Archive, illustrating “the donor’s life and career in cinema exhibition from the mid 1920s to the late 1980s and offer a highly detailed and personal insight into the activities of a chief technical officer of a premier cinema chain.”

R.J. (Bob) Lucas and unidentified woman looking at a Centrex projector, 1940-1949

There’s more regional “colour” from the National Library of Wales‘ Geoff Charles collection …

Double wedding at Llanrhaeadr – Agnes Della Morris to Mr D Noseworthy and Joan Brown to Mr F Telling

… and more fishy stories from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

Debbie Waterman and Peggy Stephens happily display their tripletail catch off Sanibel Island: Lee County, Florida

The Swedish National Heritage Board travels to Brittany – it thinks. Can you help?

Building in unidentified town, France

The Brooklyn Museumis back overseas, in Italian Cathedrals.

Cathedral, Conversano, Italy.

The Library of Congress’s Friday Bain upload has baseball, a bull, and … fusion floats?

Fusion Floats

And of course, don’t miss the most recent Commons institution: The National Archives UK!

1890s: Library of Congress

2010: shammael

Find many more in the Flickr Commons group Then & Now topic for the Library of Congress’s new views-of-Ireland photochrom upload – and watch the Flickr blog for more! In Ireland today and feel like going out to shoot your own, like shammael did? We’d love to see them!